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Alexander Mercouris
Russia Insider 2014-10-29 11:00:00
Last Friday, Vladimir Putin delivered the single most important speech on foreign policy since he became President of Russia in 2000. Mikhail Gorbachev said he thought it was the best, and most significant speech Putin has ever made. In it he charted a clear course for Russia, defining its place in international affairs and setting out the principles and objectives of its foreign policy. The response of the western political and media elite has been pitifully inadequate. The speech has attracted surprisingly little attention. The emphasis has been not on what Putin said about Russia or international relations in general but on what he specifically said about the US. Western commentary wrongly but overwhelmingly treats the speech as simply a critique of US foreign policy (a "diatribe") with Putin hypocritically condemning a US foreign policy he feels is targeted against him. Behind this is the assumption that the speech is Putin's defiant response to the US sanctions policy imposed on Russia since the start of the Ukrainian crisis even though the actual speech barely touches on this question. Putin did have a lot to say about US foreign policy and what he said was very critical. However to focus purely on that part of the speech is to fail to do it justice and to ignore its very coherent intellectual framework. | |
Comment: We suspect that part of the problem people have with Putin being this 'old-school European traditionalist' is that they've been brought up to believe that said old-schoolers were all evil bastards who were 'backwards', 'tyrannical', and 'just no fun'. To a large degree, all this was true... from the perspective of psychopaths and other pathological types who 'suffered' under their rule, and who then fostered revolutionary fervour in order to bring about a world that suits theirinterests, a world in which exploiting others is easy.
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| Puppet Masters |
Cyber attacks might be taking a toll now, but just wait: a survey of experts says things are likely to get even worse in the US over the next decade. A majority of cybersecurity experts surveyed in a poll see a likelihood of major damage from a cyber attack in the coming years, according to a Pew Research Center report. From the 1,600 experts polled, 61 percent answered "yes" to the question: "By 2025, will a major cyber attack have caused widespread harm to a nation's security and capacity to defend itself and its people?" "Widespread harm," the survey explained, would mean significant loss of life or property losses, damage, theft in the tens of billions of dollars. "There was considerable agreement among these experts that individuals could be more vulnerable and businesses could persistently be under attack," said Lee Rainie, a co-author of the report and director of the Pew Research Center's Internet Project. "They said essential utilities are a vulnerable target and theft and economic disruptions could be substantial." The remaining 39 percent surveyed said major damage from a cyber attack could be avoided. "Some confidently pointed out that the threat of counterattack might deter the worst," said Janna Anderson of Elon University's Imagining the Internet Center, which conducted the study with Pew. "And many used the Cold War as a metaphor, saying severe harm is unlikely due to the threat of mutually assured disruption. Some said cyber threats are being exaggerated by people who might profit most from creating an atmosphere of fear." | |
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RIA Novosti
2014-10-29 19:04:00
Airstrikes by the US-led coalition against the Islamic State group in Syria without the approval of the country's official government contradict international law, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday. "[We are] Convinced that the fight against terrorism and extremism should be built on a solid foundation of international law under the auspices of the UN Security Council. The practice of airstrikes on the IS on Syrian territory unilaterally without the agreement of the Syrian government does not comply with these principles," Lavrov stated. "To ensure success in the fight against terrorism it is necessary to give high priority not only to the military threat posed by the jihadist groups, but also to the roots of this phenomenon," he added. According to the minister, overcoming the accumulated contradictions is only possible through the joint efforts of the international community, deepening of dialogue and partnership. The international anti-IS coalition launched by the United States in September is currently conducting air strikes against IS militants both in Syria and Iraq. In late September, Syrian President Bashar Assad said his country is ready to back international actions against the Islamic State on its territory as long as they are in line with the legal framework. He added that Syria should be notified first of any strikes before they are conducted. The IS is a Sunni jihadist group that has been fighting the Syrian government since 2012. In June, it launched an offensive in Iraq, seizing vast areas in both countries and announcing the establishment of an Islamic caliphate on the territories under its control. | |
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RT© AFP PhotoNorth Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.
2014-10-29 18:39:00
For the first time in a decade, North Korean diplomats met a UN human rights investigator to discuss his possible visit to the country ahead of a UN General Assembly session, that could potentially lead to a trial by the International Criminal Court. The hour-long meeting was unexpected, Marzuki Darusman told reporters on Tuesday, as Pyongyang officials had not met UN officials charged with investigating North Korea's human rights record for the past 10 years. Darusman said the move appears to be motivated by the talk of legal action against Korea's leader Kim Jong-un. Comment: This is an interesting development. Makes one wonder what really is North Korea's motivation. In addition to Darusman, the UN's newly appointed High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, may be invited for a visit. He said if such a visit were to materialize, he would require access to "any location, institution which would be of primary concern" to the world, particularly North Korea's prison camps. "A visit for the sake of visiting" won't do, he added. | |
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RT
2014-10-29 18:48:00
US-Israeli relations have sunk to new lows after Obama administration officials were cited calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a "chickenshit" and "coward" engaging in political posturing, instead of efforts at Middle-Eastern de-escalation. The comments were delivered in a conversation with The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg on condition of anonymity. To many they symbolize the next step in a "full-blown crisis" of relations between the two, primarily over Netanyahu's relentless settlement-building in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and the Iranian nuclear issue. "The thing about Bibi is, he's a chickenshit," said one official, referring to Netanyahu by his nickname."The good thing about Netanyahu is that he's scared to launch wars. The bad thing about him is that he won't do anything to reach an accommodation with the Palestinians or with the Sunni Arab states,"he continued. Goldberg keeps a running list of all the things US officials have ever called Netanyahu in interviews, and it's not small. "Aspergery" popped up, among other things. But it is the first time high-ranking officials have expressed their views of the Israeli leader in such a "gloves-off manner." | |
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RIA Novosti
2014-10-29 18:42:00
