| Puppet Masters |
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Ben Lynfield
The Indepedent 2013-11-24 09:56:00
An internationally isolated Benjamin Netanyahu termed the world powers' agreement with Iran a "historic mistake" that advanced Tehran towards nuclear weapons capability ."What was agreed in Geneva is not a historic agreement but a historic mistake," the Israeli Prime Minister told his cabinet hours after the accord was reached. "Today the world became a much more dangerous place because the most dangerous regime in the world has made a significant step to attaining the most dangerous weaponry in the world." While the agreement limits Iran to enriching uranium by a maximum of 5 per cent, it casts aside Israel's demand that enrichment be eliminated entirely, something seen in the West as unrealistic. Israel, believed to be the only nuclear power in the region, says allowing any enrichment is dangerous since Iranian centrifuges could quickly convert even low-grade uranium to weapons grade. Israeli officials say the agreement hands a massive victory to Iran. The Economics Minister, Naftali Bennett, said: "If a nuclear suitcase blows up five years from now in New York or Madrid it will be because of the deal signed this morning." Mr Netanyahu also took issue with the limited easing of sanctions, saying these had taken years to put into place. | |
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Harriet Sherwood
Hollywood producer gives interview in which he confirms earlier claims that he was an arms dealerThe Guardian 2013-11-26 08:03:00
The Hollywood producer behind box office hits including Fight Club, Pretty Woman and LA Confidential has spoken about his life as an Israeli secret agent and arms dealer, saying he was proud of working for his country. Arnon Milchan gave a lengthy interview to the Israeli documentary programme Uvda, broadcast on Monday on Channel 2, confirming claims made earlier in an unauthorised biography that he worked for an Israeli agency which negotiated arms deals and supported Israel's secret nuclear weapons project. Comment: Ahem, he's referring to the Mossad. Milchan, who was born in Israel, was recruited as a young businessman to the Bureau of Scientific Relations by Shimon Peres, now Israel's president, in the 1960s. The bureau, which worked to obtain scientific and technical information for secret defence programmes, closed down in 1987. Milchan, 68, is now the chairman of New Regency, which has produced more than 120 Hollywood movies since the 1970s, working with actors and directors such as Robert de Niro, Martin Scorsese, Roman Polanski, Oliver Stone, Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck. | |
Comment: Guess what other movie Milchan produced?
Oliver Stone's JFK. As well-made and informative as Stone's movie is, it's quite possible that, unbeknownst to Stone even, the Zionists stepped in to 'help' this movie in order to keep the focus on U.S. intelligence involvement, to the total exclusion of any mention of possible Israeli involvement. How many Americans know today that JFK was their only President to ever confront the Israelis over their nuke program and to draft a UN resolution in FAVOR of the unconditional right of return for Palestinian refugees? When it comes to Israeli interests, people have met untimely ends for way less... Who killed Kennedy: CIA, LBJ, or the Truly "Unspeakable"? | |
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Gareth Porter
Asia Times Online 2013-11-26 07:42:00
The "first step" agreement between Iran and the United States that was sealed in Geneva over the weekend is supposed to lead to the negotiation of a "comprehensive settlement" of the nuclear issue over the next six months, though the latter has gotten little attention. But within hours of the agreement, there were already indications from senior US officials that the Barack Obama administration is not fully committed to the conclusion of a final pact, under which economic sanctions would be completely lifted. The administration has apparently developed reservations about such an "end state" agreement despite concessions by the government of President Hassan Rouhani that were more far-reaching than could have been anticipated a few months ago. The Rouhani government's moves to reassure the West may have spurred hopes on the part of senior officials of the Obama administration that the United States can achieve its minimum aims in reducing Iran's breakout capacity without giving up its trump cards - the harsh sanctions on Iran's oil expert and banking sectors. | |
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RT News
2013-11-23 00:29:00
Officials in the Obama administration have demanded that federal government agencies evaluate how a total of five million Americans have been granted classified information security clearances and, of those, how many truly require it. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, in a document obtained by Politico, questioned why more than 1.4 million people have been authorized for a "Top Secret" clearance level. Approximately 3.5 million Americans have lesser security clearance levels. Pundits and lawmakers alike have wondered how secure the vetting process is after NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and suspected Washington Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis were granted security clearance. "I write to express my concern about threats to national security resulting from the increasing number of people with eligibility for access to classified national security information, particularly Top Secret (TS) and Top Secret/Secure Compartmented Information (TS/SCI)," Clapper wrote. | |
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Press TV
2013-11-26 03:18:00
The federal government of the United States made a profit of $41.3 billion on student loans for the 2013 fiscal year. Although the profit is $3.6 billion less than the that the US government reaped from distressed borrowers the previous year, it is a profit higher than that made by all but two companies, Exxon Mobil and Apple, in the world. According to David Jesse, who writes for the Free Press, the profit is enough to pay for the tuition of nearly 3,000,000 Michigan residents at the University of Michigan for one year. Earlier in July, the US Senate approved a bill that would link federal student loan rates to financial markets. The bill, which was passed 81-18 and was endorsed by the White House, would lower the interest rates on federal student loans to 3.86 percent down from the fixed rate of 6.8 percent but interest rates could increase if the financial market improves as expected. | |
Comment: To say that "It's actually neither accurate nor fair to characterize the student loan program as making a profit," is an outright lie. Student loans work as a money making machine for the government.
