Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Friday, 29 August 2014


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Thursday, 28 August 2014

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---Best of the Web
Max Blumenthal
alakhbar english
2011-12-02 19:25:00

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Comment: We published this article back in 2011, but it is extremely relevant today and is a harbinger of the changes that gradually saw the police forces in America waging a war against the population, their fellow country(w)men.


In October, the Alameda County Sheriff's Department turned parts of the campus of the University of California in Berkeley into an urban battlefield. The occasion was Urban Shield 2011, an annual SWAT team exposition organized to promote "mutual response," collaboration and competition between heavily militarized police strike forces representing law enforcement departments across the United States and foreign nations.

At the time, the Alameda County Sheriff's Department was preparing for an imminent confrontation with the nascent "Occupy" movement that had set up camp in downtown Oakland, and would demonstrate the brunt of its repressive capacity against the demonstrators a month later when it attacked the encampment with teargas and rubber bullet rounds, leaving an Iraq war veteran in critical condition and dozens injured. According to Police Magazine, a law enforcement trade publication, "Law enforcement agencies responding to...Occupy protesters in northern California credit Urban Shield for their effective teamwork."

Training alongside the American police departments at Urban Shield was the Yamam, an Israeli Border Police unit that claims to specialize in "counter-terror" operations but is better known for its extra-judicial assassinations of Palestinian militant leaders and long record of repression and abuses in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Urban Shield also featured a unit from the military of Bahrain, which had just crushed a largely non-violent democratic uprising by opening fire on protest camps and arresting wounded demonstrators when they attempted to enter hospitals. While the involvement of Bahraini soldiers in the drills was a novel phenomenon, the presence of quasi-military Israeli police - whose participation in Urban Shield was not reported anywhere in US media - reflected a disturbing but all-too-common feature of the post-9/11 American security landscape.
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David Stockman
Information Clearing House
2014-08-28 08:17:00

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America's spanker-in-chief is at it again - threatening to bomb Syria owing to the uncivilized actions of its inhabitants. And when it comes to Syria, Washington avers that there are punishable malefactors virtually everywhere within its borders.

Exactly one year ago Obama proposed to take Bashar Al Assad to the woodshed because he had allegedly unleashed a vicious chemical attack on his own citizens. That was all pretext, of course, because even the CIA refused to sign-off on the flimsy case for Assad's culpability at the time - -a reluctance corroborated since then by the considerable evidence that hundreds of Syrian civilians were murdered during a false flag operation staged by the rebels with help from Turkey. The aim of the rebels, of course, was to activate American tomahawk missiles and bombers in behalf of "regime change", which was also the stated goal of the Obama Administration.

Now the White House is threatening to bomb Syria again, but this time its "regime change" objective has been expanded to include both sides! In 12 short months what had been the allegedly heroic Sunni opposition to the "brutal rule" of the Assad/Alawite minority has transmuted into the "greatest terrorist threat ever", according to the Secretary of Defense.

So Obama has already unleashed the drones and surveillance apparatus to identify targets of attack that will help bring down a regime in northern and eastern Syria - the so-called Islamic State - which did not even exist a year ago. And a regime that is now armed to the teeth with America's own latest and greatest weaponry as previously supplied to the disintegrated Iraqi army and the Syrian rebels trained by the CIA in Jordan.
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NovorossiaTV.com
2014-08-24 04:15:00

Comment: The following is a press conference delivered by Alexander V. Zakharchenko Prime Minister of The Donetsk National Republic and Vladimir Kononov, Defense Minister of DNR. It was translated and edited by the team at the Vineyard of the Saker. Pay attention to what these two men have to say about the situation in Novorossiya -- you're unlikely to find anything like it in the western media.



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Alexander V. Zakharchenko: As you all know, a week ago we announced our plan to attack. We started it yesterday. Until yesterday we have been preparing for the attack, examining trophy equipment, arming the crews, and testing communication between different military formations.

I can now proudly announce that we formed 2 tank battalions, 2 full artillery brigades, 2 Grad divisions, 1 mechanized infantry battalion, 3 infantry brigades and a special purpose assault airborne brigade. All these units have now received Army numbers. The communication system has been regularized and 2 field hospitals and 1 maintenance brigade have been formed.

We have begun testing all these units in battle. Yesterday we began an attack on the Amvrosiyivka enemy group. According to our data, in the course of the offensive, the enemy lost about 45 units of military equipment, we captured 14 units of military equipment, and about 1,200 people were killed and wounded.

There are two cauldrons at the moment, in Amvrosiyivka and Starobeshevskaia. We started to advance at 4 a.m. on Elenovka, where the fighting is still going on. 2/3 of Elenovka is under our control. We hope to clean up these areas before nightfall. However, the offensive will not end at that. We will continue until we free all populated areas in the Donetsk National Republic. The army is ready and we have the support of the people. There will be more and more prisoners.


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Comment: Former French paratroopers join armed forces of the Donetsk National Republic


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Italian Anti-Fascist brigade leads aid convoy to Donbass


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Meet the Spanish volunteers fighting Kiev's military offensive 


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Greeks Fighting Alongside Donetsk People's Republic Militia
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Puppet Masters
Michael Krieger
Liberty Blitzkrieg
2014-08-28 12:33:00

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The following story is a warning as to why centralized power is so dangerous. It doesn't matter whether the power is political or corporate, overly centralized power in all forms must be resisted whenever it appears.

The worst of all worlds is when centralized political and corporate power unite in an unholy alliance, which is what has happened to America in recent decades.

When this occurs, the combined forces of oligarchy simply begin to rapaciously feast on the citizenry with zero accountability. This is a fair description of the United States in 2014.

The primary problem with centralized power is that sociopaths (for obvious reasons) gravitate toward, and greatly covet, positions of power.

Once entrenched in such positions, they are able to act upon their perversions with general immunity, and if they are caught, are often left in positions of power by others who at that point "own them" via blackmail.

This of course is nothing new, it is how the game of power, politics and economics has been played since the beginning of time. It is also why decentralization of power is the natural evolution we as a species must embrace in order to build a better world.

Enter Timothy DeFoggi, the one-time cybersecurity director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, who received several awards for his government "service" over the years.

The self-proclaimed man of "many perversions," frequented a child porn site called PedoBook where he "exchanged private messages with other members expressing interest in raping, beating and murdering infants and toddlers."
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ITAR-TASS
2014-08-28 15:41:00

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EU Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger insists on solving the gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine as soon as possible, as during the winter season Ukraine can steal gas that will be pumped to Europe, Oettinger told German TV Channel ARD in an interview Thursday.

"During a long and cold winter Ukraine will lack gas, and if the country does not have enough own gas - the danger of gas being stolen arises, the danger of the gas being lost on its way from the East to the West arises," he said.

"It is essential we prevent further escalation of the Ukrainian conflict."

In a separate interview he said the EU is getting for a possible worsening of the gas raw, and working on scenarios for all cases. He said he does not expect Russia or Ukraine to switch the gas off, but the possibility of this happening is not zero.
Comment: Oettinger is right to be worried. Russia supplies a large part of the EU's energy needs. If the Russian gas flow is disrupted, the EU will be in for a very cold winter. Yet, the EU's leaders continue to shoot themselves in the foot by engaging in a trade war with Russia upon order from America.
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Itar-Tass
2014-08-28 15:26:00

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At least 11 have been killed in shelling of the Donetsk city in the east of the country by Ukrainian troops, the city residents said on Thursday. Ten people were killed in a culture centre fire as a result of shell explosion. A repair worker of Ukraine's DTEK energy holding was also killed in the shelling.

The city's regional clinical hospital was grossly damaged by fire from the Grad multiple rocket launch system late on Wednesday. The number of casualties is being ascertained.
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Pepe Escobar
RT
2014-08-28 09:27:00

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The road to the Minsk summit this past Tuesday began to be paved when German Chancellor Angela Merkel talked to ARD public TV after her brief visit to Kiev on Saturday.

Merkel emphasized, "A solution must be found to the Ukraine crisis that does not hurt Russia."

She added that "There must be dialogue. There can only be a political solution. There won't be a military solution to this conflict."

Merkel talked about "decentralization" of Ukraine, a definitive deal on gas prices, Ukraine-Russia trade, and even hinted Ukraine is free to join the Russia-promoted Eurasian Union (the EU would never make a "huge conflict" out of it). Exit sanctions; enter sound proposals.

She could not have been more explicit; "We [Germany] want to have good trade relations with Russia as well. We want reasonable relations with Russia. We are depending on one another and there are so many other conflicts in the world where we should work together, so I hope we can make progress".
Comment: It is possible that EU leaders are actually beginning to understand that Washington has gone stark raving mad. The "Empire of Chaos", as Pepe accurately labels it, is in an absolute frenzy to either retain global hegemony or take us all down along with it.
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The Washington Post
2014-08-27 15:01:00

Comment: The Washington Post presstitutes must think that their audience is truly stupid if they attempt to sell a "Russian invasion" out of thin air. Or they are themselves THAT stupid and they actually believe what their puppet-masters tell them to print, despite all the evidence:

OSCE repeats: 'There are no Russian troops or military equipment in Ukraine' - Poroshenko's telling porkies



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Russian forces in two armored columns captured a key southeastern coastal town near the Russian border Thursday after Ukrainian forces retreated in the face of superior firepower, a Ukrainian military spokesman said.

The two Russian columns, including tanks and armored fighting vehicles, entered the town of Novoazovsk on the Sea of Azov after a battle in which Ukrainian army positions came under fire from Grad rockets launched from Russian territory, according to the spokesman, Col. Andriy Lysenko.

"Our border servicemen and guardsmen retreated as they did not have heavy equipment," Lysenko said in a statement.
Comment: And on and on and on they go fabricating lies all the way. So we repeat:

OSCE repeats: 'There are no Russian troops or military equipment in Ukraine' - Poroshenko's telling porkies

and add:

Lavrov's on a roll: Tells Daily Telegraph Russia ready to protect its legitimate interests

while Putin acts like a gentleman: "We're not going to block U.S. military transit"

and the US/NATO/EU-backed Kiev forces continue the genocide of ethnic Russians in Ukraine.

