Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Puppet Masters

Joe Biden's trip to Brazil cost taxpayers $2.2 million in hotel fees alone Jeryl Bier The Weekly Standard 2014-07-17 14:35:00 Vice President Biden and his entourage visited Brazil in mid-June to attend the USA versus Ghana World Cup game, a trip that also included meetings with both the president and vice president of Brazil. Although the vice president spent only one night in Brazil before moving on to Colombia, the entire delegation, presumably including the advance team plus all communications, logistics, security, and operations personnel, required four different hotels for the Brazil leg of the trip. The total cost for the hotel space alone was estimated at $2,245,343.30:

Snowden: NSA spying revelations means professional confidentiality must be urgently upgraded Alan Rusbridger and Ewen MacAskill The Guardian 2014-07-17 14:23:00 Exclusive: Whistleblower says NSA revelations mean those with duty to protect confidentiality must urgently upgrade security  - Watch Snowden's interview with the Guardian in Moscow - Read the full interview with Snowden by Alan Rusbridger and Ewen MacAskill on Friday The NSA whistleblower, Edward Snowden, has urged lawyers, journalists, doctors, accountants, priests and others with a duty to protect confidentiality to upgrade security in the wake of the spy surveillance revelations. Snowden said professionals were failing in their obligations to their clients, sources, patients and parishioners in what he described as a new and challenging world. "What last year's revelations showed us was irrefutable evidence that unencrypted communications on the internet are no longer safe. Any communications should be encrypted by default," he said. The response of professional bodies has so far been patchy.

Planted? Inspection of UN-run school in Gaza reveals cache of 20 missiles Raphael Ahren Times of Israel 2014-07-18 14:15:00 UNRWA apologizes to Israel, condemns a 'flagrant violation of the inviolability of its premises' and promises investigation; Israel calls on UN to 'act strongly' Some 20 rockets were found Wednesday in a school in Gaza operated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the organization confirmed Thursday. The weapons were found in "the course of the regular inspection of its premises," UNRWAsaid in a statement, adding that the school was vacant. "UNRWA strongly condemns the group or groups responsible for placing the weapons in one of its installations. This is a flagrant violation of the inviolability of its premises under international law," the statement read. The discovery would seem to confirm Israel's oft-repeated claim that Hamas and other Gazan terror groups use civilian infrastructure to hide weapons.

The tragic history of passenger planes being shot down does not begin with Malaysian Flight 17 RT 2014-07-18 13:48:00 In the history of civil aviation there have been a number of tragic incidents when passenger planes have been shot down, often accidentally, even as recently as 2001. The crash of Malaysia Airline's Boeing-777, in which almost 300 have died on Thursday, may become the latest and deadliest in the series of such tragic incidences when the experts get access to the flight recorders and reconstruct the events. Back In 2001, all 78 passengers and crew members were killed when Ukraine accidentally shot down a Russian airliner, sending it plummeting into the Black Sea after it was accidentally hit by a S-200 rocket during military exercises.

Ukrainian prosecutor general: Independence supporters 'don't have' anti-aircraft missiles RIA Novasti 2014-07-18 12:33:00 Independence supporters in the southeast of Ukraine have not captured Ukrainian anti-aircraft missiles, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Vitaly Yarema said Friday. "After the passenger plane was shot down, the military reported to the president that the terrorists don't have our missile systems Buk and S-300. Nobody captured these weapons," Yarema said in an interview to Ukrayinska Pravda online newspaper. On Thursday, the adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Minister, Anton Gerashchenko, wrote on Facebook that the plane was flying at an altitude of 10,000 meters and was shot down by a Buk anti-aircraft missile. Independence supporters claimed that they had no weapons capable of shooting down a plane at such an altitude. A Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed near the town of Torez in the Donetsk Region on Thursday, killing all the 283 passengers and 15 crew members on board. Comment: Then there is this from the day before: Ukrainian Army Buk Missile Likely Downed Malaysian Plane  MOSCOW, July 17 (RIA Novosti) - A Ukrainian army battalion of Buk air defense systems was deployed near the city of Donetsk a day before the crash of a Malaysian passenger plane on Thursday, making the downing of the aircraft by one of the missiles highly probable, an expert source said. "According to reconnaissance data, a Ukrainian army battalion of Buk air defense systems was deployed near Donetsk on Wednesday morning," the source said. The source added that armed militia fighting Kiev-led forces in eastern Ukraine does not have Buk systems, which are capable of shooting down aircraft flying at altitudes up to 25 kilometers (82,000 feet). Earlier the same day, adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Minister wrote on his Facebook page that a Buk surface-to-air missile system was indeed used to down the plane, but insisted that the self-defense forces had done that. Comment: Apparently these guys can't get their stories straight. According to various reports, a Malaysia Airlines Boeing-777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed near the city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine Thursday. There were 280 passengers and 15 crew members on board. Malaysia Airlines confirmed that it had lost contact with its plane when it was above the Ukrainian airspace. "Malaysia Airlines has lost contact of MH17 from Amsterdam. The last known position was over Ukrainian airspace. More details to follow," the company said on Twitter. Witnesses from the town of Torez in the Donetsk Region told RIA Novosti that plane wreckage and dead bodies have been located in the area. Comment: In the end, who benefits? Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 downed over warzone Ukraine. Who was behind it? Cui Bono?

'Water is not a social right' sez political barbarians in Detroit Jerry White Wsws.org 2014-07-18 12:21:00 The shut off of water service for tens of thousands of Detroit residents has generated national and international attention. The scenes of young mothers, children, the elderly, the sick and low-income workers deprived of water for drinking, cleaning and cooking - in what is supposed to be the richest country of the world - have provoked astonishment and revulsion. This barbaric policy has become a major political question in Detroit. Earlier this week a federal judge overseeing the city's bankruptcy case complained that the shutoffs were producing "a lot of anger" and giving Detroit "a reputation not only in this country but around the world." Opposition generated by the shutoffs, he warned, could threaten the city's plan to impose deeply unpopular cuts to city worker pensions and health care benefits. The near universal condemnation, which included charges by the UN that the shutoffs were a violation of international human rights, has not led to any shift in policy. In an interview published in the Detroit News Thursday, the city's unelected emergency manager Kevyn Orr, defended the shutoffs. "I'm very supportive of the water department's and the Board of Water Commissioners' decision to do what every other regulated utility does in the United States, which is, if you use water you've got to pay for it," Orr told the Detroit News .

Comment: Another round for predatory capitalism and the Shock Doctrine in Detroit. "This is worst than bad. It's sick. It is also something we can expect a lot more of, on several fronts.What we have here is a city run by an un-elected mayor appointed by a right wing governor. This action is a warning for several trends we can expect from rapacious, predator capitalists. Shock Doctrine -- break down the community, the support structures, break the unions, de-regulate and bring in outside corporations and big-money investors. Naomi Klein described it and it's been done again and again, first in third world countries where the US appointed dictators, now in a major city where a right wing Governor appoints a dictator. There is a predictable Shock Doctrine script which Naomi Klein has described. It looks alot like what's been happening to Detroit. Privatization of resources-- we've seen this in other nations, where they attempt to privatize the commons, including water. Many are speculating that Detroit is attempting to sell its water operation to a private buyer. Raising prices so the poor can't afford to live in prime real estate areas. The water rates in Detroit are almost double the average in the rest of the nation. Creating predatory economies of community destruction: It happened with the housing collapse. After people lost their homes because of derivatives, corporations and the wealthy came in and bought them at bargain prices and turned them into rental properties. Killing poor people- Let's call a spade a spade. Shutting off utilities can kill people. That's why humane cities offer special arrangements for the poor for heating. They don't shut off the heat." Bigger implications of Detroit's water shut-off See also: Detroit's Water War: A tap shut-off that could impact 300,000 people

Poroshenko blames Russian troops after transport plane shot down Harriet Salem in Luhansk, Oksana Grytsenko in Siversk and Shaun Walker in Moscow The Guardian 2014-07-14 11:55:00 Ukraine's president, Petro Poroshenko, has claimed that serving Russian military officers are taking part in operations in east Ukraine, after an An-26 transport plane was reportedly shot down near the border. Comment: Poroshenko claims a lot of things. Problem is, he doesn't back any of them up with actual evidence. A statement on the president's website said the aircraft was flying at an altitude high enough to evade any of the weapons that separatists were known to have, and was "probably" attacked from inside Russian territory. Comment: You can't have it both ways, guys. Either the rebels have the capability to shoot down high-flying aircraft (in which case, you can't blame Russia for the An-26), or they don't (in which case, you can't blame E. Ukraine for MH17). Make up your minds. It was not immediately clear how many military personnel were on board the plane, but there were reports that some had managed to parachute to safety and make contact with military HQ in Kiev. After a lull when all sides appeared to be seeking a way out of the conflict, tension has risen again in recent days as Ukrainian troops have moved to retake towns held by the rebels, and separatist fighters have regrouped in the regional centres of Donetsk and Luhansk. Russian politicians have demanded targeted strikes on Ukrainian territory after a shell apparently fired by pro-Kiev forces landed in a residential area on the Russian side of the border, killing one person. Russia's foreign ministry warned that the shelling could have "irreversible consequences", while the Ukrainians have been sounding the alarm over what they claim is more overt Russian involvement than ever before.