Especially considering that government borrowing interest rates are as close to nil as possible.As an example, the interest on US treasury bills is 0.13% for 1 year loans: Selected Interest Rates - Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve | |
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Dr. Kevin Barrett
Press TV 2013-11-25 20:58:00
The so-called "Iran nuclear crisis" is over. Now, what will the nuclear non-proliferation specialists do to occupy their time? Maybe they should target a dangerous, fanatical, hyper-aggressive, expansionist Middle Eastern regime that really IS building nuclear weapons. That would be Israel. There was never any real nuclear crisis in Iran, but there is a very real nuclear crisis in Israel. Even the American CIA, which holds no love for the Islamic Republic, has repeatedly admitted that Iran is not building nuclear weapons. That hasn't stopped Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from saying that Iran is just months away from a bomb. According to Netanyahu, Iran has been months away from a bomb for decades. Fifty years from now, whoever is in charge of Israel's Likud Party - in the unlikely event that Israel and its Likud Party exist - will still be screaming from the rooftops that Iran is just months away from a bomb. The reason Israel will probably not exist in fifty years has nothing to do with Iranian bombs. The real threat to Israel is the insanity of its leaders. It's as if the Zionists have walked into a time warp. For them, the clock has stopped; they are permanently stuck in an alternative reality in which the only hour is "three months to Iran-bomb." | |
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Sheera Frenkel
Buzzfeed 2013-11-24 20:07:00
"We felt like we were being stabbed in the back." Israeli officials knew they were being kept in the dark as the U.S. conducted secret talks with Iran, and the knowledge that the White House was "going behind Israel's back" was one of the key sources of tension between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama, according to a senior Israeli minister and other Israeli officials. "We did not know from the beginning, but we knew, we had intelligence that these meetings were happening," said the Israeli minister, who spoke to BuzzFeed by phone from his Jerusalem office. He said that a "friend in the Gulf" shared intelligence with Israel that the meetings were taking place, and urged Israel to find out more. "I would like to say we knew the content of the talks, but we didn't. What we knew was that the U.S. was choosing not to tell us about them and that was very worrying." That "friend," one foreign ministry official said, was Saudi Arabia, which along with Israel has most strongly objected to the nuclear deal reached between Iran and the West over the weekend. | |
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VPROinternational
A revealing documentary about the international world of private equity banking.Youtube 2012-02-09 00:00:00 The Carlyle Group, one of the largest investment banks in the world, is based in Washington and has accumulated its capital mainly by investments in the defence industry. On their list of employees are people like Lou Gerstner (former chairman of IBM), George Bush Sr., James Baker III, John Major (former British Prime Minister) and Fidel Ramos (former Prime Minister of the Philipines). The Carlyle Group invests in areas that are closely tied to government policy: aero space and defense, telecom, real estate, health care and the banking business. With 16 billion dollar under management they have the reputation of being the best-connected company in the world. Their list of private investors include George Soros, the Saudi Royal Family and the Bin Laden Family. How does the Carlyle Group operate, who are the people behind the Carlyle Group and how much power does Carlyle have? This film explores the fine line between the conflict of interests and a new global way of doing business.
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Comment: It's not 'conflict of interest', it's not 'some new way of doing business', it's just 'The American Way'. JFK tried to end it; look how long he lasted.