Brazil wants to diversify its trading beyond traditional partners in Latin America, and to further cooperate with its partners from BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) countries and Europe, Marden Barboza, Deputy Secretary of International Issues at Brazil's Finance Ministry said Wednesday. "Brazilian government feels that it needs to start developing other directions, including economic and trade spheres," Barboza said during the video conference Moscow-Brasilia held at the Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency. "We are currently in talks with the European Union with regards to signing free trade agreement," Barboza said. "Our government is also looking for new trading spaces. And Russia is a country with a very important potential," he said. He noted however that the current volumes of trade between Russia and Brazil are limited and stand at about 1-1.5 percent of Brazil's foreign trade. "Trade with Russia is very important and I see a lot of potential here," Barboza pointed out, adding that the dialogue between Moscow and Brazil has already started and now needs to deepen. "We see the tendency of succession - in the sphere of international relations, economy. And this succession will move toward rapprochement with Latin America, Africa - we can see it now and it will deepen in the future," Barboza said speaking about Dilma Rousseff's reelection as Brazilian president. Brazil is one of the largest economies in Latin America, its GDP for 2013 was estimated at $2.245 trillion, which made it 7th country in the world by GDP. The country has hundreds of trading partners across the world, with 60 percent of its exports made up of manufactured and semi-manufactured goods. The total trade volume between Russia and Brazil in 2013 was estimated at $5.7 billion, however the two countries aim to increase the volumes for up to $10 billion in the upcoming years. | |
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RT
2014-10-28 18:19:00
Oil giant BP (British Petroleum) has suffered a fall in profits from July to September amid lower oil prices and the decreasing value of the ruble. Europe's third-largest company said it made $3bn (£1.86bn) in the third quarter, down from $3.7bn (£2.29bn) in the same period last year - a fall of 21 percent. BP has invested heavily in Russia and owns a nearly 20 percent stake in Rosneft, the Russian state-run oil company. It is now feeling the impact of Western economic sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine crisis. The company's net income from the Rosneft stake dropped considerably - down to $110m from $808m in the same period last year. BP said the depreciation of the ruble against the dollar was the reason for the drop in profits. Lower Urals oil prices also hurt profits, the London-based company said in a statement. | |
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Sam Skove
Despite dire forecasts for its sanctions-struck economy, Russia has leaped up an unprecedented 30 positions in the World Bank's annual "Doing Business" survey for 2015, the bank said Wednesday.Moscow Times 2014-10-29 17:50:00
Russia rose to 62nd place out of 189 ranked countries, ahead of China at 90, Brazil at 120 and India at 142, although still below many nations in the West. The World Bank noted Russia's worsening businesses climate for the category of "trading across borders," where Russia dropped six ranks to 61st place, while most other categories registered a one to three-level drop in their rankings relative to Russia's 2014 ranking. But the country went up 24 ranks to 34th place in the category of "starting a business," up 16 ranks to 156th place in "dealing with construction permits," and five ranks to 12th place in "registering property." In each case the World Bank cited simplified or reduced legislation for its decision. The only category that saw no change was "enforcing contracts," where Russia stayed in 14th place. The World Bank's methodology for each criteria varies but typically focuses on how legal procedures affect the time and cost of a particular goal. The "enforcing contracts" section, for instance, notes that the standard length of time for a trial and judgment is 160 days, and the average attorney fee is 10 percent of the claim. The report's results are based on studies made in Moscow and St. Petersburg, the country's two key metropolitan centers. | |
Comment: Putin has set his country on a steady course to prosperity, by forming partnerships with countries all over the world. He understands that working with the world instead of trying to control it brings benefits to all.
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Michael Snyder
End Of The American Dream 2014-10-27 17:16:00
How does it feel to live under a government that is getting even more paranoid with each passing day? Yes, we live in a world that is becoming increasingly unstable, but that is no excuse for how ultra-paranoid the federal government has become. Today, every single one of us is viewed as a "potential threat" by the government. As a result, the government feels the need to intercept our emails, record our phone calls and track our expenditures. But they aren't just spying on individuals. The government keeps tabs on thousands of organizations all over the planet, it spies on our enemies and our allies, and it even spies on itself. The American people are told that the emerging Big Brother police state is for our safety, but the truth is that it isn't there to protect us. It is there to protect them. Our government has become kind of like a crazy rich uncle that is constantly spying on everyone else in the family because he believes that they are "out to get him". The following are 15 signs that we live during a time of rampant government paranoia... #1 Former CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson says that the federal government was so concerned about her reporting on Benghazi, Fast and Furious and other Obama scandals that they hacked her computer, monitored every keystroke and even planted classified material in an apparent attempt to potentially frame her. #2 The United States has become the nation of the "permanent emergency". In fact, there has been at least one "state of emergency" in effect in this country since 1979. #3 In America today, almost everyone is considered to be a criminal. At this point, nearly one out of every three Americans has a file in the FBI's master criminal database. #4 Most people don't realize this, but the FBI also systematically records talk radio programs. The FBI says that it is looking for "potential evidence". #5 In Wisconsin, 24 armed police officers are an armored military vehicle were recently sent to collect a civil judgment from a 75-year-old retiree. It is being reported that officials feared that he might be "argumentative". | |
Comment: Psychopaths have been running the show for quite some time. The purpose of the police state is to create a terrified, compliant population where reliance on psychopathic government is complete. They will tell you where to go, what to think, who to associate with and what to believe. The only way out is through knowledge of psychopathy and the global pathocracy.
See also: Pathocracy: Brave New World or 1984? | |
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Tom Engelhardt
Information Clearing House 2014-10-24 00:00:00
We're now passing through a no-name election season of a particularly lusterless sort, but don't count on that for 2016. Here, in fact, is a surefire prediction for that moment, which (given the nature of modern presidential campaigns) will kick off with the usual round of media speculation and odds-making on November 5th. Whomever the presidential candidates may be, expect the political landscape to be littered with references to the United States as an "exceptional nation" and to "American exceptionalism" (as well as its more recent doppelgänger, "indispensable," as in "indispensable nation"). And the presidential candidates, baying for the exceptional privilege of entering the Oval Office in 2017, will join a jostling crowd of past presidential candidates, presidential wannabes, major politicians, minor figures, and pundits galore who have felt compelled in recent years to tell us and the world just how exceptional we really are. Such references were once rare in our politics, but that was back in the days when Americans didn't doubt our exceptional nature, which meant that there was no need to talk about it ad infinitum. Like anything spoken of too insistently, recent rounds of exceptionalist comments surely reveal lurking feelings of doubt about this country, its state, its fate, and its direction (which, according to most polls, Americans believe to be downward, as in "wrong track" or "decline"). So, as an antidote to the creeping sense that the U.S. - that unipolar power, the last superpower etc., etc. - may not be quite all it's cracked up to be, here's the beginning of a little post-9/11 list that you can complete at your leisure: six incontestable areas where America is #1. Once filled out, it should help future candidates for office and leave the rest of us punching the air with a renewed sense of celebratory pride.
