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Laura Knight-Jadczyk
Sott.net 2013-09-28 11:30:00
As I glance through the headlines today, I feel a rock sinking to the pit of my stomach with the realization that the pathological minority ruling our world are truly taking all of us over the cliff. I am reminded of something Andrew Lobaczewski wrote in his seminal work,Political Ponerology: Applied to the topic of this essay, the saying is not just a metaphor; it is deeply and frighteningly accurate. Imagine a world that believes in global warming that is hit by the sudden onset of an ice-age. Studies reveal that ice ages are probably preceded by periods of freak weather patterns (check) hot spots and cold spots (check) torrential, localized rains and flooding (check) increased comet dust in the atmosphere (check), increased volcanism (check) a series of particularly cold and harsh winters (check) interspersed with localized heatwaves and drought (check); and then, finally, the watershed winter comes when the increased heating from within the planet itself (evidenced by the increasing volcanism) and its concomitant increased evaporation of the seas, combines with the cooled and lowered upper atmosphere, and the snow begins to fall and fall... and fall... and fall. Convert the extraordinary rains that have fallen in parts of the upper northern hemisphere in the past few years to snow volumes, and you can easily see that entire regions could be quickly buried under many meters of snow that, assuming that the albedo effect does not rapidly take over and prevent the snow from melting, by the time it did melt, multiplied millions of living things - including people - would have perished, buried along with the pathological leaders they have erroneously believed had their best interests at heart. | |
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Joe Quinn
Sott.net 2013-09-28 08:33:00
Humor me for a moment and pretend that the biblical hell exists. The Global Warming proponents among the world's climate scientists are going there. It's a fitting place for people who prostitute their skills and energy to serve the despicable agenda of the global elite; people who use their positions of influence and authority to bamboozle the world and try to convince us that black is white, up is down and that humans are causing global warming on the planet when the Northern Hemisphere has experienced an unprecedented five successive bitterly cold winters. Perhaps if their transition to hell is sufficiently seamless, and, unaware that anything has changed, they'll be able to convince themselves that they were right all along. Gifted with minds pre-disposed to scientific investigation and given access to data and instrumentation with which they are supposed to objectively explore our reality, these men and women are, more than anyone else, in a position to influence the course of human destiny towards positive or negative ends. Sadly, many of them have chosen the road to hell. Take, for example, the recent IPCC 'Climate Report', wherein many 'esteemed scientists' reaffirm the lie that "human impact [on climate change] is 'unequivocal': | |
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revolutionloveevolve
Youtube 2013-03-15 08:48:00
Scientist Dr Rupert Sheldrake gave a TED Talk on the dogmas of scientific materialism. TED didn't like it too much and removed it from its Youtube channel. Thankfully it has been re-uploaded...
Follow this link for TED's statement on the matter and Dr. Sheldrake's response. | ||
Comment: See also:
Rupert Sheldrake: the 'heretic' at odds with scientific dogma Sadly, with the Big Lie about 'man-made global warming' more entrenched than ever, we see no signs that Science is breaking free from the clutches of Power. The Global Situation Has Taken a Turn For the Worse: Recovery Unlikely From 'Hiding the Decline' to 'Burying the Pause': Man-made Global Warming is still a lie | ||
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Mark Baard
The Register 2007-06-23 20:15:00
Perhaps your real life is so rich you don't have time for another. Even so, the US Department of Defense (DOD) may already be creating a copy of you in an alternate reality to see how long you can go without food or water, or how you will respond to televised propaganda. The DOD is developing a parallel to Planet Earth, with billions of individual "nodes" to reflect every man, woman, and child this side of the dividing line between reality and AR. Called the Sentient World Simulation (SWS), it will be a "synthetic mirror of the real world with automated continuous calibration with respect to current real-world information", according to a concept paper for the project. "SWS provides an environment for testing Psychological Operations (PSYOP)," the paper reads, so that military leaders can "develop and test multiple courses of action to anticipate and shape behaviors of adversaries, neutrals, and partners". | |
Comment: The Pentagon's interest in this Leviathan project is not to produce results that are "optimal" from the viewpoint of ordinary people; rather, it's to retain exclusive, 'eyes-only', walled-off oversight over human activities. Think Bentham's Panopticon...
It may be wishful thinking on their part to believe they can achieve anything approaching 'Total Information Awareness'. Nevertheless, their megalomaniacal drive to 'see all', and then exploit the information by tweaking the system - spark a border skirmish here, start some political scandal there, launch a strategic false-flag or two - gives us much insight into the psychopathology underlying their ambitious belief that humanity is a herd to be corralled towards finer and finer levels of control. To a psychopath the world is a boardgame filled with predictable automatons to manipulate and control for personal entertainment. Much like a child can break an ant hill to watch what the ants will do, psychopaths continually do the same thing to the whole world. For thousands of years mass starvation, genocide, slavery, and other forms of mass torture and manipulation have been the norm, and continue to be the norm. If the world is not shaken awake to the reality of this genetic deformation in 6% of our population, it may soon be too late. | |
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Daily Mail, UK
2013-09-28 04:41:00
It examines how to sway 'casualty averse' public opinion, a situation commonly known as 'body bag syndrome', and was published by the MoD's strategy formulation unit. The document suggests that the MoD should 'reduce the profile of the repatriation ceremonies' where coffins carrying deceased soldiers are brought back to UK bases such as RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire. It discusses ways to 'reduce public sensitivity' and methods of explaining that 'risks are knowingly and willingly undertaken' by armed forces personnel. Suggestions included making greater use of the SAS and other special forces, as well as mercenaries, because it claims losses sustained by the elite soldiers and hired guns do not have the same impact on the public and press. | |
Comment: Now we know why back in 2002 Donald Rumsfeld and his Pentagon cronies decided to massively privatize the US military and send 200,000 mercenaries to Iraq and Afghanistan. Can't have the folks back home realising that psychopaths in power are using their sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, as cannon fodder for imperial expansion to line the pockets of elite and control normal human beings all over the world.
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Lisa O'Carroll
Guardian 2013-09-27 21:51:00
Pulitzer Prize winner explains how to fix journalism, saying press should 'fire 90% of editors and promote ones you can't control' Seymour Hersh has got some extreme ideas on how to fix journalism - close down the news bureaus of NBC and ABC, sack 90% of editors in publishing and get back to the fundamental job of journalists which, he says, is to be an outsider. It doesn't take much to fire up Hersh, the investigative journalist who has been the nemesis of US presidents since the 1960s and who was once described by the Republican party as "the closest thing American journalism has to a terrorist". He is angry about the timidity of journalists in America, their failure to challenge the White House and be an unpopular messenger of truth. Don't even get him started on the New York Times which, he says, spends "so much more time carrying water for Obama than I ever thought they would" - or the death of Osama bin Laden. "Nothing's been done about that story, it's one big lie, not one word of it is true," he says of the dramatic US Navy Seals raid in 2011. | |
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Daisy Luther
Activist Post 2013-09-28 17:16:00
When you think of that little dream homestead in the woods, what does it include? Probably a well and septic system, a little stream bubbling nearby, a chicken coop, a sunroom for winter growing, and a cozy fire to curl up next to. When my daughter and I spent a year living in a cabin in the Northwoods of Canada, our wood stove was our lifeline. It was the only source of heat in a place that reached -42 degrees. It was the only way we could cook when our power went out during snow and ice storms (as it did frequently). It was the cozy center of our home, and we survived for an entire frigid winter for less than $800. After that experience I vowed never to live in a home without a wood stove. If the EPA has its way, however, heating your home self-sufficiently with wood could soon become illegal - or at the very least, insanely expensive. | |
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Mike Rivage-Seul
OpEdNews 2013-09-27 10:17:00
It is extremely interesting to compare the U.S. response to the use of chemical weapons in Syria and its suppression of evidence of similar weapons use by the U.S. and U.K. in Fallujah in March and November of 2004. We all know about the U.S. reaction to the use of chemical weapons in Syria. In the face of denials by the Syrian government, and on evidence that remains secret and other indications provided by photographs, testimonies of eye-witnesses, accusations of the al-Qaeda-affiliated rebels, and deductions derived from consideration of the delivery mechanisms necessary to launch such weapons, the U.S. government was determined to "punish" the al-Assad government for the heinous crime of using chemical weapons. Such circumstantial evidence was considered more than sufficient for president Obama and secretary of state Kerry. | |
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Press TV
2013-09-30 10:34:00
Three mortar shells have hit the Syrian capital, Damascus, one of them landing near the Chinese Embassy in the city. According to a report by China's state news agency, Xinhua, on Monday, the mortar shell damaged the compound's walls and shattered some windows. The shell, which is said to have fallen about 100 meters from the embassy building, also set fire to two cars and damaged several others. The report added that a Syrian employee suffered minor injuries in the attack. Sources said the mortars were launched by foreign-backed militants in Syria probably from the southern suburbs of Damascus. | |
Comment: First the Saudi/US sponsored jihadists attack the Russian embassy, then a week later they attack the Chinese embassy. Coincidence that both Russia and China have been adamant of a political solution to the crisis?