Oh, and if Russia was to invade Ukraine, they wouldn't need satellite images or all these wasted wording to convince us; they'd know and they'd be running towards their private jets.
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Dmitry Orlov
Club Orlov
2014-08-13 15:08:00

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There is a convoy of 280 gleaming white trucks moving through Russia toward Ukraine loaded with humanitarian aid for the populations of Donetsk and Lugansk. This isn't much, considering that well over a million people have been cut off from food, water, electricity and (soon) heat because of indiscriminate artillery bombardment by the Ukrainian military. But it's a start. But it seems like a rocky start; first, NATO's mouthpiece Rasmussen tries to characterize this humanitarian mission as a clandestine invasion. Then the Ukrainians start imposing various conditions. Let's consider these separately.

When was the last time Russia, or, for that matter, USSR, mount a clandestine invasion? If you said "Crimea," then you need to understand that:
1. Russian troops have been in Crimea continuously for the past 231 years;
2. they were there under an international treaty; and
3. their troop levels never exceeded the levels this treaty stipulates.
If Russia wanted to invade Ukraine, it simply would. The Ukrainian troops would surrender or run away, but then what? Nobody has an answer to that question, not even the Russians. Aid - yes, invasion - no thanks. The policy of letting Ukraine "stew in its own juices until the meat falls off the bone" (as I put it back in mid-March) is working quite well, with the added bonus that the EU and the US are now at each others' throats over their self-imposed sanctions. But it will take time, and this means that the population of Novorossiya, where Donetsk and Lugansk are located, and which ended up as part of Ukraine thanks to Lenin, has to be fed and heated through the next winter. Hence the humanitarian mission, which will be, if all goes well, the first of many.
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Itar-Tass
2014-08-28 15:25:00

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Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko has signed a decree banning export of military and dual-use items to Russia.

Poroshenko's decree enforced the National Security and Defense Council's decision of August 27 to stop sending to Russia military and other items that may be used by the armed forces. The only exemption was granted to equipment used for research and peaceful purposes as part of international space projects.

Deeper prohibition now targets exports of dual-use items such as helicopter engines, allowed until now in a previous order from then Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov before Poroshenko came to power.

Poroshenko's move lags a week behind plans already announced by Russia's Industry and Trade Ministry that domestically manufactured defense equipment will now replace military items previously supplied by Ukraine.
Comment: This is a laughable decree because a) it is announced a week after Russia already stopped its side of the trade; b) being far technologically superior, there's no military equipment manufactured in Ukraine that Russia can't easily source domestically. Engaging in a trade war with Russia only destroys Ukraine's economy as this one sector already accounts for 8.2% of its GDP.
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RiaNovosti
2014-08-28 14:54:00

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Iran is ready to send troops if the Islamic State (IS) Sunni extremist group damages the Iraqi cities of Najaf and Karbala, which are considered sacred by Shiite Muslims, Iran's Entekhab online newspaper reported Thursday, citing the country's interior minister, Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli.

"President Hassan Rouhani said at a meeting with the government that Iran would deploy elite troops if there is a real threat of the IS approaching these cities [Najaf and Kerbela], in order to protect them. The intervention will be entirely coordinated with the Iraqis and aimed at liquidating the IS," Fazli was quoted as saying by Entekhab.

Iranian forces are currently carrying out special drills involving aircraft and drones in case they are needed in Iraq, Entekhab reported.
Comment: For more information on the IS, see: Dr. Frankenstein's ISIS: Made in Washington, Riyadh - and Tel Aviv
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ITAR-TASS
2014-08-28 08:45:00

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Canadian food exporters to Russia will lose this year more than $600 million due to the restrictions on the imports of agrarian produce, introduced by the Russian government, agriculture adviser at the Russian embassy in Ottawa Sergei Strokov said on Wednesday.

"Based on the available information, in the meat exports alone the losses will amount to $600 million, and if we take into account seafood, this figure will be higher," he told ITAR-TASS. On August 7, in response to sanctions the West imposed on Russia over its stance on the developments in Ukraine, Moscow fully banned the imports of beef, pork, fruit and vegetables, poultry meat, fish, cheeses, milk and dairy products from the European Union countries, from Australia, Canada, Norway and the United States.
Comment: Russia is implementing a brilliant strategy in response to the attacks waged by the West.For more information concerning the long-term benefits of a healthy Russia and its multi-polar goals, and why the West is stumbling all over themselves to try and start a new Cold War, check out:

Washington's nightmare comes true as the Russian-Chinese partnership goes global

Western propaganda exposed as Russian convoy 'invades' Ukraine with humanitarian aid
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Justin King
The Burning Platform
2014-08-25 13:54:00
George Orwell ranks among the most profound social critics of the modern era. Some of his quotations, more than a half a century old, show the depth of understanding an enlightened mind can have about the future.

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1) "In our age there is no such thing as 'keeping out of politics.' All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia."

Though many in the modern age have the will to bury their head in the sand when it comes to political matters, nobody can only concern themselves with the proverbial pebble in their shoe. If one is successful in avoiding politics, at some point the effects of the political decisions they abstained from participating in will reach their front door. More often than not, by that time the person has already lost whatever whisper of a voice the government has allowed them.
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Matthew J. Belvedere
Patriotwars.org
2014-08-28 12:18:00

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Markets could soon face a fall of up to 60 percent, two experts told CNBC on Wednesday. A jolt to international confidence in central banks will lead to a 30 to 60 percent market decline, David Tice, president of Tice Capital and founder of the Prudent Bear Fund, told CNBC's Power Lunch. When this happens, he said, markets will face a "period of extreme turmoil." This crash will be precipitated, he said, by a disillusionment with the Federal Reserve's "confidence game," which will then see inflation rise, and the Fed scramble to raise rates. At that point, Tice added, "the Fed starts to lose control."

Another market watcher also called for an impending fall. The Fed's low interest rates could bring a "scary" 50-60 percent market correction, said technical analyst Abigail Doolittle. "Unfortunately, I think it could come on a crash similar to what happened in 2007," Doolittle, the founder of Peak Theories Research, said on "Squawk Box" a day after the S&P 500 closed above the 2,000 level for the first time ever. "It's tough to know what the exact catalyst will be. But that's the very nature of that kind of selloff. They start slowly and then happen very suddenly."
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ITAR-TASS
2014-08-26 08:53:00

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The prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), Alexander Zakharchenko, has vowed that the DPR will not remain a territory of Ukraine under any circumstance.

The Novorossiya news agency says he dropped the remark in view of the on-going negotiations in Minsk by the heads of state of the Customs Union countries, Ukraine and EU representatives. Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko said at the meeting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine must be preserved.

"Federalization does not suit us," Zakharchenko said.

He said the DPR now saw only one possible option - its total independence from Ukraine.

Zakharchenko speculated that armistice talks, even if they begin after the Minsk meeting, "will not change anything in principle."

"Of course, negotiations may get underway and some kind of armistice may be achieved, but it will be fragile and not real. Novorossiya no longer agrees not only to federalization, but to the preservation of Ukraine as such," Zakharchenko said.
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Marcus Weisgerber
DefenseNews
2014-08-21 03:45:00

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The Pentagon might have to retool its $555 billion 2015 budget proposal to account for the threats posed by and actions taken against the Islamic State, US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Thursday.

"[Y]ou're constantly shaping a budget to assure that resources match the mission and the mission and the resources match the threat," Hagel said during a briefing at the Pentagon.

"[Y]ou're shifting [money] all the time on what you think is going to be required," Hagel said. "We've had to move assets over the last couple of months...to accomplish what we accomplished in Iraq. That costs money, that takes certain monies out of certain funds. So it's a constant, fluid process as you plan for these."

Since Aug. 8, US forces have conducted 89 airstrikes against Islamic State militants, Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at the briefing.

Dempsey said US forces have delivered 636 bundles of food, water and medical supplies to Iraqis. As well, manned and unmanned military aircraft are flying more than 60 intelligence missions each day. "I think we're fine for fiscal year '14 and we'll have to continue to gather the data and see what it does in '15," Dempsey said.
Comment: The Counterterrorism Partnerships Fund, requested by Obama, May 2014, is a network of partnerships from S. Asia to the Sahel. Funding of $5B allows the U.S. to train, build capacity, facilitate partner countries on the front lines, add flex to missions, includes training security forces in Yemen on offensive against al-Qaida, peacekeep force in Somalia, work with EU allies for security force and border patrol in Libya, French operations in Mali, Syrian crisis, push back against extremists, support Jordan and Lebanon, work with Turkey and Iraq with refugees and confront terrorists.

This seems like a lot of speculative spending on perhaps unjustified, unauthorized and unequal "partnerships." What this really may be is a way to circumvent spending caps imposed by Congress on the base military budget. With draw downs in Afghanistan and other such limiting activity, it is a question of how much longer the Pentagon will have access to the OCO accounts (Overseas Contingency Operations) and the inherent DOD reliance on them. The Counterterrorism Fund is a less obvious way to disguise the U.S. hand in foreign affairs and maintain military spending. Washington has created a military industrial complex that needs constant feeding, thereby its existence has become its excuse.
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RT
2014-08-26 13:41:00

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In order to stop the Islamic State from gaining more power, the United States is prepared to use a variety of options, including airstrikes in Syria without Damascus' consent, if backed by regional and European partners, US officials said.

The border between Iraq and Syria is "essentially non-existent" at this point, General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last week, hinting the US would eventually need to strike the Islamic State positions in both states.

"With Central Command, (Dempsey) is preparing options to address ISIS both in Iraq and Syria with a variety of military tools including airstrikes," Dempsey's spokesman, Col. Ed Thomas, confirmed on Monday.
Comment: Vladimir Putin made it a point to to protect Syria from airstrikes that would produce results similar to those seen in Libya. ISIS has since been functioning as the US' right hand in Syria, and now serves as an excuse to attempt to attack the country yet again. Putin's words still stand:
The potential strike by the United States against Syria, despite strong opposition from many countries and major political and religious leaders, including the pope, will result in more innocent victims and escalation, potentially spreading the conflict far beyond Syria's borders. A strike would increase violence and unleash a new wave of terrorism. It could undermine multilateral efforts to resolve the Iranian nuclear problem and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and further destabilize the Middle East and North Africa. It could throw the entire system of international law and order out of balance.
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RT
2014-08-26 13:41:00

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Egypt and the United Arab Emirates have been joining forces in secret to carry out air strikes on Libya, anonymous high-ranking US officials told the media. The two countries have reportedly coordinated and launched the attacks twice in the last week.