U.S. generals begin to take an active stand against Obama Joseph R. Carducci Whitehouse Whispers 2014-07-16 11:39:00 This is one of the most interesting developments I think we have seen in all of the Obama Presidency. While there is no doubt that Obama has been quietly doing everything he can to take hold of as much power as possible, this has certainly not been actively explored by our wonderful "free" press and "independent" news media. Now, we are even beginning to see a number of military generals begin to take an active stand against Obama and his policies. Many of these leaders feel very strongly thatObama has created a situation which could lead to the US being run by a ruler, rather than elected official. The first clue we had of Obama's real intentions should have been the firing of General Petraeus when he decided to tell the truth about Obama under oath. Imagine that, an Obama Regime official who actually tells the truth when he gives testimony! The situation has continued to deteriorate since then. Just listen to this report from theConservative Tribune: "Retired US Army Major General Paul E Vallely has been vocal about his belief that American liberty will only be restored through peaceful marches and protests to force the resignations of key political leaders, including President Obama. General Vallely has been joined by Air Force Brigadier General Charles Jones to create a 'citizens council' directly challenging the administration's policy decisions. Obama's treatment of Islamic terrorists, including his trade of several Guantanamo Bay detainees for accused deserter Bowe Bergdahl has drawn fire from two other retired generals, Air Force Major General Bentley Rayburn and four-star Army General Jack Keane." Although you will notice most of these folks are retired, there has also been at least one current, active duty general to respond to this call. That would be Marine General John Kelly. He has been very outspoken on Obama's refusal to take care of the border crisis, saying it even threatens the existence of the US as a whole. Listen to this, from WND: "Particularly in regards to the drug trade, murder rates and terrorist activity brewing in Central America, Kelly says, the waves of Latin Americans sweeping through Mexico and illegally into Texas presents a threat to the US every bit as serious as Iran or North Korea.'In comparison to other global threats, the near collapse of societies in this hemisphere with the associated drug and illegal immigrant flow are frequently viewed to be of low importance,' Kelly said in an interview with Defense One. 'Many argue these threats are not existential and do not challenge our national security. I disagree.'"

Conditioning the masses: Federal agents swarm Livingston, Illinois, in show of force Roche Madden Fox News2 St Louis 2014-07-10 20:23:00 Homeland security, the US Customs and Border Patrol and other police agencies swarmed Livingston, Illinois. They all parked in the field of a grade school. The peacefulness of the town of 850 was broken by all the excitement. The law officers would not comment about their operation, even to the school superintendent and they were using the school district's land. The site became an immediate attraction for citizens who say the officers were hospitable, inviting the kids to check out the choppers up close. A spokesman in the U.S. Attorney's Office said he cannot confirm or deny anything about an ongoing investigation. However we could learn more about this case Friday.

Comment: The only apparent reason for this show of force was to condition ordinary Americans to living in a police state.

Was the shootdown of MH17 over Ukraine a false flag? WashingtonsBlog 2014-07-17 10:06:00 Who Benefits? Everyone agrees that the sniper attack in Ukraine which started the regime change was a false flag attack. Eric Zuesse claims false flags are continuing to this day in Ukraine: Writing at professorsblog.com, this great historian, Dr. de Noli, noticed that whereas in "Berlin 27 Feb 1933, Nazis set fire the Reichstag, and Adolf Hitler blames 'pro-Russian gangsters'," a chief instigator of the 22 February 2014 Ukrainian coup was a leading Swedish nazi, Sweden's Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, and that a remarkably similar tactic was used by Bildt and the Obama Administration to start the Ukrainian civil war. De Noli notes that this war was sparked and made inevitable when in "Odessa 2 May 2014, nazis set fire [to the Trade] Union building and Carl Bildt blames 'pro-Russian gangsters'." In both of the two instances (first, with Hitler, and then with Obama), a "false-flag operation" was employed in order to confuse onlookers regarding which side the perpetrators of these fires and explosions actually were on. For example, in the Odessa event, the thugs wore armbands with anti-nazi insignia but were actually from the two Ukrainian nazi parties, Svoboda and Pravy Sektor. They used those armbands in order to confuse onlookers to think that the people who were setting fire to the anti-nazis were themselves anti-nazis. This was a very carefully planned operation, and you can see here and here, video documentation of the thugs who did it and who are still doing violent false-flag operations inside Ukraine: these people are Ukrainian nazis, not German ones, but they model themselves upon the German original, as you can see from their own insignia, which are shown in those videos, and which insignia vary little from the swastika and the SS symbol. Ukraine's nazis are rather bold about modeling themselves upon Hitler's Nazis - the original nazis. False flag attacks have been carried out by countries all over the world ... including Russia.

Association of European Businesses: U.S. sanctions will hurt Europe RT 2014-07-18 09:05:00 The Association of European Businesses (AEB), a Moscow-based business lobby, said that new US sanctions against Russia have a more severe effect on European than on American business. The AEB says it "regrets" the US sanctions, and warns that they will stunt economic growth "not only in Russia". "These sanctions are more focused on the partners of European businesses than on the partners of American companies," the group said in a statement on Thursday. The US economy is much more isolated from Russia than Europe, which has much closer business ties with its neighbor. The AEB statement warned that sanctions will backfire and will hurt economic growth "not only in Russia, but also in Ukraine and in the EU. The White House unveiled new sanctions against Russia targeting companies and institutions in the defense, energy and banking sectors of the Russian economy on Wednesday. In its view, Russia hasn't done enough to de-escalate the conflict in Ukraine. Russian state-owned finance and energy companies Gazprombank, Vnesheconombank (VEB), Rosneft, and Novatek all came under sanctions. The US also extended sanctions to defense sector companies the Almaz-Antey Corporation and the Kalashnikov Group, made famous for its production of the AK-47. The AEB says that these businesses "are reliable and long-term partners of many European companies." Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the new sanctions would push US-Russia diplomacy to a "dead end", and warned of the sanctions' boomerang effect.

Ukrainian Buk battery radar was operational when Malaysian plane downed - Moscow RT 2014-07-18 08:38:00 On Thursday, when a Malaysian Airlines plane was apparently shot down over Ukraine, a Ukrainian Buk anti-aircraft missile battery was operational in the region, the Russian Defense Ministry said, contradicting Kiev's statements. The battery was deployed at a site from which it could have fired a missile at the airliner, the ministry said in a statement. It said radiation from the battery's radar was detected by the Russian military. "The Russian equipment detected throughout July 17 the activity of a Kupol radar, deployed as part of a Buk-M1 battery near Styla [a village some 30km south of Donetsk]," the ministry said in a statement. The ministry said the radar could be providing tracking information to another batterydeployed in the region, which was at a firing distance from the plane's flight path. Earlier Kiev said it could not have fired a missile at the passing civilian plane because it had no Buk missile launchers deployed in the region. At the same timethe Ukrainians said the militias had no Buk systems in their hands, according to a statement from the country's Prosecutor General. After the Russian ministry came out with the statement, Bogdan Senyk, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Defense Ministry reiterated Kiev's position, saying that "anti-aircraft missiles have not been deployed during the anti-terrorist operation ... they are all in place."

Comment: See also: Ukraine troops in E. Ukraine received powerful surface-to-air missile systems from Kiev just before Malaysian plane crash (Updated)

Texas now fingerprinting every citizen old enough to drive Dave Lieber Dallasnews.com 2014-06-19 13:05:00 The other day at the Texas driver's license center, while paying for my required in-person renewal, the clerk said it was time to take my fingerprints. What? Really. Quietly, earlier this year, the Texas Department of Public Safety began requiring full sets of fingerprints from everyone who obtains a new driver's license or photo identification card. This applies to those who come in as required for periodic renewals, but it doesn't apply to mail-in renewals. The Watchdog won't let this change go unnoticed. Previously, DPS took only a thumbprint. Until now, if a person never got arrested, most likely his or her fingerprints would never get recorded and placed in a government database. Some occupations, such as those in law enforcement, the military and medical care, require fingerprints. But under the new system, everybody who has a driver's license - as they cycle through their 12-year in-person renewal requirement - will be fingerprinted. Your grandmother will be fingerprinted, along with your 16-year-old new driver.