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Lizzie Davies
The Guardian 2013-09-30 02:45:00
All five ministers from Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right party said on Saturday night they were resigning from Italy's grand coalition government in a dramatic move that plunged the country back into political uncertainty and raised the possibility of fresh elections. Just days before a senate committee is expected to vote for him to be stripped of his seat following a conviction for tax fraud, Berlusconi said he was withdrawing his support from Enrico Letta's government over an increase in sales tax. Letta, who has fought to hold the coalition together for five months of tensions and threats, called the move "mad and irresponsible" and said it was based on a "blatant lie". The centre-left prime minister will on Sunday meet the president, Giorgio Napolitano, who is known to be desperate to avoid any return to the polls. Talks will begin on whether an alternative parliamentary majority can be found to support a new Letta cabinet. He had called last week for the government to be put to a confidence vote, and, although it was unclear whether that would go ahead, the prime minister said on Saturday night: "Everyone will assume their own responsibilities before the country in parliament." | |
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Richard Wolff
Guardian 2013-09-27 21:52:00
You don't have to be a Marxist to see how the 1% tries to fool us that we too are sharing in their renewed wealth. But it helps From President Obama on down, defenders of the status quo insist that the US economy has "recovered" or "is recovering". Some actually see the world that way. They inhabit, imagine they inhabit, or plan to soon inhabit the world of the infamous top 1%. Others simply seek security in life by loyally repeating whatever that 1% is saying. Here is the "recovery" that they see. The top 1% of income-earners in the US took 19% of the national income in 2012, the largest share since 1928. That 1% also saw their average income rise by 31.4% from the current crisis's low point in 2009, through 2012. The top 1% certainly enjoyed a recovery. In total contrast, income for the other 99% rose by an average of 0.4% during the same period. Many of those people actually saw their earnings drop. That was not a recovery, not even close. For the vast majority of Americans, the recovery hype is just a weapon of mass distraction. The economic reality is driven home by this graph from the Wall Street Journal.
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Joe Randazzo
LongIsland.com 2013-09-29 13:31:00
During last year's "use it or lose it" season, agencies spent more than $45 million in the last week of September. Washington has entered "use it or lose it" season. It's a time when agencies spend whatever funds are left in their budget or else they will lose the money by October 1. Last year more than $45 million was spent in the last week of September. If agencies don't spend everything this week they risk their budget being docked by congress next year. "Use it or lose it" season is not marked on any official government calendars," Senator Tom Coburn said in an interview with the Washington Post. "But in Washington, it is as real as Christmas. And as lucrative." This week the Department of Veteran Affairs bought $562,000 worth of artwork, and in one day the Agriculture Department spent $144,000 on toner cartridges. The most frivolous amount of spending came from the IRS in 2010. That year the leftover money was spent on shooting an IRS themed Star Trek parody video set on the planet NoTax. | |
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Amar Toor
The Verge 2013-09-25 09:58:00
President Dilma Rousseff wants to route internet traffic away from the US, but experts say it will do little to deter American espionage Revelations about the American government's ongoing electronic surveillance have sent shockwaves across the globe, but few countries have reacted as boldly as Brazil, where lawmakers are currently considering a plan to cut ties - quite literally - with the US. Earlier this month, Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff announced plans to create an undersea fiber-optic cable that would funnel internet traffic between South America and Europe, bypassing the US entirely. Rousseff also urged legislators to pass an amendment that would force Google, Microsoft, and other US web companies to store data for Brazilian users on servers located within Brazil, while the country's postal service has already begun developing an encrypted domestic email system. The moves come as a direct response to allegations that the National Security Agency (NSA) has been eavesdropping on Rousseff's phone calls and emails, according to classified documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden. The reports, published earlier this year, have escalated diplomatic tensions between the Obama administration and Rousseff, who yesterday accused the US of violating international law in a scathing speech to the United Nations General Assembly. Rousseff's proposals rest upon the premise that by routing web traffic away from American soil and keeping data within Brazil, the Brazilian government could more easily control and secure citizens' online information. But experts say the plans would do little to stop the NSA from spying on Brazilian communications, and some worry that they could lead to a more fractured internet. | |
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Brasscheck TV
This is not a new problem. We first reported on this way back in 2000. That's 13 years ago.2013-09-16 06:10:00 It's just one of the many ways that the prison industrial complex profits from the VAST US prison population.
When there is money to be made abusing people, an industry will grow up around it and those involved will do everything they can to make it bigger and bigger. | |
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Rupert Neate
The Guardian 2013-09-27 05:39:00
Shares to be priced between 260p and 330p in listing on 11 October - 12 days before earliest legal strike date The government is racing to push through the £3.3bn privatisation of Royal Mail before postmen and women have the chance to walkout on strike against the "great British flog off". Vince Cable, the business secretary, on Friday announced the coalition will sell up to 70% of the 497-year-old postal service on the stock market on 11 October. The announcement comes on the day that more than 100,000 postal workers begin voting on whether to take days of paralysing strike action. But the result of the ballot will not be known until 16 October with the earliest legal strike date not until 23 October. Billy Hayes, general secretary of the Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents 115,000 Royal Mail staff, said: "The government continues to press ahead with the sale of the UK postal service despite consistent opposition from the public. | |
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Eric King
King World News 2013-09-25 05:05:00
Despite continued mainstream media propaganda, today one of the legends in the business warned King World News that "the U.S. is going to experience one hell of a collapse." This man has lived in 18 countries around the world, and he described his first-hand account of the collapses he witnessed which took place in many of these countries. Keith Barron, who consults with major companies around the world and is responsible for one of the largest gold discoveries in the last quarter century, also warned about the further destruction of the already disappearing middle class. Below is what Barron had to say in this powerful interview. Barron: "The Fed did not come through with tapering, so now there is this ridiculous speculation about a future tapering. The reality is that there is a general consensus out there that the US economy is just not strong enough to take away the punch bowl. So I think we will just see a continuation of the status quo for the time being. In fact, I'm not even sure why that taper talk even happened. It was always just propaganda from the Fed.... | |
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X22Report
YouTube 2013-09-25 04:56:00
The central bankers/US government are in the process of building the propaganda that al-Qaeda and al-Shabaab are now very strong terrorist groups. They are making the case that these groups are much more sophisticated and will be able to strike America. The Government officials along with the corporate media are making the case that the economy is getting better but when you look at the hype you can see the economy is not doing as well as they are making everyone believe. The government and corporate media are playing mind games with the American people. Please check the Sentinel Alerts for the latest news on the economic collapse. The Sentinel Alerts are updated throughout the day. If you haven't already, go to "The People"and join the community of people who are helping each through the economic collapse. | |
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George Spelvin
Coach is Right 2013-09-13 04:50:00
The matador's bright red cape and his agile moves to anger and tire the animal are the outstanding metaphor used by Attorney W. L. Albert. Moore, Jr., who is bringing an Amicus Curiae in support of lead appellant L. Dean Johnson in the request for an Alabama Supreme Court oral argument in yet another case dismissed by lower courts in the Barack Obama eligibility saga. Moore, no relation to Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore, is a nationally certified fraud attorney who has a completely new angle on the American political nightmare that just will not die. Moore told CiR in a very lengthy phone interview on September 3, that the "real issue is not the eligibility clause (2-1-5, US Constitution), but the fact that Obama would not or did not register for Selective Service, thereby signifying his LOSS of US CITIZENSHIP! The issue is not Obama's status at birth - Obama probably is an NBC - but rather, his abrogation of US CITIZENSHIP, Moore said. | |
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Glenn Greenwald
Guardian 2013-09-27 10:31:00
About the Snowden disclosures, the Oregon Democrat told the NSA chief: 'the truth always manages to come out' The Senate Intelligence Committee yesterday held a hearing, ostensibly to investigate various issues raised about the NSA's activities. What the hearing primarily achieved instead was to underscore what a farce the notion of Congressional oversight over the NSA is. In particular, the current chair of the Senate Committee created in the mid-1970s to oversee the intelligence community just so happens to be one of the nation's most steadfast and blind loyalists of and apologists for the National Security State: Dianne Feinstein. For years she has abused her position to shield and defend the NSA and related agencies rather than provide any meaningful oversight over it, which is a primary reason why it has grown into such an out-of-control and totally unaccountable behemoth. Underscoring the purpose of yesterday's hearing (and the purpose of Feinstein's Committee more broadly): the witnesses the Committee first heard from were all Obama officials - Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, NSA chief Gen. Keith Alexander, Deputy Attorney James Cole - who vehemently defended every aspect of the NSA. At the conclusion of their testimony, Feinstein announced that it was very, very important to hear from the two non-governmental witnesses the Committee had invited:virulent NSA defender Ben Wittes of the Brooking Institution and virulent NSA defenderTimothy Edgar, a former Obama national security official. Hearing only from dedicated NSA apologists as witnesses: that's "oversight" for Dianne Feinstein and her oversight Committee. | |
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War is Crime
2013-09-27 07:47:00
Come gather round people wherever you roam. And admit that the bullshit around you has grown. Students used to get out of tests and assignments by explaining to sympathetic professors that they had been busy protesting the war on Vietnam. The times they are a changin'. Today college professors lead teach-ins to protest the absence of an all-out U.S. war on Syria. Back then, the public and the government trailed behind the activists. Now the public has grown enlightened, and in a significant but limited way won over the government, blocking the missile strikes, but it's not just the U.S. President who looks mad enough to spit over the casus belli interruptus. Professors are pissed. The University of Virginia's law school has another law school next door belonging to the U.S. Army. The University has built a research "park" next door to the Army's "Ground Intelligence Center." State funds are drying up, and the Pentagon's tap has been left all the way open. This Central Virginian military industrial academic complex is where Washington finally had to turn to find anyone willing to pretend the famous aluminum tubes in Iraq might be for scary, scary nukes. In defense of that record, this week is Iraq War Beautification Week at the University of Virginia's Miller Center, always a gung-ho proponent of militarism. | |
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RT
2013-09-28 03:48:00
In his dramatic speech in New York, Bolivian President Evo Morales called for the UN to be moved out of the US and for Barack Obama to be tried for crimes against humanity. Speaking to RT, Morales explained his controversial proposals. In his most controversial demand, Morales said that Obama should face an international trial with human rights watchdogs among the judges. The Bolivian president accused his US counterpart of instigating conflicts in the Middle East to make the region more volatile and to increase the US's grip on the natural resources it abounds in. He gave Libya as an example of a country where "they arranged for the president to be killed, and they usurped Libya's oil." "Now they are funding the rebels that fight against presidents who don't support capitalism or imperialism," Morales told Eva Golinger of RT's Spanish sister channel, Actualidad. The US also operates in the same imperialist way outside the Middle East, Morales argued. At the General Assembly Obama said that the US "is prepared to use all elements of our power, including military force, to secure these core interests" in the Middle East. Among the core interests, he mentioned "the free flow of energy from the region to the world." Morales said that Obama's statement should make any country possessing natural resources worried. | |
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RIA Novosti
A former paratrooper jailed for butchering Central Asian migrant workers in a gruesome vendetta was detained Monday after spending four months on the run from a maximum security prison in eastern Siberia, officials said.2013-09-30 15:08:00 Though Vladimir Avdeyev was nicknamed "Rambo of the Taiga" by Russian media, the 38-year-old was overtaken too fast to offer any resistance, the Irkutsk Region branch of the Federal Prison Service said on its website. Avdeyev said he spent the entire time in the forest, had no contact with other people and subsided on whatever nourishment he could forage in the wilderness, the region's police said. The Komsomolskaya Pravda daily said he might have been turned in to police by local foresters for whom he worked as a logger. |
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Gabrielle Levy
Two trains of the Chicago Transit Authority collided at station in suburban Forest Park during Monday morning rush hour, sending 48 people to nearby hospitals. An outbound Blue Line train stopped at Harlem station in Forest Park was hit at 8 a.m. by an out-of-service train going the opposite direction on the same track.UPI.com 2013-09-30 10:40:00 Officials are looking into why the out-of-service train was on the track in the first place,said CTA spokeswoman Lambrini Lukidis. Forest Park Mayor Anthony Calderone said the 48 people injured were taken to 10 hospitals, but none was seriously hurt. Blue Line service was suspended between Forest Park and Kedzie Avenue, and service was later resumed to Forest Park. Harlem Station was still being bypassed, and shuttle busses were being provided.
