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Laura Knight-Jadczyk
Sott.net 2014-09-05 06:05:00
Two days ago, following French president Hollande's announcement that France would not deliver the Mistral warship that was bought, paid for (and partially built) by Russia, I wrote on my Facebook page: "Today, I am surfeited with the insanity on this planet. I left the US because of the madness there, Bush invading Iraq; now, the contagion seems to have spread everywhere." I wasn't just saying that for effect, I was definitely plunged into a black hole of despair at the realization that there really isn't a single leader of any so-called civilized Western country, who had two neurons firing and an ounce of conscience. | |
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Dave Urbanski
Theblaze.com 2014-09-05 13:05:00
There's no author name, it's just attributed to a longtime Capitol Hill staffer. There are no references to political parties or elected officials, either. No names at all, in fact. And that just may be why this "I quit" email may resonate with a polarized country that has agreed for a long time on at least one thing: Congress by and large isn't doing a great job. Dated May 9, 2014 with the subject line "Not So Fond Farewell," the screed was posted by Jezebelblog writer Archibald Perkins, who said it was sent by "a friend of mine, a long-time Hill staffer and policywonk" who gave permission to publish the email as long as revealing information was omitted. The alleged ex-staffer kicked things off by noting the high probability that no one noticed that he or she had quit the day before. Then the expletives start flying. "I've been in this business for almost 20 years, and I've put up with a lot of s**t. I know that's not a surprise, but the s**t I've endured is its own level of crazy. I've f***ing had it." | |
Comment: "In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way." Franklin D. Roosevelt
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RT
2014-09-05 14:03:00
Argentina's Senate has passed a law that will let the country continue paying off its default debt by transferring international bond payments from New York to local banks, which would let other investors buy Argentine debt. The scheme, to get around a US judge's order to immediately pay back $1.6 billion to "vulture" hedge funds in Manhattan, is the initiative of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. The bill passed by a vote 39 to 27. The initiative proposes to begin challenging payments through third parties, and allowing them to trade their bonds for new debt issued under Argentine law. Argentina's state Banco de la Nacion could become the trustee for payments, replacing the Bank of New York Mellon. Another proposal is to make Paris a main destination for debt payments. According to Argentina's Chief of cabinet ministers, Jorge Capitanich, there are already several investors interested. "There is obviously willingness among many creditors, or bondholders, to participate in the sovereign debt payment law, in order to get the money that is owed to them," Capitanich told reporters on Friday. | |
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Jennifer Pompi
Washingtontimes.com 2014-09-04 16:33:00
Under President Obama, the richest 10 percent were the only income group of Americans to see their median incomes rise, according to a survey released this week by the Federal Reserve. The Fed data covered the years 2010-2013, during which period Mr. Obama constantly campaigned against income inequality and won re-election by painting his Republican rival as a tool of Wall Street plutocrats. "Data from the 2013 Survey of Consumer Finances confirm that the shares of income and wealth held by affluent families are at modern historically high levels," the report said in noting that the median income fell for every 10-percent grouping except the most affluent 10 percent. "The 2013 SCF reveals substantial disparities in the evolution of income and net worth since the previous time the survey was conducted, in 2010," the report stated. The SCF is conducted by the Federal reserve triennially and compiles information about family incomes, credit use, net worth and finances. | |
Comment: Most Americans are struggling to get by while trillions of dollars are being brought together under a very small fraction of the population - the 1%. Welcome to the Pathocracy!
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RT
2014-09-05 15:54:00
Russian consumer watchdog Rospotrebnadzor has suspended all confectionery imports from Ukraine after discovering two Ukrainian companies broke consumer protection laws. "In order to ensure the rights of consumers, starting September 5 Rospotrebnadzor is suspending the import of confectionary goods produced in Ukraine to the Russian Federation," the watchdog said in a statement on Friday. The restriction came after two Ukrainian confectionary companies AVK and Konti failed to comply with labeling standards. AVK and Konti form the bulk of confectionary imported by Russia from Ukraine. At the end on July 2013 Russia halted imports from another Ukrainian confectionary company, Roshen, citing food safety concerns. The Roshen Confectionery Corporation is owned by Petro Poroshenko, who was elected president in May this year. | |
Comment: The sanctions by Ukraine against Russia are laughable in their lack of effect.
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Lyle J. Goldstein
The National Interest 2014-09-04 15:54:00
As the Ukraine crisis enters an even more intense phase, it has been conventional wisdom for some time among Western strategists that China is actually the biggest winner of the new and grave tensions in Eastern Europe. Not only has it benefited from a landmark gas agreement with Russia, but, so the logic goes, the new tension in U.S.-Russian relations may sap dynamism from the erstwhile Asia-Pacific rebalance, while encouraging Moscow to increase its cooperation in all respects with Beijing. China has generally adopted a low key approach to the crisis itself, calling simply for restraint and a negotiated solution. A key question that arises, however, is whether or not Chinese leaders are recalibrating their strategy to mirror Russian President Vladimir Putin's aggressive approach. Put simply, does Beijing see the Ukraine Crisis as demonstrating the West's weakness when confronted by a determined and capable challenger? Eminent Chinese specialist on international affairs Prof. Wang Jisi of Peking University said in a June 2014 interview with 财经 [Finance and Economics] magazine that Putin was the foreign leader that Chinese admired most. While calling for a more cautious and restrained approach himself, Wang also offers that Putin's popularity in China reflects a general desire for "strong man politics" and adopting an "iron wrist [sic] diplomacy." | |
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RT
2014-09-05 15:37:00
Control over the Russian Military Industrial Commission will shortly be transferred from the government to the president, with Vladimir Putin assuming the chairman's post, according to a press report. The popular business daily Kommersant has quoted an unnamed source in the presidential administration as saying that the Military Industrial Commission will be taken to a "principally new level." Putin's personal leadership will allow for fast and clear solutions of all potential conflicts between industrialists and the military. According to the source, representation from weapons-making corporations and top military command in the new body will be balanced. The current head of the commission, Deputy PM Dmitry Rogozin, will become first deputy chairman and he will also chair the commission's main ruling body - the collegium. Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov is set to become executive secretary of the commission, with powers to form the daily agenda of its sessions. All current permanent members of the Military Industrial Commission will retain their posts, the newspaper reported. The source also said that the reform's plan had been developed by the government and had already received approval from the presidential administration. The official announcement of the changes is expected to take place next week during a working conference between Vladimir Putin and government officials. | |
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RT
2014-09-05 15:01:00
United States President Barack Obama said Friday that the US and European Union are still prepared to impose sanctions against Russia if the crisis in Ukraine continues to escalate following the signing of a ceasefire agreement. Comment: There you have it. Even if there's no Russian involvement, hell, even if it's obvious that Kiev is behind any 'escalation' in the Ukraine crisis, Russia will be held responsible. Unbelievable... Speaking in Newport, Wales at the close of a major NATO alliance summit, Pres. Obama expressed skepticism over a pact signed only hours earlier in Minsk during a meeting of representatives from Kiev, Lugansk and Donetsk, and said the US intends to go ahead with new sanctions revealed by the White House on Thursday this week. "Obviously we are hopeful," Obama said of the ceasefire, "but based on past experience, also skeptical that, in fact, the separatists will follow through and the Russians will stop violating Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity." Comment: What an idiot! Kiev has been responsible for all prior escalations. The Novorossiyans are simply refusing to bend the knee to your war-whore puppet regime. "Pro-Russian separatists must keep their commitments," Obama told the crowd. Comment: Pro-American fascists must keep their commitments. | |
Comment: Putin is damned if he does, damned if he doesn't. By doing nothing, Obama can accuse him of continued support of Novorossiya. By supporting a ceasefire, Obama can claim to be 'skeptical' and continue to impose sanctions, blaming any further 'crises' (i.e., Kiev getting their asses kicked by the NAF) on Russian intervention.