Comment: The Texas Department of Public Safety apparently has NO legal authority to do so: I checked with the original authors and co-sponsors of the 2005 law to learn their legislative intent. Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples, then a state senator, and U.S. Congressman Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, a former state representative, declined comment to The Watchdog. Bill co-author Juan M. Escobar, who in 2005 was a state representative from Kingsville, said he recalled the point of his bill was to prevent immigrants living in the U.S. illegally from obtaining a driver's license. "I think the intent of the bill was to ensure that the individual was the right person that was applying for a driver's license," said Escobar, now county judge in Kleberg County. "The intent was to avoid the privacy issue violation. We'll just do the thumbprint or the index finger. That was my intent." He added, "If they've gone past the law, there's nothing that gives them that authority."

Students take Israeli propaganda war to social media - Hasbara at it again Matthew Hall Sydney Morning Herald 2014-07-18 07:56:00 A computer lab staffed by students in an Israeli university is playing a key role in the war of information in the Gaza conflict. Inspired by the role of social media during the Arab Spring and boosted by the support of the Israeli government and Israel Defence Force, student volunteers at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya, a private university north of Tel Aviv, are waging their own propaganda war countering online anti-Israeli sentiment. Staffed by approximately 400 student volunteers the project which goes by the name "Israel Under Fire", claims to have succeeded in closing anti-Israeli pages on Facebook and challenging propaganda from Hamas, the organisation that governs the Gaza Strip and whose military arm is firing rockets at Israel. According to Igal Raich, a 23-year-old IDC student who volunteers in what is called "The Advocacy Room", the project aims to counter what is perceived as a false representation of Israel in international and social media through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. "It is run by students who are all volunteers," said Raich, who grew up in Canada before moving to Israel to study and also served in the Israeli military. "The school gave us a computer lab to work from and from nine in the morning until eight at night it is constantly full with student volunteers."

Comment: Keep this in mind when reading online comments supportive of Israel. Chances are they were made by some brainwashed, talking-points spewing Israeli undergrad simply repeating the plausible lies and rationalizations for genocide put out by the Israeli propaganda machine.

Flashback: US military caught manipulating social media, running mass propaganda accounts Anthony Gucciardi Intellihub 2013-08-09 00:00:00 It has been common knowledge to anyone paying attention within the alternative news community for years, but once again the media is now admitting that the US military and intelligence agencies are indeed running massive propaganda campaigns that cover a vast array of online networks. How many times now has such 'conspiracy nonsense' now been reported years later by the mega media as undeniable fact? In the case of the US intelligence propaganda machine that even the New York Times has covered in an article entitled 'The Real War on Reality', we are seeing just that. The New York Times report goes on to detail information uncovered from hacked data regarding the military operation to stage 'grassroots' responses and organizations in order to deceive via psyop. Professor of philosophy Peter Ludlow writes for the Times: "The hack also revealed evidence that Team Themis was developing a "persona management" system - a program, developed at the specific request of the United States Air Force, that allowed one user to control multiple online identities ("sock puppets") for commenting in social media spaces, thus giving the appearance of grass roots support. The contract was eventually awarded to another private intelligence firm." This cyber warfare is clearly not just in the capacity of 'improving international reputation' as military commanders are claiming on record (just like there is 'no such thing' as domestic spying and it's only for terrorists). Instead, we're talking about running a major network of computers that are constantly running code specifically written to post to social media and news comment pages. Something that was revealed all the way back in 2011by RawStory and brushed off in the name of national security by the military.

Comment: Revealed: US spy operation that manipulates social media by creating online sockpuppets to spread propaganda Army of Fake Social Media Friends to Promote Propaganda

Society's Child

Continuing rot in the US economy Eric Sprott Sprott Asset Management 2014-07-18 00:00:00 While most have been conveniently blaming the tepid first quarter -2.9% GDP growth figure on the weather, we believe that it is just another symptom of a much deeper malaise. As we have argued many times before (see, for example, the March 2014 Markets at a Glance), the U.S. economy has been on life support, graciously provided by Central Planners. However hard they try, they will soon realize that no amount of money printing can cleanse the rot of the U.S. economy. Most tellingly, in a recent interview with Reuters, Bill Simon, Wal-Mart's Chief Executive Officer for the U.S., said that "We've reached a point where it's not getting any better but it's not getting any worse - at least for the middle (class) and down."1

Comment: Smoke & mirrors and the lies of the media presstitutes can only work for so long ...

Father of six dies after New York police place him in chokehold for selling untaxed cigarettes Tom Boggioni Rawstory.com 2014-07-18 20:01:00 A Staten Island man died Thursday after police placed him in a chokehold as they attempted to arrest him for selling untaxed cigarettes. According to authorities, Eric Garner, 43, went into cardiac arrest and died at Richmond University Medical Center following the arrest that was filmed by several witnesses, theNew York Daily News reported. In the video, Garner can be seen telling police that he had not been selling cigarettes, repeatedly saying, " I didn't sell anything," before insisting, "I'm minding my own business, please leave me alone." After a standoff, five officers tackled the 400-pound Garner - with one placing him in a chokehold - and wrestled him to the ground as they attempted to put handcuffs on him. As Garner lay on the ground, with one officer pushing his head into the pavement, he can be heard saying, "I can't breath. I can't breath," over and over. As the video ends, Garner appears to be unconscious as police clear onlookers while waiting awaiting paramedics.

Comment: See also: NYPD Twitter campaign backfires, flooded with photos of police abuse US is the Worst Police State in the World - By the Numbers

Ex-soldier in the Israeli Defense Forces: "I've seen how shockingly we treat Palestinians" Avner Gvaryahu The Independent 2014-07-15 13:45:00 There are moral red lines. Why do we keep crossing them? I only knew Gaza from the stories. It was the military zone for which the Givate Brigade was responsible, but we all knew the stories about how they managed to kill several militants in one ambush. Honestly, we were a bit jealous. I was drafted into the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) at the end of the Second Intifada into a special operations unit of the paratrooper brigade. From the start of my service I knew that Nablus and Jenin would be the areas for which we were responsible. Child's play, seemingly, compared to the stories that came out of Gaza - but my child's play. I'll never forget the first time that I was shot at, the first Palestinian corpse I ever saw, and the fear and adrenaline during my first military operation. My first mission involved the seizure of a Palestinian home. I had never before had the opportunity to be inside a Palestinian home, and my squad was surprised for a moment by the fact that within the home lived an entire family - spanning three generations. We woke everyone up, and took over the house. We put everyone in one room - women, men, children, and the elderly. One of the guys was stationed at the door to ensure that they didn't get out. In the meantime, we took care of our business. I remember asking myself: what do they think about all of this? What would I do if soldiers broke into my home? But I immediately repressed these questions and carried on with the mission. As time passed, fear turned into boredom, adrenaline stabilized, and my doubts about the extent of the operational logic and its justification would return to gnaw at me. But the next day there were already new operations. This was our daily routine, and as a result, the next time I didn't really think about how the family whose home we entered felt. My personal red moral line blurred very quickly. Every time I would tell myself - this is still okay. But it's in the nature of red lines to move along an imaginary scale. I wasn't bothered when we destroyed entire homes during search operations, and when my squad accidentally shot an innocent woman, and we quickly buried the incident and moved on. Today I know that my ability to distinguish whether a particular action crosses the line, didn't really exist back then.

Number of young adults who live with parents rising sharply Walter Hamilton LA Times 2014-07-18 14:00:00 More Americans than ever live in multigenerational households, and the number of millennials who live with their parents is rising sharply, according to a study released Thursday. A record 57 million Americans, or 18.1% of the population, lived in multigenerational arrangements in 2012, according to the Pew Research Center. That's more than double the 28 million people who lived in such households in 1980, the center said. A multigenerational family is defined as one with two or more generations of adults living together.