Both Egypt and the UAE launched the strikes without informing the US or seeking its consent, the officials told the New York Times.


Comment: Has America begun to lose control over its puppet regimes?


"We don't see this as constructive at all," one of the officials told the newspaper, which reported that diplomats were "livid" about the strikes. Libya is a conflict-torn area with both the UN and Western powers seeking to quell the violence.
Comment: The results of the West's "humanitarian intervention" in Libya have been horrifying:
A relatively safe country in close proximity to Europe has become a playground for radical Islamists and terrorists. There is no progress in the national dialogue. There are no law enforcement agencies. All the government agencies that matter are paralyzed. There are more human rights violations now than under Colonel Gaddafi. Civilians are killed every day, infrastructure is being destroyed, not even a semblance of order exists, and economic development is absolutely out of the question. The latest parliamentary elections did not help to stabilize the situation. The situation in Tripoli has deteriorated so far that the first session of the new parliament had to be held far from the capital of the country.
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Society's Child
Jon Herskovitz
Rawstory.com
2014-08-28 14:02:00

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A Texas couple has filed a lawsuit against the owners of a Fort Worth-area day care center seeking $1 million damages from the facility for duct-taping their 2-year-old son to a mat because he was unruly at nap time, their lawyer said on Wednesday.

Kristi and Brad Galbraith are suing for fraud and negligence in the incident that occurred in June at the Heart2Heart Montessori Academy in Willow Park. "This is a parent's worst nightmare," Dallas attorney Jeff Rasansky said. "Parents take a leap of faith to entrust their children to the care of someone else, and it is extremely upsetting when something like this happens to toddlers, who are too young to speak up for themselves."

The day care center was not immediately available for comment but has said it is cooperating with authorities. "The staff and I have the best interest of the children and parents as our highest priority," it said in a statement in June. The couple claims in the suit it was their son who was in a widely circulated photograph that gained national media attention, which showed a child wrapped in a blanket and bound to a nap mat with silver duct tape. The photo was taken by a former employee, who sent it to the Galbraiths and told them that their son was one of two children duct-taped to mats that day, according to the suit.
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Jessica Meyers
gotslaves.info
2014-08-26 16:42:00

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Susan Podziba couldn't enter a federal building near Washington this month because her driver's license revealed an unacceptable home state: Massachusetts.

Bay State residents can no longer use their driver's licenses to get inside some government agencies because the state is one of nine that have not signed on to a federal law called REAL ID. If nothing changes, they will even lose the ability to display their licenses to board a plane.

The REAL ID measure presses states to verify citizenship and update security standards when they issue licenses. Congress intended the act to prevent terrorists who arrive in the country illegally from boarding planes. But officials in Massachusetts and elsewhere have balked at a program they contend costs millions, raises privacy concerns, and infringes on states' rights.
Comment: From: Real ID Mandatory State Compliance by May 11, 2011?
Once the IDs and database are in place, their uses will inevitably expand to facilitate a wide range of surveillance activities. Remember, the Social Security number started innocuously enough, but it has become a prerequisite for a host of government services and been coopted by private companies to create massive databases of personal information. A national ID poses similar dangers; for example, because "common machine-readable technology" will be required on every ID, the government and businesses will be able to easily read your private information off the cards in myriad contexts." - Threatening Your Privacy Through an Unfunded Government Mandate
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Carol Kuruvilla
NYDailynews.com
2014-08-28 15:12:00

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Lucas Dillon Brandenburg, 30, was arrested on 10 counts of possession of child pornography after cops discovered a computer at his home sharing the disturbing images.

A Florida youth pastor has been busted for reportedly victimizing the same age group he set out to serve.

Lucas Dillon Brandenburg, 30, was arrested Thursday on 10 counts of possession of child pornography, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement confirmed in a statement.

Cops were tipped off to the Titusville pastor's deranged preferences in July after identifying a computer at his home that was reportedly sharing images of young girls involved in sexual activity with men and boys. Some of the victims were as young as 9 years old.

In his arrest affidavit, Brandenburg "stated he has been viewing child pornography for over 10 years," Wesh.com reports.

Brandenburg is a pastor for Building 418, a youth ministry of St. Gabriel Episcopal Church in Titusville.

In a July 27 sermon, Brandenberg spoke to a gathering of teenagers about the sanctity of human life. He warned them about the prevalence of slavery and human trafficking in the modern age and told them that God values life in a way that the world doesn't.
Comment: Pedophilia is a rampant epidemic in religious organizations. From Predators: Pedophiles, Rapists, and Other Sex Offenders, Who They Are, How They Operate, and How We Can Protect Ourselves and Our Children by Dr. Anna Salter:
"One molester, who himself was a minister, said: 'I considered church people easy to fool ... they have the trust that comes from being Christians ... They tend to be better folks all around. And they seem to want to believe in the good that exists in all people. And because of that, you can easily convince, with or without convincing words.'

In interviewing victims in the growing number of cases involving priests, I have been surprised - although I should not have been - by how deeply religious many of the victims' families were. I have never before grasped that it was the most religious families who were thrilled to have a priest take an interest in their children, who wanted their children to be altar boys, who could not believe that a priest would do anything so wrong.

The growing crisis in the Catholic Church just underlines the fact that offenders can recognize ideal settings for child molesters even if the rest of us can't. In truth, a deeply religious and trusting group of people, plus the requirement of celibacy (an ideal cover for any man who has no sexual interest in adults), plus a hierarchy that doesn't report complaints to the police and simply moves the offender on to new and fresh territory with new potential victims, is the ideal setting for pedophiles."
See also: SOTT Talk Radio: Predators Among Us - Interview With Dr. Anna Salter
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Travis Gettys
Rawstory.com
2014-08-28 13:47:00

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A dangerous prank prompted a SWAT raid on a Colorado gamer Wednesday, when an anonymous caller told police he had shot multiple people at an office building. Heavily armed police burst through the door of an office in Littleton, where gamer Jordan Mathewson was playing Counter-Strike, reported KMGH-TV.

Mathewson - who calls himself "Koostra" online - is part of a gamers group called The Creatures, who livestream video of themselves playing against one another online, and he recorded the entire incident. In video posted on YouTube, the gamer suspects he may be the victim of a "swatting" prank because he can hear officers clearing the building outside the office door. "There's a somewhat, not really common, prank that happens," said Daniel Gidlow, another member of The Creatures. "While we're live streaming to thousands of people, somebody calls the cops."

Mathewson removes his headphones just as police enter with their guns drawn and order him to the ground. At least five officers surround Mathewson, who is handcuffed and then questioned. One of the officers demands to know what Mathewson, who can be seen on the video chuckling as he realizes he has been pranked, finds so funny, but the gamer insists he finds nothing humorous about the situation. Mathewson tells police during questioning that he has some fake prop guns at the office, and police said their examination of those phony weapons slowed their search of the building.
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MSN.com
2014-08-28 15:22:00

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Joan Rivers was reportedly hospitalized on Thursday after she stopped breathing during throat surgery at a New York City doctor's office.

TMZ reports that the 81-year-old comedian, and star of E!'s "Fashion Police," was rushed to Mount Sinai
hospital after a 911 caller reported "somebody in either cardiac or respiratory arrest."

E! News reports, per a source, that Joan Rivers is now in stable but critical condition.

Additionally, a representative from E! told TheWrap, "E! can confirm that Joan was rushed to Mt. Sinai. hospital and her daughter Melissa Rivers is en route to her side. E!, Fashion Police and NBCUniversal continue to send thoughts and prayers to Joan, Melissa and their entire family."
Comment: Earlier this month Rivers engaged in a vicious and inhuman rant against Palestinianswho, at the time, were being massacred by the Israeli government. Rivers 'opined' that Palestinians "deserved to die". Rivers also stated:
"Good. Good. When you declare war, you declare war. They started it. We now don't count who's dead. You're dead, you deserve to be dead. Don't you dare make me feel bad about that."

"They were told to get out. They didn't get out. You don't get out, you are an idiot. At least the ones that were killed were the ones with low IQs."

View on Sott.net


Given that Rivers was only using the oxygen to spew vile hatred and racism, it's not much of a loss, in fact, more of a net benefit. And look on the bright side, she's so well preserved that, if she does die, the mortician won't have anything to do.
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Police State USA
2014-08-28 15:08:00

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Littleton - A Colorado gaming enthusiast was interrupted by a SWAT team pointing rifles at him while he competed with his friends online.

The raid happened on August 27th, 2014, as Jordan Mathewson was in the middle of an online game, while live-streaming a video of his gameplay with his face overlayed. Mr. Mathewson has a large following and is known online as "Kootra." He is a founder of a gaming group known as "The Creatures."

In the middle of his game, he noticed something was amiss in the office building he was in. He observed that there were men with guns drawn, coming his way.

"Uh oh. This isn't good. They're clearing rooms," he said in his video. "What in the world? I think we're getting swatted."

Mr. Mathewson removed his headphones as officers burst in with rifles aimed at him, ordering him to raise his hands. In the seconds that followed, he was ordered to the ground and searched.

"What about this is funny to you?" an officer barked.

"What? I'm not doing anything that is funny," Mathewson responded.

Mathewson was eventually stood up and searched again before being seated in a chair. Later, video shows him restrained in the chair being interrogated.
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CBS Atlanta
2014-08-27 14:40:00

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Comment: It's astounding that people would be so careless regarding the burial of bodies carrying an infectious disease that already claimed the lives of about 1,500 people. All reports of this event seem to have started with an article from the New Dawn, a Liberian online news site.


Dogs in one community in Liberia are reportedly eating the remains of dead Ebola victims lying on the streets.

The New Dawn reports that the Liberian government buried bodies of those suspected to have died from Ebola a few weeks ago in Johnsonville Township, outside of Monrovia. A number of dogs were reportedly seen pulling the bodies out of the graves and eating the remains.

Alfred Wiah tells The New Dawn that the government's Health Ministry was called about the incident but that officials did not do anything about it.
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RT
2014-08-28 14:19:00

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The city council of Davis, California has decided to drop the local police department's Pentagon-supplied armored vehicle following worries from the community that it could be used against demonstrations, as was the case in Ferguson, Missouri this month.