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Prof Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research 2014-09-05 14:39:00
The following report is a slap in the face to president Obama and his NATO partners meeting today in Newport Wales. Obama confirmed on September 3 that "Russian combat forces with Russian weapons in Russian tanks" had been deployed in Eastern Ukraine. That's not only a Lie, it is Lie which could potentially precipitate humanity into a Third World War. Observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) "have registered no troops, ammunition or weapons crossing the Russian-Ukrainian border over the past two weeks" (Itar-Tass) "Throughout the week, the Observer Teams noticed a net increase of young people (both men and women) wearing military-style dress crossing the border in both directions but did not observe any weapons among these groups," the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission's report covering a period from August 20 to September 3 said.The OSCE Observer Mission is deployed at the Russian Checkpoints of Gukovo and Donetsk at the request of Russia's government. The decision was taken in a consensus agreement by all 57 OSCE participating States, many of which are represented at the NATO Summit in Wales. The OSCE report contradicts the statements made by the Kiev regime and its US-NATO sponsors. It confirms that NATO accusations pertaining to the influx of Russian tanks are an outright fabrication. | |
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RT
2014-09-05 12:36:00
Kiev officials and representatives of the two self-proclaimed republics in southeastern Ukraine have agreed to a ceasefire, as the contact group met behind closed doors in Belarus. The two sides accompanied by representatives of Russia and the OSCE were meeting in the Belorussian capital, Minsk, in an attempt to end the bloodshed in eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who is now in Wales for the NATO summit, has confirmed the ceasefire agreement on his Twitter account. He has ordered the pro-government forces to stop military actions starting 6 pm local time(15:00 GMT), as stated in the protocol. "I give the order to the chief of the General staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to cease fire, starting from 18.00 [local time] on September 5," Poroshenko's statement says. He has called on both the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry and the OSCE to provide international monitoring of compliance with the bilateral ceasefire. "We must do everything possible and impossible to stop bloodshed and put an end to people's suffering," the president said in a statement posted on his official website. Comment: Poroshenko is no plagiarizing Putin. At least he is saying the right thing for a change. He also expressed hope that both sides would follow the protocol.
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Comment: The question to ask is: would this have happened without Putin and Russia pushing for a peaceful solution? Not likely.
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RT
2014-09-05 11:47:00
Barack Obama has opened himself to widespread ridicule in Russia after making a history gaffe in a keynote speech in Estonia. Accusing Moscow of imperial ambitions, the US President suggested Russia is trying to reclaim some lands it "lost" 150 years ago. "Reaching back to the days of the tzars, trying to reclaim lands lost in the 19th century is surely not the way to secure Russia's greatness in the 21st century," Obama said to the rapturous applause of his Estonian audience in Tallinn hall, where he was promising to defend the Baltic States from the Kremlin. It was a neat and dramatic soundbite - contrasting the ages of monocles and crowns with that of drones and iPhones - and a callback to US Secretary of State John Kerry, who accused Russia of acting in a "19th century fashion" in Crimea back in spring. There was one problem, though: the quote made little sense. Russia's Foreign Ministry was quick to gleefully point out Obama's gaffe. | |
Comment: It is really comical to watch Obama continue to lose all credibility on the world stage.
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Peter Hitchens
Daily Mail 2014-09-01 20:55:00 Comment: 'The crazies' as Mr. Hitchen's has called them, are flooding the MSM raising the call for out-and-out war with Russia. An excellent deconstruction of one piece of hysteric propaganda.
I have been much struck by an article in the New York Times by Ben Judah, published beneath the headline: 'Arm Ukraine or Surrender'. It really ought to have an exclamation mark on it, so frantic is its tone. Given its prominent publication in that important forum of opinion, it may be influential. It ought not to be. I explain why below. You can read it here. It seems to me to have been written in the hope that its readers, especially its readers in Washington DC, will heed the call to arms (or rather to arms shipments), rather than the call to 'surrender' (or, as some might say, make a sensible compromise with Russia). The same people who have turned much of Syria into a smoking, gore-encrusted rubble-heap, and Libya into a cauldron of blood and fire, are hard at work here, making a very similar mistake to the ones they made in Damascus and Tripoli. First, they think that because the Russian government is bad (beyond dispute), whatever replaces it will be better (very questionable). The author presents the dilemma thus: 'Either we arm Ukraine, or we force Kiev to surrender and let Mr. Putin carve whatever territories he wants into a Russian-occupied zone of "frozen conflict."' Let's go through the article. Mr Judah says : No they are not. No state of war yet exists, despite the best efforts of a legion of pot-stirrers who openly wish for a war with Russia. The two neighbours still have diplomatic relations and their governments are in communication with each other, probably rather more than either is letting on.Ukraine's leaders are much given to exaggerated public claims against Russia, which a generally gullible and unquestioning Western media reproduce as proven fact. Ukrainian forces have allegedly destroyed a Russian armoured column, an event for which no evidence has ever been produced. More recently Russian forces were said to have annihilated an entire Ukrainian village. I have yet to see evidence of this. There are plenty more such claims. I have seen them reproduced as fact, without qualification in headlines, in respectable western newspapers which ought to know better. Russia meanwhile tells its own lies, not of exaggeration but of what might politely be called understatement. Russia maintains, quite incredibly, that none of its soldiers are in Ukraine and that it is not arming the rebels. Of course Russian soldiers are in Ukraine, and of course Russia is helping with supplies and training. To the extent that all its operations are technically deniable, this may well be true. But it is obvious that the GRU is giving powerful aid to the rebels. Quite rightly, the western media recover their proper scepticism when confronted by these claims, and sneer at them. What they do not do is ask how it was that the pathetic Ukrainian armed forces suddenly, a couple of months ago, began to fight effectively. Could it be that they, too, have been receiving help from elsewhere? Anybody remotely interested in the serious truth about this crisis would surely at least wonder about this. But nobody does. |
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RT
2014-09-05 10:12:00
Australian researchers have shown that a book written ‒ and written off ‒ four decades ago accurately predicted where the world would be in terms of resource allocation and the environment. And that does not bode well for the future of humanity. Researchers from the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute (MSSI) at the University of Melbourne used data from the last 40 years to compare to predictions made by the authors of the 1972 book Limits to Growth. They focused on what the original authors termed the "business-as-usual" (BAU) or "standard run" scenario, collating it to what has actually happened since the publication. Just two years after the globe celebrated its first Earth Day in 1970, Italian think tank Club of Rome commissioned researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), led by husband-and-wife team Donella and Dennis Meadows, to build a computer model to track the world's economy and environment. They looked at industrialization, population, food, use of resources and pollution through 1970. | |
Comment: The global economic and environmental issues are accelerating and collapse could happen sooner than anyone can imagine.