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Matthew Lee, Bradley Klapper, and Julie Pace
Associated Press 2013-11-25 17:52:00
On a warm day in Washington this fall, President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu huddled in the White House, each flanked by a handful of top advisers, including Vice President Joe Biden. Just three days earlier, Obama had held an historic phone call with Iran's new President Hassan Rouhani, the leader of a country Israel sees as a threat to its very existence. In the confines of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue on Sept. 30, just after the high Jewish holidays, Obama revealed to Netanyahu that his administration had been engaged in secret, high-level diplomatic talks with the mortal enemy of the Jewish state. Netanyahu's immediate public reaction betrayed no surprise, but a day later he launched a full-frontal attack on Iran, delivering a blistering speech at the U.N. General Assembly in which he said the Islamic republic was bent on Israel's destruction and accused Rouhani of being a "wolf in sheep's clothing." The White House meeting had been scheduled for about an hour, but continued on for 30 more minutes, leaving American and Israeli journalists crowded onto the portico outside the Oval Office to speculate about the discussions underway inside. The two men had and still have an uneasy relationship, and each blames the other for inconclusive results in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Yet In statements after the meeting, both leaders tried to display unity rather than airing their differences on Iran in public. | |
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| Society's Child |
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metro.co.uk
2013-11-26 15:06:00
A woman was left shocked after finding what appeared to be a snake's head in a bag of frozen green beans. Misty Moser made the gruesome discovery after pouring the green beans into a bowl at her home in Oregon. She initially thought the body part was just a collection of beans but quickly realised it was something more sinister. 'I noticed it had a mouth, nostrils, and little tiny eyes. Not what I thought I was buying,' she said. The store where she purchased the green beans, Fred Meyer, said it planned to investigate the incident once Moser had returned the vegetables with the snake head. | |
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Alex Shams
Ma'an News Agency 2013-11-24 12:33:00
An Israeli soldier admitted that she shot and killed unknown numbers of Palestinian people, including children, on a Ukrainian television program that aired in early November. Elena Zakusilo, a Ukrainian Jewish woman who moved to Israel in order to serve in the Israeli army, revealed on the Nov. 4 episode of the program "Lie Detector" that she had killed Palestinians and had shot at Palestinian children, but was unsure how many she managed to kill. Zakusilo, who goes by the name Elena Gluzman in Israel, also explained that she trained army dogs to raid Palestinian villages and conduct video surveillance that she monitored from up to 10 kilometers away. | |
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Tracy Connor
NBC News 2013-11-26 06:57:00
Four school employees, including the superintendent and an assistant football coach, were indicted by a grand jury investigating a possible coverup in the Steubenville rape case. The charges were announced Monday by the state's top prosecutor, who decried "blurred, stretched and distorted boundaries of right and wrong" by students and grown-ups alike. "How do you hold kids accountable if you don't hold the adults accountable?" Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine asked. Superintendent Michael McVey, 50, was charged with tampering with evidence and obstruction of justice in the aftermath of the incident at the center of the case: the sexual assault of a drunken 16-year-old girl by two high school football players after a booze-fueled party in August 2012. | |
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David Edwards
Raw Story 2013-11-26 06:39:00
A Nashville bar owner claimed self defense over the weekend after fatally shooting country music singer Jerald Wayne Mills, 44, in connection with an argument over smoking. Witnesses told WSMV that 44-year-old Chris Michael Ferrell shot Mills at the Pit & Barrel bar at around 5 a.m. Saturday morning following an argument that started when the singer began smoking in a non-smoking area. The suspect and the victim were reportedly friends. Mills was later pronounced dead after being taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center. "We're investigating Chris Ferrell's claims of self-defense," Nashville police spokesperson Kris Mumford told the Tennessean. Ferrell had a valid permit to carry a handgun, according to WSMV. In 2010, both the Tennessee state House and Senate overrode Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen's veto on a bill to allow handguns in bars.
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Anne Sewell
Digital Journal 2013-11-25 06:00:00
Subiaco - A gruesome discovery was made recently in an isolated house in Subiaco, Italy. A man's elderly father had died in August 2011 and he hid the body in a sealed room in his house in order to continue collecting his father's pension. Giampiero Di Tullion, the man's unemployed, 44 year-old-son has now been arrested by the police. His father, Domenico Di Tullio was a former typesetter working at the Vatican. He passed away on August 4, 2011 at the age of 85. His son wished to continue collecting his pension of between 1300 and 1400 euros per month, as they both used to live on the money. He walled his father's corpse up in his small bedroom off the living room of the house, and sealed the doorway with silicon. Son Giampiero was a former drug addict and was involved in drug dealing. Due to his history, and the fact that his father owned weapons, police were making a routine check of the house. When they arrived at the house, they asked to speak to the father, and at first the son told them that his father was seriously ill and was under the care of his brother in Rome. Roma Today (Italian) reported that the police became suspicious, however, and officers, led by Captain Alessio Falzone, entered the house. When they got no answer at the bedroom door in the living room, they broke in through the sealed door. Not finding anything initially in there, they continued investigating, and discovered a double wall, a kind of niche made of bricks and cement, behind which he had concealed the body of his dead father. According to police, the body was wrapped in tape, similar to a mummy. On investigating further, police found blood stains and they did not, at first, exclude the possibility that the man could have been murdered. Giampiero was arrested on the charge of concealing a corpse, along with aggravated fraud. He did, however, manage to escape the charge of voluntary manslaughter, as the autopsy showed that his father died of natural causes. | |