The Davis City Council adopted a resolution this week that orders the city to come up with a plan to drop the MRAP (mine-resistant ambush protected), originally developed for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and acquired by the city through a government surplus program. The armored vehicles have been distributed to local law enforcement agencies, especially after the wars wound down and the Pentagon's budget was reduced.
Comment: Obviously the citizens of Davis have learned their lessons through hard experience. And who knows, maybe their demands would be heard if more and more people come out and start adamantly demanding the demilitarization of their communities!
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Roman Baudzus
globalresearch.ca
2014-08-26 13:54:00

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In the aftermath of the downing of the Malaysian airliner in Ukraine, the Western media followed Washington's lead and manipulated reports in order to make Europeans believe that Russia and Russian-supported separatists in eastern Ukraine were responsible for downing the airliner. In Germany, the press was an extension of Washington's propaganda machine despite the lack of evidence from both Washington and Kiev to support their irresponsible claims.

It was not long, however, before the public mood in Europe began to turn. A pivotal factor was openly voiced U.S. threats in a law that had been passed by both the House of Representatives and the Senate of the U.S. Congress that could eventually result in an invasion of the Netherlands by United States army forces.

International Criminal Court: U.S. Congress threatened invasion of Netherlands

When this was learned outrage was expressed not only within the Dutch government, but also among the population of the country. According to the law, if it should ever happen that American citizens are brought before the International Criminal Court (ICC) and accused at The Hague, Washington would exercise the preemptive right to invade the country in order to prevent prosecution.

Remember that Malaysia's government had permitted a tribunal in 2011, whose judges in the tradition of British court proceedings condemned both George W. Bush and Tony Blair as war criminals.
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Press TV
2014-08-27 14:05:00

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Anti-Zionism Jewish protesters have set fire to their Israeli passports in New York City in condemnation of the crimes committed by Tel Aviv against the Palestinian people.

A number of protesters on Tuesday gathered in front of the United Nations' building and chanted "Judaism yes, Zionism no, Israel must go."

The protesters are angry about the recent Israeli offensive against the Gaza Strip.

"This is the worst crime and it will bring the worst punishment for the Zionist evil people," Anti-Israel Rabbi Abraham Chaim Cheshe told Press TV.
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RT
2014-08-27 21:42:00

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A top hitman for infamous Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, who confessed to murdering hundreds of people, has been set free after 22 years behind bars, despite protests from relatives of his alleged victims.

John Jairo Velasquez - better known under his nickname 'Popeye' - was imprisoned for 30 years for plotting the murder of a presidential candidate, Luis Carlos Galan, during the 1990 election race.

Velasquez was released from the high security Combita prison under on Tuesday, with police providing heavy protection for the man.

The former hitman granted "conditional release ... for a trial period of 52 months and 22.7 days," said a judicial order seen by the AFP news agency. "It's really sad that an assassin who committed so many homicides was sentenced for a single murder," Gen. Carlos Mena, head of Colombia's highway police, told AP.

During his prison stay, the 52-year-old's cooperated with law enforcement, providing evidence that helped imprison other high-profile criminals.

In his earlier interviews, Velasquez estimated his chances of being killed by his former opponents after being released at 80 per cent, and it's not clear whether the state will continue to provide him with protection. The former hitman said that he now plans to leave Colombia and settle abroad in order to protect his life.
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Al Jazeera
2014-08-28 08:54:00

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A robbery suspect carrying a plastic-pellet gun and a crew member with the TV show "Cops'' were shot dead by police during a response to a restaurant hold-up in Omaha, Nebraska.

The TV worker died despite wearing body armour at the incident on Wednesday, while police said the suspect was shot after he fired what officers said looked and sounded like a real handgun.

The suspect, Cortez Washington, 32, was shot as he tried to escape the Wendys restaurant and died outside. The "Cops" crew member, Bryce Dion, a sound technician, was hit while Washington was fleeing, said police chief Todd Schamaderer.


Comment: First, they can't tell the difference between a pellet gun and a real one, then they shoot a bystander. Should these men be armed?!


Dion, 38, was wearing body armour, but a single bullet hit his arm, "slipped into a gap in the vest'', and entered his chest, Schmaderer said.He said the "Cops" crew - Dion and a cameraman - went to the restaurant with two officers who responded to a request for help from another already at the scene.

He rejected suggestions that police had over-reacted as "absolutely ridiculous".
Comment: If the crew was filming, it means they have everything that took place on film, so why don't they release it? We won't be able to hear from Cortez Washington, but his family says that the cops used excessive force:
Omaha police officers were running and gunning to make compelling TV when they sprayed bullets at an armed robbery suspect, killing him and a 'Cops' crewman ... so claims the dead suspect's family.

TMZ spoke with one of Cortez Washington's relatives ... who believes the officers used excessive force Tuesday night -- and were "hyped up" to put on a good showwhen they responded to the Wendy's.

As we reported ... 'Cops' sound supervisor Bryce Dion died after getting hit by friendly fire from Omaha PD during the shootout with Washington -- who was holding a Wendy's employee at gun point.

Washington's firearm turned out to be a pellet gun -- modeled after a real semi-automatic pistol -- and his family thinks officers should have recognized it wasn't a lethal weapon before they unloaded more than 20 rounds. One family member told us, "With everything going on in Ferguson, you think they would use other options." 

The relative also said they don't buy Omaha PD's claim Cortez started the shootout by firing two rounds.
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Emily Prevetti
Wealthydebates.com
2014-08-27 12:30:00

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You'd never know it from the road, but in the woods in Allentown, there's a small monument to just how resourceful people can be, when they have to be. Weeds and wildflowers obscure the path leading to Davina Delor's shelter. She built it herself after landing here in April - her fourth campsite since 2010. That's when Delor, 42, lost her job, quickly followed by her apartment and car. "I'm still looking for work. I get little odd jobs here and there, but nothing that pays. Nothing that will get you an apartment or anything like that," Delor says.

Experts say her situation isn't uncommon. The homeless population has increased three of the past four years in Pennsylvania, despite trending downward nationally for the better part of the past decade. Eighty-one percent of last year's increase was driven by unsheltered homeless people like Delor. They gravitate toward the urban settings near wooded and otherwise secluded areas of Allentown, Harrisburg, Scranton and Reading - even though poverty and unemployment rates there are skyrocketing compared to national norms.

City officials in Allentown and Reading, ranked the nation's poorest city last year, have shut down homeless encampments as they try to redevelop their downtown areas. But in other cities, including the Commonwealth's capital of Harrisburg, officials aren't doing that. Harrisburg's solicitor Neil Grover says they take action only if public safety is at risk: "What do you do? Move them? Where?"
Comment: Homeless people are being degraded and dehumanized all over the U.S. They are essentially being made criminals. Cities are passing tyrannical laws against feeding the homeless and they are destroying the places they call home. One city has even created a hotline to report their presence.Disgusting!
  • Cities all over America are becoming extremely cruel to the homeless
  • Philadelphia Bans Outdoor Feeding of Homeless
  • America Today: Heartbreaking Pictures From New Jersey's Homeless 'Tent City'
  • U.S. city's plan for homeless bizarre, inhumane
  • It is illegal to feed thehomeless in cities all over the United States
  • 70-year-old charity told to stop feeding homeless in Seattle
  • US: Homeless Epidemic Spreading from Cities to Suburbs, and No Longer Invisible
Utah has a pretty good idea to make things better:
  • Utah is ending homelessness by giving people homes
  • Utah is on track to end homelessness by 2015 with this one simple idea
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Mark Morales
WSJ
2014-08-28 11:48:00

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A sister of the man charged with carrying out the Boston Marathon bombings was arrested Wednesday for threatening a woman who previously had a romantic relationship with her boyfriend, police said.

Ailina Tsarnaeva, 23 years old, called the victim, also 23, on Monday and threatened her with a bomb, according to the New York Police Department. "I have people who can go up there and put a bomb on you," she allegedly told the woman, according to a law-enforcement official.

The victim reported the incident to police, and Ms. Tsarnaeva turned herself in at the 30th Precinct in Harlem at 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, police said.
Comment: While it is entirely possible the events described occurred, it's also possible we're seeing the continuation of the previous psyop.
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Press TV
2014-08-28 06:40:00
A problem during routine maintenance has knocked millions of Time Warner Cable subscribers off Internet.

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On Wednesday morning, an estimated 11 million subscribers were hit by the early morning outage, which lasted more than hour.

The company has said the problem affected all of its markets and started at 4:30 a.m. and was largely restored by 6 a.m.

Time Warner Cable has about 11.4 million high-speed data subscribers in 29 states nationwide.

"During an overnight network maintenance activity in which we were managing IP addresses, an erroneous configuration was propagated throughout our national backbone, resulting in a network outage," the company has said in a statement.
Comment: Could it be due to earth changes, hacker attacks, severed underwater cables, or something else? Share your opinion in the comments.
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Secret History
The Hurriyet Daily News
2014-08-28 16:42:00

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The world's oldest discovered temple, Göbeklitepe, is also the oldest known sculpture workshop, according to excavation findings at the site, which have been ongoing for 20 years.

The excavations at Göbeklitepe, which is located in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa and is described as the "zero point in history," are being carried out by the German Archaeology Institute and the Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry. German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt, who died a few months ago, had been the head of the excavations.

Associate Professor Cihat Kürkçüoğlu from the nearby Harran University's (HRU) Arts and History Department, said works in Göbeklitepe had revealed human sculptures from the Neolithic age, wild boar, fox and bird limestone fossils, as well as many arrow heads made of tinderbox.
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Science & Technology
Catherine Griffin
Science World Report
2014-08-28 12:47:00

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About 13,000 years ago, a cosmic impact caused a period of global cooling, called the Younger Dryas Period. Now, scientists have taken a closer look at this impact and have examined the character and distribution of nanodiamonds, one type of material produced during this collision.

In this case, the researchers investigated nanodiamonds at 32 sites in 11 countries across North America, Europe and the Middle East. They found an abundance of these tiny diamonds distributed at the Younger Dryas boundary (YDB), a thin, carbon-rich layer that's usually visible as a thin black line a few meters below the surface.
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Charles Choi
Live Science
2014-08-28 13:01:00

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Ancient human DNA is shedding light on the peopling of the Arctic region of the Americas, revealing that the first people there did not leave any genetic descendants in the New World, unlike previously thought.