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Thomas R. Burke and Jonathan Segal
Once the fact was out, the internet giant tried to get a judge to help them hide it again.USA Today 2014-09-04 10:35:00
Back in February, in a San Jose courtroom, a bombshell was dropped that could have been erased from the public record. It turns out that Google, which bases its business on collecting and analyzing huge reams of data for advertising purposes, has been scanning users' emails even before users have a chance to open or read them, including email messages that are deleted without being opened. Google knows what's in your email before you do. The revelation came in a now-settled legal dispute over Google's Gmail service. Dozens of the nation's largest newspapers and media companies fought to make sure that the case - and its wide-ranging implications for Internet users - received a full public airing. It has been an unfolding drama ever since, affecting what analysts estimate are 500 million Gmail users worldwide. Google tried, and failed, to redact information about its email scanning process from a transcript of a public court hearing. Last month, the judge in the case ruled that portions of the transcript from that February hearing could not be redacted retroactively, since that would be tantamount to closing a public courtroom. | |
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Arthur Neslen
EurActive.com 2014-09-03 09:43:00
A row is brewing over claims that Israel is earning millions of euros from a de facto policy of preventing non-Israeli reconstruction aid from entering the Gaza Strip. At least 65,000 people in the Gaza Strip are homeless after the recent seven-week conflict. Infrastructure ranging from water desalination centres to power plants lies in ruins. No formal Israeli ban prevents the import of reconstruction materials that were not made in Israel, but EU sources speaking on condition of anonymity say that in practice, Israeli security demands present them with a fait accompli. "If you want aid materials to be permitted to enter, they will almost inevitably come from Israeli sources," an EU official said. "I don't think you'll find it written down anywhere in official policy, but when you get to negotiate with the Israelis, this is what happens. It increases construction and transaction costs, and is a political problem that has to be dealt with." | |
Comment: This is shameless and outrageous! It takes a pathocracy to come up with making profit out of the destruction they just wrecked on their helpless victims.
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Youtube/RT
2014-09-04 06:58:00
With the escalating Ukrainian crisis towards the top of the agenda at this week's NATO summit in Wales, a group of former American intelligence workers appeal to Angela Merkel. In their open letter, they hit out at the US, saying the evidence it has provided is dubious and politically motivated. RT talks to Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst who is among the signatories. | |
Comment: Read the entire letter at Ex-NSA and intelligence veterans warn Merkel on U.S. lies concerning 'Russian invasion' of Ukraine
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Theo Merz
Telegraph 2014-09-04 16:33:00
I logged in north, south, east and west. I checked it at work and during Sunday rest. I liked and commented, posted status and song. I thought Facebook would last forever: I was wrong. Apologies if that feels like a bit of a heavy introduction for a piece on the decline of Facebook amongst my peers but - like Auden's love - I had always assumed the network would be constant presence in my life. A couple of times at university I wondered what would happen if people stopped using the site, or if it disappeared. I would have no physical photos of my college friends, like those of my parents' that we sometimes unearthed at home; I would be stripped of the wall-to-wall messages we had built up over the years and left with only a handful of letters and cards. Sometimes I thought about printing out pictures or saving some of the more memorable messages to computer, but I never did. Just like three-month summer holidays and the ability to function after four hours' sleep, I reasoned that Facebook would always be there. But two years after graduation, to continue in the mournful vein in which I began, the site is crumbling before my eyes. There's nothing new about predicting the demise of world's most popular social networking site: articles in 2010 told us that "everyone was quitting Facebook", 2013 was the year of "virtual identity suicide" and figures released earlier this year suggested some 600,000 people in the UK had "disappeared" from the site last December (a claim the California-based company denies). | |
Comment: Facebook originally was a novelty helping people connect but instead has morphed into a corporation that seeks to maximize profits by manipulation.
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Jonathan Fowler
Yahoo! News 2014-09-04 10:48:00
One person commits suicide every 40 seconds -- more than all the yearly victims of wars and natural disaster -- with the highest toll among the elderly, the United Nations said Thursday. In its first report on suicide, the UN's World Health Organisation blamed intense media coverage when celebrities kill themselves for fuelling the problem. "Suicide is an amazing public health problem. There is one suicide every 40 seconds -- it is a huge number," said Shekhar Saxena, director of WHO's mental health department, at the presentation of the report in Geneva. "Suicide kills more than conflicts, wars and natural catastrophes," he said. "There are 1.5 million violent deaths every year in the world, of which 800,000 are suicides." Some of the highest rates of suicide are found in central and eastern Europe and in Asia, with 25 percent occurring in rich countries, the report says. Men are almost twice as likely as women to take their own lives. Common methods are hanging, gunshots, and especially in rural areas the use of poisonous insecticides. "Globally, suicide rates are highest in people aged 70 years and over. In some countries, however, the highest rates are found among the young," WHO said. "Notably, suicide is the second leading cause of death in 15-29 year-olds globally." | |
Comment: Russell Brand commented recently about Robin Williams's suicide and what it says about our society. You can read it here:
Russell Brand: Robin Williams' divine madness will no longer disrupt the sadness of the world | |
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Detroit.CBSlocal.com
Thirty people were briefly taken into police custody after a minimum wage protest outside an east side McDonald's got out of hand Thursday morning.2014-09-04 08:30:00
Those arrested were among the crowd of about 200 protesters marching around the restaurant on Mack Avenue. The demonstration was part of an effort by workers at fast-food chains around the country to boost the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Several of the protesters went from civil picketing to locking arms and sitting in the street, preventing traffic from passing through. "At one point they were walking on both sides of Mack Avenue but they are now concentrating themselves in the eastbound lanes, they have those completely blocked off here, walking and holding up their signs," WWJ's Bill Szumanski said from above the scene in Chopper 950. Police waited for about 30 minutes, warning the protesters they could either move on their own or face arrest. "The protesters who were sitting on Mack Avenue and refusing to move had a bit of a negotiating session between the police department and the organizers - that didn't go anywhere," Szumanski said. "So, police have now swooped in and what they have done is arrested at least 20, maybe 30 people. They're leading them away in handcuffs to the back of the squad cars." | |
Comment: McDonald's has plenty of money, just not for the peons. Capitalism was designed to benefit those at the top of the food chain, not the slave labor.