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Comment: Those six number ones were just the start of a pile-up of exceptionalism. Others come to mind: most massive surveillance-ism; most expensive ineffectual medical care-ism; highest national debt-ism; most production and dispense of illegal drugs-ism; largest nuclear arsenal-ism; most politically delusional-ism; number one in terrorism, propaganda, subterfuge, ignorance, deceit and hubris-isms...your turn ;-)
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The unipolar world as we know it is moving to its end, Wolfgang Schüssel, Austria's Chancellor in 2000-2007, told RT at the Valdai forum. Russia is to play a major role in the new order, but at the moment the Ukraine crisis dominates the country's image. What is your opinion about the European sanctions against Russia? Are they fair and useful or not? First of all, there was a story before the sanctions. We were absolutely surprised with what happened in Ukraine. There are always possibilities for independence or secession, but according to the Helsinki Charter it must be negotiated peacefully and remain within the agreement of the respective country. This did not happen. The sanctions were the response. I think [the EU] tried to calculate and to balance it so that the response would not to be damaging the economies too sharply. Nevertheless, there are some consequences to be felt, in Russia and also in Europe. The most important thing in my opinion is how to restore a positive, upwards-leading cycle of confidence-building measures. Sunday will see elections in Ukraine. Hopefully they will bring to power moderate politicians like President Poroshenko. On Wednesday an agreement on energy deliveries from Russia to Ukraine could be negotiated, under the moderation of the European Commission. And then we should strengthen the ceasefire in eastern Ukraine and guarantee local elections there to be held in accordance with the Minsk agreement and the Ukrainian legislation. | |
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In The Now
RT 2014-10-20 10:14:00
Swedish media accused Russia of invading its country's waters... only they can't seem to find the submarine. RT's Anissa Naouai hunts for 'the Black October':
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Comment: The anti-Russian propaganda is getting ridiculous... or is returning to past lows in ridiculousness, depending on how you look at it:
"Russian Sub" in Sweden Hysteria - Deliberately Spread by Western Media - 'Cold War' Redux | ||
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RT
2014-10-28 00:16:00
Questions are being asked of the United States Postal Service after the release of an audit confirming that roughly 49,000 pieces of mail were monitored by the agency during the last fiscal year. The New York Time's Ron Nixon reported on Monday this week that a 2014 audit of the USPS's little-known surveillance program showed that nearly 50,000 pieces of mail were scrutinized during a 12-month span upon the request of authorities using a tactic called a "mail cover." But while the USPS green-lighted tens of thousands of these requests made by law enforcement agencies in the last year pursuant to criminal and national security investigations, the Timesreported, the protocols in place for authorizing such scans are reportedly ripe with flaws. "Insufficient controls," as identified in the audit, "could hinder the Postal Inspection Service's ability to conduct effective investigations, lead to public concerns over privacy of mail and harm the Postal Service's brand," Nixon quoted from the report. Additionally, the audit found that "responsible personnel did not always handle and process" those requests on par with the agency's established rules. The determinations made by the authors of the report run counter with what a spokesperson with the Postal Service told the Associated Press when reached for comment upon publication of the Times' report. According to USPS spox Toni DeLancey, the agency "authorized only under limited circumstances" the monitoring of letters and packages. | |
Comment: You can bet that this is just the tip of the iceberg. The surveillance of U.S. citizens by their government is widespread, and don't expect it to slow down any time soon.
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RT
2014-10-28 00:11:00
The United States is beefing up security at thousands of government buildings around the country due to "continued public calls" for terrorist attacks, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson announced on Tuesday. Johnson said the new security measures will affect more than 9,500 federal buildings as well as the 1.4 million people who visit these facilities every day. The move was described by Johnson as a"precautionary step," intended to safeguard federal buildings and visitors. "The reasons for this action are self-evident: the continued public calls by terrorist organizations for attacks on the homeland and elsewhere, including against law enforcement and other government officials, and the acts of violence targeted at government personnel and installations in Canada and elsewhere recently," Johnson said. "Given world events, prudence dictates a heightened vigilance in the protection of U.S. government installations and our personnel." However, Johnson declined to detail exactly what new policies will be implemented by the Federal Protective Service, which is responsible for ensuring the safety of government facilities. The measures will differ from location to location, and will be consistently reviewed, he added. | |
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RT
2014-10-28 23:48:00
Comment: The anti-Russian propaganda is still running strong. The presstitutes in the media are all too happy to be the lapdog for the psychopathic U.S. government in their witch hunt against Putin and Russia. It's truly pathetic. As it's laid out below, it's another example of the psychopathic accusing its victim of doing exactly what it is doing. Cunning, if you're a psychopath. Maddening to anyone with a conscience. Reports of US diplomats in Moscow being systematically mistreated are "groundless," Russia's Foreign Ministry said. It also accused US special services of provocations and attempting to recruit Russian diplomats in Washington. Responding to an ABC "exclusive," the ministry said that voiced "complaints" are "banal fantasies" that"do not reach the level of cheap spy detectives." "What is outrageous is the peremptory and contrary to the facts statement by the US State Department press secretary that "in contrast to the behavior of the Russians," the American side treats diplomats from Russia with the utmost respect," the Russian Foreign Ministrystatement reads. In a report Monday, ABC News accused Russia of Cold War-style harassment of US embassy diplomats, which included slashing, hacking and breaking into diplomatic apartments. Reporting on the issue at length, the ABC's Kirit Radia listed a number of cases when US officials -none of whom were named - were targeted by Russia's "aggressive, Soviet-era counterintelligence tactics" of intimidation and harassment "that is believed to be led by Russia's Federal Security Services (FSB), a successor to the Soviet KGB." | |
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The Saker
The Vineyard of the Saker 2014-10-29 20:53:00
Something fantastically interesting has happened in Novorussia: two senior Novorussian commanders, Igor Bezler and Alexei Mozgovoi have attempted to communicate with those Ukrainians who are on the other side. Though I am not sure about the exact dates of the events (all I have is the dates of the posting on YouTube), this apparently began when Igor Bezler agreed to be interviewed by three TV crews at the same time: a Russian one, a Novorussian one, and a Ukrainian one. The big news here was, of course, that a Ukrainian journalist was given access to the city of Gorlovka, currently surrounded by Ukrainian forces, and that she got to speak with the local people, including combatants and then that she was given access to Bezler himself. Since all the journalists were more or less openly accusing each other of "filtering the truth" all parties agreed that the full recording, unedited, would be made available on YouTube. Now please keep in mind that in Banderastan, Russian journalists are blacklisted, Russian TV stations banned, and that the people in the junta controlled Ukraine are told that the other side are terrorists and Russian soldiers. Oh, and the Ukrainian media is the most disgusting, sold out, subservient, propagandistic you can imagine. And then suddenly, at least one Ukrainian TV crew agrees to show the face of one of the most feared Novorussian commanders and he gets to speak his mind. But the next event was even more amazing. Alexei Mozgovoi agreed to a videoconference with not only Ukrainian journalists, but with actual field commanders of the Ukrainian military. To see Mozgovoi and the Ukrainians speak directly to each other was absolutely amazing. And here I have to apologize. I will not ask our translators to translate and subtitle the full thing. First, there were not one, but two such videoconferences. Then, we are talking about three long videos, see for yourself: Bezler interview: Published on Oct 21, 2014 (length: 2 hours 17 min)
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Comment: "Both sides have much more in common than what separates them." Isn't that the truth! We've been saying it for years: the problem is psychopaths. Until both sides realize that they face a common enemy, one that they vastly outnumber, there will never be peace. But that means SEEing the objective reality here: the psychopaths here are the neo-Nazis plaguing Ukraine, the oligarchs, the CIA masters. Once that vast gulf of difference in terms of humanity is seen, the differences between Ukrainians and Novorussians pale in comparison. It provides the contrast necessary for making real diplomacy possible: an acceptance of normal, cultural differences, and the humanity that unites people in all cultures, with which psychopaths share virtually nothing in common.