The study's researchers suggest the first group of people in the New World Arctic may have lived in near-isolation for more than 4,000 years because of a mindset that eschewed adopting new ideas. It remains a mystery why they ultimately died off, they added.

The first people in the Arctic of the Americas may have arrived about 6,000 years ago, crossing the Bering Strait from Siberia. The area was the last region of the New World that humans populated due to its harsh and frigid nature.

But the details of how the New World Arctic was peopled remain a mystery because the region's vast size and remoteness make it difficult to conduct research there. For example, it was unclear whether the Inuit people living there today and the cultures that preceded them were genetically the same people, or independent groups.

The scientists analyzed DNA from bone, teeth and hair samples collected from the remains of 169 ancient humans from Arctic Siberia, Alaska, Canada and Greenland. They also sequenced the complete genomes of seven modern-day people from the region for comparison.

Previous research suggested people in the New World Arctic could be divided into two distinct groups - the Paleo-Eskimos, who showed up first, and the Neo-Eskimos, who got there nearly 4,000 years later.
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Lizzie Dearden
The Independent
2014-08-26 11:59:00

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An experimental hypersonic weapon developed to reach targets anywhere in the world within an hour has been destroyed by the US military four seconds after its launch for "public safety". The test in Alaska in the early hours of Monday morning was aborted after controllers detected a problem with the system, the Pentagon said, and the launcher is believed to have detonated before the missile was deployed.

Witnesses watched the rocket lift off at around 12.30am local time, before quickly turning nose-down and exploding, KMXT radio reported. Scott Wight, who photographed the explosion from Cape Greville in Chiniak, about 12 miles from the launch site, described the explosion as quite loud and frightening, with a fire afterwards that burned brightly.

The weapon travels at several times the speed of sound and can reach speeds in excess of 3,500 miles-an-hour, or Mach 5. It is part of a programme aiming to create a missile able to hit anywhere on Earth within an hour of getting data and the permission to launch.
Comment: US tax dollars hard at work finding new and innovative ways to kill people.
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phys.org
2014-08-27 07:35:00

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The tectonic plate that dominates the Pacific "Ring of Fire" is not as rigid as many scientists assume, according to researchers at Rice University and the University of Nevada.

Rice geophysicist Richard Gordon and his colleague, Corné Kreemer, an associate professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, have determined that cooling of the lithosphere - the outermost layer of Earth - makes some sections of the Pacific plate contract horizontally at faster rates than others and cause the plate to deform.

Gordon said the effect detailed this month in Geology is most pronounced in the youngest parts of the lithosphere - about 2 million years old or less - that make up some the Pacific Ocean's floor. They predict the rate of contraction to be 10 times faster than older parts of the plate that were created about 20 million years ago and 80 times faster than very old parts of the plate that were created about 160 million years ago.

The tectonic plates that cover Earth's surface, including both land and seafloor, are in constant motion; they imperceptibly surf the viscous mantle below. Over time, the plates scrape against and collide into each other, forming mountains, trenches and other geological features.

On the local scale, these movements cover only inches per year and are hard to see. The same goes for deformations of the type described in the new paper, but when summed over an area the size of the Pacific plate, they become statistically significant, Gordon said.

The new calculations showed the Pacific plate is pulling away from the North American plate a little more - approximately 2 millimeters a year - than the rigid-plate theory would account for, he said. Overall, the plate is moving northwest about 50 millimeters a year.

"The central assumption in plate tectonics is that the plates are rigid, but the studies that my colleagues and I have been doing for the past few decades show that this central assumption is merely an approximation - that is, the plates are not rigid," Gordon said. "Our latest contribution is to specify or predict the nature and rate of deformation over the entire Pacific plate."


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Comment: There are other important factors to consider when studying tectonic plate movements, to increase our understanding of the subsequent seismic and volcanic activity, and also the formation of sinkholes (all of which are increasing at an alarming rate!), such as:

1. The slowdown of the Earth's rotation - causing mechanical stress on the crust.
2. Crustal slippage - the difference in rotation between the crust and mantle.
3. Reduction of the surface/core electric field.
4. Electromagnetism.

These factors, the Electric Universe theory, and much more are fully explained in Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection.

It is looking increasingly likely that electrical discharges may be causing recent strange phenomena, such as these glowing lights over the 'ring of fire' perhaps caused by the ignition ofleaking methane which may also be contributing to the discovery of thousands of dead fish which is becoming more common and unusual whale behaviour. 'Signs of the times' indeed!
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Earth Changes
Tara Brady
Daily Mail, UK
2014-05-27 12:42:00

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* Nanjiawan village in China has been dubbed the 'Invisible Fire Village'

* Lighting a cigarette or starting electrical equipment can be hazardous

* Locals called in priests at first believing they had been cursed by evil spirits

Methane gas is coming up from the ground in a village in China causing the air to burst into balls of fire.

The phenomenon is now so common that Nanjiawan village in south-west China has been dubbed the 'Invisible Fire Village'.

Lighting a cigarette or starting electrical equipment can have disastrous consequences.
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Richard Davies
floodlist.com
2014-08-28 15:36:00

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Around 36 hours of constant rainfall that began Tuesday 26 August 2014 caused flash flooding across Belgium including the provinces of Hainaut, Liege, Walloon Brabant and around the city of Brussels.

Hundreds of calls were made to local emergency services after homes and streets were flooded. The flooding caused chaos for motorists and at one point several motorways were also flooded, including the A8 and A12. In Brussels the tunnel road network was badly affected. The NATO, Montgomery and Arts-Loi tunnels were all flooded and closed to traffic at some point.

A family had to be evacuated from their flooded home in the Ath municipality in the province of Hainaut. No injuries were reported.

Rainfall Levels

Figures from WMO for a 24 hour period between 26 and 27 August 2014:

* Chievres - 53 mm

* Semmerzake - 56 mm

* Koksijde - 59 mm

Belgium saw some severe flooding in late July when heavy rain inundated wide areas of northern Europe. Two people died in the floods in Germany.


View on Sott.net
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Alice Philipson
The Telegraph, UK
2014-08-17 15:12:00

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Britain's sea birds are under threat, experts have warned, after an "unprecedented" 40,000 were found to have died in this year's storms.

Three times the average number of guillemots were killed on Skomer Island, Wales, one of the country's most important havens for seabirds, as they struggled to find enough to eat in turbulent seas.

Professor Tim Birkhead, of the University of Sheffield's Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, said that a "run of storms" and "high mortality" would mean seabird populations will start to decrease.

The warning comes after a spell of extreme weather from mid-December to early January that caused a succession of major winter storms, bringing widespread chaos to the UK.

The unpredictable weather continued earlier this month as Hurricane Bertha brought further rain and storms, with nearly the entire average rainfall for August falling in just the first half of the month.
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Betty Yu
KPIX 5
2014-08-27 00:11:00

View on Sott.net


Several people called the KPIX 5 newsroom after Sunday morning's magnitude 6.0 earthquake in Napa, reporting mysterious flashes of light in the sky. Witnesses said the strange phenomenon looked like lightning.

Similar flashes of light have been reported in earthquakes around the world, from Japan to Peru.

Friedemann Freund, a scientist with the SETI Institute in Mountain View, said the same thing happened during Sunday morning's earthquake. And it wasn't a transformer blowing up or UFOs.

"What they are, are a consequence of the stresses building up deep below the earth, seven miles like in the case of the Napa Valley earthquake," Freund told KPIX 5.

He calls the phenomenon "earthquake lights," the quick buildup of stress that causes an electric current to flow to the surface and burst through the earth. This typically happens before or during an earthquake.
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BBC
2014-08-28 15:11:00

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At least six people have died and 21 others are missing after a landslide struck a village in south-west China.

China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported that more than 70 houses in the village in Guizhou province were destroyed.

It also said, quoting officials, that 22 people were injured and had been transferred to hospitals for treatment.

The landslide was believed to have been caused by a breach from a small reservoir, state broadcaster CCTV said.


View on Sott.net
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Alana Fearon
Irish Mirror
2014-08-27 14:01:00

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Last winter was the stormiest on record, climatologists have revealed. Weather buffs used detailed atmospheric charts to rate winter storms dating as far as 1871.

And they discovered that last year's gales were the stormiest on record.

Dr Tom Matthews, Dr Conor Murphy and Shaun Harrigan from NUI Maynooth's Irish Climate Analysis and Research Units teamed up with Professor Rob Wilby from Loughborough University in the UK to analyse winter storminess over the North Atlantic for the last six decades - and as far back as the winter of 1871 in Ireland.

And the results showed that last year's was the windiest.
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Simon Black
Sovereignman.com
2014-08-26 14:56:00

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A few days ago I had a conversation with the Chief Operating Officer for our agricultural fund in Chile. We were discussing water, and he told me that roughly 60% of California right now is suffering "extreme drought" conditions. 30% of the state is in "severe drought". And 10% of the state is only under "drought".

In other words, roughly the entire state - the 8th largest economy in the world - is facing a severe shortage of water. But if you think that's bad, China is about to take over the spotlight yet again. A study by China's Ministry of Water Resources found that approximately 55% of China's 50,000 rivers that existed in the 1990s have disappeared. Moreover, China is over-exploiting its groundwater by 22 billion cubic meters per year; yet its per-capita water consumption is less than one third of the global average.

This is astounding data. More than 400 major cities in China are short of water, with some 110 facing "serious scarcity". Beijing and other northern cities get most of their water from underground aquifers. Over the last five decades, China has had to drill increasingly deeper to gain access to water.

Another challenge China faces is logistics. More than 60% of China's water is in the southern part of the country, but most of the usage is in the north and along the coastlines. When you consider that this is a country that has almost one fifth of the world's population and is soon to become the world's biggest economy, this is rapidly becoming a global problem.
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RT
2014-08-28 03:46:00
Icelandic volcano activity increased on Wednesday, with scientists detecting 10-15 meters deep cauldrons of melted ice at the Vatnajökull glacier, prompting fears of an imminent eruption.