The Fast-Food Industry's $4.2 Billion Marketing Blitz | |
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Despite U.S. sanctions, Russian maker of AK-47 assault rifle expects to double production in 3 years
RT
2014-09-05 15:11:00
The producers of the world-famous AK-47 assault rifle, the Kalashnikov Concern, have announced plans to double its output to 300,000 units in the next three years, despite being on the US sanctions list. Kalashnikov plans to produce 150,000 units of arms in 2014, with the output rising to 300,000 in the next three years, Kalashnikov CEO Aleksey Krivoruchko told the company's corporate magazine. According to Krivoruchko, the concern's mid-term goal is to perform a complex technical and technological re-equipment maneuver, which would include the purchase of new hardware, reconstruction of facilities and the organization of high-performance workplaces. Over the period of January to March 2014, the Russian company already doubled its output in comparison with the same period last year, producing 31,000 units of basic arms. | |
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More details of Ukraine peace plan emerge: Withdraw military hardware, exchange POWs, open corridors
RT
2014-09-05 14:32:00
Both sides in the Ukrainian conflict have agreed to "all to all" prisoners of war exchange, hardware withdrawal and humanitarian aid access to the area. Kiev and rebel troops laid down arms as the main agreement - ceasefire- came into force at 15:00 GMT. The contact group in Minsk agreed on three key issues: ceasefire, exchange of war prisoners and humanitarian aid access, OSCE envoy Tagliavini told reporters. "We continued consultation and agreed on other issues. Among them are the ceasefire, the withdrawal of troops and the "all to all" exchange of prisoners," she said. Talking to reporters on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Wales, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that prisoner of war exchange can take place "soon, maybe tomorrow." According to estimates enumerated by Russia's ambassador to Ukraine, Mikhail Zurabov, the exchange may affect "more than 1,000 people from each side." "We exchanged lists of prisoners and started the exchange process immediately," said former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, who represented Ukraine at the talks in Minsk. "Within three days an expert group will be formed, which should provide a thorough plan of the release of prisoners of war," Zurabov said. | |
Comment: So far, east Ukraine has seen a short-lived week-long ceasefire:
Also, Poroshenko flip-flopping on the terms of the ceasefire, leaving himself a way out:
And yet we're to believe that Putin, who isn't even a part of this conflict, is responsible for all the 'escalations' and 'aggression'? The leaders of Donetsk and Lugansk, at least, have so far behaved with dignity. For how long will Kiev and Poroshenko continue to keep up the mask of 'peaceful' intentions before they break the ceasefire? Or are their hands being forced in some way to actually do the right thing?
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Victor Skinner
EAGnews.com 2014-09-04 14:22:00
Students and parents at Peregian Springs State School are flipping out after officials banned unsupervised playground cartwheels and handstands to prevent injuries. Two children at the school have been injured recently - one broke a wrist, the other was kicked in the head - while performing "cheerleader type stunts," prompting principal Gwen Sands to issue a ban on Monday in the school's newsletter, SunshineCoastDaily.au reports. "All students have been advised that under no circumstances are they allowed to perform cart wheels, handstands or any other type of gymnastic move at school unless they are properly supervised by a trained PE teacher," according to the announcement. "It would be appreciated if you could remind your children about the safety issues involved with these types of moves." The news site reports the announcement "caused a stir and left many parents wondering what would be next on the 'ban' wagon." "When are we going to let kids just be kids?" local government minister David Crisafulli questioned. "I respect the right of the school to protect their students but I also respect the right of children to have a happy childhood, and surely we can find a middle ground in all of this." | |
Comment: The nanny state run amok!
The tyranny of the nanny state, where the government knows what's best for you
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Jessica Chasmar
The Washington Times 2014-09-04 14:35:00
A Minnesota police chief has come under fire after he walked onto a resident's property and beheaded their pet chicken with a shovel, arguing that he was only enforcing a city ordinance that prohibits fowl. "I guess I don't regret it, because it's like taking care of any rodent in town," Atwater Police Chief Trevor Berger told the West Central Tribune. Chief Berger entered the property of Ashley Turnbull when no one was home on Aug. 16, and he clubbed, killed and decapitated a small, red hen with a shovel, leaving the head behind after disposing the carcass. "I'm sorry it had to happen that way," Chief Berger told the Tribune. "It's against city ordinance for a chicken to be in the city and running around in people's yards." Ms. Turnbull admitted she she was verbally warned Aug. 7 by police to remove the three chickens and two ducks from her property. She said she ignored the warning, because local city council members were considering lifting the ban. She also said she never received a written warning on the issue. | |
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Travis Gettys
Rawstory.com 2014-09-05 07:42:00
A Michigan man and his wife had just eaten lunch Tuesday afternoon and were on their way to pick up their children from the first day of school when they were cut off by a speeding pickup truck. Police said 43-year-old Derek Flemming got out of his SUV at the next stoplight, approached the Dodge pickup, and asked the driver: "What's your problem?" The other driver then rolled down his window and shot Flemming in the face, killing him, police said. Police took 69-year-old Martin Zale into custody after the shooting, and prosecutors waited two days to charge him with open murder, two counts of felony firearms, and discharge of a weapon from a vehicle. Michigan law does not require prosecutors to choose between first- or second-degree murder, even at trial, and a jury may determine the appropriate charge based on the evidence. "I fully support the right of individuals to keep and possess firearms, but it's when they misuse those weapons that it becomes a problem," said Livingston County Prosecutor William Vailliencourt. The prosecutor said he was confident Zale, who has a concealed carry permit, was not acting in self-defense when he shot Flemming once in the face with a handgun. "You can't shoot someone because you're not happy with them," Vailliencourt said. Flemming was not carrying any weapons, investigators said, and witnesses said he did not make any verbal threats. | |
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Tom Boggioni
Rawstory.com 2014-09-05 08:16:00
Taking advantage of U.S. Defense Department offers of free or low-cost military hardware, Texas school districts have been helping themselves to high-powered weaponry, bullet-proof vests, and armored vehicles to militarize their campus police officers. A KHOU investigation shows that ten school districts in Texas have been acquiring the military surplus under a government program that allows them to load up at little to no cost. According to the investigation, the districts have acquired 64 M-16 rifles, 18 M-14 rifles, 25 automatic pistols, extended magazines, and 4,500 rounds of ammunition. Additionally, the schools stocked up on armored plating, tactical vests, as well as 15 surplus military vehicles. In the wake of the over-the-top military-like response by police in Ferguson to protestors, not everyone is thrilled by the idea of campus police outfitted like SWAT teams. "We don't necessarily believe that this kind of equipment leads to students feeling more secure and safe in schools," said Brennan Griffin of Texas Appleseed, which has been studying police on campus policies for years. "We've seen how even much less-lethal devices like Tasers and pepper spray get used inappropriately and end up harming children," he told the KHOU. | |
Comment: A fine example of the social hysteria created by psychopaths - the result of living in apathocracy:
Kids are now being brainwashed into accepting the police state The American Delusion: Distracted, diverted and insulated from the grim reality of the police state | |
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RT
2014-09-05 11:34:00
The city of Donetsk not only faces a threat from the sky, with bombs and shells fired by Kiev troops, but also from the ground, from thousands of unexploded shells. RT Paula Slier followed local sappers as they deactivated the deadly weapons. "About 10 percent of the missiles that we discover on the ground are unexploded," one of the sappers working in Donetsk told RT. RT's Paula Slier reported that one of the unexploded shells hit a gas pipe, adding that one can actually smell gas in the area. Together with the sappers, Slier headed to the outskirts of the city where massive shelling was reported earlier. "This whole village has been shelled by grads [rockets]. And there is one that didn't explode. It didn't detonate," said the sapper. According another sapper, looking for unexploded shells is a very complicated job as they can't always say "about the consequences because [they] don't know what kind of missile [they] are looking for." | |
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Woman says comic book store in Salem, Massachusetts fired her after she revealed alleged 'rape room'
Arturo Garcia
Rawstory.com 2014-09-05 11:47:00
Police in Salem, Massachusetts are reportedly looking into a local woman's allegation that she was harassed while briefly working at a comic book store that also contained a "rape room." Bleeding Cool reported that the woman, Jennifer Williams, posted online that "the owner's friend Julian" told her about the nickname for one of the store's storage rooms last week. She also saidthe man put his arm around her without her consent. | |
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After years of retrenchment in the wake of two costly wars, a new USA TODAY/Pew Research Center Poll finds that Americans increasingly are open to a larger U.S. role in trying to solve problems around the world. The public remains conflicted over just how much the United States can and should do to address global challenges. But the initial shifts in public opinion could make it easier for President Obama to order more muscular options in striking Islamic State terrorists in Syria and Iraq. If the trend continues, it could help shape the 2016 campaign to succeed him. Comment: The latest poll from YouGov shows the change in public opinion over the past year. Mainly due to ISIS propaganda. Now 63% of Americans support the use of military force in Syria and 16% oppose it, last year it was the reverse.