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Arturo Garcia
Raw Story 2014-10-29 20:36:00
A new video by filmmaker Rob Bliss and the advocacy group Hollaback shows the kind of street harassment often hurled at women in New York City, Mashable reported. The video, "10 Hours of Walking in NYC as a Woman," shows Shoshana B. Roberts silently walking through Manhattan behind Bliss, who is filming her with a camera hidden inside a backpack. Though she does not engage with anyone, she is "complimented," told to "smile," and leered at by men. "What's up girl? How you doing?" one man says early on. "Somebody's acknowledging you for being beautiful. You should say thank you more." Other men are shown following Roberts without her consent, including one who tails her for five minutes. "Maybe the guys who see this and don't understand may still think there's nothing wrong with this," Bliss told Think Progress. "But at least for the first time, they got to experience a little bit of what it's like to go through a day of getting harassed." According to another advocacy group, Stop Street Harassment, 65 percent of U.S. women have experienced street harassment. "Street harassment is a new term for an old phenomenon. It can include stalking, groping, verbal and physical assault that happens in public space," Hollaback states on its website. "Even though there are no population level studies, smaller city-wide studies in the US, Canada, Egypt, and India indicate that it is a pervasive and serious problem." Roberts, who became part of the project after answering a classified ad, said the video captured "really just a day in the life for me." Watch the video, as posted online on Tuesday, below.
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CBS Chicago
2014-10-29 19:23:00
As many as nine people were taken to hospitals Wednesday morning, after high carbon monoxide readings were detected at a West Englewood high school. Around 10 a.m., firefighters conducted a hazardous materials response at Harper High School, at 65th and Wood, due to high carbon monoxide levels. The school was evacuated, and will be closed for the rest of the day. People's Gas spokeswoman Bonnie Johnson says Peoples Gas "is supporting [the Chicago Fire Department] in their investigation into a foreign odor at Harper High School." Chicago police said nine students were hospitalized as a precaution, although the Fire Department said six students and one teacher were hospitalized. Students who weren't sick were being bused to other schools. Officials said a construction crew was relining sewers in the area, and vapors from the sewer might have seeped into the school, raising carbon monoxide levels, and making some people feel ill. | |
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Jonathan Drew
ABC News 2014-10-28 18:35:00
A gunman opened fire on two men in front of the courthouse in this small North Carolina town on Tuesday, sending panicked lunchtime shoppers ducking into shops along the normally quiet main drag. The suspect was caught by late afternoon after a manhunt that included dozens of armed officers canvassing the woods along a state highway with a police helicopter flying overhead. A second suspect was still on the loose. Authorities didn't offer a motive but believe the victims were targeted. Both were expected to survive. The shooting shattered the calm of the sunny lunch hours along Nashville's main street, which is flanked by the courthouse on one side and one-story shops across the street. Witnesses on the strip that includes a flower shop, cafe and furniture store said violence is unusual in the town of about 5,500. "We heard gunshots, like: Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow!" said Judy Winstead, who works at a real estate office across from the court. "It was very loud, and when we came out we even smelled gunpowder." | |
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Paul Craig Roberts
PaulCraigRoberts.org 2014-10-29 00:00:00
The federal government has announced that thousands of additional US soldiers are being sent to Liberia. General Gary Volesky said the troops would "stamp out" ebola. The official story is thatcombat troops are being sent to build treatment structures for those infected with ebola. Why combat troops? Why not send a construction outfit such as an engineer battalion if it has to be military? Why not do what the government usually does and contract with a construction company to build the treatment units? "Additional thousands of troops" results in a very large inexperienced construction crew for 17 treatment units. It doesn't make sense. Stories that don't make sense and that are not explained naturally arouse suspicions, such as: Are US soldiers being used to test ebola vaccines and cures, or more darkly are they being used to bring more ebola back to the US? I understand why people ask these questions. The fact that they will receive no investigative answer will deepen suspicions. | |
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RT
2014-10-29 18:00:00
China's smog problem has infiltrated haute couture. One fashion designer has embraced the country's ongoing problems with pollution, incorporating the need for face masks into their Spring/Summer 2015 sportswear collection. Yin Peng's collection was paraded at China Fashion Week, currently being held in Beijing, with models parading down the catwalk wearing face masks. The models looked determined not to let the conditions of the city in which the fashion show was held get to them. The masks varied from full-face cover, as with a fencing mask, to angular lightweight mouth-covering designs to compliment running gear. | |
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Reuters
2014-10-29 15:13:00
A man in his 30s beheaded a woman in her 60s on New York's Long Island and then jumped in front of a moving commuter train in an apparent murder-suicide, media reported on Wednesday. The body of a woman who was "the victim of an apparent homicide" was found in Farmingdale at about 7:55 p.m. local time on Tuesday, Nassau County Police Officer Steve Zacchia told Reuters on Wednesday. About 25 minutes later, Metropolitan Transit Authority Police reported that the body of a man who had been struck by a Long Island Rail Road train was found about 1,000 feet away, Zacchia said. He declined to confirm media reports that the woman had been decapitated by the man, who then leaped in front of the train. | |
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Brock Vergakis and Marcia Dunn
The Associated Press 2014-10-29 15:22:00
The company behind the dramatic launch explosion of a space station supply mission promises to find the cause of the failure and is warning residents to avoid any potentially hazardous wreckage. Orbital Sciences Corp.'s unmanned Antares rocket blew up just moments after liftoff Tuesday evening from the Virginia coast. Meanwhile, early Wednesday, the Russian Space Agency launched its own cargo vessel from Kazakhstan and the spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station six hours later with 3 tons of food. The smooth flight was in stark contrast to the Orbital Sciences' failed launch, and had been planned well in advance of the accident. The Orbital Sciences rocket was carrying a Cygnus capsule loaded with 2 1/2 tons of space station experiments and equipment for NASA. No one was injured when the rocket exploded moments after liftoff, shooting flaming debris down onto the launch area and into the ocean. Ground crews were ready to access the fire-stricken area of NASA's Wallops Flight Facility at daybreak Wednesday to search for accident debris. | |
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Greg Hunter
USAWatchdog 2014-10-29 00:00:00
Wealth preservation expert Egon von Greyerz is not bullish on the U.S. dollar. Greyerz explains, "More and more countries are trying to go away from the dollar, and I think the days of the dollar are counted. I think the dollar is going to start falling rapidly in coming months and years. Of course, it already has fallen dramatically in the last few decades, but that will now accelerate. It will go down to its intrinsic value which is zero, which most currencies do over their lifetime. Of course, we have the movements in Russia and China with alternative currencies for commodities like oil, etc. There will be a very disorderly reset with currencies falling. They can't all fall at the same time, but they will fall dramatically, and gold will, of course, reflect that. The stock markets are in a bubble, and they will also fall. I think the secular bull market we have seen is finished. Now, we are going to see a very long bear market. Of course, the biggest bubble of them all, where governments do all they can to keep the bubble going, is the bond market. We have more debt than ever and interest rates at zero. That just doesn't add up." Greyerz goes on to say, "You can't have governments borrow more than ever and have interest rates at zero. You can only do that temporarily because you have governments printing money and artificially holding interest rates down. That will not last either. So, the reset will be dramatic. It won't happen overnight, but there will be events that trigger short term pitfalls, but this is a long term thing." | |