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The Washington Post
2013-09-30 10:18:00
Investigators awaited the arrival of a crane Monday at a Southern California airport where a private jet crashed into a hangar after landing, but they did not expect to find any survivors on the flight from Idaho, officials said. "This was an unsurvivable crash," Santa Monica Fire Department Capt. John Nevandro said Sunday night at a media briefing at Santa Monica Municipal Airport. Because the hangar collapsed in flames around it and a crane would be required before the plane could be reached, investigators had been unable to determine how many people were aboard the twin-engine Cessna Citation designed to hold eight passengers and two crew members, officials said. It had taken off from Hailey, Idaho, and landed in Santa Monica when it went off the right side of the runway at about 6:20 p.m. on Sunday and struck the hangar, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said. | |
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Now that the war in Iraq is officially over and the one in Afghanistan winding down, the Department of Defense found itself facing a conundrum. It had just spent billions of dollars buying heavily armored personnel carriers designed to stand up to insurgent attacks only to find that it had run out of wars to use them in. The initial plan was to shove the vehicles, called MRAPS (Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected) into a warehouse and let them collect dust. That changed when someone decided that, having served so admirably overseas, it would be only just to bring the MRAPs stateside and deploy them in the domestic war on crime. And so, for the past couple of months, news reports have been popping up announcing that places like Murfreesboro, Tennessee and Ohio State University have been receivingtheir very own military-grade armored SUVs. | |
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Afua Hirsch
Guardian 2013-09-27 22:05:00
Kenyan police hold suspects under counter-terrorism legislation, which allows detention for long periods without charge Kenyan police have arrested eight people in connection with the attack on the Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi in which at least 67 people died. Three others have been released after questioning, said the interior minister, Joseph Ole Lenku. "Police are holding eight suspects as they seek to unmask the faces behind the terror attack," he said. All eight are being held under counter-terrorism legislation, which allows detention for long periods without charge. The government also said that an international arrest warrant issued on Thursday for the Briton Samantha Lewthwaite, while not linked directly to the Westgate attack, was part of the ongoing security operation. "In view of the security situation, the level of Interpol alertness has been raised in respect to known global terrorists including the British woman Samantha Lewthwaite," a statement said. Ole Lenku said investigators trying to identify the attackers were searching through the rubble of the mall where three floors collapsed after a series of blasts and a huge blaze. He said they were making good progress. | |
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Raw Story
2013-09-29 08:07:00
A Saudi cleric sparked a wave of mockery online when he warned women that driving would affect their ovaries and bring "clinical disorders" upon their children. The warning came ahead of an October 26 initiative to defy a longstanding driving ban on women in the ultra-conservative kingdom. "Physiological science" has found that driving "automatically affects the ovaries and pushes up the pelvis," Sheikh Saleh al-Luhaydan warned women in remarks to local news website Sabq.org. "This is why we find that children born to most women who continuously drive suffer from clinical disorders of varying degrees," he said. His comments prompted criticism on Twitter, which has become a rare platform for Saudis to voice their opinions in the absolute monarchy. "What a mentality we have. People went to space and you still ban women from driving. Idiots," said one comment. "When idiocy marries dogma in the chapel of medieval traditions, this is their prodigal child," wrote a female tweeter. | |
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Mike Whitney
Information Clearinghouse 2013-09-27 00:00:00
After five years of Obama's economic recovery, the American people are as gloomy as ever. According to a Bloomberg National Poll that was released this week, fewer people "are optimistic about the job market" or "the housing market" or "anticipate improvement in the economy's strength over the next year." Also, only 38 percent think that President Obama is doing enough "to make people feel more economically secure." Worst of all, Bloomberg pollsters found that 68 percent of interviewees thought the country was "headed in the wrong direction". So why is everyone so miserable? Are things really that bad or have we turned into a nation of crybabies? The reason people are so pessimistic is because the economy is still in the doldrums and no one's doing anything about it. That's it in a nutshell. Survey after survey have shown that what people really care about is jobs, but no one in Washington is listening. In fact, jobs aren't even on Obama's radar. Just look at his record. He's worse than any president in modern times. Take a look at this graph. More than 600,000 good-paying public sector jobs have been slashed during Obama's tenure as president. That's worse than Bush, worse than Clinton, worse than Reagan, worse than anyone, except maybe Hoover. Is that Obama's goal, to one-up Herbert Hoover? | |
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Nick Hodgson and Ross Lydall
London Evening Standard 2013-09-29 08:22:00
A cyclist killed in a rush-hour horror crash in Victoria was today named as a top scientist responsible for pioneering work on global warming. Dr Katharine Giles, a research fellow and lecturer at University College London, was crushed under the wheels of a tipper truck as it turned left into Victoria Street on Monday morning. Colleagues spoke of the "devastating loss" of Dr Giles, who had explored the Arctic and Antarctic and last year gave a presentation to MPs. Sinead Farrell wrote on Twitter that "a bright, shining star has gone out", while UCL palaeoclimatologist Dr Katy Wilson said that "UCL Earth Sciences [had] tragically lost another brilliant young scientist". Dr Giles, who was in her 30s, worked at the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling at UCL after obtaining her degree there in 2000 and PhD in 2005. She is thought to have cycled that route to work for a decade. | |
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Dan Roberts
The Guardian 2013-09-29 08:06:00
Harry Reid says Senate will reject GOP attempt to delay health reforms - setting stage for government shutdown US Republicans have voted to postpone Barack Obama's heathcare reforms, setting up a high-stakes clash with Democrats that could spark the first American government shutdown in 17 years. With less than 48 hours to go until existing federal government spending authority expires on Monday night, House Republicans passed a continuing budget resolution until December, but only if Obamacare is delayed for a year and stripped of a key tax on medical devices. But even before the vote took place in the early hours of Sunday morning, Democrats said they would reject the plan - and the White House issued a statement saying Obama would veto it should it ever reach his desk. The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, issued a statement on Saturday saying his chamber would not accept the House Republicans' plan, and any attempt to delay the healthcare law would be pointless. | |
Comment: Of course, there isn't any real risk that the US government will be shut down. This is just a contrived affair to make us think that the US republic is still alive, when in fact it has long since been transformed into a corporate plantation run by 'CorpGov'.