"This runs counter to this conventional wisdom that the public is isolationist," says Bruce Jentleson, a former State Department adviser in the Obama administration who is now a professor at Duke and a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. "It's not trigger-happy, but it's also not totally gun-shy." | |
Comment: For a broad overview of what this implies see: Global Pathocracy, Authoritarian Followers and the Hope of the World
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RT.com
2014-09-05 10:32:00
The US leads Western nations in child homicide rates, while millions of children around the world are threatened with physical, sexual and emotional abuse, including murder, rape and bullying, a new UNICEF report revealed. The report, entitled 'Hidden in Plain Sight: A Statistical Analysis of Violence against Children', demonstrated that death by homicide is every much a threat for young people as it is for adults. | |
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The Guardian
2014-09-04 12:00:00
BP bears the majority of responsibility among the companies involved in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a federal judge ruled Thursday, citing the energy giant's reckless conduct over the disaster in a ruling that exposes it to billions of dollars in penalties. BP plc already has agreed to pay billions of dollars in criminal fines and compensation to people and businesses affected by the disaster, the worst-ever US oil spill. But US district Judge Carl Barbier's ruling could nearly quadruple what the London-based company has to pay in civil fines for polluting the Gulf of Mexico during the 2010 spill. Barbier presided over a trial in 2013 to apportion blame for the spill that spewed oil for 87 days in 2010. Eleven men died after the well blew. The judge essentially divided blame among the three companies involved in the spill, ruling that BP bears 67% of the blame; Swiss-based drilling rig owner Transocean Ltd takes 30%; and Houston-based cement contractor Halliburton Energy Service takes 3%. | |
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RT
2014-09-04 01:35:00
Police in Laredo, Texas opened fire on a schizophrenic man armed with a pellet gun this week,killing him after unleashing upwards of 80 shots, according to the victim's family. Six officers from the Laredo Police Department have been reassigned to administrative duties while officials investigate the incident, which occurred early Saturday morning outside of a truck stop in the southern part of the Lone Star State. Comment: It wouldn't be surprising if they end up with a promotion. Goon cops have gone wild all over America According to authorities, police spent around five minutes attempting to negotiate with 30-year-old Jose Walter Garza before the man made an "offensive gesture," then allegedly aimed the would-be weapon - a pellet gun made to resemble a semiautomatic handgun, according to the Laredo Morning Times - at the cops who then opened fire. "He put his finger in the trigger guard and pointed it at the officers," Joe E. Baeza, an investigator and police spokesperson, told the paper. Law enforcement has since opened a probe in order to get to the bottom of the incident, but Andrea Martinez, Garza's cousin, told the New York Daily News that police shot no fewer than 80 times.Surveillance footage from a camera at the truck stop has since been published online, but the angle it was filmed from shows only the fatal shots, and not how Garza acted beforehand. | |
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| Secret History |
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Jeanna Bryner
Live Science 2014-09-05 08:33:00
A 1,500-year-old fragment of Greek papyrus with writing that refers to the biblical Last Supper and "manna from heaven" may be one of the oldest Christian amulets, say researchers. The fragment was likely folded up and worn inside a locket or pendant as a sort of protective charm, according to Roberta Mazza, who spotted the papyrus while looking through thousands of papyri kept in the library vault at the John Rylands Research Institute at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. "This is an important and unexpected discovery as it's one of the first recorded documents to use magic in the Christian context and the first charm ever found to refer to the Eucharist - the Last Supper - as the manna of the Old Testament," Mazza said in a statement. The fragment likely originated in a town in Egypt. The text on the papyrus is a mix of passages from Psalm 78:23-24 and Matthew 26:28-30, among others, said Mazza, who is a research fellow at the institute. "To this day, Christians use passages from the Bible as protective charms so our amulet marks the start of an important trend in Christianity." | |
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| Science & Technology |
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Chuck Bednar
RedOrbit 2014-09-05 17:25:00
The days of a traditional 1950s family where Dad goes off to be the breadwinner and Mom stays home to take care of the kids is long gone, replaced by a "peacock's tail" of various family unit structures, University of Maryland sociologist Philip Cohen claims in a new report prepared for the Council on Contemporary Families (CCF). In his paper "Family Diversity is the New Normal for America's Children," Cohen reports that only 22 percent of children currently live in a married male-breadwinner family, while 23 percent are cared for by a single mother. Seven out of every 100 live with a parent cohabitating with an unmarried partner, while six live with either a single father or grandparents. The single largest group of children (34 percent) lives with dual-earner married parents, the study said, but that group represents just slightly over one-third of the whole. That is a far cry from six decades ago, when 65 percent of all kids under the age of 15 were living with a family of married parents where only the father was part of the workforce. "Different is the new normal. There hasn't been the collapse of one dominant family structure and the rise of another. It's really a fanning out into all kinds of family structures," Cohen told Brigid Schulte of The Washington Post on Thursday. "The big story, really, is the decline of marriage. That's what's really changed." | |
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Ian Sample
The Guardian 2014-09-05 16:59:00
Homo sapiens were not always so special. In the ancient past, other human forms lived beside us. The Neanderthals in Eurasia. Small, hobbit-like humans in Indonesia. The mysterious Denisovans in the Ural mountains. But our time alone may be nearing its end. Through the power of technology, humans are set to take on the role of Intelligent Designer. We can upgrade ourselves and surmount evolution. Ultimately, we can become entirely new beings that set the stage for a posthuman future. The scenario has played out for decades in science fiction but the prospect is raised more seriously by Yuval Noah Harari, an Israeli historian, in his latest book, Sapiens. In it he sees trouble ahead.The latest human enhancements will be accessible only to the rich, leading to a 21st-century society more unequal than any that came before. The revolution Harari has in mind is borne of engineering and exploits mechanical, electronic, chemical and genetic progress. In place of treatments that correct biological deficits, like failing hearts, poor hearing and weak eyesight, will be procedures that improve on natural performance, making the fortunate recipients biologically better than the rest. "In the 20th century, the main task of medicine was to bring everybody to a certain level of health and capability. It was by definition an egalitarian aim," Harari told the Guardian. "In the 21st century medicine is moving onwards and trying to surpass the norm, to help people live longer, to have stronger memories, to have better control of their emotions. But upgrading like that is not an egalitarian project, it's an elitist project. No matter what norm you reach, there is always another upgrade which is possible." | |
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Anthony Watts
I was tipped off to this paper by a Tweet from SkS Reichfurher John Cook, and I started on writing a rebuttal, but discovered The Hockey Schtick had already done a complete job, so I've reposted it here.Wattsupwiththat.com 2014-09-03 13:45:00 Anthony The Hockey Schtick writes: A new paper published in a journal called Climate Risk Management claims a ridiculous degree of "certainty" of 99.999% that global warming over the past 25 years is man-made. The claim is made based upon climate models already falsified at confidence levels of 98%+. According to the authors, Fundamental problems with this claim [which is basically the falsified IPCC attribution claim of 95% certainty on steroids] include: There is no statistical difference between the rate of warming over the 27 years from 1917-1944 and the 25 years from 1975/1976 to 2000:
Climate models fail to simulate the [natural with 99.999% certainty] observed warming between 1910 and 1940
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Comment: There are an extraordinary number of signs that the planet is cooling, has been for a while and we are probably entering an ice age. See:
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phys.org
2014-09-04 10:25:00
Astrophysicists believe that about 80 percent of the substance of our universe is made up ofmysterious "dark matter" that can't be perceived by human senses or scientific instruments. "Dark matter has not yet been detected in a lab. We infer about it from astronomical observations," said Mikhail Medvedev, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Kansas, who has just published breakthrough research on dark matter that merited the cover of Physical Review Letters, the world's most prestigious journal of physics research. Medvedev proposes a novel model of dark matter, dubbed "flavor-mixed multicomponent dark matter." "Dark matter is some unknown matter, most likely a new elementary particle or particles beyond the Standard Model," Medvedev said. "It has never been observed directly, but it reveals itself via gravity it produces in the universe. There are numerous experiments around the world aimed at finding it directly." Medvedev's theory rests on the behavior of elementary particles that have been observed or hypothesized. According to today's prevalent Standard Model theory of particle physics, elementary particles - categorized as varieties of quarks, leptons and gauge bosons - are the building blocks of an atom. The properties, or "flavors," of quarks and leptons are prone to change back and forth, because they can combine with each other in a phenomenon called flavor-mixing. | |
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David Warmflash
Discover 2014-09-02 04:44:00
We humans like to think ourselves pretty advanced - and with no other technology-bearing beings to compare ourselves to, our back-patting doesn't have to take context into account. After all, we harnessed fire, invented stone tools and the wheel, developed agriculture and writing, built cities, and learned to use metals. Then, a mere few moments ago from the perspective of cosmic time, we advanced even more rapidly, developing telescopes and steam power; discovering gravity and electromagnetism and the forces that hold the nuclei of atoms together. Meanwhile, the age of electricity was transforming human civilization. You could light up a building at night, speak with somebody in another city, or ride in a vehicle that needed no horse to pull it, and humans were very proud of themselves for achieving all of this. In fact, by the year 1899, purportedly, these developments prompted U.S. patent office commissioner Charles H. Duell to remark, "Everything that can be invented has been invented." We really have come a long way from the cave, but how far can we still go? Is there a limit to our technological progress? Put another way, if Duell was dead wrong in the year 1899, might his words be prophetic for the year 2099, or 2199? And what does that mean for humanity's distant future? | |
Comment: Back in March, 2013, NASA told Congress to "pray" if a meteor similar to the one that hit Russia is ever three weeks away from the U.S. During that House Committee hearing, NASA administrator Charles Bolden Jr. told Congress that the U.S. doesn't have the proper equipment to identify a small meteor (the size of Russia's meteor). Bolden said, "The reason I can't do anything in the next three weeks is because for decades we have put it off. We are where we are today because, you know, you all told us to do something and between the administration and the Congress, the funding to do that did not - the bottom line is always - the funding did not come." [This is pathetic. Let's start a war.]
As a species, we will not rise above a doomsday scenario as long as we allow lies, injustice and propaganda to blind us to what is real and secret agendas for the few to take priority over what is in all mankind's best interest and longevity. We apparently do not learn from our mistakes. If we haven't figured out why we are here and how to genuinely progress for the good of all, how will we stay the course, find our place in the balance of the universe and our connection to the realm of the cosmos? We will do what we will do...perhaps too little, too late. There are lessons...and apparently they are worth repeating. | |
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| Earth Changes |
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Anthony Watts
At first, I thought this had to be a joke in the style of "The Onion". Sadly, no. I have video of this dolt saying this on C-Span. I don't know who's more dangerous to humanity, Kerry or ISIS.WattsUpWithThat 2014-09-05 12:12:00
The video:
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Tom Wright-Piersanti
The Star-Ledger 2014-06-17 14:35:00
Beware the mad beaver of Lake Surprise. Karen and Barry Rubinstein were enjoying a stroll by the picturesque lake, nestled in Union County's Watchung Reservation, last Tuesday when they noticed a head popping out of the water. The creature spotted the Rubinsteins and set its sights on the shoreline. "It's bee-lining, I mean, this thing is swimming right at us," Karen Rubinstein said. The animal, which she estimated weighed as much as 40 pounds, came flopping out of the water,its teeth bared and its webbed feet moving as fast as they could manage. The couple, who live in Summit, started running toward their car when a jogger warned them the animal could get hurt if it chased them into the road. | |
Comment: Other recent beaver attacks on humans -
Beaver mauls man near Rochester: 'It was like watching a horror film' Paddling family of three attacked by a beaver in Austria Animals losing the plot: Vicious beaver attacks snorkeler off Nova Scotia's coast, Canada From 2013 - Vicious beaver attacks and kills man in Belarus | |
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Hayden Kenez
National Post 2014-09-05 14:00:00
Jeremy McNaughton won't quickly forget his encounter with a rogue beaver that attacked him off the shores of Nova Scotia. The 23-year-old Halifax man was snorkelling in Spanish Ship Bay, near Sherbrooke, with a couple of friends, when one of them looked down and noticed an animal of generous proportions with reddish-brown fur following them. "I thought it must be a seal," said Paul Kerry, who was in the water with McNaughton, due to the sheer size of the creature, which he estimates weighed nearly 50 pounds. Never suspecting its true identity, considering beavers live exclusively in freshwater, Kerry couldn't make sense of what the animal was until it approached him. "I quickly realized it could only be a beaver," once he recognized the animal's markings, including buck teeth and a distinctly paddle-shaped tail, he said. | |
Comment: Other recent beaver attacks on humans -
Beaver mauls man near Rochester: 'It was like watching a horror film' Paddling family of three attacked by a beaver in Austria From 2013 - Vicious beaver attacks and kills man in Belarus | |
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The Globe and Mail
2014-08-26 13:10:00
An Edmonton-area teenager says her close call with a cougar in Waterton Lakes National Park won't stop her from hiking in the future. Mykaela Belter, who is 17, was on a trail with her family in the southern Alberta park on Monday when the wild cat jumped out and grabbed her. She and her sister screamed. But it was her dad yelling at the mountain lion that scared it away. Mykaela has some scratches, but is fine after having them looked at in hospital. | |
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Donna Thacker
St. Louis Pets Examiner 2014-09-04 10:09:00
12-year-old Ronnie Beckman and his dad, Caleb, were in the woods around midnight with Ronnie's hunting dog. They were on a training session preparing for the upcoming hunting season. According to Upper Michigan Source, the 80-pound dog ran ahead and the pair heard barking and then silence. When they reached the dog, they find a horrific scene. Scout was dead and Ronnie's father stated that not much was left of the dog. The Department of Natural Resources confirms that the dog was killed by wolves. The DNR states that there are over 650 wolves throughout the Upper Peninsula and they can be found in every county. A targeted wolf hunt was held in 2013 starting November 15 and ending no later than December 31. This was the first one in decades but voters in Michigan are signing petitions and urging the Legislature to keep the wolf hunt intact. | |