Waves of refugees fleeing Central American gangs enter US, while Obama nowhere in sight Joe Klein Time.com 2014-07-18 13:03:00 It's time to stop running away from the nation's troubles The woman from Honduras was tiny and extremely pregnant. "When are you due?" asked Sister Norma Pimentel, the director of Catholic Charities in the Rio Grande Valley. "Ya," the woman replied in Spanish: "Already" - she was past due. She had left Honduras to save her daughter, who is 12 - peak poaching age for the killer gangs that are wreaking havoc in that country these days. "A man came into our house and tried to kill my girl with a machete," the woman said. "I stopped him." She showed Sister Norma her right hand, which was slashed down the middle and had healed crumpled. The man also slashed her daughter's arm, but they managed to fend him off. The woman paid a coyote to get herself and her daughter across the border as soon as possible. It seems clear to Sister Norma - and to the hundreds of volunteers who staff her processing center on the grounds of the Sacred Heart Church in McAllen, Texas - that this summer's tide of Central Americans crossing the border are refugees, not immigrants. They have fled, terrified, from countries that are the Latino equivalent of Syria or Iraq - but in Central America it's anarchy, not religious fanaticism, they are fleeing, the rampaging of militant drug gangs. The refugees here are a lucky subset: they have verifiable family members in the U.S. The Border Patrol releases them to Sister Norma with bus tickets to the places where their families are living. Catholic Charities then provides a way station, a place to take a breath, take a shower and get a meal, new clothes and a medical exam. The center processes as many as 200 families a day. When a family arrives, the entire staff applauds. No doubt, Matt Drudge and Rush Limbaugh would be appalled, but when you see the relief and smiles and tears on the faces, which seem far more humble than menacing, you cannot help but be moved.

UK lord forced to apologize for flagrant misconduct: Lobbying parliamentarians on behalf of Cayman Islands RT.com 2014-07-17 21:20:00 Conservative peer, Lord Blencathra, has apologized to the House of Lords for signing a contract under which he agreed to lobby both Houses of Parliament on behalf of Cayman Island government officials. The lucrative contract generated £12,000 per month. The Standards Commissioner for the House of Lords ruled on Monday Blencathra had breached the Code of Conduct by which he was bound, and ordered the former Tory chief whip to apologize. The Conservative peer subsequently apologised on Thursday to the House for his"misjudgement", admitting his conduct was "wrong". Blencathra who holds the position of director of the Cayman Islands Government Office in London, claims he had no intention of lobbying the UK Parliament despite the fact he signed a contract which obliged him to do so. "I misled myself into thinking that, since it was understood that I would not be making representations in reality, then the wording did not matter," he said. "But words do matter; I was wrong and I apologise to the House for that misjudgement," he concluded.

Comment: Might this be a strategy to fool the public into believing the UK government is 'cleaning up its act' and to stem the tide of public outrage over the pedophile scandals? UK government ignored warnings about pedophiles: "There's too many of them"

Virginia congress introduces bill making retaliation against whistle-blowers a fireable offense Eric Katz Government Executive 2014-07-17 00:00:00 Members of Congress want to fire more federal employees. From tax delinquents to Veterans Affairs Department senior executives to workers who do not solve audited problems, lawmakers have made clear they think more feds deserve pink slips. The latest measure, introduced by Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., would require VA to fire employees found guilty of retaliating against whistleblowers. Currently, retaliation is a fireable offense, though lesser punishments such as fines and reprimands are also acceptable responses. "Whistleblowers are critical to our efforts to guard against waste and misconduct in government -- and in the case of the VA, against the compromise of patient care," said McCaskill, a consistent whistleblower champion. "This bill requires the firing of any VA employee found to have retaliated against a whistleblower -- no ifs, ands, or buts -- and I'm hopeful it will be a step in the right direction to change the culture of the VA and ensure our veterans are receiving the highest level of care."

15 Ukrainian border guards seek medical attention in Russia ITAR-TASS 2014-07-16 11:50:00 Fifteen Ukrainian border guards have been taken to hospitals of the Russian city of Gukovo in the southern Rostov region, the spokesman of the regional branch of the Russian Border Guard Service told Itar-Tass on Wednesday. "Today, on July 16, at 16:00 Moscow time (12:00 UTC), servicemen of the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service came from Ukraine's Krasny Partizan border checkpoint waving a white flag and asking to render medical assistance to them," Vasily Malayev said. "They all were taken to Gukovo's medical institutions and were provided with medical help." Malayev said that, proceeding from the principles of humanism, Russia agreed to host the wounded and did everything possible to render urgent medical aid to them without delay.

World Cup winners donate their prize money to charities RT 2014-07-18 11:30:00 The World Cup may be over for Germany and Argentina, but players on both teams are putting their cash winnings to good use by donating them to worthy causes. According to the UK-based Express, 25-year-old German football star Mesut Ozil has donated his World Cup prize money - totaling more than $400,000 for winning the tournament - to various charity projects in Brazil. The hefty sum is reportedly going to fund surgeries for 23 Brazilian children. Ozil made the announcement official on his Facebook page, where he wrote the following: "Dear fans, prior to the #WorldCup I supported the surgery of eleven sick children. Since the victory of the #WorldCup is not only due to eleven players but to our whole team, I will now raise the number to 23. This is my personal thank-you for the hospitality of the people of Brazil." The announcement comes after reports initially stated Ozil would be donating his winnings to the children of Gaza, a claim that was ultimately denied by the soccer player's representative Roland Eitel. "The claim that Mesut donated money to Gaza is not true," Eitel told Express. "Maybe in the future, who knows? He donated money to causes in Brazil and he is now on holiday."

Comment: Ozil may not be donating money to Gaza, but Algeria is: Algeria team donating money earned at Brazil World Cup to people of Gaza

Donetsk and Lugansk militias force Kiev troops to retreat ITAR-TASS 2014-07-17 11:20:00 Self-defense fighters in the southeast Ukrainian Donetsk and Luhansk regions haveforced the Ukrainian military to retreat, the local news agency Novorossiya reported on its website on Thursday. The Ukrainian troops have left their positions in the settlements of Sabovka, Govorukha, Roskoshnoye and Georgiyevka outside Luhansk and retreated to the west, the news agency said. The militia has also established control over the settlement of Marinovka in the Donetsk Region. During the battle, the Ukrainian troops were surrounded by self-defense forces and had to retreat. Troops of the Donetsk People's Republic opened fire from 120 mm mortars against the Ukrainian military's fortified positions in the area of the settlement of Mospino in the Donetsk Region, destroying a KAMAZ truck, an armored personnel carrier and an anti-tank system and killing and wounding about 50 personnel, self-defense militia reported. Kiev has not yet commented on this information. Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council spokesman Andriy Lysenko said on Wednesday evening that fierce fighting was underway between self-defense militia and the Ukrainian military in the settlements of Amvrosiyevka, Marinovka and Izvarino in the Donetsk Region.

Comment: So the shootdown of MH17 came hot on the heels of this humiliating defeat for the Kiev forces. Coincidence?

Malaysian flight pilot diverted plane into danger zone, instructed to fly lower Simon Tomlinson and Michael Seamark and Louise Eccles and Will Stewart and Ted Thornhill Daily Mail 2014-07-18 09:10:00 The pilot of MH17 radioed that he 'felt uncomfortable' about the route he was flyingwhile over Ukraine and fatally altered his course to hostile territory, according to an expert. Dr Igor Sutyagin, Research Fellow in Russian Studies from the Royal United Services Institute, believes that MH17 was shot down by rebels based in the 3rd District of Torez, in eastern Ukraine, after mistaking his plane for a government military transport aircraft. He told MailOnline that information had been leaked from a source he was unwilling to name that the pilot of MH17 'felt bad' about his course over Ukrainian airspace, so changed direction. Little did he know, according to Dr Sutyagin, that his plane would then be mistaken by rebels who brought it down using a ground-to-air Buk missile system. Malaysia Airlines today denied that the plane was told to alter its course. His comments come as Vladimir Putin called for a ceasefire by pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces to allow for negotiations. Dr Sutyagin's theory appears to be supported by a route map which shows the passenger plane travelling on a different course to the ones taken by the previous ten MH17 flights.

Putin calls for full investigation of Malaysian airliner tragedy in Ukraine RT 2014-07-18 08:42:00 The crash of a Malaysian Airlines plane in eastern Ukraine must be investigated thoroughly and objectively, Russian President Putin said in a statement. The tragedy underlines the urgent need for a peaceful resolution of the armed conflict in Ukraine. Putin's statement came after he contacted Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte to express condolences over the deaths of his fellow citizens in the disaster. The majority of the passengers of the ill-fated flight, which was apparently shot down over the war zone in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, were from the Netherlands. Earlier the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC), a Russia-based international body tasked with investigation of all civil aircraft incidents in most former Soviet republics, including Ukraine, called for the formation of an international investigative group under the aegis of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a UN body, to investigate the incident. The IAC said such a group should be handed over MH17 flight recorders, which are currently being recovered in Ukraine's Donetsk Region. So far two flight recorders from the plane have been reportedly recovered in the region currently controlled by the militia forces. Some militia officials said they intended to hand them over to Moscow because they didn't trust Kiev to properly investigate the incident. The probe into the loss of the Boeing-777 is bound to be a politically loaded one. There was no official confirmation that the plane was shot down rather than crashed from a different cause, but the parties involved are already trading blame for the tragedy.