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Icelandic scientists have detected a series of 10-15m deep cauldrons at Bardarbunga volcano glacier. They apparently are a result of melting following a sub-glacial eruption, the Icelandic Civil Protection Scientific Advisory Board reported. A surveillance flight over the surface of Vatnajokull has shown the cauldrons to be 1 km wide, located in a straight line some 4-6 kilometers south of the Bardarbunga caldera.
The 10-15 m deep cauldrons, 1 km wide, south of the #Bárðarbunga caldera. Picture by https://t.co/ZiKocZlLJSpic.twitter.com/lSLWDJZnEO
- Almannavarnir (@almannavarnir) August 28, 2014
"The cauldrons have been formed as a result of melting, possibly a sub-glacial eruption, uncertain when," country's Meteorological Office said, pointing out that the data is still being analyzed.

"During the night (Wednesday) we have had three larger events, two of them in the Bardarbunga caldera. Those were 5.2 and 5.3, and very similar to the events that we have seen there before," Palmi Erlendsson, a geologist at the Met Office told the country's RTE news.

At the same time, scientists have registered more than 1,300 earthquakes since midnight Wednesday. Meanwhile 50km to the north, a 4.5 magnitude quake shook the Askja volcano, presumably because magma from Bardarbunga crater is traveling in that direction.
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kentonline.co.uk
2014-08-26 12:30:00

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Sky-spotters were stunned to see a large tornado forming over Kent this afternoon.

Onlookers grabbed their cameras after spotting what appeared to be a twister in the skies over Dymchurch, on Romney Marsh.

The funnel cloud - technically not a tornado because it did not touch the ground - was snapped from a caravan park and elsewhere in the town.

Pictures of the would-be tornado of rapidly rotating air were posted on Twitter by Jayne Theo and Steve McGarrigle.

Holidaymaker Jayne said: "On holiday this week in Dymchurch and saw this little twister forming this afternoon!"

And Steve posted: "Wow spotted mini tornados in the sky at Dymchurch."

A funnel cloud is made up of condensed water droplets that becomes a tornado on contact with the ground.


View on Sott.net
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Joel Landau
NY Daily News
2014-08-21 13:22:00
Thousands of Velella velella, also known as 'by-the-wind sailors' have been appearing on the beach from Washington to Southern California. The organisms are usually only found in the middle of the ocean, and the phenomenon has drawn a lot of excitement as people have been discovering them for the first time.

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Thousands of members of a mysterious and rarely seen sea creature have begun popping up on the California shore, creating new attention to the jelly-like species.

Velella velella, a blue sea creature that bears some resemblance of a jellyfish, is about the size of a hand and usually remains in the water. They can be seen washed ashore in this CNN video.

But a shift in the currents and winds have brought thousands of them onto the West Coast this summer, creating an excitement over an animal of the ocean that is usually kept hidden from the public.
Comment: Something strange and worrying is definitely going on, since Velella velella is only one out of many mysterious and rare creatures that were either caught or spotted in the recent times:Creatures from the deep signal major Earth Changes: Is anyone paying attention?
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Andy Rathbun
St. Paul Pioneer Press
2014-08-13 10:50:00

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It was a fun time at the lake -- until the otter arrived.

After spending about an hour swimming with friends in Bone Lake near Luck, Wis., on Saturday, Rory Kliewer began to climb a ladder onto a dock when she suddenly felt something bite her backside and thigh.

"I thought it was a northern pike," the 12-year-old Minneapolis girl said Wednesday. "I thought a fish was after me."

As she threw the creature off of her, she realized that the animal was an otter -- later estimated at 3 1/2 feet long and about 40 pounds.

"It was a big, nasty one," said Rory, who had been staying at a friend's family cabin over the weekend.

The otter then bit Rory's head and pulled itself onto her, scratching her face.


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Comment: There appears to have been a spate of unusually aggressive animal attacks on humans of late including some by species normally thought of as being wary and retiring when encountering people, see also: Giant anteaters kill Brazilian hunters!

Bear attacks kill at least three people with many others injured in Siberia and far-east Russia

Boy and grandmother attacked and injured by river otter on Pilchuck River, Washington

Paddling family of three attacked by a beaver in Austria

400 pound alligator attacks 9-year-old boy, Florida

Crocodile kills fisherman in front of his wife in Northern Territory, Australia

Man mauled by bear in Italian wood

The interested reader might wish to look at the chart below for animal events over the period 2007 to the present, which include reports of not only mass die-offs and strange behaviour but also includes abnormal migrations and gatherings. Note that the number of records this year have already surpassed the 2013 total.


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ABC News
2014-08-25 07:39:00

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An Indiana couple's backyard turned into a huge sinkhole -- and it was unclear over who was responsible to fix it.

The sinkhole in Frank and Letitia Casto's yard used to be about four feet wide and six feet deep. It now measures about 40 feet wide and 30 feet deep.

"It just keeps dropping and swallowing trees, and this is where we are at," Letitia Casto told ABC News station WLS.

The hole was initially filled with rocks and covered with grass, but it kept growing, swallowing up trees.

"We've been complaining to different people for all this time, and everybody just keeps kind of ignoring us," Frank Casto told WLS. "It could have been a little problem, but it's turned into a monster, at this point."


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Jon Coghill and Rob Blackmore
abc.net.au
2014-08-27 10:16:00

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The Sunshine Coast played host to a handful of odd and rare animals after last weekend's deluge. Marine biologist Julian Pepperell was called on to investigate. 

Sunshine Coast locals have noticed a plethora of strange creatures washed up on beaches and lost from home.

Red stinky blob

Debbie Higgs of Mt Coolum found a "weird red blob-like creature" on Mudjimba Beach.

"It's 25cms long roughly. It's oval-shaped, frilly and it's got a peculiar pattern down its back. [It was] cold, squishy and had that really gluggy type feeling like a jellyfish. It had vibrant dark red around it in a frill," she said.

"When I found it, it was still pulsing. I didn't want to touch it in case it was poisonous. I've never seen anything like it.

Debbie says she put a photo on twitter and linked it to Instagram and "suddenly all these people started contacting me."

Since, the story has been published worldwide.

"We contacted a museum and we've been told it's a Spanish dancer usually found in Indian waters or off Bali," Debbie said.

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arctic-news.blogspot.co.uk
2014-08-19 09:18:00

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High methane concentrations have been showing up over Beaufort Sea over the past few days, as shown on the image above. This follows the recent high methane concentrations over the East Siberian Sea.

The persistent character of these very high methane concentrations over the Arctic Oceanindicates that methane has started to erupt from clathrates under the seabed, triggered by very warm water reaching the bottom of the Arctic Ocean.


Comment: Perhaps the true trigger is seismic activity, which then also warms the water at the bottom of the ocean, see : Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, sinkholes and flooding all in one: Iceland examines Bardarbunga volcano 'cauldrons'


Methane eruptions from hydrates in sediments under the Arctic Ocean helped mean methane levels reach new records, with mean global methane readings as high as 1835 parts per billion recorded at several altitudes on August 17, 2014.
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Prithvijit Mitra
The Times of India
2014-08-26 12:30:00

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Are climate change fears coming true in the Sunderbans? An unexpected high tide has left a major portion of Sagar Island flooded, leaving environmentalists worried about its future.

Sea water gushed into the island through Muriganga river on July 14, causing extensive damage to crops and destroying homes. Around 10 villages were affected and they continue to be submerged by the untimely rise in water level, which could have been triggered by a change in climate in the region, fear experts.

It is usually the shara-sharir baan (neap tide) that hits Sunderbans twice a year - in April and September. But it rarely triggers a flood. This sudden influx of water was not neap tide, say locals and experts. It was much fiercer and struck at least two months ahead of the neap tide, they say.
Comment: Climate change may be the answer, yet extremes in weather may not be the best explanation. Strange events are happening in the worlds oceans, such as Major seismic event imminent ? Strange glowing lights seen by pilots over part of the Pacific Ring of Fire and massive aquatic life die off. Geological events such as underwater volcanos or other explanations such as methane explosions and a changing planet may point to a better assessment of what might have caused the unusual and unseasonal tide.
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Fire in the Sky
Libby Wilson
stuff.co.nz
2014-08-28 16:47:00

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A "massive bang" between Dinsdale and Whatawhata has puzzled and shaken residents. About 7.30pm on Wednesday, the noise startled residents in rural Rowe and Bowman Rds, near the Taitua Arboretum.

It's been described as like a sonic boom, "a heck of a bang" and left some wondering if a P lab had exploded or a meteor had crash landed.

Rowe Rd resident Janice Fischer remained mystified.

"It sounded like a bomb blast," she said.

"It sounded like a car had driven and hit our roof."

She and her husband nervously headed outside for a look.
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The New Zealand Herald
2014-08-28 04:38:00

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A large meteor has been seen flying through the sky across New Zealand tonight.

The burning ball of space rock was spotted from locations throughout the country, including the West Coast, Auckland, Christchurch, Upper Hutt, Palmerston North, Napier and Nelson.

Many of those who sighted the meteor described it as large with a colourful tail, streaking across the sky about 6pm.

"[I] saw brilliant blue meteorite with long tail travel east to west across the northern sky. It seemed like fireworks at first and appeared close," Richard from north Canterbury posted on the WeatherWatch meteor watch website.

Another witness, Michelle, said: "Very large, beautiful meteor sighted over Napier, New Zealand aprox 6pm."

Steven said: "Very bright white light,showing the signs of a classic small meteor fly across Christchurch."
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Health & Wellness
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
2014-08-26 00:00:00

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CDC Director Thomas Frieden, who is in Liberia to assess the Ebola outbreak, said today the contagion is "even worse than we'd feared."

"This is an absolute emergency," Frieden told WSB Radio in a phone interview this morning. "We have never seen anything on this scale with Ebola before. Unfortunately, this situation is going to get worse before it gets better. We've not yet turned the tide. The outbreak is ahead of our response."

Frieden, who heads the Atlanta-based U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Liberia desperately needs to set up treatment centers across the country that can safely handle Ebola patients, giving the patients a chance to survive and also keeping them out of the community, where they can spread the virus to others.

"We've seen patients with Ebola with nowhere to go, an increasing number of corpses put onto the street," Frieden said. "A whole system of picking up and cremating corpses has had to be developed."

Cremation, which was not culturally acceptable in Liberia before the outbreak, is now widespread practice, the CDC chief said.