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Heaviest calendar-day snow on record anytime from August through the first week of September. Barrow, Alaska, was blanketed by its first significant snowfall of the season Tuesday, turning the town into a winter wonderland just one day after Labor Day. ------------------------------ | |
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nst.com.my
2014-09-04 07:56:00
A strange vertical light that formed in the sky on Tuesday night took many Kota Kinabalu and Penampang folk by surprise. Many rushed out to watch the beam of amber light that remained in the night sky for three hours, beginning at 7pm. They took pictures of the incident and shared them via WhatsApp as well as uploaded them on social media websites. Some of those who saw the pictures discussed the incident as being a possible sign of doomsday. As mysterious as it sounds, the Sabah Meteorological Department has pointed that the phenomenon is known as a "light pillar". | |
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cbsnews.com
2013-08-27 03:35:00
It's being called the first confirmed attack of a person by a gray wolf in Minnesota history,according to the Department of Natural Resources. Now, a 16-year-old Solway boy is home recovering from a vicious bite wound to the head. It happened early Saturday morning at the West Winnie Campground on Lake Winnibigoshish in north central Minnesota. The campground is operated by the U.S. Forest Service and was temporarily closed following the wolf attack, reports CBS affiliate WCCO in Minneapolis. The gray wolf, also known as a timber wolf, was captured by trappers with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The wolf was shot and killed to permit testing for rabies at the University of Minnesota veterinary diagnostic lab. According to Col. Ken Soring, enforcement director for the DNR, Saturday's attack was freakish and unprecedented. | |
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Jim Waymer,
Florida Today 2014-09-03 03:17:00
A virus killing bottlenose dolphins by the hundreds along the Atlantic seaboard has spread to the Indian River Lagoon, with foreboding consequences for dolphins that spend their lives here. And the dead just keep washing up. "We're basically on high alert, expecting a dolphin every day," said Megan Stolen, a research scientist at Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute. In August alone, Hubbs researchers found 18 dead bottlenose dolphins: a dozen from the lagoon (eight of them calves), and the others along the beach and in the Halifax River. On average, 26 dolphins wash up dead or strand in the lagoon region annually, Hubbs researchers say. Including beachside, about 70 dolphins die per year in the lagoon region. This year, 67 have already died, with 32 of those in the lagoon. And many more may be on the way. | |
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| Fire in the Sky |
| No new articles. |
| Health & Wellness |
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Kemo Cham
Africa Review 2014-09-04 16:47:00
An aide to Sierra Leone's President has said the president was "seriously" contemplating a nationwide shutdown to contain spread of Ebola. For weeks now there has been speculation about a planned 21-day nationwide quarantine to prevent sick people from moving around, a situation that has seen the virus spread uncontrollably. The government had denied that it intended to take such drastic measures to contain the virus but the aide Ben Kargbo, a insider in the government, said Wednesday that President Ernest Bai Koroma was now considering it. "The decision has not been taken yet, but to stop people from running around, this is very important," he said in an interview. "If we move to that direction let no one blame the President because he is trying to save lives," he added. | |
Comment: It's looking more and more likely that Western leaders are underestimating the danger of the Ebola outbreak in Africa. If they do nothing until the outbreak reaches American shores, it will be too late.
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Rachael Rettner
Live Science 2014-09-04 16:37:00
A doctor who just returned from treating Ebola patients in West Africa predicts the current Ebola outbreak will go on for more than a year, and will continue to spread unless a vaccine or other drugs that prevent or treat the disease are developed. Dr. Daniel Lucey, an expert on viral outbreaks and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Medical Center, recently spent three weeks in Sierra Leone, one of the countries affected by the Ebola outbreak. While there, Lucey evaluated and treated Ebola patients, and trained other doctors and nurses on how to use protective equipment. The current Ebola outbreak, which is mainly in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, has so far killed at least 1,552 of the more than 3,000 people infected, making it the largest and deadliest Ebola outbreak in history. It is also the first outbreak to spread from rural areas to cities. Strategies that have worked in the past to stop Ebola outbreaks in rural areas may not, by themselves, be enough to halt this outbreak, Lucey said. "I don't believe that our traditional methods of being able to control and stop outbreaks in rural areas ... is going to be effective in most of the cities," Lucey said yesterday (Sept. 3) in a discussion held at Georgetown University Law Center that was streamed online. While the World Health Organization has released a plan to stop Ebola transmission within six to nine months, "I think that this outbreak is going to go on even longer than a year," Lucey said. | |
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Michael Gerson
Washington Post 2014-09-04 16:22:00
Sometimes the artifice of writing - metaphors, historical comparisons, the just-so quote - fails. The Ebola outbreak in West Africa demands directness: We are about to witness a human catastrophe that could destroy large portions of a continent and pose a global threat. And the response of the world, including the United States, is feeble, irresponsible and disrespectful of nature's lethal perils. American health officials and nonprofit groups are bringing back the same report from the region. In Liberia, the rate of new infections has probably already moved from a linear to an exponential curve. The same may be true within the next week or so for Sierra Leone and Guinea. The normal countermeasures for an infectious disease - isolation, case investigation, contact tracing - are increasingly irrelevant given the rate of increase. Local health care infrastructure, which barely existed in the first place, is overwhelmed. People have lost faith in the large clinics, where 50 percent to 60 percent of patients who enter do not leave alive. And those in need of emergency care for other conditions - such as heart attacks or complicated births - are often frightened of clinics and hospitals, and are dying without treatment. The international response is inadequate and disorganized. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations provide "road maps." But, according to one infectious disease expert, "there is no one to implement command, control and communications. No one." Multiple, uncoordinated organizations are attempting to confront a disease that is out of control. "They are quibbling over 25 to 30 bed units," the expert vents. Meanwhile, WHO has revised its prediction of new Ebola infections upward to 20,000 by year-end. Other models indicate more like 100,000. Once the growth of an outbreak becomes exponential, the tools normally at the disposal of health officials have limited value. It may require military airlifts just to deliver sufficient rubber gloves, aprons, soap and buckets to highly affected areas. Doctors Without Borders is calling for the deployment of civilian and military medical teams to provide triage centers, field hospitals with isolation wards, mobile diagnostic labs and systems for the management of corpses. | |
Comment: Is the lack of reaction by the U.S. government intentional? It's certainly possible that the psychopaths in power don't have a reason to be worried about Ebola spreading in Africa. It's pretty far away, after all. But they've got a tiger by the tail right now, and it's about to get angry.