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Rory Fanning
Salon.com 2014-10-29 04:12:00
As a veteran, I'm tired of being blindly celebrated. Good intentions aren't a substitute for good politics Last week, in a quiet indie bookstore on the north side of Chicago, I saw the latest issue of Rolling Stone resting on a chrome-colored plastic table a few feet from a barista brewing a vanilla latte. A cold October rain fell outside. A friend of mine grabbed the issue and began flipping through it. Knowing that I was a veteran, he said, "Hey, did you see this?" pointing to a news story that seemed more like an ad. It read in part: "This Veterans Day, Bruce Springsteen, Eminem, Rihanna, Dave Grohl, and Metallica will be among numerous artists who will head to the National Mall in Washington D.C. on November 11th for 'The Concert For Valor,' an all-star event that will pay tribute to armed services." "Concert For Valor? That sounds like something the North Korean government would organize," I said as I typed Concertforvalor.com into my MacBook Pro looking for more information. The sucking sound from the espresso maker was drowning out a 10-year-old Shins song. As I read, my heart sank, my shoulders slumped. Special guests at the Concert for Valor were to include: Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, and Steven Spielberg. The mission of the concert, according to a press release, was to "raise awareness" of veterans issues and "provide a national stage for ensuring that veterans and their families know that their fellow Americans' gratitude is genuine." | |
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Cassandra Rules
The Free Thought Project 2014-10-28 03:59:00
Pharr, Texas - Trial is set to begin December 1, in the case of former Pharr police officer Erasmo Mata, Jr., accused of repeated first-degree felony sexual assaults of a child. A federal civil lawsuit filed with Texas Southern District Court back in May accused Mata of assaulting the minor five times, on five separate occasions, all while on duty. The suit alleges that the attacks took place in abandoned houses around the city as other Pharr police officers stood by and watched. The lawsuit also accused the department of engaging in a cover-up to protect the officers from criminal charges, as well as not conducting a rape kit or immediately testing the evidence. The lawsuit was filed against the officer, the City of Pharr, the Pharr Police Department and the Pharr police chief. Claims against the City of Pharr and the Pharr Police Chief Ruben Villescas were dismissed, however the motion to dismiss Mata was denied. The Pharr Police Department did an internal investigation, but the family claims Chief Villescas told them not to hire an attorney and that he would personally take care of the allegations against the officer, Valley Central reports. While the officers were terminated, neither Mata, nor the officers who allegedly watched, initially faced any criminal charges for the 2013 attacks. | |
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Matt Agorist
Saginaw, MI - The gruesome dashcam video of a summary execution of a mentally ill man by police has been released to the public this week.The Free Thought Project 2014-10-28 03:44:00 The video shows six police officers, in firing squad fashion, execute mentally ill, Milton Hall, in broad daylight in a Saginaw parking lot. Hall was several meters away from the closest police officer when the shots began. He posed very little threat to the officers as he was armed with a small pocket knife and could have easily been brought down with a taser. Six Saginaw police officers fired 47 times at the 49-year-old Hall, striking him 11 times. Police claim Hall acted aggressively, according to then-Saginaw County Prosecutor Michael D. Thomas. The video was obtained by the ACLU from the family of Hall. It provides a more detailed depiction of the incident that day than the original cellphone footage. |
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John Vibes
The Free Thought Project 2014-10-29 01:42:00
"[We were] told by officers we couldn't have a dance, under threat of being taken to jail with a felony of inciting a riot." A dance party in St. George, Utah was shut down over the weekend because the city will not allow people to dance without permits. However, "Heart of Dixie", the company who organized the event was actually under the impression that they had all of the permits that they needed. The group has held their annual Halloween event "The Monster Mash" for the past three years in other areas of Utah. This year, they moved their event to St. George, but unfortunately the permit process is far more rigorous there than in other places where they had done business in the past. Many event promoters are familiar with being required to get permits for alcohol and amplified music, and although many disagree with the process, they still do what they must to stay out of trouble. Some towns, like St. George, do not like having events in their town, so they make the permitting process so difficult and complicated that it is nearly impossible to legally establish a live music event. It is fairly common in these areas for the city to throw permit requirements on event organizers days before their show, which sabotages their event after months of planning is done and large sums of money have been invested. That seems to be the case in St. George, where town bureaucrats claim that event organizers had applied for their "dancing permit" just days before the event. While dancing permits do exist they are not typically separate forms than those required to hold a large gathering with amplified sound. These "permissions" are typically wrapped into the same paperwork, but in St. George this was an entirely separate permit. In other words, the event was permitted for live music, but not for dancing. Jared Keddington, one of the main organizers for the event, told local Fox 13 that he thought he had all of the permits that he needed. "We were given a permit, and then told by officers we couldn't have a dance, under threat of being taken to jail with a felony of inciting a riot. Things had been crossed out, and in hand was written, no dance activity permitted. On another page it was typed that the event must not be allowed to become a dance party due to random acts of dancing by patrons," Keddington said. "It's not OK to tell people they can't dance. It's not OK to tell people they have to get a permit to dance," he added. City spokesman Marc Mortensen said that Keddington did not file for the permit soon enough, but Mortensen neglected to mention how town officials made the entire process nearly impossible for the event organizers every step of the way. "Via the power of social media, who knows how many could have showed up and would that have overburdened that particular neighborhood and could it have potentially created problems, that's what we try and avoid," Mortensen said. Only in the "Land of the Free" do we need a permit to dance....... | |
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Jonah Lustig
ABC News 2014-10-27 13:12:00
Paul Kitterman told his friend Tia Bakke that the experience of being at his first ever Denver Broncos game in person with his son was "awesome" - and that was the last she heard of him. The 53-year-old from Kremmling, Colorado, seemingly vanished into the Sports Authority Field crowd at the Broncos-Chargers game Thursday night in what Denver police now call a missing persons case. "He would never bail on his son, or anyone," Bakke told ABC News, "so by Friday night, we knew something was really, really, wrong." | |
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RT
2014-10-28 20:06:00
An unmanned rocket exploded shortly after takeoff Tuesday evening on Virginia's eastern shore. Orbital Sciences' Antares rocket was carrying thousands of pounds of equipment to restock the International Space Station. The launch was supposed to be the third of eight planned Orbital missions to ferry gear and food to astronauts aboard the ISS. The rocket had some 5,000 pounds of food, supplies and science experiments, which all were engulfed in a fireball just above NASA's Wallop's Island facility.