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Peter Walker
The Guardian 2013-11-25 08:02:00
Aravindan Balakrishnan, aka Comrade Bala, ran separatist party-cum-commune from bookshop in Brixton, south London The 73-year-old man arrested on suspicion of holding three women captive in a south London flat for 30 years is a one-time Communist party activist who was well known within far-left circles in London during the mid- and late 1970s as the leader of a separatist party-cum-commune. Aravindan Balakrishnan, known as Comrade Bala, had been a senior member of the Communist party of England (Marxist-Leninist) - a member of the party's central committee - but according to a history of the movement he split from the party in 1974. His new organisation, described as "characterised by the ultra-left posturing and Mao worship", was called the Workers' Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought. But the group is not thought to have been active since the 1970s - before one of the women, now aged 30, was born. | |
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India Today
2013-11-25 20:38:00
According to several newspapers, the tiny African country of Angola has become the first country in the world to ban Islam and Muslims. The Angolan Minister of Culture, Rosa Cruz e Silva was quoted by news agencies and Angola newspapers as saying, "The process of legalisation of Islam has not been approved by the Ministry of Justice and Human rights, their mosques would be closed until further notice." As part of the ban, the Angolan government ordered the demolition of the mosques in the country. According to Silva, the decision was the latest in a series of efforts to ban "illegal" religious sects in the country. Silva's statement was made during her appearance last week at the 6th Commission of the National Assembly. | |
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Ryan Chittum
Columbia Journalism Review 2013-10-17 05:50:00
Adversarial muckrakers + civic-minded billionaire = a whole new world Make no mistake, news that Glenn Greenwald is leaving The Guardian to start a new publication funded by eBay billionaire Pierre Omidyar is giant news - a bigger deal, in my book, than Jeff Bezos buying the Washington Post. (UPDATE: I should disclose that the Omidyar Network helps fund CJR, something I didn't know until shortly after I published this post.) This isn't just another startup. What makes this extraordinary is the combination of muckraking - and, dare I say, dissident - journalists Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, and Jeremy Scahill with the gargantuan fortune of one of the first internet billionaires. The problem with the Billionaire Savior phase of the newspaper collapse has always been that billionaires don't tend to like the kind of authority-questioning journalism that upsets the status quo. Billionaires tend to have a finger in every pie: powerful friends they don't want annoyed and business interests they don't want looked at. The Way Things Are may not work for most of us, but it ain't bad if you're an American billionaire. | |
Comment: As Mark Ames, and Yasha Levine relate in their article linked below: An examination of the ideas behind the Omidyar Network and of the investments it has made suggests that its founder is anything but a "different" sort of billionaire. Instead, what emerges is almost a caricature of neoliberal ideology, complete with the trail of destruction that ensues when that ideology is put into practice. The generous support of the Omidyar Network goes toward "fighting poverty" through micro-lending, reducing third-world illiteracy rates by privatizing education and protecting human rights by expanding property titles ("private property rights") into slums and villages across the developing world. In many regions, Omidyar Network investments have helped fund programs that create worsening conditions for the world's underclass, widening inequalities, enhancing exploitation, pushing millions of people into crippling debt and supporting anti-poverty programs that, in some cases, resulted in mass-suicide by the rural poor. See: Wolf in sheep's clothing? Billionaire neoliberal Pierre Omidyar
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Jon David Kahn
Breitbart 2013-11-25 20:07:00
San Antonio - Friday morning. On duty. Full Uniform. Marked Squad Car. Officer Jackie Neal, 40, made a traffic stop and then allegedly sexually assaulted a 19-year-old woman, according to the San Antonio Police Department. Police said the 11-year veteran pulled the victim over on the south side and managed to get her to stand behind his squad car. San Antonio police Chief William McManus described the events that followed as "unthinkable." An investigation was opened after the victim contacted police. According to a statement issued by the department, Neal was taken into custody by SAPD Special Victims' Unit detectives after officers pulled him over around 2 a.m. Saturday. He was arrested on a warrant for sexual assault, a second-degree felony. | |
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Mark Ames, and Yasha Levine
nsfwcorp 2013-11-15 11:51:00
"We ought to be looking at business as a force for good." - Pierre Omidyar "Like eBay, Omidyar Network harnesses the power of markets to enable people to tap their true potential." - Omidyar Network, "Frequently Asked Questions" Update: Glenn Greenwald responds to this piece on Twitter: "The idea that someone would build a pro-business, neoliberal outlet around Scahill, Poitras, Segura, Bates etc is just dumb." When asked about Omidyar Network's investment history, he said "I have no idea what you're talking about there. I don't speak for Omidyar Networks. You should ask them that." The world knows very little about the political motivations of Pierre Omidyar, the eBay billionaire who is founding (and funding) a quarter-billion-dollar journalism venture with Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and Jeremy Scahill. What we do know is this: Pierre Omidyar is a very special kind of technology billionaire. We know this because America's sharpest journalism critics have told us. In a piece headlined "The Extraordinary Promise of the New Greenwald-Omidyar Venture", The Columbia Journalism Review gushed over the announcement of Omidyar's project. And just in case their point wasn't clear, they added the amazing subhead, "Adversarial muckrakers + civic-minded billionaire = a whole new world." Ah yes, the fabled "civic-minded billionaire" - you'll find him two doors down from the tooth fairy. | |