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Ben Sutherly
The Columbus Dispatch 2014-09-04 00:16:00
Unusually high levels of respiratory illness have been reported this week in Nationwide Children's Hospital's emergency department, and samples are being sent out for testing to see whether a rare virus might be to blame. "Obviously, it's a concern," Dr. Mysheika Williams Roberts, medical director and assistant commissioner at Columbus Public Health, said of the volume of respiratory cases. "What we are experiencing is unusual for us this time of year." Last week, respiratory symptoms were the chief complaint of an average of 52 patients per day in the hospital's emergency department. From Sunday through Tuesday of this week, respiratory symptoms were the chief complaint of an average of 73 patients per day, a 40 percent increase. Some of those illnesses might be cases of human enterovirus 68, Roberts said. That virus apparently has sickened dozens of kids in the Kansas City, Mo., area, in recent weeks. | |
Comment: Nowadays, with a major epidemic spreading among an weakened population a real possibility, it is best to take responsibility for your health instead of relying on your doctors. The following should get you started:
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Dr. Mercola
Mercola.com 2014-09-04 18:54:00
Your sense of smell is your most primal sense and exerts surprising influence over your thoughts, emotions, moods, memories, and behaviors. Scents are experienced long before words. This is why it's nearly impossible to describe them with language. Olfaction is different from your other senses, processed through different pathways in your brain. For other sensations such as sounds and visual images, sensory input is delivered straight to your thalamus, which you can think of as "the big switchboard" in your head. From there, data goes out to your primary sensory cortices. But smells are different. Before reaching your thalamus, they first wind their way through other regions of your brain, including areas controlling memory and emotion. So with scents, you have all this extra processing even before you have conscious awareness of the scent.1 | |
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| Science of the Spirit |
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ScienceDaily
2014-09-05 15:20:00
Sleep, or lack thereof, and technology often go hand in hand when it comes to school-aged kids.Nearly three out of four children (72%) between the ages of 6 and 17 have at least one electronic device in their bedrooms while sleeping, according to a National Sleep Foundation survey. Children who leave those electronic devices on at night sleep less -- up to one hour less on average per night, according to a poll released by the foundation earlier this year. Dr. Jill Creighton, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Stony Brook Children's Hospital says the key to a successful school year starts with Z's. So parents, how can you power down your kids at night and make bedtime easier? Dr. Creighton shares her tips. "First -- develop a nighttime routine," says Dr. Creighton. Whether it's a bath, reading a book or listening to soothing music, these actives will have a better impact on your child to help them relax before going to sleep. Second -- Power off! "The hour before bed should be a no-electronics zone," says Dr. Creighton. Studies show that the light from backlit electronics (like tablets, smartphones and video games) can disrupt our ability to fall -- and stay -- asleep. Dr. Creighton says designate a spot in your home for electronics to be plugged in, then have your kids start their bedtime routine by plugging in one hour before lights out. Ban hand-held devices from the bedroom. "The burst of light from a phone (even if it's just to check the time) can break a sleep cycle," says Dr. Creighton. "A regular alarm clock is best." Comment: To be consistent it would also help to turn off any wireless routers, as wireless radiation is interpreted by our bodies, as light. See also: Mobile phone radiation wrecks your sleep | |
Comment: For more information on the importance of healthy sleeping habits check out the Cassiopaea forum thread :Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar, and Survival
Also see: Take control of your sleep, before it takes control of you Missing sleep may hurt your memory A bad night's sleep could age your brain by five YEARS Your lack of sleep makes your brain more vulnerable to toxins | |
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Sarah Z. Wexler
Men's Journal 2014-09-05 15:15:00
Meditating isn't easy. Instead of sitting on the floor cross-legged for half an hour, you probably want to be tweaking your fantasy football team, working through your Netflix cue, crossing things off the to-do list. Yet, new studies show that meditating could be just as good for you as those obviously relaxing and productive activities, plus offer surprising, cool mind, body, and health benefits. Take a few minutes a day to focus on one thing - a mantra, a word, or your own breath; basically, anything but that to-do list - and you'll benefit in these ways. | |
Comment: There is one proven technique that can assist you with managing pain, reducing stress, calming and focusing your mind, creating better links between body and mind and thus improving quality of life, increasing sense of connection with others in your community. It will help you to have improved overall health, a stronger immune system, better impulse control, reduced inflammation, etc. It will also help you to heal emotional wounds; anything that may hinder or prevent you from leading a healthy and fulfilling life.
There is a myriad of relaxation techniques out there, but not many of them can attest to having not only immediate effects, but also having a highly practical application. With Éiriú Eolas, there is no need to sit in special postures, or be present in a carefully prepared relaxing atmosphere. The strength of the program comes from its high adaptability to stressful conditions of the modern world. Anyone can do it, be it a student, sitting outside of a lecture hall before the exam, a mechanic needing a break from tackling problems all day, a businessman just before signing an important deal, a mother having to raise three children and worrying if she will have enough money to pay the mortgage, etc. Visit the Éiriú Eolas site or read and participate on the forum to learn more about the scientific background of this program and then try it out for yourselves, free of charge. | |
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Adam Sherwin
The Independent, UK 2014-09-04 22:43:00
For more than 50 years, anyone seeking proof that humans are capable of evil need only refer to the electric shocks administered by volunteers in the famous Milgram Experiment. Now psychologists have found that the study, which showed how ordinary people will inflict extraordinary harm upon others, if someone in authority gives the orders, may have been completely misunderstood. Instead of a latent capacity for evil, we just want to feel good about ourselves. And it is Professor Stanley Milgram's skill as a "dramatist" which led us to believe otherwise. In his 1961 Yale University experiment, Milgram asked volunteers to give what they thought were electric shocks of increasing strength to people who were trying but failing to learn a task. The "students" were actors, but the volunteers believed the set up was genuine. In the best known variant of the study, some two thirds of people continued all the way up to the maximum 450-volt level. | |
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| High Strangeness |
| No new articles. |
| Don't Panic! Lighten Up! |
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Waterford Whispers News
2014-09-05 15:21:00
In what is said to be a damning indictment of the scientific community, the latest major breakthrough in scientific research has failed to reach the front pages of most newspapers and media outlets. Researchers at Harvard University in America have found an instantaneous cure for Aids, Alzheimers and Cancer while also conclusively providing the true meaning of life. However, these underwhelming breakthroughs have been over shadowed in the media by a picture of a Kardashian, who was deemed more news worthy then discoveries which will save billions of lives. "You've got to ask yourself if curing aids, cancer and alzheimers was that big of a deal, it would be on the front page, it just would but it's not, so science people should stop moaning," explained internet and Facebook statuses expert Killian Lambert. Researchers at Harvard pointed out that they had also discovered a way to produce harmless but vital renewable fuels while also solving all water shortages in the third world, yet it seems a picture of a Kardashian in a dress which draws the eye of the viewer to the arse area has pipped these discoveries to the post. |