The death toll in Liberia and neighboring Guinea and Sierra Leone now stands at 1,427, the World Health Organization said, with total infections of about 2,600 since the outbreak was identified in March.
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Agence France-Presse
2014-08-08 00:00:00

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Li Luming carefully straightens a table cloth in his empty restaurant in Sierra Leone's capital as he laments the damage Ebola has done to business.

It is a pointless gesture -- the table, like dozens in the "Beijing Restaurant", has not been used for weeks -- but it is important to keep going, to show the staff that it's "business as usual".

A favourite of locals and Chinese expatriates alike for more than a decade, the restaurant has seen just a handful of customers since June.

"With Ebola, everyone is afraid. No one wants to go out," 50-year-old Li tells AFP at the 70-cover eaterie in Freetown's Murray Town district.

Li has been in the capital for two decades but, like many entrepreneurs in the once-thriving and influential Chinese community, he is thinking of packing it in and heading back home.

"Before Ebola, all the Chinese and some foreigners came here to eat. Now nobody comes. We have no customers. We may have to close," he says.

Ebola, a virulent tropical haemorrhagic fever, has claimed almost 1,500 lives since the start of the year in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Nigeria.

Eastern Sierra Leone has been particularly hard-hit, but a death in Freetown has spread fear that the capital could be in line for a wave of cases.
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The Nation
2014-08-27 00:00:00

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A second World Health Organisation (WHO) staff member has been infected with Ebola in West Africa and will be evacuated to Germany, health officials said Wednesday. The announcement comes a day after the WHO shut a laboratory in Sierra Leone, after a Senegalese epidemiologist was infected with the deadly virus.

The unnamed WHO worker will be treated in a university hospital in Hamburg-Eppendorf, hospital spokesman Rico Schmidt told dpa.

The patient was expected to land in the northern city of Hamburg Wednesday and be transferred to the hospital in an isolated emergency vehicle.

It was unclear in which West African country the WHO worker had been infected with the virus.

The Ebola death toll across West Africa had risen to 1,427 by August23, according to the WHO, with a total of 2,615 suspected or confirmed cases in the region.
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Indepedent.ie
2014-08-25 00:00:00

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Japanese officials are ready to provide an anti-flu drug as a potential treatment to fight the rapidly-expanding Ebola outbreak.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that Japan can offer the favipiravir tablet, developed by a subsidiary of Fujifilm Holdings, any time at the request of the World Health Organisation.

The drug, developed by Fujifilm subsidiary Toyama Chemical to treat novel and re-emerging influenza viruses, was approved by the Japanese health ministry in March.

Fujifilm spokesman Takao Aoki said ebola and influenza viruses are the same type and theoretically similar effects can be expected on Ebola.

He said the drug has also proved effective in lab experiments on mice.

Fujifilm said it has favipiravir stock for more than 20,000 patients.

The company is also in talks with the US Food and Drug Administration on clinical testing of the drug in treating Ebola.
Comment: Well, There is a alternative treatment that may work.

Scientists stumble across the obvious treatment for Ebola: tobacco
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Melissa Melton
truthstreammedia.com
2014-08-28 15:42:00

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Some very damning evidence has come forward that the ingredient triclosan, originally registered as a pesticide but used in more modern times in a wide array of hygiene products, is an endocrine disruptor that may also cause other health issues like cancer, thyroid dysfunction, and infertility just to name a few.

Now that this has come to light, Colgate still refuses to remove the compound from its number one best-selling toothpaste, Total. After all, the company spent $38 million dollars and ten years getting it approved. In fact, Colgate continues to laud its FDA approval for Total some 17 years ago, while the FDA says that even though more studies have shown up in the meantime that merit further review (you know, whenever they get around to that), the agency does admit, "Animal studies have shown that triclosan alters hormone regulation." But FDA goes on to say, "However, data showing effects in animals don't always predict effects in humans."
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ScienceDaily
2014-08-28 15:53:00

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A person's home is their castle, and they populate it with their own subjects: millions and millions of bacteria.

A study published tomorrow in Science provides a detailed analysis of the microbes that live in houses and apartments. The study was conducted by researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago.

The results shed light on the complicated interaction between humans and the microbes that live on and around us. Mounting evidence suggests that these microscopic, teeming communities play a role in human health and disease treatment and transmission.

"We know that certain bacteria can make it easier for mice to put on weight, for example, and that others influence brain development in young mice," said Argonne microbiologist Jack Gilbert, who led the study. "We want to know where these bacteria come from, and as people spend more and more time indoors, we wanted to map out the microbes that live in our homes and the likelihood that they will settle on us.

"They are essential for us to understand our health in the 21st century," he said.

The Home Microbiome Project followed seven families, which included eighteen people, three dogs and one cat, over the course of six weeks. The participants in the study swabbed their hands, feet and noses daily to collect a sample of the microbial populations living in and on them. They also sampled surfaces in the house, including doorknobs, light switches, floors and countertops.
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Rick D
eatlocalgrown.com
2014-08-28 14:45:00

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As concerns about health epidemics plague the nation, demand and sales of diet soda have plunged as consumers try to make better choices. As we reported yesterday, aspartame - the main sweetener for diet soda - is one of the most dangerous ingredients used in our food supply, causing seizures and a host of other health issues.

In a new study done over ten years and sampling 60,000 women, it was shown that women who drink two or more diet drinks a day have much higher cardiovascular disease rates and are more likely to die from the disease.
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eplettner
ireportcnn.com
2014-08-24 14:02:00

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CDC Whistleblower William Thomas has released a formal statement confirming the original study found a link between MMR and Autism, especially in African American and that the CDC hid the results.

A top researcher at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr William Thompson, admits he played a key role in helping uncover data manipulation by the CDC. This fraud obscured a higher incidence of autism in African-American boys due to the MMR vaccine. The whistleblower, Dr. William Thompson, came forward after a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for original data on an autism study was filed and these highly sensitive documents were received with the assistance of U.S. Representative Darrell Issa, Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The CDC documents and discussions with the whistleblower reveal widespread manipulation of scientific data and top-down pressure on CDC scientists to suppress a causal link between the MMR vaccine and later autism diagnosis, particularly in a subset of African-American males who received their immunization "on-time" in accordance with the recommended CDC schedule.

The received documents from the CDC show that in 2003 a 340% risk of autism in African American boys related to the MMR vaccine was discovered and then hidden due to pressure from senior officials. The CDC researchers then recalculated their results by removing a population to get the results that were desired. Even with the recalculated data from the original report a significant risk of autism due to the MMR is found and can be seen in the IOM presentation of the original study, highlighted on page 29 and 31 [PDF].
Comment: The MMR vaccine - Autism controversy has been ongoing for years, William Thompson is just the most recent whistleblower to shed light on the truly inhumane policies, regarding vaccinations, at the CDC. Read the following links to learn more:


Comment from article above:

If you have heard about the controversy, then you have heard about Andrew Wakefield who has been the most blamed doctor for any mistrust in the MMR vaccine. He published a study linking MMR with autism and bowel disease. His reputation was basically destroyed for daring to speak out the truth with what amounts to bullying. He was accused of the very things the Establishment was doing (conflict of interest, "crimes against humanity") instead of any real science at all. All at the expense of our children.

For more information, see:


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Seth Borenstein
Associated Press
2014-08-28 14:04:00

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Stephen Gire and other health researchers on the ground in Africa had some hope that the Ebola outbreak was coming under control or at least plateauing in late May. Then came the funeral of a healer in Guinea. More than a dozen of the mourners contracted the disease there, probably by washing or touching the body, and took it to Sierra Leone, according to a new DNA mapping of the Ebola virus that scientists hope will help them understand what makes this killer tick.

"You had this huge burst after it looked like the outbreak was starting to die down," Gire said. "It sort of threw a wrench in the response."

Ebola exploded after that funeral and has now killed at least 1,552 people in West Africa. It's probably more than that, with 40 percent of the cases in the last three weeks, according to the World Health Organization. WHO officials said Thursday the outbreak continues to accelerate and could reach more than 20,000 cases eventually.

Gire and more than 50 colleagues - five of whom died from Ebola while fighting the outbreak in Africa - have mapped the genetic code of this strain of Ebola, and in so doing showed how crucial that May funeral was. They hope to use that to track mutations that could become more worrisome the longer the outbreak lasts. This detailed genetic mapping also could eventually make a bit of a difference in the way doctors spot and fight the disease, especially with work in preliminary vaccines.

On Thursday, officials at the National Institutes of Health announced that they were launching safety trials on a preliminary vaccine for Ebola. Researchers have already checked that still-not-tested vaccine against some of the more than 350 mutations in this strain of Ebola to make sure the changes the disease is making won't undercut science's hurried efforts to fight it, said Pardis Sabeti, a scientist at Harvard University and its affiliated Broad Institute.


Comment: Don't hold your breath. See Facilitating mutations: On the cusp of an Ebola vaccine.


She and Gire, also at Broad and Harvard, are two of the lead authors of a study, published Thursday in the journal Science, that maps the killer disease strain based on specimens collected from 78 patients.

The virus has mutated more than 300 times from previous strains of Ebola, Gire said. Researchers have also pinpointed about 50 places in the genetic code where the virus has changed since this outbreak started. So far, they don't know what any of those mutations mean, but they hope to find out.
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ITAR-TASS
2014-08-28 09:15:00

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The number of people infected with the Ebola virus may surpass 20,000, the World Health Organization said on Thursday.


"The outbreak continues to accelerate. More than 40% of the total number of cases have occurred within the past 21 days," the UN health agency said in its roadmap plan issued to deal with the outbreak.

The total number of probable and confirmed cases in the current Ebola outbreak in the four affected countries (Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone) is 3,069, with 1,552 deaths, the WHO reported.
Comment: Whether or not these assumptions are true, prepping your diet, utilizing cold protocols, and learning other techniques for staying as healthy as possible are all good steps to take.
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RT
2014-08-26 11:19:00

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A new study reveals that states where medical marijuana is legal experience around one-quarter fewer deaths from prescription drug overdoses, signaling perhaps a small victory for proponents of pot's alleged pain-alleviating powers.

According to the study published in the latest installment of JAMA Internal Medicine, the 13 states in America that have legalized the use of medical marijuana for patients with valid prescriptions see a 24.8 percent lower annual opioid overdose rate that those where weed can't legally be offered to treat ailments.