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Yamiche Alcindor, Gary Stoller and John Bacon
A power failure along one of the nation's busiest commuter rail lines has left commuters angry and waiting.USA Today 2013-09-26 06:32:00
Tens of thousands of commuters scrambled Thursday for alternative transportation between the Connecticut suburbs and the city as a power failure disabled one of the nation's busiest commuter rail lines for a second day. Parts of Interstate 95 were backed up for hours as transit officials scrambled to find alternative power sources and avoid what they said could be weeks of snarled commutes. Amtrak also felt the impact. The national carrier said it will offer refunds or vouchers to passengers who changed their plans because of disruptions on the Metro-North commuter railroad's New Haven Line. Amtrak trips between New York and Boston are running as much as 90 minutes late because of congestion caused by the commuter line outage, Amtrak said. | |
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Friends of Syria
Turkish camps have become detention centers for rape and torture as Syrian women who returned to their homes stressed they were the victims of rape by armed terrorist groups and some Turkish Soldiers.2013-09-26 06:24:00 |
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Kate Hodal
Every year, hundreds of thousands of pets are snatched in Thailand, then smuggled into Vietnam, destined for Hanoi's top restaurants and street stalls. Demand for dogmeat is so high that supply has become a highly lucrative - and brutal - black market.The Guardian 2013-09-27 15:54:00
Nguyen Tien Tung is just the sort of man you'd expect to run a Hanoi slaughterhouse: wiry, frenetic and filthy, his white T-shirt collaged with bloodstains, his jean shorts loose around taut, scratched-up legs, his feet squelching in plastic sandals. Hunched over his metal stall, between two hanging carcasses and an oversized tobacco pipe, the 42-year-old is surveying his killing station - an open-air concrete patio leading on to a busy road lined with industrial supply shops. Two skinless carcasses, glistening pure white in the hot morning sun, are being rinsed down by one of Nguyen's cousins. Just two steps away are holding pens containing five dogs each, all roughly the same size, some still sporting collars. Nguyen reaches into one cage and caresses the dog closest to the door. As it starts wagging its tail, he grabs a heavy metal pipe, hits the dog across the head, then, laughing loudly, slams the cage door closed. Down the leafy streets of north Hanoi's Cau Giay district, not far from Nguyen's family business, sits one of the city's most famous restaurants, Quan Thit Cho Chieu Hoa, which has only one thing on the menu. There's dog stew, served warm in a soup of blood; barbecued dog with lemongrass and ginger; steamed dog with shrimp-paste sauce; dog entrails sliced thin like sausage; and skewered dog, marinated in chilli and coriander. This is just one of a number of dogmeat restaurants in Cau Giay, but it is arguably the most revered, offering traditional dishes in a quiet setting along a canal. | |
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Tom Geoghegan
BBC News 2013-09-27 05:32:00
The number of Americans giving up their citizenship has rocketed this year - partly, it's thought, because of a new tax law that is frustrating many expats. Goodbye, US passport. That's not a concept that Americans contemplate lightly. But it's one that many of them seem to be considering - and acting on. The number of expatriates renouncing their US citizenship surged in the second quarter of 2013, compared with the same period the year before - 1,131 cases to 189 in 2012. It's still a small proportion of the estimated six million Americans abroad, but it's a significant rise. The list is compiled by the Federal Register and while no reasons are given, the big looming factor seems to be tax. A new law called the Foreign Accounts Tax Compliance Act (Fatca) will, from 1 July next year, require all financial institutions around the world to report directly to the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) all the assets and incomes of any US citizens with $50,000 (£31,000) on their books. The US could withhold 30% of dividends and interest payments due to the banks that don't comply. | |
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Police State USA
2013-09-19 21:29:00
A multi-million dollar settlement concludes the disturbing case of Jose Guerena, the Iraq veteran who was riddled with bullets in his own home during a faulty SWAT raid. Not only did these paramilitary police perform a haphazard assault on an innocent family's home,they prevented their victim's wounds from being treated after they shot him dozens of times. The hefty disbursement of tax dollars to the Guerena family may be warranted, but does nothing to reign in the aggressive department which is responsible for this murder, nor does it ensure the public that these inept Drug Warriors will not kill their family next. On the morning of May 5, 2011, after working the graveyard shift at a copper mine, Jose Guerena and his wife were awoken at 9:30 AM to loud noises and voices outside their house. Guerena, a 26-year-old former U.S. marine who served 2 tours in Iraq, sprang from his bed began to secure his family. He and his wife thought that their home was being invaded. He hid his wife, Vanessa, and his 4-year-old son in a closet and grabbed his rifle. He was correct that his home was being invaded. What he did not realize was that the invaders would be wearing uniforms labeled "police." The noises that jarred Guerena awake would later be revealed to be the detonation of concussion grenades in their back yard. Unbeknownst to him - only seconds earlier - an armored truck had parked in their front yard and a SWAT team was rapidly preparing to break down his door. | |
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Police State USA
2013-09-25 20:12:00
A woman says that her ten-month old puppy was shot in the head after asking officers not to shoot it - twice. On September 22, Anna "Chrissy" Music-Peed, of Macon, GA, drove to the Jones County Sheriff's Department to request an officer come to and investigate a vehicle that had been brought to her property by an acquaintance, that both she and her roommate strongly suspected to have been stolen. Music told policestateusa.com that it was a Nissan Xterra from Virginia Beach, VA. As Music wrote in a blog post, "I will not have that influence around my family," saying she was trying to do the right thing by making a report. The acquaintance was still on the property and Music had not let on that she had gone to talk to the police. Music wrote on that while she was providing officers with details of the stolen property, and the individual who had brought it over, she also explicitly told the police not to shoot her dogs. "The puppy may jump, we have been trying to get her out of that," Music explained, stating that the dogs were friendly puppies. She said the officers laughed and told her not to worry about it. Unconvinced, she emphasized again: "PLEASE don't shoot my dogs, they are my babies." | |
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| Secret History |
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BBC News
2013-09-30 15:20:00
Scientists think they have found the volcano responsible for a huge eruption that occurred in AD1257. The mystery event was so large its chemical signature is recorded in the ice of both the Arctic and the Antarctic. European medieval texts talk of a sudden cooling of the climate, and of failed harvests. In the PNAS journal, an international team points the finger at the Samalas Volcano on Lombok Island, Indonesia. Little remains of the original mountain structure - just a huge crater lake. The team has tied sulphur and dust traces in the polar ice to a swathe of data gathered in the Lombok region itself, including radiocarbon dates, the type and spread of ejected rock and ash, tree-rings, and even local chronicles that recall the fall of the Lombok Kingdom sometime in the 13th Century. | |
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Louise Boyle
A mysterious fire which destroyed North America's greatest ancient civilization has led to fascinating discoveries about social tensions, violent tendencies and religious practices within the society.The Daily Mail 2013-09-27 07:05:00 The city of Cahokia, whose secrets lie underneath where St Louis, Missouri now stands, was ruined by a huge blaze around the year 1170 CE. Following the disaster, the Native American city changed dramatically - defense walls were built, buildings fortified and a sun symbol incorporated into designs. The significant changes have led to one nagging historical mystery - just how did the fire start?
Cahokia, pictured in this illustration, was originally a vast city encircled by 120 pyramids, stretches of farmland and wealthy communities. Those who built the model city were known as the Mound Builders because of the earthen structures similar to Mayan Temples. | |
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| Science & Technology |
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SpaceWeather.com
Breaking the quiet in spectacular fashion, a magnetic filament erupted from the sun's northern hemisphere at approximately 2145 UT on Sept. 29th. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the blast. Another movie from the Solar Dynamics Observatory zooms in to show the filament ripping through the sun's atmosphere and leaving behind a "canyon of fire." The glowing "canyon" traces the channel where magnetic forces held the filament aloft before the explosion.2013-09-30 17:01:00
This event also hurled a magnificent CME into space: movie (Credit: SOHO). The magnetized cloud, which left the sun traveling approximately 900 km/s (2 million mph), was not aimed toward Earth. Nevertheless, our planet's magnetosphere might receive a glancing blow on Oct. 2-3. Polar geomagnetic storms and auroras are possible when the CME arrives. Stay tuned for updates. Geomagnetic storm alerts: text, voice. | |
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Ellie Zolfagharifard
Earth has one moon, Uranus has 27 and and Saturn has over 50. Venus, however, has none.The Daily Mail 2013-09-30 09:53:00 A wild new theory presented at a Royal Society conference is claiming that Earth may have stolen its only moon from Venus. The theory, put forward by a Caltech University professor, suggests that Earth pulled Venus's moon out of Venus' orbit and into our own.