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Daisy Luther
The Organic Prepper 2013-11-25 08:00:00
With all that is being written about the national economic collapse, people seem to be waiting for some huge event. However, for many North Americans, the collapse is here. This isn't relegated to only lower income neighborhoods. As an article from a Cinncinnati new station stated, "Hunger doesn't know a zipcode." For many people who were formerly financially comfortable, the economic collapse has already happened, in the form of a job loss, hours that have been cut back due toObamacare requirements for employers, an exorbitant medical bill or other crushing debt, or simply an inflation rate that has outstripped your pay increases. Despite all of the warnings, many people are still going to be absolutely blindsided. For many families, personal finances have reached a catastrophic level - they are left to make terrible choices:
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| Secret History |
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Ed Yong
Nature News 2013-11-20 10:54:00
The 24,000-year-old remains of a young boy from the Siberian village of Mal'ta have added a new root to the family tree of indigenous Americans. While some of the New World's native ancestry clearly traces back to east Asia, the Mal'ta boy's genome - the oldest known of any modern human - shows that up to one-third of that ancestry can be traced back to Europe. The results show that people related to western Eurasians had spread further east than anyone had suspected, and lived in Siberia during the coldest parts of the last Ice Age. "At some point in the past, a branch of east Asians and a branch of western Eurasians met each other and had sex a lot," says palaeogeneticist Eske Willerslev at the University of Copenhagen, who led the sequencing of the boy's genome. This mixing, he says, created Native Americans - in the sense of the populations of both North and South America that predated - as we know them. His team's results are published today in Nature1. In 2009, Willerslev's team travelled to Hermitage State Museum in St. Petersburg, where it had arranged to collect a DNA sample from one of the Mal'ta boy's arm bones. "We hoped that he could tell us something about the early peopling of the Americas, but it was a complete long shot," he says. | |
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| Science & Technology |
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NWCN.com
2013-11-25 17:47:00
For months, all eyes in the sky have pointed at the comet that's zooming toward a blisteringly close encounter with the sun. The moment of truth comes Thursday -- Thanksgiving Day. The sun-grazing Comet ISON, now thought to be less than a mile wide, will either fry and shatter, victim of the sun's incredible power, or endure and quite possibly put on one fabulous celestial show. Talk about an astronomical cliffhanger. Even the smartest scientists are reluctant to lay odds. | |
Comment: A "holiday comet", how cute.
Comet ISON isn't going to impact the planet, true. But NASA is completely missing the direct, observable results ISON and countless other comets are having on our environment NOW: Seven volcanoes in six different countries all start erupting within hours of each other | |
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IsonCampaignOrg
2013-11-25 20:23:00
In our November 23, the overall message was that not much had changed, and the comet appeared to be keeping it all together as it approached the Sun. That situation may now have changed. We are seeing reports online that molecular emission from the comet has fallen dramatically, meanwhile dust production seems to be enormous. What this could indicate is that the nucleus has completely disrupted, releasing an enormous volume of dust while significantly reducing emission rates. Fragmentation or disruption of the nucleus has always been the highest risk factor for this comet so if this has indeed happened then while unfortunate, it would not be a surprise. However, these reports are new, and while they are undoubtedly valid, we do still need to keep observing the comet to be sure what it happening. Remember: Comet ISON is a dynamically new sungrazing comet, fresh in from the Oort Cloud, and the last time we saw an object like this was never! Furthermore, a sungrazing comet just three days from perihelion has never been studied in this kind of detail - we're breaking new ground here! When we factor in your standard "comets are unpredictable" disclaimer, what we have is a huge recipe for the unknown. | |
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Tallbloke
Comet ISON makes solar approach on Thursday, passing a mere 720,000 miles from the solar surface. It'll get hot. This could cause a break-up, with fragments then heading on as yet unpredictable trajectories. Could this pose a threat to Earth? Stuart Clark at theGuardian has the following obs:Tallbloke's Talkshop 2013-11-25 20:04:00
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| Earth Changes |
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Pete Thomas
Just about everyone has heard of crop circles, but ice circles? A retired engineer this week discovered an enormous circle of ice spinning slowly down North Dakota's Sheyenne River.Grindtv.com 2013-11-26 15:31:00
George Loegering described the rare phenomenon as "an amazing wonder" and can be heard in the video saying that the perfectly round, alien-like disc measured about 50 feet in diameter. | |
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xinhuanet.com
Harbin -- Nine people buried following the collapse of a factory building's roof in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province have been confirmed dead, local authorities said.2013-11-26 14:47:00 Officials with the emergency response office of Mudanjiang City said the accident, which happened at 1:10 p.m. in the city's Aiming District, was probably caused by blizzards. The rescue work wrapped up early Tuesday with the bodies of all nine people found. Local authorities are now gearing up post-accident management as well as a safety check across the city amid heavy snowfall. A new round of snow pelted the northeastern Chinese provinces of Heilongjiang and Jilin from Sunday, closing highways and canceling flights in many places. |