Online file sharing, pirating has minimal impact on motion picture industry RT 2014-07-17 03:44:00 Internet pirates may have a new piece of evidence to rationalize their free downloading of movies. A study by University of Kansas Economist Koleman Strumpf shows that torrenting movies has a minimal impact on the motion picture industry. That minimal impact: $200 million from 2003-2009. Although a substantial amount when viewed without context, Strumpf told TorrentFreak that it amounts to "three tenths of a percent of what movies actually earned." That being said, the entertainment industry may be hard pressed to accept any loss to piracy. The study used information from the Hollywood Stock Exchange, an online game that estimates the value of motion pictures, and data obtained from a BitTorrent tracker. Analyzing the research allowed Strumpf to reach the conclusion that pirating movies does not have a significant impact on profits during the first month of a film's release, and may also slightly raise the profits earned by the industry. This latter point is a common argument among pirating enthusiasts, who often claim downloading movies and TV series acts as a form of promotion. The more people who torrent - the most popular way to download large files - a work, the theory goes, the more popular and buzz worthy it becomes, creating more profits than would occur otherwise.

Connecticut man arrested for "passive aggressive" behavior to a watermelon Michael Krieger Liberty Blitzkrieg 2014-07-17 23:45:00 As is typically the case with posts on Liberty Blitzkrieg, the reason for highlighting this story is to see it in the context of other cultural trends happening within society. One of my biggest themes in 2014 has to do with the aggressive manner in which"authorities" relentlessly pursue average citizens for the most insignificant of infractions, while the most dastardly and destructive of criminals (financial oligarchs and others) receive, at worst, a slap on the wrist. Some of the more egregious examples of this behavior can be found below: New Jersey Threatens to Take 13-Year-Old Student From His Father Due to "Non-Conforming Behavior" Hyper-Sensitive Illinois Mayor Orders Police Raid Over Parody Twitter Account Charleston Man Receives $525 Federal Fine for Failing to Pay for a $0.89 Refill The "War on Street Artists" - Puppeteer Unlawfully Arrested and Harassed in NYC Subway Video of the Day - Thuggish Militarized Police Terrorize and SWAT Team Iowa Family

Florida city imposes fines and jailtime for violating dress code on public property Police State USA 2014-07-17 23:40:00 Ocala - A city council has voted unanimously to impose a public dress code, enforceable by the police, and punishable by fines and up to 6 months in jail. The 4-0 vote on July 15th officially created a new crime in the City of Ocala: wearing saggy pants. Councilwoman Mary Rich introduced it, as she did once before in 2009. Individuals whose pants sag two (2) inches below the natural waistline may now be issued a 2nd Degree Misdemeanor. The punishment is fines of up to $500.00 or the possibility of jail time up to 180 days. Officials lauded the new policy, citing it as "the right thing to do" and an improvement on "public decency." Others questioned how it could be enforced and what kind of confrontations it might create between police and citizens. The dress code can be enforced on any property that is owned or leased by the city. That includes streets, sidewalks, parking lots, parks, sports & recreation facilities, swimming pools, municipal buildings, the downtown square, and public transportation. City Attorney Patrick Gilligan could not definitively say how the law applies to bathing suits. "If that becomes a problem, we will start dealing with that," said Gilligan. "Right now, it's pants on men or women."

Secret History

A colossal dilemma within science & religion: Humanity's true history Christina Sarich Waking Times 2014-07-15 12:05:00 "The Destiny of Man is to unite, not to divide. If you keep on dividing you end up as a collection of monkeys throwing nuts at each other out of separate trees." ~ T.H. White Let me assure you - I do believe in God. I believe in the Divine, with a big 'D.' I believe in a vastness, which has created this Universe and others, which our human minds can hardly digest. What I don't believe in anymore is science, or religion. Religion is nothing more than a human construct to try to explain the unexplainable. In the process it becomes political. Oh. So. Political. Our religions institutions are now (and have been) used by the crumbling powers-that-be to divide us. We separate ourselves not just as fundamentalists, but also as 'believers' in dogma of every flavor. Then - there's science. Truly a 'religion' in its protectionist fervor, and hell-bent on upholding the discordant, outdated, simply false projections that are supported by institutionalized information parsing. It is upheld with tactics no less pernicious thanorganized religious institutions. Questioning is the most important aspect of science, and that is a direct threat to authority, and ironically scientists and the science institutions have become authorities and churches. They have become our priests of the modern era. Whatever the priest with the biology hat says must be true about life. Whatever the priest with the physics hat says must be taught as facts. . . Science is no longer serving the purpose of discovering truth. It has become the main method of control. Governments have always kept people in line by collaborating with certain institutions. It used to be organized religion, where there basically was no difference between state and religion. Now, there is no difference between science and state. Why? Because of where the funding comes from. This 'scientific' paradigm is not meant to heal humanity, it is meant to keep it sick. It is meant to keep us as consumers - of drugs, of petro-guzzling cars, of toxic products that none of us needs. An old survey from the EPA estimates that 7.6 billion tons of industrial wastes from 60,000 businesses are generated. Most of these wastes are in the form of waste waters (97%), but they fill our air, our soil, and everything from shampoo to crayons.

Comment: For a wide-ranging, comprehensive look at the topics discussed above, read Laura Knight-Jadczyk's Secret History of the World series, volumes one, two, and three.

Science & Technology

U.S.Geologic Survey: Earthquake risk increased for half of U.S. Seth Borenstein Yahoo! News 2014-07-18 03:53:00 A new federal earthquake map dials up the shaking hazard just a bit for about half of the United States and lowers it for nearly a quarter of the nation. The U.S. Geologic Survey updated Thursday its national seismic hazard maps for the first time since 2008, taking into account research from the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami off the Japanese coast and the surprise 2011 Virginia temblor. Most of the changes are slight. Project chief Mark Petersen said parts of Washington, Oregon, Utah, Oklahoma, Colorado, Wyoming and Tennessee moved into the top two hazard zones.

Forming new circuits? Meet the electric life forms that live on pure energy Catherine Brahic New Scientist 2014-07-16 17:08:00 Video: Electric bacteria connect to form wires Unlike any other life on Earth, these extraordinary bacteria use energy in its purest form - they eat and breathe electrons - and they are everywhere STICK an electrode in the ground, pump electrons down it, and they will come: living cells that eat electricity. We have known bacteria to survive on a variety of energy sources, but none as weird as this. Think of Frankenstein's monster, brought to life by galvanic energy, except these "electric bacteria" are very real and are popping up all over the place. Unlike any other living thing on Earth, electric bacteria use energy in its purest form - naked electricity in the shape of electrons harvested from rocks and metals. We already knew about two types, Shewanella and Geobacter. Now, biologists are showing that they can entice many more out of rocks and marine mud by tempting them with a bit of electrical juice. Experiments growing bacteria on battery electrodes demonstrate that these novel, mind-boggling forms of life are essentially eating and excreting electricity. That should not come as a complete surprise, says Kenneth Nealson at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. We know that life, when you boil it right down, is a flow of electrons: "You eat sugars that have excess electrons, and you breathe in oxygen that willingly takes them." Our cells break down the sugars, and the electrons flow through them in a complex set of chemical reactions until they are passed on to electron-hungry oxygen.

Comment: For more on electric universe and information theory and how they may relate to these new scientific discoveries, see Pierre Lescaudron and Laura Knight-Jadczyk's new book, Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection.

Close-Earth pass of 4 huge asteroids coming in August AstroWatch 2014-07-06 19:32:00 Get ready for some huge asteroid whizzing action, because this summer we'll be witnessing 4 large space rocks passing by Earth. In August, kilometer-wide asteroids are slated to miss our home planet, luckily at a safe distance, so the armageddon isn't scheduled and Bruce Willis can stay home. First of the Near Earth Objects (NEO), asteroid 2002 JN97, discovered in May 2002 will pass our planet by 61 lunar distances (LD) on August 2. The rock is estimated to be nearly 3 kilometers wide. It will fly by the Earth at a velocity of 21 km/s We don't witness asteroids that big, passing by very often. In July there is only one asteroid that could have at least 1 km in diameter predicted to fly by Earth. It is estimated that the July 20 object, 2014 ER49 won't have more than 1200 m. Scientists estimate that several dozen asteroids in the 6-to-12-meter size range fly by Earth at a distance even closer than the moon every year. But only a fraction of these are actually detected. Mark your calendars for August 17, because this is the day of a real asteroid frenzy. 2001 RZ11 has about 3 km in diameter and among with its 1 kilometer-wide companion, 2013 WT67, will make the day. The rocks will pass the Earth at a safe distance, of course. The first one at 34 LD and the second much closer, but still 16 LD. What is significant, 2001 RZ11 is enlisted as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA). Those objects have the potential to make close approaches to the Earth and are of a size large enough to cause significant regional damage in the event of impact. PHAs are space rocks larger than approximately 100 m that can come closer to Earth than 0.05 AU (about 20 LD). There are currently 1489 known PHAs. Last but not least, on August 30, about 1 kilometer-wide asteroid 2002 CU11 will swing by. At a velocity of 26 km/s, the rock will fly at the closest distance of all the asteroids mentioned above, 13.5 LD. So we can call it potentially hazardous. Next time to see it so close? Aug. 31, 2080, the 2002 CU11 will come closer than 2 LD. As of July 04, 2014, 11209 Near-Earth objects have been discovered. Some 865 of these NEOs are asteroids with a diameter of approximately 1 kilometer or larger.