Dave Stevenson, professor of planetary science at Caltech, told the Origin of the Moon conference in London that the moon's size shows that this could have been possible. He noted that our moon is much larger compared to our planet than other satellites are to their planets. | |
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AstronomersTelegram.org
Credential Certification: Vladimir Lipunov (lipunov2007@gmail.com)2013-09-30 13:22:00 Subjects: Optical, Asteroid, Near-Earth Object During the observations of flaring blazar 3C 454.3 in two polarization filters, MASTER-Tunka robotic telescope (double 0.40-m f2.5 reflector + 4kx4k CCD, filed of view 2.1x2.1 deg) has serendipitously detected the Fast Moving Object of 16m visible in both tubes. The object was located near the edge of FOV, about 1 deg south of 3C 454.3. First it was detected on the set of ten 30-sec exposures from 13:20 to 13:37 UT with limiting magnitudes 17.3-17.5. Another set of ten 60-sec exposures was then obtained from 13:44 to 14:05 UT with the limits 18.1-18.2 in both tubes. The animation of ten 60-sec exposures from the Eastern tube is uploaded here. The object was moving at the rate of 6.2" per minute in positional angle 71. Astrometry from 8 images was reported to Minor Planet Center using the designation MASD91. Using Find_Orb orbit determination software by Bill Gray (www.projectpluto.com) we have obtained the following orbital elements: |
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NASA.gov
As NASA's Dawn spacecraft travels to its next destination, this mosaic synthesizes some of the best views the spacecraft had of the giant asteroid Vesta. Dawn studied Vesta from July 2011 to September 2012. The towering mountain at the south pole - more than twice the height of Mount Everest - is visible at the bottom of the image. The set of three craters known as the "snowman" can be seen at the top left.2013-09-30 11:39:00
These images are the last in Dawn's Image of the Day series during the cruise to Dawn's second destination, Ceres. A full set of Dawn data is being archived here. The Dawn mission to Vesta and Ceres is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington D.C. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. The Dawn framing cameras were developed and built under the leadership of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany, with significant contributions by DLR German Aerospace Center, Institute of Planetary Research, Berlin, and in coordination with the Institute of Computer and Communication Network Engineering, Braunschweig. The Framing Camera project is funded by the Max Planck Society, DLR, and NASA/JPL. | |
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Samuel Gibbs
The Guardian 2013-09-27 05:14:00
New 'Hummingbird' algorithm will make core search better at answering longer, more complex and spoken queries Marking Google's 15th birthday, Hummingbird is the biggest change to the inner workingsof the world's most popular search engine since Google's "Caffeine" update in 2010, which sped up Google's indexing of sites and delivery of search results. The Hummingbird update focuses more on Google's Knowledge Graph - an encyclopaedia of about 570m concepts and relationships that allows Google to anticipate facts and figures you might want to know about your search term. New engine with old parts Hummingbird isn't an overhaul that Google search users will instantly notice, however. | |
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Seiichi Yoshida
Discovery Date: September 15, 2013Aerith Net 2013-09-28 14:02:00 Magnitude: 18.0 mag, 20.5 mag Discoverer: R. E. Hill (Catalina Sky Survey), Pan-STARRS 1 telescope (Haleakala)
The orbital elements are published on M.P.E.C. 2013-S53. | |
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iwishart
Norwegian scientists working on a defensive system to stop car suicide bombers may inadvertently have stumbled on the ultimate Big Brother solution to police pursuits everywhere.InvestigateDaily 2013-09-27 23:57:00 Thousands of people die each year as a result of crashes during police car chases. The solution appears to lie in electro-magnetic pulse technology. During World War 2 and its aftermath, one of the things defence scientists quickly discovered is that nuclear explosions created massive electromagnetic pulses capable of stopping anything running on electricity in its tracks. A pulse could overload car ignitions or even aircraft in flight. The Norwegians have been working on a scaled-down version of EMP technology to create a focused beam weapon capable of bringing cars to a stop, as this clip from NATO TV illustrates: 
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ABC News, Australia
2013-09-26 23:28:00
Australian scientists have helped discover what could be one of the only known causes of motor neurone disease. The researchers were involved in discovering how a toxin in blue-green algae can contaminate food and cause problems in the central nervous system. The cause of more than 90 per cent of motor neurone disease cases remains unknown. Researchers are hoping the link found between motor neurone disease and blue-green algae could help treat the condition. | |
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Megan Gannon
Livescience 2013-09-27 16:23:00
Four years ago, about 100 melon-headed whales mysteriously entered a shallow lagoon system in northwest Madagascar and became stranded. Now scientists say the creatures' demise was likely brought on by sonar used to map the ocean floor for ExxonMobil. Previous research has suggested that sonar can be harmful to marine mammals. The underwater noise can mask the calls of dolphins and whales and scare them away from their feeding grounds. Naval exercises using sonar have been linked to a 2008 stranding of at least 60 dolphins along the coast of Cornwall, England. But researchers say the new findings from Madagascar mark the first time a marine mammal mass stranding has been closely tied to high-frequency sonar mapping. From May to June 2008, about 100 melon-headed whales (Peponocephala electra) swam into Madagascar's shallow, tidal Loza Lagoon system, a highly unusually environment for the toothed whales, which usually stick to the open ocean. | |
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Kim Luces
GMA News 2013-09-27 18:00:00
A genetic link between Indians and two Aeta populations were unveiled in a study whose proponents include Frederick Delfin, university research associate at the DNA Analysis Laboratory in the University of the Philippines, Diliman. According to Delfin, it is commonly accepted that the Asia-Pacific - including the Philippines - was peopled by human migration that passed through the coast of South Asia. But the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) Indian-Philippine genetic link that Delfin and his team found "can be a signal of shared ancestry that actually originated from India". Two mtDNA sets, M52'58 and M52a, that both originate from Indian populations were found in the Aetas of Zambales and the Agtas of Iriga in the Philippines. These shared common haplogroups show a link between the populations of India and the Philippines that is about 5,000 to 20,000 years old. This suggests that these migratory groups from India arrived before the Austronesian people landed in Philippine shores and populated the prehistoric Philippine archipelago. | |
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| Earth Changes |
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Associated Press
2013-09-30 16:34:00
An early winter storm dumped a record amount of rain in the Pacific Northwest, knocked out power to thousands and likely churned up a rare tornado Monday that ripped a hole in the roof on an industrial plant near Seattle. The most dramatic damage was at an industrial park in Frederickson, south of Tacoma. As thunder and lightning flashed, the wind uprooted trees and tore a jagged hole in the roof of the Northwest Door manufacturing plant. "It looked from the inside like a wave going along. You could actually see the roof flexing," Northwest Door President Jeff Hohman said. Witnesses reported seeing a tornado in the area at the time, and the Weather Service sent a team to Frederickson to investigate. Washington may get a tornado or two every year, but they are usually small. One of the largest was an F3 in 1972 in Vancouver that killed six people. No one was injured in Monday. About 100 employees evacuated and the business closed while inspectors assess a 40-by-40-foot hole in the roof. The wind also caused damage at a nearby Boeing plant, mostly in the parking lot, spokesman Doug Alder said. The storm blew out the windows of about two dozen cars and knocked down fences, power lines and trees. Some tiles were blown off the Boeing roof. Nobody was injured and there wasn't any damage to airplane parts or equipment. | |
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Stephanie Strom
New York Times 2013-09-19 15:55:00
Alton, Iowa - The puny, yellow corn stalks stand like weary sentries on one boundary of Dennis Von Arb's field here. On a windy day this spring, his neighbor sprayed glyphosate on his fields, and some of the herbicide blew onto Mr. Von Arb's conventionally grown corn, killing the first few rows. He's more concerned, though, about the soil. During heavy rains in the summer, the runoff from his neighbor's farm soaked his fields with glyphosate-laden water. "Anything you put on the land affects the chemistry and biology of the land, and that's a powerful pesticide," Mr. Von Arb said. But 20 miles down the road, Brad Vermeer brushes aside such concerns. | |
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BBC
2013-09-30 13:47:00
A two headed adder has been caught on camera by Gordon Crook in North Yorkshire, UK. Mr Crook was alerted to the snake while walking with a local ramblers group. "At first I thought it might be a reflection or a double exposure. Downloaded it onto the computer and it was very evident that it had two heads!" he said. John Wilkinson, Science Programme Manager at the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust, was surprised to see the photo of the animal which he described as a juvenile conjoined twin. He explained that during development the fertilised egg began to split but stopped and it is rare for the animal to have survived beyond hatching. Fellow expert and member of The British Herpetological Society Dr John Baker agreed "This is very unusual and is a very rare find. I don't know of any two headed adder records in the UK." | |
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io9.com
The latest addition to Pakistan's shoreline looks like a gigantic, steaming turd laid by a Kaiju. The mud volcano - which appeared suddenly last week after a 7.7 magnitude tremblor struck the region - has been belching toxic fumes that can be set alight.2013-09-30 11:20:00
The top image was taken by NASA's Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA's Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite. The image below comes via the National Institute of Oceanography. It shows a close-up of the landform, estimated to stretch 75 to 90 meters (250 to 300 feet) across and standing 15 to 20 meters (60 to 70 feet) above the water line.