Dr. Marcus A. Bachhuber of the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center writes in the study that
"States that implemented medical marijuana laws appear to have lower annual opioid analgesic overdoses death rates (both from prescription pain killers and illicit drugs such as heroin) than states without such laws,"
but acknowledged that the exact reason isn't quite clear at this point.
Comment: While medical marijuana is helpful for many people who suffer a great pain from various heavy illnesses, masses tend to use it for recreation and enjoyment which actually dumbs them down, resulting in even greater ignorance of the reality of a world ruled by psychopaths.

See also: Now New York State is planning to let people smoke marijuana - what's going on?
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Japantimes.co.jp
2014-08-28 12:33:00

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The health ministry said Wednesday it has confirmed that someone has contracted dengue fever while in Japan for the first time in nearly 70 years.

A Japanese teen in Saitama Prefecture with no record of overseas travel ran a high fever late this month and was hospitalized in the city of Saitama. Her condition is stable, the ministry said.

Around 200 Japanese are infected with the viral disease while traveling overseas annually, but no domestic infection had been confirmed since 1945, according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.

It's likely a mosquito caused the infection, probably by previously biting someone who caught the virus overseas, the ministry said.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, in confirming the report, said Wednesday that the news was not cause for alarm because the illness is not transmitted directly from person to person.

Sufferers are struck with a sudden fever around three to seven days after transmission, accompanied by head and muscle pains and a rash. Most sufferers have mild symptoms, but some may develop bleeding gums or nosebleeds.
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Clarence Roy-Macaulay
Associated Press
2014-08-27 08:47:00

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A third top doctor has died from Ebola in Sierra Leone, a government official said Wednesday, as health workers tried to determine how a fourth scientist also contracted the disease before being evacuated to Europe.

The announcements raised worries about Sierra Leone's fight against Ebola, which already has killed more than 1,400 people across West Africa. The World Health Organization said it was sending a team to investigate how the epidemiologist now undergoing treatment in Germany may have contracted the disease that kills more than half its victims.


Comment: Technically that's true. Killing 90% of people who contract it is in fact more than half. Notice how they are still playing that down? Why not contrast that with H1N1, the little epidemic that could-------n't hurt a fly. Remember all the grave scare mongering? Why aren't they scare mongering now? Ladies and gentlemen, meet the dog that didn't bark.

H1N1 Pandemic Virus Does Not Mutate Into 'Superbug' in Lab Study

H1N1 Death Cluster In Greater Manchester Increases To 12 Ahh, the good old days. You remember when 12 was an epidemic? The cases are now up to 3,000+ with 1,500 DEAD.

Scare Tactics: Ten Dead as H1N1 Flu Returns to Britain

H1N1 Vaccines Too Little, Too Late; Most People Already Exposed and Immune

This is the real deal. The boy has cried wolf too many times? No, it's obviously an attempt to conceal the fact that they wasted all that time and money meant for working on real epidemic procedures to scare monger. Now they've been caught with their pants down.


"The international surge of health workers is extremely important and if something happens, if health workers get infected and it scares off other international health workers from coming, we will be in dire straits," said Christy Feig, director of WHO communications.

Dr. Sahr Rogers had been working at a hospital in the eastern town of Kenema when he contracted Ebola, said Sierra Leonean presidential adviser Ibrahim Ben Kargbo on Wednesday. Two other top doctors already have succumbed to Ebola since the outbreak emerged there earlier this year, including Dr. Sheik Humarr Khan, who also treated patients in Kenema.
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Nina Teicholz
The Independent
2014-08-26 05:18:00

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The science linking saturated fats to heart disease and other health issues has never been sound. Nina Teicholz looks at how governments started advising incorrectly on diets.

When Ronald M Krauss decided, in 2000, to review all the evidence purporting to show that saturated fats cause heart disease, he knew that he was putting his professional career at risk. Krauss is one of the top nutrition experts in the United States, director of atherosclerosis research at Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute and adjunct professor of nutritional studies at the University of San Francisco at Berkley. But challenging one of his field's most sacrosanct beliefs - that the fats in meat, cheese and butter are bad for health - was a near-heretical act.

A few years earlier, when a colleague of Krauss's had merely tried to speak about his positive findings regarding the high-fat Atkins diet, he was met with jeers and derision. One member of the audience yelled "I am absolutely disgusted that the [government] would waste my money on a study on the Atkins diet" - to the applause of many.

Challenging any of the conventional wisdom on dietary fat has long been a form of professional suicide for nutrition experts. And saturated fats, especially, are the third rail. But Krauss persevered and concluded in 2010, after reviewing all the scientific literature, that saturated fats could not be said to cause heart disease. In March, another group of scientists, including faculty from Cambridge and Harvard, came to the same conclusion after conducting a similar "meta-analysis". These were stunning results. It seemed that saturated fat, our principal dietary culprit for decades, had been unfairly convicted.

Yet the truth is there never has been solid evidence that these fats cause disease. We only believe this to be true because nutrition policy was derailed over the past half-century by personal ambition, bad science, politics, and bias.
Comment: This is what happens when politics, science and biased thinking goes together. It's not a secret that agriculture and food industy have been lobbying and corrupting the food guidelines and the science behind it. A century ago it was common knowledge that too much carbohydrates are bad for you. Then we bought the lies and now we're paying high price with global health epidemics like type II diabetes, not to mention all the other autoimmune/inflammatory diseases. A ketogenic paleo diet is the way to go if you want to take care of your health. Check out these other articles to get more valuable information:
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Science of the Spirit
The Unknown Country
2014-08-28 15:16:00

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Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have made an astonishing breakthrough: they believe that they now have the ability to erase feelings of fear or anxiety.The researchers discovered which brain circuits attach emotions to memories but, more importantly, they worked out how to reverse this link.

Traumatic experiences can have a profound and negative effect that leaves people emotionally scarred for life, but neuroscientists believe that it may now be possible for them to erase residual feelings of trauma. This could benefit those suffering from depression or post-traumatic stress disorder and remove the need for strong medication.

The findings of the study, which was published this week in the journal Nature, suggested that feelings of fear were erased in previously traumatised mice, and researchers think that it may be possible for the same technique to be used in humans.

"In our day to day lives we encounter a variety of events and episodes that give positive or negative impact to our emotions," said Susuma Tonegawa, Professor of Biology and Neuroscience at the Riken-MIT Centre for Neural Circuit Genetics."If you are mugged late at night in a dark alley you are terrified and have a strong fear memory and never want to go back to that alley.

"On the other hand if you have a great vacation, say on a Caribbean island, you also remember it for your lifetime and repeatedly recall that memory to enjoy the experience.

"So emotions are intimately associated with memory of past events. And yet the emotional value of the memory is malleable. Recalling a memory is not like playing a tape recorder. Rather it is like a creative process.

"The circuits seem to be very similar between human and mice when it comes to memory formations and the emotions of memories. So a similar technology could be available for humans."
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W. Keith Campbell
The Independent
2014-08-28 13:40:00

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There was once a young man named Narcissus who was so vain that he fell in love with his own reflection in the water and died. In some versions of the mythological tale from Ancient Greece, Narcissus was transformed into a flower that today carries the name narcissus, or daffodil.

Like the flower, narcissism has continued to flourish in modern culture. "Selfie" was awarded word of the year in 2013 by the Oxford Dictionary. Capturing an image of oneself - once the purview of despondent artists - has become an international pastime. Even politicians rode the trend taking selfies at memorial services. Celebrities continued to be, well, celebrated as well. Miley Cyrus ended 2013 as the most searched person on Google, with Drake and Kim Kardashian coming in at the number two and three spots. Between them they have more "followers" than the population of an average country. And, as both Miley Cyrus's career trajectory and research findings suggest, the importance of fame is more prominent than ever before.
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N Morgan
Before It's News
2014-08-27 11:22:00
In the quest for knowledge in regards to the afterlife, one of the things I have noticed is that most paranormal activity happens in places where there was a lot of pain and negativity. Places which have been imprinted by the the living that once dwelled there and now haunt the location.

In one such place, Old Licking Country Jail, paranormal investigators uncover some strange occurrences on the second floor cell block, the horrifying results will shock you. Resonance Paranormal begin with some of the historic presentation from our tour guide about Carl Etherington who is known to haunt this area. Newark was a corrupt town who's economy depended on illegal sales of alcohol. Carl was a "dry agent" who visited Newark to help clean up the city. However, he got involved in a fight with an ex-police officer (who had quit his job to get involved with more profitable alcohol sales and brothels).


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High Strangeness
Eygló Svala Arnarsdóttir
Iceland Review Online
2014-08-25 11:58:00

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Lagarfljótsormurinn, the giant serpent rumored to inhabit the lake Lagarfljót near Egilsstaðir in East Iceland truly exists, as announced on Saturday by the majority of a 13-person truth commission established in 2012 by the Fljótsdalshérað municipal council.

The commission was given the task of determining whether a video of the alleged monster shot by Hjörtur E. Kjerúlf, which went viral, was authentic and whether he was entitled to a prize of ISK 500,000 (USD 4,300, EUR 3,300).

"I was told about the commission's conclusion and I'd like to say that I'm extremely pleased to confirm that the majority of the commission was right," Hjörtur told austurfrett.is.

While concluding that Hjörtur's video was authentic, the commission determined that a photo shot by Sigurður Aðalsteinsson, who had also made claim to the prize money, did not show the actual serpent.
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Don't Panic! Lighten Up!
RT
2014-08-27 05:58:00

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With their unique and breathtaking pyro-music performance a Russian fireworks company from Kaliningrad has won the "Olympic prize in pyrotechnics" at an international fireworks festival in Cannes.

The Russian team's performance watched by over 200,000 spectators won over the jury by combining tradition and innovation. The magic of Khan pyrotechnic company from Kaliningrad bewitched all members of the jury with a sophisticated and unique show full of intensity called Black swan.

In their concept, the Russian designers explained that their performance set out to create "deep emotions aroused both by the legendary music of Tchaikovsky and enchanting fireworks, while revealing the exceptional grace and beauty of the black swan."

"Black swan is far from being a symbol of sorrow. Maybe one of them will grant you good luck!" Khan says.


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