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Dale Carruthers
London, Ont. - London is digging out after a snowstorm dumped more than 30 cm of snow on the city.Toronto Sun 2013-11-24 14:20:00 The heavy snowfall continued Sunday, with another 10 cm expected and winds reaching 50 km/h, as Environment Canada extended a snow squall warning for London and parts of southwestern Ontario. Officials were asking drivers to stay at home while the roads are cleared. Fall storms often pack more punch than their winter counterparts, Environment Canada meteorologist Mark Seifert said. "These early season snow squalls are usually the worst because the lakes are still fairly warm," he said. "And the warmer the water is, combined with the colder air, the worse the snow squalls are." Many London roads were impassable Sunday as city crews worked frantically through the night to clear the main streets. "We've had crews running through the night. They running now, they'll be running through tonight," Dave O'Brien, the city's manager of emergency management, said Sunday. The city brought in contractors, called in additional staff and rented extra equipment to help clear the streets, O'Brien said. Two people were killed in separate crashes, OPP said, and some flights were delayed at the city's international airport. Source: The Free London Press |
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Amel Emric
Sanica - Just outside the rustic village, children fished in a tranquil pond bobbing with green algae and lined with willow trees, as cattle grazed nearby. Now, Rezak Motanic gazes in disbelief down a gigantic moonlike crater where the pond used to be. It's like something from a science fiction movie: a sinkhole swallowed the water, the fish and even nearby trees.National Post 2013-11-26 14:16:00
"I sat here only a day before it happened, sipping plum brandy," Cemal Hasan said. "And then, there was panic. Fish were jumping out, and a big plum tree was pulled down like someone yanked it with a hook." The villagers of this remote northwestern Bosnian village have been in shock since the pond vanished two weeks ago. Their pond was some 20 metres in diameter and about eight meters deep. Now, the "abyss," as the villagers have dubbed the crater, is some 50 metres wide and 30 metres deep - and growing. Scientists say it is not uncommon that ponds and small lakes suddenly disappear. They say it could be caused by drying underground water currents, or changes in soil drainage due to irrigation. The Sanica villagers, however, are having none of the scientific explanations. "It could have been a giant cave that opened its doors," offered Milanko Skrbic. "Or a volcano." Additional images | |
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Alex Wynick
Police and zoo keepers launched a frantic search to find the two escapees after they got out of their enclosure through a hole in the fenceThe Mirror, UK 2013-11-26 13:41:00
Three wolves have been shot dead after a pack of five escaped from Colchester Zoo. Zoo keepers discovered the group had got out of their enclosure at around 8am this morning through a hole in the fence. One of the timber wolves returned and another was captured. But police and zoo staff had to launch a frantic search to find the three remaining animals who were on the loose in Essex. Two were found and shot dead within a few hours. Colchester Zoo said they were unable to use anaesthetic darts as they take around 15 minutes to have an effect - in which time the wolves remained a danger to the public. The fifth and final wolf remained on the run for several hours longer. A police helicopter was scrambled and officers are searching fields around the zoo in a bid to find the beast. | |
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The Mirror, UK
The shock of electricity from the heavens was so powerful it lifted Wayne Lennan's vehicle OFF the ground before destroying it2013-11-26 13:27:00
This is the moment Australian Wayne Lennan was relaxing in a beach bar car park in Newcastle, New South Wales, before a bolt of electricity from the heavens completely wrecked his car. The force of the impact was so powerful it lifted his car OFF the ground - but somehow he managed to walk away unharmed. The incredible event was caught on video on by surfer Luke Flanders on his camera phone, and the footage has gone viral. Luke Flanders was trying to get some cool pictures of a lightning bolt for his Instagram account when he switched his phone to video mode. "I was filming for like 30 seconds and then BANG!" he told the Sydney Morning Herald. "It hit the aerial of a car about 30 or 40 metres in front of me and just kind of exploded and orange sparks shot out everywhere." Mr Lennan is still in shock at just how he managed to survive such a violent strike and admits the whole incident came and went in a blur. "It was all a bit of a shock, the storm was coming in and it all happened very quickly,'' he said. "[When the lightning bolt hit] it lifted the car off the ground." A local towing service came to the rescue to take the car to a garage but the vehicle has now been confirmed as a write off. | |
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The Mirror, UK
The giant sheet of ice crashed down on top of the 4x4 completely caving in the roof and showering onlookers with snow2013-11-26 13:11:00
This terrifying clip shows a Range Rover driving down a street when it is smashed by an AVALANCHE that appears to come out of nowhere. Winter driving conditions are never easy to negotiate, but this shocking video shows what this Chinese driver in Harbin in the northeast of the country, had to go through. Harbin is known as Ice City and true to form the huge sheet of ice apparently slid off a nearby roof and crashed on to the 4x4 causing a giant snow cloud which showered onlookers. The force of the impact was so severe that the snow actually caved in the roof of the famously sturdy vehicle setting off the airbag. From the after pictures it appears that no one was seriously hurt in the incident but the sheer scale of the damage is there for all to see. Harbin is nicknamed the 'Ice City' for its extreme low temperatures, but it is currently in the midst of the worst blizzard in 50 years, a storm which has claimed four lives. | |
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Lisa Mahapatra