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Press TV
2013-09-30 04:11:00
A powerful typhoon has left 75 people missing after sinking three Chinese fishing boats in the South China Sea, media reports say. Citing maritime authorities, Xinhua news agency said on Monday that "three fishing boats have sunk since Sunday afternoon." The incident took place after the vessels with 88 fishermen aboard encountered strong winds near the Paracel Islands, said a statement released by the Hainan government in south China. "Two of the vessels sank Sunday and contact with the third has been lost," it said. Typhoon Wutip also forced tens of thousands of people to flee high-risk areas in central Vietnam on Monday. The powerful typhoon, with sustained winds of up to 93 miles per hour, was expected to rock the central coast later Monday. Disaster official Le Tri Cong said more than 43,000 people were evacuated from coastal areas to safe places in Quang Tri Province as of Sunday night. | |
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USGS
2013-09-30 02:15:00
Event Time 2013-09-29 17:55:54 UTC-12:00 at epicenter 2013-09-30 07:55:54 UTC+02:00 system time Location 30.956°S 178.244°W depth=34.8km (21.6mi) Nearby Cities 81km (50mi) NE of L'Esperance Rock, New Zealand 870km (541mi) NE of Whangarei, New Zealand 891km (554mi) NNE of Whakatane, New Zealand 906km (563mi) NE of Tauranga, New Zealand 1129km (702mi) SSW of Nuku'alofa, Tonga Technical details | |
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Robert Felix
Ice Age Now 2013-09-30 02:06:00
Record cold could also blast Eastern Europe. In Krasnoyarsk , the temperature dropped to the lowest level in history, -6.5 ° C, according to the Russian Institute for Hydrological and Meteorological. Previous minimum of -6.4 ° C. was established September 27, 1988. The Institute adds that it is a mean daily , not the minimum temperature , so you can guess that mercury bars at night dropped to below -15 degrees. Already 60 per cent of the Asian part of Russia is covered with snow several centimeters deep. The snow is heaviest in the mountains of Magadan (40 cm) and the Yamal Peninsula (20 cm). Coldest September in Moscow this century. And wettest? All indications are this September in Moscow will be the coldest since the beginning of this century. According to the Russian Institute in September this year in Moscow the mercury never exceeded 20 ° C, a very unusual phenomenon. Meteorologists estimate that this is the second month of this year, after March, with temperatures well below long-term norms. September was not only cold, but also very wet - in the capital has fallen three times more rain than usual (up to 282 per cent on September 26). | |
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David King/Richard Layard
The Guardian 2013-09-29 00:00:00
Last Friday's report from the United Nations confirms the huge danger from our continued dependence on fossil fuel. But one simple thing can break this dependence. It needs to be cheaper to produce non-carbon energy than it is by digging up coal, gas or oil. Once this happens, most of the coal, gas and oil will automatically be left undisturbed in the ground. To make non-carbon energy become competitive is a major scientific challenge, not unlike the challenge of developing the atom bomb or sending a man to the moon. Science rose to those challenges because a clear goal and timetable were set and enough public money was provided for the research. These programmes had high political profile and public visibility. They attracted many of the best minds of the age. | |
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Robert Felix
Ice Age Now 2013-09-29 12:39:00
"Plus, almost 4 weeks earlier than normal!" says reader Ralph Fato. Average 1st snow is October 22nd for RIW, says Ralph. They got 5.7″ on September 26-27 this year. Almost 4 weeks earlier than normal! It's also the 2nd largest September snowstorm, and the 2nd highest snow total for the entire month of September. I believe records go back to 1907, not sure though.Green Leaves were still on the trees! (see more pics on their FB page) "The question has been raised, "This is early for snow." Well, yes and no. Let's use the town of Riverton as an example. The average date of first measurable snowfall in Riverton is October 22nd; however, there have been several major September snow storms in Riverton's history. The earliest snow was on September 6th, 1929 when 3″ of snow fell. The three largest September snow storms in history were: The Riverton COOP station reported 1.50″ of water and 5.7″ of snow for the 24-hour period ending Friday, September 27, 2013, at 7 AM. That snowfall totals ties the storm that struck September 22-24, 2000, for the second largest September snow storm. September 2013 is now tied with September 2000 as the second snowiest" NOAA's link here | |
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Steven Goddard
Oddly, the IPCC forgot to mention this in their report.Real Science 2013-09-29 12:20:00 With the early arrival of freezing conditions this month, it should be no surprise that the length of the continuous summer thaw season was the shortest on record in Fairbanks
Deep Cold: Interior and Northern Alaska Weather & Climate: Short Summer Thaw Season | |
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KVUE.com
2013-09-29 00:00:00
Officials with Fayette County Sheriff's Office are on the scene of a tank fire near La Grange. Fayette County officials say that around 6:30 Saturday morning, lightning struck one of five combustible containers at the La Grange Salt Water Disposal Plant, causing it to explode. The explosion caused the remaining four containers to catch fire. It took around 10 firefighters an hour to get the fire contained and under control. Ralph Burris, owner of the plant, said that when wells product oil, they also produce salt water. The salt water is injected into a well so it can be returned to the area it is released from. These types of facilities exist because the Railroad Commission of Texas says the salt water must be disposed of in a way that won't pollute other water. Fiberglass tanks are used as containers. Officials say the facility is a total loss from the fire. | |
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Suspicious0bservers
They want to blame you. (Share this on the comments of all the news articles that post the IPCC bullcrap today)2013-09-27 06:13:00
http://www. Donate Memberships for Others: http://tiny.cc/f195ww or https://www.paypal.com/cgi- 0bserver Shop: http://www.cafepress.com/s0s Original music by NEMES1S http://www. http://www.soundclick.com/ TODAY's New LINKS: Water on Mars: http://www.nasa.gov/content/ IPCC: http://www.ipcc.ch/news_and_ Summary of Climate report: http://www.climatechange2013. CO2: http://earthobservatory.nasa. Drought: http://www.drought.gov/ | |
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The Extinction Protocol
2013-09-28 21:52:00
It would seem a new volcanic vent has formed and is ejecting gas and sand about 100 meters off the coast of Fiumicino, west of Rome: the phenomenon has started less than 24 hours ago and the mayor Outside Montino, along with his staff and experts from the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology are headed to the scene to the foothills. At the moment in fact there is no news about the possible links that you have between this event and the past, showing the opening of many volcanoes in two Viale Coccia di Morto. On August 27, a volcanic vent opened up near Fiumicino, ejecting steam and gas- these two events could to be related and may suggest the geology under Italy is in the midst of massive changes. There are dozens of active, and very restless volcanoes sitting on the sea floor of the Tyrrhenian Sea. - CMI, TEP | |
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Emma Kelly
A fish native to North America has shocked British anglers by showing up on this side of the pond for the very first time.The Daily Express, UK 2013-09-25 14:57:00
The striped bass- a relative of the European bass- was caught by fisherman Martin White at Dover, Kent. The 2lbs 7oz sea fish is the first of its kind ever to be hooked in Britain. The striped bass is usually a bit of a homebody, and rarely strays more than five miles from America's east coast- so experts are baffled at its capture. Dr Gary Nelson from Massachusetts State Fisheries said: "It's unheard of for a striped bass to travel all the way across the Atlantic. "It is possible that it came over to the UK in the warm waters of the Gulf Stream when it was just a fry. | |
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Paul Driessen
Watts Up With That? 2013-09-26 10:08:00
Computer models, scare stories and ad hominem rants underscore the alarmists' desperation Al Gore is in full attack model, employing his ridiculous "Climate Reality Project" to "Draw the Line on Denial," even as he laid off 90% of the staff at his "Alliance for Climate Protection." Greenpeace has joined the fray, launching a "Dealing in Doubt" campaign that blames ExxonMobil for funding the "global warming denial machine." ClimateProgress.org blogger Joe Romm faithfully echoes "Goreacle" and Greenpeace hysterics and blame-casting. To serve his partisan propaganda, he completely ignores the reality that the climate cataclysm cabal outspends the "deniers" by at least $1,000 to $1; ExxonMobil hasn't supported skeptic groups for years; and the real Big Oil money has gone to extreme green groups. Chesapeake Energy alone gave $25 million to the Sierra Club, to advance the radical organization's anti-coal campaign. That one grant is ten times more money than the Heartland Institute received from all fossil fuel energy companies in its entire 29-year history, notes Heartland president Joseph Bast. Meanwhile, President Obama continues to blame CO2-driven climate warming for tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires and droughts that are at the same level as, or lower than, they have been for many decades. His State Department is orchestrating climate treaties with island nations that contribute perhaps 0.1% of global carbon dioxide emissions - knowing the treaties could obligate the United States to severe and costly CO2 emission reductions that will drive up energy costs and strangle job creation and economic growth. | |
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| Fire in the Sky |
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Avalon
Reports of meteor sightings are coming into the American Meteor Society by the thousands. According to one of the latest reports posted at the American Meteor Society website, "Its been a busy week for the AMS as we are bombarded by fireball reports from all different parts of the country. The latest event took place over Alabama and Georgia last night September 28th 7:30 PM local time. Over 250 witnesses from Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Alabama and Georgia have reported the event so far. Below is a heat map of the witnesses who saw the event. Click the image below for the event detail page and witness reports." [1]Intellihub.com 2013-09-30 15:11:00 Exactly why these meteors are coming into the atmosphere at this time is unknown. NASA and NOAA have yet to publish any reports on this phenomenon, although they did confirm the September 10, 2013 meteor that streaked across the sky in Alabama intheguardian.com article 'Meteor enters atmosphere over Alabama and disintegrates, says Nasa'.An excerpt from the article reads, "Officials at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville say a baseball-size fragment of a comet entered Earth's atmosphere above Alabama at 8:18pm CDT Monday. Nasa officials say the meteor traveled at a speed of 76,000 mph. They say just three seconds after hitting the atmosphere, it disintegrated 25 miles above the central Alabama town of Woodstock, producing a flash of light. Nasa spokeswoman Janet Anderson says that because it penetrated so deep into Earth's atmosphere, eyewitnesses heard sonic booms." [2]
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September, 22 - 2013. Sunday, 8:30 pm. At Ichmul, Chikindzonot city, south of Yucatan peninsula - Merida's state, in a poor community where live some remnants of mayas, the fall of a fireball that came from the sky, scared and still is scaring the dwellers of the place. The locals were waiting to see a show of small circus in the center of the community, when they suddenly, all saw an object in flames falling at high speed.