Comment: "We don't witness asteroids that big, passing by very often." But that could change in the very near future.

Earth Changes

Rise of the killer dolphins: 'Alarming' rise in fatal attacks on porpoises leaves experts puzzled in Wales Jonathan O'Callaghan Daily Mail, UK 2014-07-18 15:19:00 * Dramatic rise in fatal dolphin attacks on porpoises has left scientists puzzled * The attacks have been occurring at Cardigan Bay in Wales for weeks * Three out of four of the brutal attacks on the porpoises have been fatal * One explanation could be a shortage of prey in the area, with porpoises being seen as competitors to the dolphins * A low number of females could also be making males more violent A dramatic rise in killer attacks by dolphins on porpoises is baffling scientists in one of Britain's main breeding seas. The calm waters of Cardigan Bay in Wales have been turned red in recent weeks by bottlenose dolphins killing smaller porpoises during deadly clashes. Marine scientists are struggling to understand why the rare attacks have been on the rise - with three out of the four attacks proving fatal.

Cold temperatures break 128-year record in Mobile, AL WKRG.com 2014-07-18 14:04:00 Forecasters say Mobile has broken a 128-year-old record with a low temperature of 64 degrees. The National Weather Service says the low Thursday morning was 1 degree cooler than the low of 65 degrees set in 1886. The weather service says Huntsville tied a record low for the date of 59 degrees set in 1945, and temperatures were in the mid- to upper 50s across north Alabama. The unseasonably cool temperatures are supposed to continue during the day with highs expected below 90 degrees across the state.

Hailstorm causes huge damage to fruit and vegetable farms in Kashmir, India freshplaza.com 2014-07-18 13:48:00 A hailstorm and strong winds, besides heavy rains caused huge damage to crops and vegetable farms in Kashmir, leaving farmers in distress over expected losses. Farmers in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir were worried as their crops have suffered massive damaged due to the hailstorm. Expressing their sorrow, farmers said that they invested huge amount of money for sowing high yielding vegetable seeds, but the hailstorm destroyed their entire fields. "I had sown high breed seeds for which we spent 8-9,000. The moment the crops got ready, hailstorm destroyed them. This is my only source of income. I am dependent on it. It's been two weeks. Nobody from the administration (government) has come here. Therefore, we request them to come and see the damage and government should provide us some support," said a farmer, Shabbir Hussain. Agriculture officer Rafiq Choudhary said that farmers must avail the benefit of number of schemes introduced by the provincial government for the growers who are faced with such problems due to natural calamity. "We can't help it. This destruction has been caused by nature. But it would have been better if they had avail 'Kisan (farmer) credit card' scheme and had got their crops insured on time, because then they wouldn't face this problem," said Choudhary.

Servere hailstorm causes damage to crops in Northeastern Wisconsin Insurance Journal 2014-07-18 13:34:00 A severe hailstorm caused significant damage to crops in northeastern Wisconsin, farmers and researchers said. Matt Stasiak, an agricultural researcher, tells the Door County Advocate the hail crushed cherry trees, grapevines, winter wheat, corn and other crops in Sevastopol on Monday night. "A lot of foliage was stripped right off the cherry and apple trees," he said. "I saw some corn that had been ripped down to the stalks." Stasiak also said five or six unfinished experiments at the Peninsular Agricultural Research Station were ruined. His team will have to wait until next year to repeat them. A farmer tending to 60 acres of corn said the storm reduced the crop to one foot tall from four feet. The farmer said he remembers a similar hailstorm that hit the area 51 years ago,but it didn't leave behind "snowbanks" like the one on Monday night.

Wildfires rage on U.S.West Coast causing evacuations of entire towns Nicholas K. Geranios Yahoo News 2014-07-18 00:00:00 A small north-central Washington town and a nearby hospital threatened by a wind-whipped wildfire have been evacuated, and the blaze has burned at least 35 homes in Okanogan County, the sheriff said. Sheriff Frank Rogers said late Thursday he's heard of no injuries from the Carlton Complex of wildfires. The sheriff issued his highest evacuation notice Thursday for Pateros, a town of about 650 people along the Columbia River. Residents drove south to Chelan. A hospital in nearby Brewster was evacuated as a precaution, with the patients sent to Omak. "The whole town was evacuated," Rogers said in a telephone interview as he drove the eight-mile stretch between Brewster and Pateros. "It was a chaotic mess but we got everybody on the highway." "There's nobody in Pateros" except a few "stragglers" who stayed, he said, adding the fire was burning in the town, although the small business district was believed intact. Rogers said perhaps 15-20 homes have burned in Pateros and another 20 homes in the Twisp-Winthrop area. He had no estimate of how many homes have burned in the entire county of about 40,000 people.

Quiet sun: Current solar cycle one of weakest in over a century Climate Depot 2014-07-18 12:27:00 Ten days ago, the sun was quite active and peppered with several large spots. Now the sun has gone quiet and it is nearly completely blank. It appears that the solar maximum phase for solar cycle 24 may have been reached and it is not very impressive. It looks as if this solar cycle is "double-peaked" (see below) which is not all that uncommon; however, it is somewhat rare that the second peak in sunspot number during the solar max phase is larger than the first. In fact, this solar cycle continues to rank among the weakest on record which continues the recent trend for increasingly weaker cycles. The current predicted and observed size makes this the smallest sunspot cycle since Cycle 14 which had a maximum of 64.2 in February of 1906. Going back to 1755, there have been only a few solar cycles in the previous 23 that have had a lower number of sunspots during its maximum phase. For this reason, many solar researchers are calling this current solar maximum a "mini-max". Solar cycle 24 began after an unusually deep solar minimum that lasted from 2007 to 2009. In fact, in 2008 and 2009, there were almost no sunspots, a very unusual situation during a solar minimum phase that had not happened for almost a century.

Comment: For more information on the electrical nature of the universe and the factors that are currently affecting the sun and the weather here on earth, read Pierre Lescaudron's new book, Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection.

Florida residents infected with chikungunya virus from domestic mosquitos Matt Sedensky and Mike Stobbe Associated Press 2014-07-17 05:41:00 Health officials are reporting that for the first time, U.S. mosquitoes are spreading a virus that has been tearing through the Caribbean. Two people in Florida have domestically-acquired chikungunya (chik-en-GUN-ye) infections, officials said Thursday. In both cases, they said, a person infected with the virus after visiting the Caribbean was then bitten again by an uninfected mosquito in Florida, which then transmitted the illness further. Health officials urged residents to prevent mosquito bites, but said there was no cause for alarm. "There is no broad risk to the health of the general public," said Dr. Celeste Philip, a public health official with the Department of Health. Federal officials noted it's an unfortunate milestone in the spread of a painful infectious disease that has raced across the Caribbean this year and is apparently now taking root in the United States.

Comment: See also: Incurable mosquito-borne chikungunya virus now found in six US states Newly arrived virus gains foothold in Caribbean CHIKV virus similar to Dengue Fever reported on St. Martin in the Caribbean

New data shows extreme drought in 80% of California Latimes.com 2014-07-17 15:55:00 More than 80% of California is now in an extreme drought, according to new data by the National Weather Service. The NWS' Drought Monitor Update for July 15 shows 81% of California in the category of extreme drought or worse, up from 78%. Three months ago, it was 68%. The map shows that drought conditions worsened in parts of Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties. The new data comes as officials are getting tough on water wasters. Saying that it was time to increase conservation in the midst of one of the worst droughts in decades, the State Water Resources Control Board adopted drought regulations that give local agencies the authority to fine those who waste water up to $500 a day.