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| Secret History |
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Megan Gannon
LiveScience 2014-10-28 20:59:00
The skeleton of a mammoth was discovered this month on the banks of a reservoir in Idaho. Paleontologists have rescued part of its skull and a tusk, but there could be a lot more buried below the surface. "We may even have a complete mammoth," said Mary Thompson, a vertebrate paleontologist and senior collections manager at the Idaho Museum of Natural History. "This is very unique for us." Every year, when water levels drop in Idaho's American Falls Reservoir, teams of paleontologists and volunteers with the Bureau of Reclamation walk the beaches in search of fossils. The ancient bones of camels, bison latifrons, giant ground sloths, saber-toothed cats and other extinct Ice Age beasts sometimes poke out of the freshly eroded reservoir banks. | |
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| Science & Technology |
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Tanya Lewis
LiveScience 2014-10-28 11:53:00
When a dead body decomposes in the ocean, scientists know little about what happens to it. To find out, some researchers performed an unusual experiment that involved dropping pig carcasses into the sea and watching them on video. Lots of human bodies end up in the sea, whether due to accidents, suicides or from being intentionally dumped there, but nobody really knows what happens to them, said Gail Anderson, a forensic entomologist at Simon Fraser University in Canada who led the unusual study. Anderson and her team got a chance to find out, using the Victoria Experimental Network Under the Sea (VENUS), an underwater laboratory that allows scientists to take video and other measurements via the Internet. With that equipment, all they needed was a body. "Pigs are the best models for humans," Anderson told Live Science. They're roughly the right size for a human body; they have the same kind of gut bacteria, and they're relatively hairless, she said. In the study, published Oct. 20 in the journal PLOS ONE, Anderson and her team used a remotely operated submarine to drop three pig carcasses into the Saanich Inlet, a body of salt water near Vancouver Island, British Columbia, at a depth of 330 feet (100 meters). | |
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ScienceDaily
Researchers have deciphered the role of nanostructures around brain cells in the central nervous system.2014-10-29 13:00:00
An accumulation of a protein called amyloid-beta into large insoluble deposits called plaques is known to cause Alzheimer's disease. One aspect of this illness that has not received much attention is which role the structure of the brain environment plays. How do macromolecules and macromolecular assemblies, such as polysaccharides, influence cell interaction in the brain? In a paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Prof. Prasad Shastri and graduate student Nils Blumenthal, in collaboration with Prof. Bernd Heimrich and Prof. Ola Hermanson, have discovered that macromolecules or support cells like astrocytes provide well-defined physical cues in the form of random roughness or ruffles that have a crucial role in promoting and maintaining healthy interactions between cells in the hippocampus. This brain area is regarded as the brain's GPS system: It processes and stores spatial information. In Alzheimer's disease, this area degenerates. Shastri says, "It has been long thought that only biological signals have a role in health and function of brain cells, but here we show that the structure of the molecules that surround these cells may be equally important." | |
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Nick Stockton
Wired 2014-10-28 05:39:00
When I was younger, my grandma would occasionally issue solemn prophesies for rain. These declarations would come after she'd spent a few minutes rubbing her arthritic wrists. With a pensive gaze, she'd credit the prediction to her aching joints. I was reminded of this yesterday. I'd been working on my laptop when my ankle, titanium-braced from an old break, started throbbing. I thought nothing of it until I stepped outside, and into a surprise rainstorm. I'd always been skeptical of grandma's arthritic omens, but limping down the sidewalk in the wake of my own revelation gave me reason to reconsider. Could science have an answer for why some people seem to feel the weather in their bones? | |
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| Earth Changes |
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Jon Erdman
Weather Channel 2014-10-29 21:45:00
After becoming impressively strong on Tuesday, Cyclone Nilofar has begun to weaken. Nilofar is expected to head towards southeastern Pakistan and northwestern India, with landfall likely on Saturday. On Tuesday afternoon, Nilofar intensified to the equivalent of a hurricane with estimated wind speeds of 130 mph, according to the U.S. Joint Typhoon Warning Center, about 650 miles south-southwest of Karachi, Pakistan. Nilofar underwent rapid intensification, and became the third strongest tropical cyclone of record in the Arabian Sea. Only Gonu in 2007 (Cat. 5; 165 mph winds) and Phet in 2010 (Cat. 4; 145 mph winds) were stronger Arabian Sea tropical cyclones in the historical record, according to Masters. | |
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Shihar Aneez and Ranga Sirilal
Reuters 2014-10-29 21:22:00
A landslide in hilly south-central Sri Lanka is believed to have killed more than 100 people on Wednesday as it buried scores of houses, a government minister said, and the toll is likely to rise. The landslide hit a village in the tea-growing area of Sri Lanka after days of heavy monsoon rain, with more than 300 people listed as missing. "More than 100 people are believed to have died," Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Amaraweera told Reuters from the disaster site in the village of Haldummulla, 190 km (120 miles) inland from the capital, Colombo. "We have suspended the rescue operations because of darkness and inclement weather. There is also a threat of further landslides."
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Brendan Manning
The New Zealand Herald 2014-10-29 21:05:00
A 10 metre-long humpback whale has washed up dead on Waikanae Beach early this morning. Department of Conservation spokeswoman Jane Dobson said they received reports of the stranding, south of Waikanae Boat Club, around 6.30am. "It's been confirmed that it's a humpback whale, approximately 10 metres long and estimated to be about 25 to 30 tonne. "Senior ranger Brent Tandy has said that its smaller size suggests it's not fully mature." Ms Dobson said it was unknown how the whale had died, but it appeared to have been dead for some time. | |
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After 2 days of heavy rainfall, parts of western Norway suffered major flooding after rivers overflowed in the counties of Sogn og Fjordane and Hordaland late on Tuesday 28 October 2014. Heavy rain has also continued to affect parts of Rogaland county. Initial reports suggest that Odda and Voss in Hordaland and Flåm, Laerdal, Årdal and Stryn in Sogn og Fjordane have been the worst affected. The heavy rainfall has also led to avalanches in some areas of western Norway.
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South Pole still at record levels .............................. 8 days ago, dutchsinse put out a video showing that the North Pole Ice pack was growing rather rapidly.