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Terri Sanginiti
A large fireball was seen streaking through the night sky by at least 21 people - three of them from Delaware - about 7:30 p.m. Sunday. Witnesses reported the sighting on the American Meteor Society's website.Delaware Online 2013-09-30 13:06:00 Middletown-area resident Dan Foraker said he also spotted it, and described the meteor as a "perfectly round ball of fire." Foraker, who lives near Drawyers Creek off Shallcross Lake Road, said he was sitting outside talking on the phone with his son about the Redskins game, when all of a sudden a ball of fire appeared over the line of trees. "I've never seen anything that big. I didn't know if there was a plane going down," he said. "It lasted for about six seconds and went down behind the trees. I didn't hear a sound, but I was waiting to hear a loud boom." Foraker said he called police and a county officer showed up later and said that the state police helicopter was the only aircraft that had been up in the air about that time. A supervisor with the New Castle County fire board today said no calls were received about that time and no one was dispatched on any calls for a plane down. |
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Davis Nolan, Meteorologist
WKRN.com 2013-09-30 08:30:00
The picture you see is of a meteor "Fireball" over Indiana on Friday night. You might remember that just last week there was one seen over Canada. And then, just last night (Saturday), many News 2 viewers in Middle Tennessee saw another one. This one was also seen over Alabama according to Twitter posts I have seen. My good friend James Spann in Birmingham says that Bill Cook from NASA says that this was the 15th significant one this month and that is "very unusual". It's hard to catch video like this on your phone because the meteor goes by too fast. The pictures of the Indiana and Canada meteors were taken by police "dash board cams". A video of Saturday night's from James Spann's Google+ page:
UPDATE: A video of last night's "fireball" taken over Alabama and relayed by James Spann of ABC 33/40 Birmingham. He also got some more comments from Bill Cooke, of NASA's Meteoroid Environments Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville: | ||
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RIA Novosti
2013-09-29 22:56:00
Moscow - A 15-meter (approximately 50 feet) asteroid, similar to the one that exploded above Russia in February, was detected hours before it nearly missed the Earth over the weekend, Russian scientists said. Vladimir Lipunov of the Moscow State University and the Sternberg Astronomical Institute said on Sunday a network of telescopes operated by his team recorded a celestial body approaching the planet. "[The asteroid] was discovered on Friday night by our station near Lake Baikal and nine hours later it flew within 11,300 kilometers of the Earth surface, below the orbit of geostationary satellites. It was about 15 meters in size," he said. The scientists originally thought that it could be a man-made object, such as a spent rocket booster, but rejected the idea when they couldn't find a match in the space junk catalogue. Lipunov said his team had notified the International Astronomical Union of their discovery, but it is yet to be confirmed. A meteorite exploded on February 15 above the Urals city of Chelyabinsk. The meteorite weighed 10,000 tons prior to the explosion, according to expert estimates. About 1,500 people were injured in the blast, most of them by glass shattered by the shockwave. | |
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Associated Press
2013-09-17 17:02:00
Stamford, Connecticut - An explosion leveled a six-bedroom house on Tuesday,scattering debris hundreds of feet away, but nobody was inside and there were no serious injuries, authorities said. The homeowner was outside near a pool house on the property in Stamford, about 35 miles northeast of New York City, at the time of the explosion, said the town's director of public safety, Ted Jankowski. The homeowner was alert and conscious when emergency crews arrived, and he was taken to a hospital for observation. Next-door neighbor Charlene Heffernan said she heard the blast. "I thought a plane hit my house," Heffernan told The Stamford Advocate. "I have never heard anything so loud. My house shook from the top down." Mayor Michael Pavia said the cause of the blast was under investigation but authorities suspected gas was involved. He said a 500-gallon propane gas tank on site was under a controlled burn Tuesday afternoon. | |
Comment: Reported on the same day:
Massive explosion obliterates house in Ohio and kills 2- Debris scattered up to quarter-mile away, 17 September 2013 | |
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Associated Press
2013-09-17 16:54:00
Stony Ridge, Ohio - An explosion leveled a home in northwest Ohio Tuesday morning, killing two people, injuring three and scattering debris up to a quarter-mile. Investigators were looking into whether a leaking liquid propane tank near the home's attached garage sparked the blast, said Troy Township Fire Chief Randy Woodruff. The tank was toppled over, and Woodruff said it was too soon to pinpoint the cause of the explosion. Neighbors said the explosion woke them up around 5 a.m. and they saw flames at the ranch-style home near the village of Stony Ridge, about 15 miles south of Toledo. One man died after being taken to a hospital, and the body of a woman was found in the rubble about six hours after the explosion. When emergency responders arrived, four people were found outside the house, the Wood County Sheriff's Office said. Five people - all of them adults - lived in the home. Neighbors said they were a man, his wife, their two sons and a fiance. Names of the victims were not released. The explosion flattened the home and scattered pieces of it throughout the yard and across farm fields. Piles of insulation, mattresses, window screens and a door littered the yard. All that was left standing was a basketball hoop along the driveway. | |
Comment: Reported on the same day:
"I thought a plane hit": Another massive explosion obliterates house, this time in Connecticut - 17 September 2013 | |
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Fire In The Sky News
Hundreds of reports of fireballs from 30 states! Also, Japan had a fireball flurry on September 18th, 19th and 20th. Truly amazing things are happening in our skies!YouTube 2013-09-23 00:00:00
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WKYC.com
The skies over Ohio lit up late Friday night when a meteor exploded over Columbus.2013-09-28 18:38:00
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Comment: In fact, there may very well have been some damage, damage that, if connected, resulted in two fatalities:
Elderly couple dies in Ohio house fire | |
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Deborah Byrd
EarthSky Org 2013-09-28 15:44:00
The American Meteor Society (AMS) has reported at least 373 reports of another bright fireball - a very bright meteor, likely a small chunk of natural incoming space debris - over the U.S. last night (September 27, 2013). These reports followed a similar event over approximately the same area the day before (September 26). The AMS called the coincidence of two bright fireballs, or bright meteors, spotted over approximately the same region on consecutive days "surprising." Witnesses from Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, Wisconsin and West Virginia reported a bright light moving across the night sky on September 27 at around 11:33 p.m. local time, according to the AMS. Fireball might sound ominous, but it is just the word astronomers use to mean bright meteor. As seen from a whole-Earth perspective, fireballs are seen often. It's unusual to have two appear on consecutive nights over the same region, however. | |
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Randy Ludlow
The Columbus area was bathed in the eerie light of an apparent exploding meteor that streaked through the sky late Friday night.The Columbus Dispatch 2013-09-28 23:19:00 A brilliant flash of light about 11:30 p.m. prompted some people to call Columbus police to ask about its origin while officers chatted about the event over their radios. Employees at WBNS-TV (Channel 10) said they couldn't keep up with the phone calls they were getting from people who had spotted the streaking light. Dozens of people took to Twitter to report they had seen a brilliant meteor tracing across the night sky. "Like a shooting star, but 500x brighter," one person wrote. "I saw it in Hilliard. Sky lit up like lightning and then saw the vapor trail change from blue to purple to orange for 20 to 30 seconds," wrote another. Others reported that the meteor and its accompanying flash of light were seen over a wide area, including south of Columbus in Hocking and Ross counties. There also were reports of it being seen in other states in the Midwest, the East and parts of Canada. |
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| Health & Wellness |
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Washington Post
2013-09-23 16:58:00
From mercury to pesticides, Americans are exposed daily to environmental chemicals that could harm reproductive health, the nation's largest groups of obstetricians and fertility specialists said Monday. The report urges doctors to push for stricter environmental policies to better identify and reduce exposure to chemicals that prove truly risky. But it's likely to scare pregnant women in the meantime. That's because during the first prenatal visit, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists wants doctors to ask mothers-to-be about their exposure to different chemicals. They're also supposed to teach women how to avoid some considered most worrisome during pregnancy. | |
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A staggering two-thirds of Americans are now overweight, and according to the American Heart Association,1 five percent of American children can now be considered "severely obese," which puts their health at grave risk. One in four Americans are either diabetic or pre-diabetic, and an estimated 110,000 Americans die as a result of obesity-related ailments each year. This includes cancer, about one-third of which are directly related to obesity. Carb-rich processed foods, along with rarely ever fasting, are primary drivers of these statistics, and while many blame Americans' overindulgence of processed junk foods on lack of self control, scientists are now starting to reveal the truly addictive nature of such foods. | |
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Stéphane Horel & Brian Bienkowski
Environmental Health News 2013-09-23 14:11:00
Seventeen scientists who have criticized plans in Europe to regulate endocrine-disrupting chemicals have past or current ties to regulated industries. An investigation by Environmental Health News reveals that of 18 toxicology journal editors who signed a controversial editorial, 17 have collaborated with the chemical, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, tobacco, pesticide or biotechnology industries. Some have received research funds from industry associations, while some have served as industry consultants or advisors. [Read about the scientists here.] The stakes are high in the controversy because it involves the European Union's strategy to regulate hormone-altering chemicals - the first attempt in the world to do so. The new rules would have sweeping, global ramifications because all companies that sell a variety of products in Europe would have to comply. | |
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Sayer Ji
Greenmedinfo.com 2013-09-27 09:30:00
A new study published in JAMA Ophthalmology titled, "Association of Statin Use With Cataracts: A Propensity Score-Matched Analysis," reveals that the top-grossing, cholesterol-lowering drug class known as statins is significantly increasing the risk of cataracts within exposed populations.[1] Statin-induced eye damage will be a surprising finding to some, especially to statin drug advocates who have argued that the purported 'antioxidant' effects of statins 'may slow the natural aging process of the lens.' This latter, strictly theoretical benefit is increasingly being disproved by the biomedical literature. In fact, last year, we reported in an article titled, "Blind To The Truth: The Eye-Damaging Effects of Statins," on findings published in Optometry and Vision Science, revealing that statin drugs users have a 48% higher riskof pathological eye lens changes commonly associated with cataract formation. | |