Earth's magnetic field could flip sooner than expected Kelly Dickerson Scientific American 2014-07-09 00:00:00 Changes measured by the Swarm satellite show that our magnetic field is weakening 10 times faster than originally predicted, especially over the Western Hemisphere Earth's magnetic field, which protects the planet from huge blasts of deadly solar radiation, has been weakening over the past six months, according to data collected by a European Space Agency (ESA) satellite array called Swarm. The biggest weak spots in the magnetic field - which extends 370,000 miles (600,000 kilometers) above the planet's surface - have sprung up over the Western Hemisphere, while the field has strengthened over areas like the southern Indian Ocean, according to the magnetometers onboard the Swarm satellites - three separate satellites floating in tandem. The scientists who conducted the study are still unsure why the magnetic field is weakening, but one likely reason is that Earth's magnetic poles are getting ready to flip, said Rune Floberghagen, the ESA's Swarm mission manager. In fact, the data suggest magnetic north is moving toward Siberia. "Such a flip is not instantaneous, but would take many hundred if not a few thousand years," Floberghagen told Live Science. "They have happened many times in the past."[50 Amazing Facts About Planet Earth] Scientists already know that magnetic north shifts. Once every few hundred thousand years the magnetic poles flip so that a compass would point south instead of north.While changes in magnetic field strength are part of this normal flipping cycle, data from Swarm have shown the field is starting to weaken faster than in the past. Previously, researchers estimated the field was weakening about 5 percent per century, but the new data revealed the field is actually weakening at 5 percent per decade, or 10 times faster than thought. As such, rather than the full flip occurring in about 2,000 years, as was predicted, the new data suggest it could happen sooner.

Comment: All objects that create their magnetic fields by flowing currents of matter deep inside, a process called the Dynamo Mechanism, will fall victim to these reversals over time. The span of time between these reversal episodes depends on how fast the body is spinning, how large the body is, whether the body is solid or gaseous, and how electrically-conducting the material happens to be. The earth and sun differ in many ways from each other, but both have magnetic fields. The solar magnetic field reverses with every sunspot cycle (11-years) while the solid Earth takes much longer (300,000 years or more). It may very well be fortuitous that the sun, at this time, is producing less sunspots and CMEs (consistent with the upcoming onset of an ice age). A weakened magnetosphere that could reach near-zero levels would leave Earth vulnerable to extreme phenomena such as the Carrington event. Precipitated by an enormous sunspot in 1859, the sky turned blood red with bolts of lightning electrifying the atmosphere. Telegraph operators all over the world received electric shocks, people were electrocuted and fires were started through telegraph connections. In today's technological climate, the impact of a weak magnetic field and a strong solar delivery would be unimaginably devastating.

Wrong place, wrong time: Pacific (Arctic) loon spotted in New Hampshire world.einnews.com 2014-07-18 10:49:00 An immature Pacific loon was seen at Seal Rocks along the coast in Rye on Saturday and Sunday. This bird normally spends its summers in the Arctic making it a rare sighting in New Hampshire. It is also listed in Roger Tory Peterson's Field Guide to the Birds East of the Rockies as an Arctic loon. It was reported as part of the New Hampshire Audubon's Rare Bird Alert for Tuesday, July 15.

Dead humpback whale washes ashore on Blacks Beach, Australia Marianne Phimister Daily Mercury (Australia) 2014-07-18 10:29:00 A dead humpback whale has washed ashore at Blacks Beach this morning. It is believed that it is the same whale that was seen in the water yesterday. Sharks were seen feeding off the whale at Blacks Beach yesterday afternoon. The dead whale was been spotted in waters close to shore at Blacks Beach, a National Parks department spokesman said. "A number of sharks are feeding on the carcass and rangers in attendance are urging the public to refrain from boating or swimming in the area for safety," the spokesman said. "There is no clear indication of a cause for the whale's death. Residents are asked to stay away from the area.

The Ice Age looms: Record cold summer temperatures across many US states Robert Felix iceagenow.info 2014-07-17 09:38:00 Just scan down this list! It's amazing. Feels like October in Oklahoma, Iowa, Alabama, Michigan, Ohio, Georgia, Florida, Indiana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, Mississippi, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Kansas, even Manitoba. Have you seen much about this in the mainstream media? Cold front brings record-breaking temperatures to Oklahoma City Temperatures in Oklahoma City climbed only to 72 degrees Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service. The record for the coolest high temperature for July 16 in Oklahoma City was 74 degrees, set in 1967, according to National Weather Service records. Cold front brings record-breaking temperatures to Oklahoma City on Wednesday Record low temperature for Sioux City, Iowa The National Weather Service recorded a low of 49 degrees at Sioux Gateway Airport in Sioux City, breaking the old record of 50 degrees set in 1976. After record low, Sioux City to see warming trend Cold Breaks 128-Year Record in Mobile - Huntsville ties 69-year-old record low Forecasters say Mobile, Alabama, has broken a 128-year-old record with a low temperature of 64 F, one degree cooler than the low of 65 F set in 1886. Meanwhile, Huntsville tied a record low for the date of 59 degrees set in 1945. In fact, temperatures ranged from the mid- to upper 50s across north Alabama. Cold temps break 128-year record in Mobile

Super typhoon Rammasun slams China, Vietnam - risk of damaging winds, flooding, mudslides, coastal storm surge Eric Leister Accuweather.com 2014-07-18 09:14:00 After moving over extreme northern Hainan China Friday afternoon, local time, the eye of Super Typhoon Rammasun will crash into the Leizhou Peninsula early Friday evening. Rammasun, packing winds of 155 mph with higher gusts, is expected to make landfall again as the equivalent of a Category 4 hurricane early Friday evening, local time. Rammasun will likely bring widespread winds of over 100 mph to northern Hainan Island on Friday afternoon and Friday night (local time) with higher gusts. Widespread wind damage is expected across northern Hainan, as well as the Leizhou Peninsula to the north.

Flooding, heavy rainfall distress over 1 million people in China RT 2014-07-16 02:25:00 Hundreds of thousands have been forced to evacuate with over 1 million people in total affected in China as heavy rainstorms batter Hunan and Guizhou provinces, with reports of several deaths and mass destruction. Some 720,000 people from 240 townships in Hunan are now affected, the provincial flood control headquarters said on Tuesday, Xinhua reports. At least 460 homes have been destroyed and 149,400 residents have been relocated. The ancient town of Fenghang was flooded with more than 120,000 locals and tourists evacuated since Monday night. Multiple temporary settlements have been set up to cater for the displaced people. Power supply in the region has also been cut off, prompting the local hydrographical bureau to issue a red alert, at 10:10 am local time.

Comment: At least 18 killed in China rainstorms

Update! Russian scientists explore site of 'crater-hole' in Yamal peninsula: 'Probably result of internal forces not seen in 8,000 years' Anna Liesowska The Siberian Times 2014-07-17 05:22:00 The crater on the Yamal Peninsula was caused by aliens, a meteorite, a stray missile, or an explosive gas cocktail released due to global warming, according to various theories in recent days. Images of the remarkable phenomenon have gone round the world since The Siberian Times highlighted helicopter images of the giant hole earlier this week. The first expedition to the scene - the scientists have just returned - took these epic pictures of the hole, including the darkening pattern on the inner rim. Now they are using Russian satellite pictures to fix the moment when it suddenly formed. They found the crater - around up to 70 metres deep - has an icy lake at its bottom, and water is cascading down its eroding permafrost walls. It is not as wide as aerial estimates which suggested between 50 and 100 metres.

Comment: Just to be clear, any local 'warming' that is taking place is due to increased volcanic activity, especially under the Arctic Ocean, where methane clathrate deposits arebeing ruptured in enormous quantities these days, releasing methane gas into the atmosphere. Together with sinkholes and fissures of all descriptions appearing all over the world in recent years, this discovery further suggests that the planet is literally opening up.

Fire in the Sky

Fireball seen over North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia Zachary Stieber Epoch Times 2014-07-18 00:03:00 A meteor or fireball was spotted over North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey on Thursday night. Many people reported seeing the bright light in the sky between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. EDT. Dan Perhar, a software developer at North Carolina University, captured it around 10:15 p.m. as he was driving on Interstate 440 in Raleigh. He posted the short video on YouTube. NASA Solar System Ambassador and WRAL contributor Tony Rice viewed the video. "Looking at that dashcam video it looked pretty low on the horizon. That flash may have been it breaking up," Rice posted on Twitter.