After doing some mileage computations on the spread of the ice, dutchsinse made the statement that the North Pole would be covered in a couple weeks (or less). Thanks to Marcus Adrian for this video | ||
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A trip to the coast usually means you're going to see sea stars, but a mysterious disease is killing them along the West Coast. There had been a few reports of sick sea stars in Alaska, but recently in Sitka, the first mass die offs in the state were detected. Scientists in Sitka are tracking the progress. Patty Dick lives on a boat in Thompson Harbor in Sitka. In the morning, when it's low tide and she has an extra moment, she goes out and checks on the sea stars living in the area. "I just sit there in awe of the beauty of that animal," she said. "Everybody loves sea stars." Dick teaches 6th grade biology at Blatchley Middle School. She often takes her students on field trips to learn about marine animals, and they usually find dozens of sea stars. But one morning last month, Dick noticed something was wrong with the sea stars. "I just looked over and I just stopped. There were these big, huge, white spots all over them and they were just wasting away. My heart just sank." | |
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WashingtonsBlog
D'oh!2014-10-29 18:52:00 Scientists warned that an earthquake could take out Fukushima. The Japanese ignored the warning ... and even tore down the natural seawall which protected Fukushima from tidal waves. Fukushima is getting worse. And see this and this. Have the Japanese learned their lesson? Are they decommissioning nuclear plants which are built in dangerous environments? Of course not! Instead, they're re-starting a nuclear plant near a volcano which is about to blow ... A month ago, there was an eruption at Mt. Ontake:
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Eranga Jayawardena
The Associated Press 2014-10-29 16:07:00
A mudslide triggered by monsoon rains buried scores of workers' houses at a tea plantation in central Sri Lanka on Wednesday, killing at least 10 people and leaving more than 250 missing, an official said. The military mobilized troops to help with the rescue operation as rain continued to fall in the island nation's central hills. Mud covered some of the destroyed homes to their roofs, and water gushing down hillsides indicated more slides were possible. P. Arumugam, who works as a driver on the plantation, said he rushed there when he heard about the mudslide. "Everything that I saw yesterday I could not see today - buildings, the temple and shops had all disappeared. I could only see mud everywhere," he said. The mudslide struck at around 7:30 a.m. and wiped out 120 workers' homes at the Koslanda tea plantation, said Lal Sarath Kumara, an official from the Disaster Management Center. The plantation is in the town of Koslanda in Badulla district about 220 kilometers (140 miles) east of Colombo. | |
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Blathnaid Healy
Mashable 2014-10-28 21:21:00
Britons are known for talking at great length about the weather - sometimes even obsessing about it - and soon they'll have a lot more to chat about with the advent of more detailed weather forecasts courtesy of a computer equipped with more processing power than 100,000 Playstations combined. Britain's Met Office has been given the green light to build a £97 million ($156 million) supercomputer that is 13 times more powerful than the current system used, which will help the weather service to provide better hourly forecast updates. | |
Comment: If the British Met Office is currently predicting the "warmest year on record", no doubt it needs a better predicting device! By the looks of it, Eurasia is already starting to freeze as early as October this year!
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| Fire in the Sky |
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David Dickinson
Universe Today 2014-10-28 19:02:00
Comet C/2012 K1 PanSTARRS, one of the most dependable comets of 2014, may put on its encore performance over the coming weeks for southern hemisphere observers. First, the story thus far. Discovered as a +19th magnitude smudge along the borders of the constellations Ophiuchus and Hercules in mid-May 2012 courtesy of the Panoramic Survey Telescope And Rapid Response System (PanSTARRS) based atop Haleakala on the Hawaiian island of Maui, astronomers soon realized that comet C/2012 K1 PanSTARRS would be something special. The comet broke +10th magnitude to become a visible binocular object in early 2014, and wowed northern hemisphere observers as it vaulted across the constellations of Boötes and Ursa Major this past spring.
The comet is approaching the inner solar system on a retrograde, highly-inclined orbit tilted 142 degrees relative the ecliptic. This bizarre orbit also assures that the comet will actually reach opposition twice in 2014 as seen from our earthly vantage point: once on April 15th, and another opposition coming right up on November 7th. As was the case with comet Hale-Bopp way back in 1997, had C/2012 K1 PanSTARRS arrived six months earlier or later, we would've been in for a truly spectacular show, as the comet reached perihelion on August 27th, 2014, only 0.05 A.U.s (4.6 million miles or 7.7 million kilometres) outside the orbit of the Earth! But such a spectacle was not to be... back in '97, Hale-Bopp's enormous size - featuring a nucleus estimated 40 to 60 kilometres across - made for a grand show regardless... fast forward to 2014, and the tinier nucleus of K1 PanSTARRS has been relegated to binocular status only.
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| Health & Wellness |
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ScienceDaily
2014-10-29 21:49:00
Many factors, both genetic and environmental, have been blamed for increasing the risk of a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Some, such as a family history of schizophrenia, are widely accepted. Others, such as infection with Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite transmitted by soil, undercooked meat and cat feces, are still viewed with skepticism. A new study by Gary Smith, professor of population biology and epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Veterinary Medicine, used epidemiological modeling methods to determine the proportion of schizophrenia cases that may be attributable to T. gondii infection. The work, published in the journal Preventive Veterinary Medicine, suggests that about one-fifth of cases may involve the parasite. "Infection with Toxoplasma is very common, so, even if only a small percentage of people suffer adverse consequences, we could be talking about problems that affect thousands and thousands of people," Smith said. In the United States, just over a fifth of the population is infected with T. gondii. The vast majority aren't aware of it. But there are some populations that need to be concerned. For example, if a woman becomes infected for the first time during pregnancy, her fetus can die or suffer serious developmental problems. People with HIV or other diseases that weaken the immune system are susceptible to a complication of T. gondii infection called toxoplasmic encephalitis, which can be deadly. Though the medical community has long believed that most healthy people suffer no adverse effects from a T. gondii infection, recent studies have found evidence of worrisome impacts, including an association with schizophrenia because the parasite is found in in the brain as well as in muscles. Other work has shown that some antipsychotic drugs can stop the parasite from reproducing. In addition, field and laboratory studies in mice, rats and people have shown that infection with T. gondii triggers changes in behavior and personality. | |
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Prevent Disease
2014-10-29 20:21:00
Fluorine is an element. It is a gas, never occurring in its free state. In microscopic amounts complexed with other minerals, it is often listed as a trace mineral, a nutrient for human nutrition. The fluoride added to 90% of drinking water is hydrofluoric acid which is a compound of fluorine that is a chemical byproduct of aluminum, steel, cement, phosphate, and nuclear weapons manufacturing. Such fluoride is manmade. In this form, fluoride has no nutrient value whatsoever. It is one of the most caustic of industrial chemicals. Fluoride is the active toxin in rat poisons and cockroach powder. Hydrofluoric acid is used to refine high octane gasoline, to make fluorocarbons and chlorofluorocarbons for freezers and air conditioners, and to manufacture computer screens, fluorescent light bulbs, semiconductors, plastics, herbicides, - and toothpaste. It also has the ability to burn flesh to the bone, destroy eyes, and sear lungs so that victims drown in their own body fluid. Once in the body, fluoride is a destroyer of human enzymes. It does this by changing their shapes. In human biochemistry, thousands of enzymes are necessary for various essential cell reactions that take place every second we're alive. Without enzymes, we'd die instantaneously. | |