The volcano at Mount Sinabung at Jakarta, Indonesia, erupted six times early Monday, shooting volcanic ash 2,000 meters into the sky. Thousands have been evacuated from the region since the Sinabung volcano began erupting sporadically in September. 5,000 people were evacuated from the area the day before the eruption on Monday, bringing the total number of evacuees to 11,000. There have been no casualties so far.IBTimes.com 2013-11-26 13:16:00 The Sinabung is just one of 35 active, erupting volcanoes in the world, according to a categorized list on Volcano Discovery. Of the 35 currently erupting volcanoes in the world, seven are in Indonesia. Most of Indonesia is situated along the "Ring of Fire" -- a horseshoe shaped ring around the Pacific where most earthquakes and volcanic eruptions take place. Here's a map of the Ring of Fire and the 35 volcanoes that are experiencing sporadic eruptions and other active volcanic activity. Click here to see what sort of volcanic activity that volcano is experiencing.
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The entire UK has been told to brace for a record-breaking period of bitter Arctic winds, crippling snowfall and plunging temperatures. Long-range forecasts now point to winter 2013 now being the worst for more than 60 years with Polar conditions stretching right into the beginning of next spring. The shock warning comes with the UK already shivering in an unseasonably early big freeze with temperatures plummeting to -5C and heavy snow sparking chaos in parts of the UK. Long-range forecaster James Madden, of Exacta Weather, said: "An exceptionally prolonged period of widespread cold is highly likely to develop throughout this winter and last into next spring. "It will be accompanied by snow drifts of several feet and long-lasting snow accumulations on a widespread scale. "This period of snow and cold is likely to result in an incomparable scenario to anything we have experienced in modern times. | |
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James Nye
The huge deadly winter storm that is barreling east is set to cause massive cancellations across the East Coat's major airports for Thanksgiving travelers trying to get home - and last up to 36 hours meteorologists warn. A combination of high winds and low clouds are likely to cause travel delays at all New York, Boston and Washington airports and parts of Pennsylvania and upstate New York, including Pittsburgh could likely experience up to 18-inches in snow.Daily Mail UK 2013-11-26 11:45:00
Already the storm has been responsible for the deaths of 14 people from West to South to Midwest and is covering parts of Georgia, North Carolina and West Virginia in a blanket of ice this morning. Yesterday and through the evening, the storm hit parts of Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas swept toward the densely populated East Coast on Tuesday, threatening to disrupt the plans of travelers ahead of the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend. The large system has already struck parts of Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas, but with temperatures creeping above freezing the outcome was less dramatic than forecasters had feared as it crossed the nation's midsection. The storm sprung out of the West and has been blamed for at least 11 deaths, half of them in Texas. It limped across Arkansas with a smattering of snow, sleet and freezing rain that didn't meet expectations. | |
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EPAabuse.com
The Rick Amato Show 2013-09-26 03:17:00
KUSI's John Coleman, the founder of The Weather Channel, makes a special guest appearance on the Rick Amato Show to debunk the latest spree of Global Warming claims in mainstream news.
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Comment: John Coleman may be wise to the anthropocentric global warming scam, but appears to be unaware that other scientists are saying the real imminent threat from climate change is a return to an ice age:
Ice Age Cometh? Extreme Weather Events and 'Climate Change' Fire and Ice: The Day After Tomorrow New Ice Age 'to begin in 2014' | ||
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Greg Cergol
NBC New York 2013-11-21 06:40:00
A mysterious object fell from the sky in a busy aircraft corridor along Long Island and lit up imaginations. The object, which left a white trail as it plummeted to the ground Monday, generated 911 calls and reports of a downed plane. Suffolk County police looked into whether a small plane had crashed, but found nothing. Marc Rubin is among those who witnessed the object when it fell between Patchogue and Sayville. "It had this little curlicue tail at the top and was coming straight down at a 90-degree angle," Rubin said Wednesday. Police said they plan to send investigators to talk to Rubin and look at the pictures he took. But they believe the object had less mysterious origins. Suffolk County Police Deputy Chief Kevin Fallon said, "I spoke to some helicopter pilots with our department and it's their belief that this was some type of model rocket or some type of flare." Watch video | |
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Maria Sheahan
Reuters 2013-11-22 14:26:00
The European Space Agency on Friday launched three satellites it hopes will help understand why the magnetic field that makes human life possible on Earth appears to be weakening. The satellites, comprising ESA's Swarm project, were launched from Russia's Plesetsk Cosmodrome on a Rockot vehicle at 7.02 a.m. EST and were placed in near-polar orbit at an altitude of 490 kilometers (304 miles) about 91 minutes later. Data that Swarm is due to collect for the next four years will help improve scientists' relatively blurry understanding of the magnetic field that shields life on Earth from deadly solar radiation and helps some animals migrate. | |
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| Fire in the Sky |
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Karl Man
CBS 12 News 2013-11-26 00:14:00
Loxahatchee, Florida - He's the walking, talking, living, breathing seven-year-old who just had a very close encounter with outer space and has the scars to prove it. Steven Lippard was playing in his family's drive way this past Saturday when his world was rocked... literally. "My dad ran to the door and saw me bleeding from the head", said Steven. So what left little Steven with a gash in his head seemingly from out of nowhere, at first there were a lot of theories. "I was thinking it could be a golf ball or a bird of prey", said Steven's dad Wayne. But in the end the answer was in the palm of their hand. "At that point I was convinced my son was hit by a meteorite", added Wayne.