Health & Wellness

Boy's ear problems had rare cause: Gut disease Rachael Rettner Live Science 2014-07-18 16:11:00 A 10-year-old boy in North Carolina suffered from ear pain and hearing problems for years before doctors were finally able to crack the case: He did not have an ear condition after all, but an underlying disease in the gut. The boy saw multiple doctors for his ear symptoms, which included episodes of ear pain, bloody ear discharge and problems hearing. He was prescribed eardrops, antibiotics and other medications, but nothing seemed to help, said Dr. Eileen M. Raynor, a pediatric head-and-neck surgeon at Duke University Medical Center who treated the boy. "It was like swimmer's ear gone crazy," Raynor said. "He was really miserable." The boy was also being treated for the skin condition psoriasis, and had skin lesions on his scalp and other parts of his body. When the boy arrived at Raynor's center, his ears were red and inflamed, and were leaking pus, and his ear canals were narrow from inflammation. Raynor said she could not see his eardrums because the ear canals were so inflamed and damaged. Doctors put the boy under anesthesia to perform a biopsy of his ear. Results from this biopsy and a second skin biopsy revealed that he had a skin condition that can occur as a complication of Crohn's disease. Crohn's disease is a condition that causes swelling and irritation in the digestive tract, which can lead to symptoms such as abdominal pain and diarrhea. In rare cases, patients can develop skin disorders, eye inflammation and mouth sores, but nearly everyone who develops these complications has been diagnosed with Crohn's disease before the skin symptoms show up, Raynor said.

Reports of individuals contracting mosquito virus chikungunya confirmed by health officials in Florida Michelle Healy USA Today 2014-07-17 14:08:00 Florida Health officials Thursday confirmed the first locally acquired cases of the mosquito-borne virus chikungunya. The two cases are the first instances in the U.S. in which the virus was not contracted during Caribbean travel, according to the Florida Department of Health. The infected individuals were described as a 41-year-old woman in Miami-Dade County who began experiencing symptoms on June 10, and a 50-year-old man in Palm Beach County, who first noticed symptoms July 1. Officials said that chikungunya (pronounced chik-un-GUHN-ya) - spread by bites from infected Aedes aegypti or Aedes albopictus mosquitoes - is not contagious from person to person, is typically not life-threatening and will likely resolve on its own. In both cases, Florida officials said, a person infected with the virus after visiting the Caribbean was then bitten again by an uninfected mosquito in Florida, which then transmitted the illness further.

Stress slows metabolism: People burn fewer calories up to one day after stressful event Bahar Gholipour LiveScience 2014-07-16 17:23:00 A double-patty cheeseburger and fries may be one of the worst things to eat after a stressful argument. New research suggests that for a day after being stressed out, people have slower metabolisms and burn fewer calories. The findings suggest that regularly eating high-fat meals after being stressed could lead to additional weight gain, the researchers said. The study involved 58 women who reported whether in the past day they had experienced stress, such as arguments with coworkers or spouses, disagreements with friends, trouble with children or work stress. The women's ages ranged from 31 to 70. Each participant then ate a meal that included 930 calories and 60 grams of fat, similar to meals of hamburgers and fries offered in popular fast-food restaurants. Over the next seven hours, the researchers measured participants' metabolic rates, a number that shows how fast the body is burning calories and fat. The researchers also measured the participants' levels of blood sugar, triglycerides, insulin and the stress hormone cortisol. Researchers found that the participants who reported one or more stressors during the past day burned on average 104 fewer calories than non-stressed women over the course of the day.

Comment: One of the best ways to reduce stress is to meditate on a regular basis. TheÉiriú Eolas technique will help you to have improved overall health, a stronger immune system, better impulse control and reduced inflammation. It will also help you to heal emotional wounds; anything that may hinder or prevent you from leading a healthy and fulfilling life.

Ultrasound risks: The perils of peeking into the womb Kelly Brogan, M.D. Greenmedinfo.com 2014-07-15 11:30:00 "Clinical use of diagnostic ultrasound imaging during pregnancy has a long history of safety and diagnostic utility, as supported by numerous human case reports and epidemiological studies.However, there exist in vivo studies linking large but clinically relevant doses of ultrasound applied to mouse fetuses in utero to altered learning, memory, and neuroanatomy of those mice." How may doctors and unknowing patients be colluding to harm unborn babies? This recent study suggests that the seemingly benign practice of obstetrical ultrasonography is one practice that deserves urgent reassessment. Researchers exposed pregnant mice at 14.5 days gestation (a neurologically vulnerable window) to 30 minutes of fetal ultrasound and assessed the pups' behavior at 3 weeks of age. They found that the exposed pups were significantly less interested in social interactions and had significant levels of behavioral hyperactivity, in the presence of an unfamiliar mouse. Why Did Ultrasounds Become Routine? Today's children have been exposed to an unprecedented level of ultrasound technology, both in frequency and intensity. In 2001, 67% of pregnant women had at least 1 ultrasound, and in 2009, that percentage jumped to 99.8% with an average of 3 per woman. What accounts for this increase? Do we have evidence to suggest that this intervention is saving lives, changing outcomes, and that it is safe? What about safety in the settings it is applied most frequently, such as advanced maternal age, metabolic syndromes, and complications? Could these higher risk pregnancies represent a category of fetus that is more vulnerable to potential side effects of an intervention like ultrasound?

Comment: Learnmore about the safety of ultrasounds below: If Ultrasound Destroys Sperm, Why is it Safe for a Fetus? Natural Childbirth (Part 2A): Is Ultrasound Necessary & Effective in Pregnancy? Natural Childbirth (Part 2B): Ultrasound Not as Safe as Commonly Thought Ultrasound Shown To Exert Remote Control Of Brain Circuits Ultrasound sends neurons down wrong path

Drug resistant tuberculosis, leprosy and polio crossing the border? Gina Loudon Govtslaves 2014-07-10 00:00:00 One of the organizers of the Murrieta, California, blockade, through which several buses loaded with illegal aliens were stopped from entering the city, is warning that the "humanitarian crisis" created by the surge of illegals entering the United States is going to turn out to be a "crisis" for Americans. Because of drug-resistance tuberculosis, polio, leprosy and other diseases that are accompanying the newcomers. The crisis on the border stems from a surge of illegal aliens, many children, who are arriving in the United States and turning themselves over the federal authorities to obtain housing, food, medical services and more. Critics of the Obama administration say it's because his special plan to defer deportation action for young illegal aliens is attracting them from points in Central America where there are crime and health problems.

Comment: A more reliable source states: "The vast majority of Central Americans are vaccinated against all these diseases, in fact, better-vaccinated than Texan kids. We fear them not because they are actually sick, but because of powerful anti-immigration narratives that link foreigners to disease." Upshot...we should fear the fear mongers, the contents of the vaccines and the mosquitos which know no borders!

Science of the Spirit

Children exposed to religion have difficulty distinguishing fact from fiction - study Scott Kaufman Rawstory.com 2014-07-18 12:28:00 A study published in the July issue of Cognitive Science determined that children who are not exposed to religious stories are better able to tell that characters in "fantastical stories" are fictional - whereas children raised in a religious environment even "approach unfamiliar, fantastical stories flexibly." In "Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Backgrounds," Kathleen Corriveau, Eva Chen, and Paul Harris demonstrate that children typically have a "sensitivity to the implausible or magical elements in a narrative," and can determine whether the characters in the narrative are real or fictional by references to fantastical elements within the narrative, such as "invisible sails" or "a sword that protects you from danger every time." However, children raised in households in which religious narratives are frequently encountered do not treat those narratives with the same skepticism. The authors believed that these children would "think of them as akin to fairy tales," judging "the events described in them as implausible or magical and conclude that the protagonists in such narratives are only pretend."

High Strangeness

'Werewolves' kill herds of animals in remote Philippines island Robert A. Evora Manila Standard Today 2014-07-11 14:54:00 Sibale Island, Romblon - Farmers in this isolated island in the central Philippines have reported that mysterious killers believed to be werewolves attacked farm animals during nights before the full moon, sucking blood and tearing away vital organs such as the liver and the heart. Sibale Mayor Lemuel Cipriano said more than 200 goats have been killed in the past two years, their carcasses scattered in the open field and showing the same tell-tale marks: strangulated necks and gaping wounds in the stomach. "It's a continuing goat massacre happening at the onset of the full moon almost every year since 2012. So far, more than 200 goats had been massacred by this unknown killer," Cipriano said.

Don't Panic! Lighten Up!

World Cup Hangover: Brazilian government posts listings for 12 soccer stadiums on Craigslist The Onion 2014-07-16 10:09:00 Listing the athletic facilities within two hours of the conclusion of the World Cup final, the Brazilian government has reportedly posted 12 separate advertisements for soccer stadiums on Craigslist, sources confirmed Wednesday. "This is a great, gently used stadium that seats almost 40,000," read the post for Arena das Dunas, which featured three grainy photos of the locker room, pitch, and a concession stand, adding that prospective buyers could view the sporting arena, or any of its other 11 for-sale structures, in person by simply touring the unlocked facility on their own. "This is perfect for soccer matches, conventions, and college graduations, and would go great with any of the northeast stadiums that are also available. All buyers must be willing to remove from site on their own. Serious inquiries only, please." At press time, the ad had reportedly been updated to state that Brazil would only be willing to sell the stadiums in one-to-one trades for schools and hospitals.