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The Guardian, UK
2013-09-29 22:51:00
A milestone has been reached on the path to finding a cure for multiple sclerosis, researchers believe. A group of international scientists, including an Australian contingent, has discovered 48 previously unknown genes that influence the risk of developing the disease. MS, which attacks the central nervous system and can have an impact on mobility, balance and sensation, affects 23,000 Australians. The discovery is a big step towards finding a cure and further treatment for the debilitating condition, according to University of Sydney associate professor David Booth, who led the Australian and New Zealand component of the study. "The exciting thing about this is we have doubled the number of genes that we now know are associated with MS," he said. "What that means is every one of those new genes is potentially providing us with a new way to understand the disease and to come up with new therapies for the disease." Researchers believe the findings underline the central role the immune system plays in the development of MS. | |
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Alison Rose Levy
Alternet 2013-09-25 09:10:00
With statin medications, used to prevent heart attacks, among the most widely prescribed drugs in the U.S., most people make certain assumptions:
When it comes to any widespread medical treatment, most people want to trust that the health recommendations they receive are for their benefit. People don't want to have to evaluate the credibility of their doctor's medical advice, no less the premises of the healthcare system. While many treatments are effective, it's not wise to overlook that the economic motive sometimes intrudes in the health equation. This occurs because the interlocking sectors of the current healthcare system blur important ethical boundaries, and in some cases erase them. The intrusion of economics into health science is most noticeable in the gaps between health claims and actual outcomes. When seemingly "evidence-based" research is shaped by market considerations, healthcare treatments may fall short in delivering favorable aggregate health results. In this article, I'll explore the gap through the disputed science, and protectionism accorded one of the most widely prescribed medications in the conventional medical arsenal: Statin drugs. | |
Comment: For more information see:
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Elizabeth Renter
Natural Society 2013-04-07 18:02:00
The United States is a consumption monster when it comes to prescription drugs. And while we are beginning to see their effects on our health and our wallets, we often don't consider their effects on the environment and the world around us. What's more, we don't even know how present these drugs truly are, especially when considering how big pharma has been putting pharmaceuticals in water across the nation for years. Pharmaceuticals in Water Thanks to Big Pharma In 2002, federal scientists discovered that such pharmaceutical drugs are being dumped into the sewer systems and potentially finding their ways back into the drinking water. According to MSNBC, the presence of pharmaceuticals in water at sewage treatment plants downstream from drug manufacturing facilities are much higher than the levels at plants where there are no drug makers upstream. These drugs include opiates, tranquilizers, and barbiturates, among many other active pharmaceutical ingredients. Pharmaceutical companies are quick to say their wastewater doesn't pollute the water systems around them, but this analysis would suggest that (like in many other situations), they aren't being completely honest. One drug was detected in levels "hundreds of times higher than the level at which federal regulators can order a review of a drug's environmental impact." That drug was the muscle relaxer metaxalone. But the Drugs are Removed During Water Treatment, Right? You would think that wastewater treatment plants would remove the pharmaceuticals in water along with other contaminants, but, another study from the Environmental Protection Agency, found that an antibiotic which was going down the drains at a Pfizer, Inc. factory in Kalamazoo, Mich. was still detectable after the water had been treated. This drug, lincomycin, was found in a 2008 study to make human cancer in kidney cells and fish liver cells "proliferate" when combined in minute concentrations with other drugs. Other studies found lincomycin to act as a mutagen, actually changing the genes within algae, bacteria, fish, and microscopic aquatic animals. At the time of these studies, Pfizer spokesman Rick Chambers admitted that they didn't test wastewater leaving the facilities, assuring the media, however, that they were in compliance with the laws. Many of us know the dangers of the drugs pumped into the sick and often-unaware citizens of this country. As a result of this knowledge, many of us avoid pharmaceuticals except for in extreme and emergency situations. But, what if these substances that we work so hard to avoid, have found their way into our bodies regardless? Seeing as pharmaceuticals in water is a growing problem, it is evident that these drugs are indeed finding their way. Though pharmaceutical companies may be following all of the "laws", the laws don't mandate any ethical accountability, and it's obvious Big Pharma hasn't written any into their policy manuals either. Additional Sources Gallery.usgs.gov NY Times | |
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Last week I went to the beach to take in the immense biodiversity of the marine sanctuary that is the Monterey Bay. While looking for frolicking dolphins, I noticed a number of young people with their eyes glued to their phones. It led me to reflect on how our personal time has been altered by computers and science. I recently learned that the same holds true for genetic engineering. New breakthroughs with computers and DNA strands are occurring rapidly and raising the very nature of genetic engineering to a new level. This leads me to a question I'd like to explore in this post: What in the world is Synthetic Biology? | |
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Steve Holt
Take Part 2013-09-27 17:16:00
Diabetes and obesity rise in the East as China consumes more Western junk food. China has been called "The Middle Kingdom," and Napoleon famously referred to the country as "The Sleeping Giant." Maybe China should be renamed "The Processed Kingdom" and its people "The Eating Giants." China will soon overtake the United States in a rather dubious category: It's poised to become number one in the consumption of processed foods. Euromonitor International estimates that in terms of volume, the Chinese market for packaged processed food like ready-made meals, and junk items like cookies, chips, and soda will surpass America's by 2015 - 107 million tons of packaged food in China, compared to 102 million tons in the US. | |
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Martin Daubney
Mail Online 2013-09-25 20:44:00
The moment I knew internet pornography had cast its dark shadow over the lives of millions of ordinary British teenagers will live with me for ever. I was sitting in the smart drama hall of a specialist sports college in the North of England with a fantastic reputation. Before me were a group of 20 boys and girls, aged 13-14. Largely white, working class children, they were well turned-out, polite, giggly and shy. As the presenter of a Channel 4 documentary called Porn On The Brain, airing next Monday at 10pm, I'd been invited to sit in on a forward-thinking class led by sex education consultant Jonny Hunt, who is regularly asked into schools to discuss sex and relationships. To establish what these kids knew about sex - including pornography - he had asked the children to write an A-Z list of the sexual terms they knew, no matter how extreme. Most of these children had just hit puberty and some were clearly still children: wide-eyed, nervous, with high-pitched voices. | |
Comment: This Is Your Brain On Porn
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AwakenedWorld TV
Kate and David clasp each other and their son Jamie, circled, after being told he did not survive the birth. They were given the child to say their goodbyes but then, miraculously, two hours later he began to show signs of life2013-09-27 00:00:00
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| Science of the Spirit |
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Jane E. Rubinstein
Oxytocin - often referred to as the 'love hormone' because of its ability to promote mother-infant attachment and romantic bonding in adults - could also make us more accepting of other people, as found in new research, "Oxytocin Sharpens Self-other Perceptual Boundary," by Neuropsychoanalysis Foundation research grantee Valentina Colonnello Ph.D. published online today in Psychoneuroendocrinology.Rubenstein Associates, Inc. 2013-09-27 06:40:00 Together with Dr. Markus Heinrichs from the Department of Psychology at the University of Freiburg in Germany, Dr. Colonnello found that oxytocin can sharpen the brain's self-other differentiation - a function that has been shown to play a crucial role in social bonding, successful social interactions and the tolerance of others. They also found that oxytocin helps to increase our positive evaluation of other people. This further supports the role of the oxytocinergic system in the empathic response and the modulation of social cognition. "Social bonding, mutual support, mate preference and parental investment," says Dr. Colonnello, "are all mediated by the oxytocinergic system, which is heavily reliant on a person's ability to appreciate that self and others are both different and valuable." Participants in the study were shown videos of their own face morphing into an unfamiliar face and vice versa, and were instructed to press a button as soon as they felt that they saw more features belonging to the incoming face. Of the 44 participants, those given oxytocin before the task were significantly faster at identifying the new face, regardless of whether it was their own or that of a stranger. |
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Amanda Fiegl
National Geographic 2013-09-26 15:36:00
The brain can be trained to overcome fear during sleep, new research suggests.You may think you're doing nothing at night, but to your brain, sleep means finally having some spare time to take stock of the day's events. Freed from the distractions of recording new experiences, a deeply sleeping brain can organize and strengthen memories, especially emotional ones. For Katherina Hauner, a neuroscientist at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago who studies fear, that makes sleep a fascinating frontier. Hauner's latest research, just published in Nature Neuroscience, explores the connections between fear, memory, and sleep. Walk me through your study in layman's terms. The subjects were all healthy adults. While awake, they looked at pictures of faces with neutral expressions and learned to associate these with a mild electric shock, so that eventually these face pictures elicited a fear response in the brain. This is called fear conditioning. Sounds fun. Just to clarify, these were not painful shocks! They were simply startling, like you might get from opening a car door. | |
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PopChassid.com
2013-09-28 04:37:00
I'm a ridiculous, emotional, over-sentimental sap. I guess that's why I told my wife I loved her on our second date. I had tried really hard up to that point to hold it back, honestly. I wanted to tell her on the first date, but I knew that would probably be weird. I still remember her reaction. She kind of gave me this half-shy, half-amused smile. Then she nodded and looked off into the sky. I wasn't heartbroken by the response. I think part of me recognized that she was much smarter and more modest than me. But as time has gone on, I also realized that she knew something that I didn't. Like most Hasidic Jews (we both became religious later in life), our dating period lasted a very short time. After two months of dating, we were engaged. Three months after that, we were married. And that whole time I was swooning. This fire was burning in me, a fire that burned just like that second date: I was in love. But then we got married, and everything changed. |