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Comment: The reporter assures us that meteorites have only hit the ground "4 times in Florida's history", which may or may not be the case. In the meantime, however, according to the American Meteor Society, there have been hundreds of reports of fragmenting fireballs seen overhead, and from around the world, in just the past few months alone, including dozens over Florida.
Officially, no one has ever been killed by a meteorite, but official history is, of course, bunk: Meteorites, Asteroids, and Comets: Damages, Disasters, Injuries, Deaths, and Very Close Calls | ||
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| Health & Wellness |
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Science Daily
2013-11-26 09:19:00
To effectively prevent bullying schools need to understand positive school climate, use reliable measures to evaluate school climate and use effective prevention and intervention programs to improve the climate, a recent paper co-authored by a University of California, Riverside assistant professor found. Cixin Wang, an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Education, co-authored the article, "The Critical Role of School Climate in Effective Bullying Prevention," with Brandi Berry and Susan M. Swearer, both of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. It was published in the journal Theory Into Practice. "Bullying is a very complex problem," Wang said. "With this research, we're really trying to provide school personnel with some proven steps to address the problem." In recent years, there has been an increased interest in reducing bullying behavior by school personnel, parents and students. However, educators have remained challenged about how to assess the factors that cause bullying and select evidence-based prevention and intervention programs. | |
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Science Daily
Studies on Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia have long focused on what's happening inside the brain. Now an international research team studying Alzheimer's and mild cognitive impairment is reporting potentially significant findings on a vascular abnormality outside the brain.2013-11-26 09:05:00 The finding has potential implications for a better understanding of Alzheimer's and other neurological disorders associated with aging. The pilot study was published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease Nov. 8 online ahead of print by researchers from the University at Buffalo, the University of Bradford in the United Kingdom and National Yang-Ming University School of Medicine in Taiwan. The authors caution that the study is small and that the results must be validated in larger, future studies. They studied a hemodynamic abnormality in the internal jugular veins called jugular venous reflux or JVR. It occurs when the pressure gradient reverses the direction of blood flow in the veins, causing blood to leak backwards into the brain. |
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Julia Medew
The Age 2013-11-25 18:40:00
Doctors are urgently trying to contain a potentially fatal superbug that has been found in 21 of the state's most vulnerable babies at Monash Medical Centre and Casey Hospital in Melbourne's south-east. There are also fears that the antibiotic-resistant bacterium - vancomycin resistant enterococcus, or VRE - may have travelled with one baby to another hospital in Melbourne. This hospital has not yet been identified. The head of infection control for Monash Health, Dr Rhonda Stuart, said 21 babies at the Monash Medical Centre and Casey Hospital special care and intensive care units had tested positive for VRE in recent weeks. VRE is a bacterium that can colonise the gut and remain harmless for healthy people. However, it can cause serious infections in people with weakened immune systems, particularly cancer, transplant and kidney dialysis patients. As its name suggests, VRE is resistant to vancomycin, an anti-biotic that is used to treat serious infections. | |
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| Science of the Spirit |
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| High Strangeness |
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| Don't Panic! Lighten Up! |
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TruthSeekerDaily
2013-11-25 18:15:00
Composer Jim Wilson has recorded the sound of crickets and then slowed down the recording, revealing something so amazing. The crickets sound like they are singing the most angelic chorus in perfect harmony. Though it sounds like human voices, everything you hear in the recording is the crickets themselves. The recording contains two tracks played at the same time: The first is the natural sound of crickets played at regular speed, and the second is the slowed down version of crickets' voices. "I discovered that when I slowed down this recording to various levels, this simple familiar sound began to morph into something very mystic and complex........almost human." |