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Sayer Ji
Greenmedinfo.com 2014-10-27 19:59:00
Could two of the Western world's most popular foods - wheat and cow's dairy - be depleting you of your antioxidants and altering your DNA expression in a harmful way? A fascinating new study sheds much needed light on the topic of why a diet free of wheat gluten and the cow's milk protein known as casein have commonly been reported to have such a wide range of health benefits, particularly when it comes to gastrointestinal distress and neurological disorders; Or, said oppositely, the study reveals why the centerpiece of the Western dietary pattern - a gluten and casein-rich diet - may participate in an extraordinarily wide range of health problems, many of which we have been documenting extensively on our open access database: gluten harms and casein harms. We also featured the neurotoxicity of gluten and casein in three previous articles you can review below for a more in depth perspective on their intrinsically harmful nature: | |
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Christina Sarich
Natural Society 2014-10-28 13:07:00
Remember the promise of universal health care with Obamacare, with no refusal for 'pre-existing conditions'? It looks like your insurance company may not have to cover you if you get Ebola. U.S. and British insurance companies have begun writing Ebola exclusions into standard policies to cover hospitals, event organizers, and other businesses vulnerable to local disruptions. While it is estimated that expenditures to treat the original Dallas Ebola patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, were approximately $100,000 an hour (though he passed anyway), it looks like insurance companies won't be footing the bill. President Obama originally refused to set up travel restrictions in and out of West Africa, too, even though the governments latest scare tactics and the CDC's ineptitude have resulted in insurance companies creating new policies which exclude Ebola care. Renewals will also become costlier for companies opting to insure business travel to West Africa or to cover the risk of losses from quarantine shutdowns at home. | |
Comment: Wouldn't it be better to avoid Ebola altogether? See:
Are you prepping your diet? The Ketogenic Diet - An Overview Vitamin C - A cure for Ebola Scientists stumble across the obvious treatment for Ebola: tobacco | |
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Ethan A. Huff
Natural News 2014-10-29 11:18:00
The same drug manufacturers that stand to profit immensely from the sale of Ebola vaccines say they require full legal immunity from any potential lawsuits that might arise when people are harmed by various adverse effects from these "emergency" drugs. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) CEO Andrew Witty told World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Margaret Chan that his corporation, which is currently leading the way in producing Ebola vaccines, shouldn't have to shoulder any of the burden of responsibility for their safety. Witty maintains, in other words, that GSK should be allowed full access to the financial benefits associated with selling Ebola vaccines to the public, but with absolutely none of the risk. And his company and others will likely get what they want, since they hold remarkable sway in the political realm. | |
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Dana Dovey
Medical Daily 2014-10-29 00:30:00
A recent report from Sweden has not only added proof to the growing consensus that drinking milk doesn't help our bone strength at all but also suggested that it may be compromising our lives.The study even found a correlation between high milk consumption, bone fracture occurrences, and increased mortality risk. Although at this point cause and effect cannot yet be proven, the findings may still be enough to get you to decrease your daily milk consumption. Mankind's relationship with milk post-infancy is still relatively new. In fact, two-thirds of the human population still lack the enzyme needed to break down the lactose in milk and will most surely end up with the monster of all stomach aches if they drink too much. Still, for those of us who are able to drink milk without too much of a discomfort, we've drank with the idea that we were somewhat improving our bone health. However, many scholars have noticed that when it comes to osteoporosis and milk consumption, the numbers just don't add up. The countries with the highest rates of osteoporosis, such as the United States and countries in the European Union, are some of the biggest global milk consumers, Slate reported. Could it be that milk actually doesn't do all that much for bone health after all? | |
Comment: Studies have shown that countries with lowest rates of dairy and calcium consumption (like those in Africa and Asia) have the lowest rates of osteoporosis. In addition, studies of calcium supplementation have showed no benefit in reducing fracture risk. Vitamin D appears to be much more important than calcium in preventing fractures. Dairy products - including all milk products, milk, cheese, cottage cheese, yogurt, kefir, ice-cream, etc. - are related to all kinds of diseases including cardiovascular diseases, autoimmune diseases, cancer, allergies, asthma, digestive diseases, thyroid problems, neurological diseases among others.
Why Milk Is So Evil 6 reasons why you should avoid milk at all costs... | |
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| Science of the Spirit |
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ScienceDaily
2014-10-29 22:04:00
Everyone knows that exercise makes you feel more mentally alert at any age. But do you need to follow a specific training program to improve your cognitive function? Science has shown that the important thing is to just get moving. It's that simple. In fact, this was the finding of a study conducted at the Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal (IUGM), an institution affiliated with Université de Montréal, by Dr. Nicolas Berryman, PhD, Exercise Physiologist, under the supervision of Dr. Louis Bherer, PhD, and Dr. Laurent Bosquet, PhD, that was published in the journal AGE (American Aging Association) in October. The study compared the effects of different training methods on the cognitive functions of people aged 62 to 84 years. Two groups were assigned a high-intensity aerobic and strength-training program, whereas the third group performed tasks that targeted gross motor activities (coordination, balance, ball games, locomotive tasks, and flexibility). While the aerobics and strength-training were the only exercises that led to physical fitness improvements after 10 weeks (in terms of body composition, VO2 max, and maximum strength), all three groups showed equivalent improvement in cognitive performance. | |
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Benjamin Radford
Discovery News 2014-10-28 23:09:00
Just in time for Halloween, there are several recent books out that are claimed to have been written by dead people through living writers. One is by musician David Young called Channeling Harrison,in which he claims that the spirit of ex-Beatle George Harrison is in contact with him, guiding his songwriting and teaching him life lessons. There is nothing new about this; so-called "channeled" books were very popular in New Age circles in the 1970s and 1980s. Among the most popular was the 1970s book series Seth Speaks, dictated by Jane Roberts, who claimed that an energy named Seth possessed her body and dictated esoteric information through her about the soul, the nature of consciousness, spiritual truths, higher planes of reality, and so on. Channeling remains immensely popular among New Agers; hundreds of books, audiotapes, seminars, and DVDs are devoted to the practice. | |
Comment: It's vital to retain critical faculties when reading any sort of "channeled" material, and there's no reason to run to ghosts or spirits for answers that one can find for one's self.
But mainstream science has gone overboard and proclaimed there is no evidence for channeling,near-death experiences, or anything "higher" than materialism. This is based on a belief system, not the scientific method. See Rupert Sheldrake's "The Science Delusion" talk, and check out the subsequent fallout for his attempt to set science free.
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| High Strangeness |
| No new articles. |
| Don't Panic! Lighten Up! |
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