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Harrison Koehli
Sott.net 2014-11-20 17:06:00
Today, Thursday 20 November, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is set to arrive in Vienna for talks regarding Iran's nuclear program. A year ago, in Geneva, the P5+1 group (comprising Russia, the U.S., UK, France, China, and Germany) resolved to reach a temporary agreement that would guarantee Iran's peaceful intentions by November 24th this year, and, Iran hopes, lead to the lifting of sanctions. Representatives of each country met in Vienna on Tuesday to, in theory, put the final touches to the deal, with a final round of talks planned for the 23rd. But there are mixed messages and intentions coming from all sides. U.S. State Department Spokesman Jeff Rathke said Washington is willing to suspend the existing sanctions on Iran if a nuclear deal is reached, then terminate them entirely if Iran lives up to its commitments. (Iran, in contrast, wants the sanctions cancelled outright as soon as the deal is signed.) But any agreement reached may leave Obama in a pickle. Taking the lead in a US Senate threat to block any Iranian nuclear agreement are Senators Robert Menendez (Dem.) and Mark Kirk (Rep.) who are demanding that Iran must totally dismantle its nuclear program in order for the U.S. to even consider reversing sanctions. Last December the two 'hard-ass' senators introduced a bill that called for increasing sanctions on Iran rather than lifting the existing ones. | |
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Chris Carrington
The Daily Sheeple 2014-11-20 13:01:00
A White House memo dated November 13 has effectively removed the threat of law suits and any form of civil claim from federal contractors who bring Ebola back to the United States from West Africa. So, if a contractor cuts corners, uses inferior equipment or one of their staff arrives home carrying Ebola they cannot be held accountable for it's spread within the United States. From CNS News: In other words, if a Company A employee contracts Ebola while working in West Africa, brings the disease back to the United States, is not quarantined and ends up infecting members of the general public, Company A is protected from any damages arising from lawsuits by these secondary victims. | |
Comment: Does the government know something we don't?
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The complexity of the National Security Agency's spying programs has made some of its ex-technical experts the most dangerous critics since they are among the few who understand the potential totalitarian risks involved, as ex-NSA analyst William Binney showed in an interview with journalist Lars Schall. William Binney, who spent 36 years in the National Security Agency rising to become the NSA's technical director for intelligence, has emerged as one of the most knowledgeable critics of excesses in the NSA's spying programs, some of which he says managed to both violate the U.S. Constitution and prove inefficient in tracking terrorists. Binney has been described as one of the best analysts in NSA's history combining expertise in intelligence analysis, traffic analysis, systems analysis, knowledge management and mathematics (including set theory, number theory and probability). He resigned in October 2001 and has since criticized the NSA's massive monitoring programs. After leaving the NSA, he co-founded Entity Mapping, LLC, a private intelligence agency, together with fellow NSA whistleblower J. Kirk Wiebe. | |
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ITAR-TASS
2014-11-20 18:31:00
Russia is ready to supply electric power to Ukraine, but payments for supplies are at question, Deputy Energy Minister Kirill Molodtsov told reporters on Thursday."There is a question of price, a question of payments. We are ready to supply gas, electric power and coal, if there is such necessity. The relationship between the sides is a point," he said. Comment: Spoken like a good capitalist. Any intelligent businessman would be wary of selling to a customer with such a dodgy credit record. | |
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Patricia Zengerle
Reuters 2014-11-20 12:28:00
China and "probably one or two" other countries have the ability to invade and possibly shut down computer systems of U.S. power utilities, aviation networks and financial companies, Admiral Mike Rogers, the director of the U.S. National Security Agency, said on Thursday. Testifying to the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee on cyber threats, Rogers said digital attackers have been able to penetrate such systems and perform "reconnaissance" missions to determine how the networks are put together. "What concerns us is that access, that capability can be used by nation-states, groups or individuals to take down that capability," he said. Rogers said China was one of the countries with that capability, but that there were others. "There's probably one or two others," he said, declining to elaborate in a public setting. | |
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ITAR-TASS
Two senior Hungarian officials, one at home and the other on a foreign trip, have expressed their country's firm commitment to Russia's ambitious gas pipeline project to bring natural gas to Europe via a southern route bypassing restive and unreliable Ukraine.2014-11-19 17:38:00
Hungary's Foreign Minister Peter Sijjarto, currently in Moscow on a visit said Budapest hoped Russia and the European Union would resume talks on the project, stalled since last autumn due EU objections. "We do hope that the negotiations will resume and proceed fast," Sijjarto said after talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on Wednesday. "South Stream serves the purpose of diversifying gas supplies to Europe. We are for South Stream's full compliance with the EU requirements." Earlier in the day, Hungary's energy affairs state secretary, Andras Aradszki, stated in Budapest that his country was firm in its intention to start laying its stretch of the South Stream gas pipeline despite European and US opposition, because it saw the project as the sole fuel supply option available at this point. | |
Comment: Hungary, other former East-bloc members such as Bulgaria and even some EU countries are becoming acutely aware of the dangers of being drawn into the Empire's web. Striking out for energy independence is a major step in avoiding the trap.
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RT
2014-11-20 15:24:00
The Dutch government has refused to reveal details of a secret pact between members of the Joint Investigation Team examining the downed Flight MH17. If the participants, including Ukraine, don't want information to be released, it will be kept secret. The respected Dutch publication Elsevier made a request to the Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice under the Freedom of Information Act to disclose the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) agreement, along with 16 other documents. The JIT consists of four countries - the Netherlands, Belgium, Australia and Ukraine - who are carrying out an investigation into the MH17 disaster, but not Malaysia. Malaysian Airlines, who operated the flight, has been criticized for flying through a war zone. Part of the agreement between the four countries and the Dutch Public Prosecution Service, ensures that all these parties have the right to secrecy. This means that if any of the countries involved believe that some of the evidence may be damaging to them, they have the right to keep this secret. "Of course [it is] an incredible situation: how can Ukraine, one of the two suspected parties, ever be offered such an agreement?" Dutch citizen Jan Fluitketel wrote in the newspaper Malaysia Today. | |
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RT
2014-11-17 18:25:00
The West should not wait for Russia to solve the Ukraine crisis, but should instead try to influence the extreme policies of its "clients" in Kiev, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Hubert Seipel of the German channel ARD ahead of the G20 summit. Hubert Seipel: Good afternoon, Mr President. You are the only Russian President who has ever given a speech at the Bundestag. This happened in 2001. Your speech was a success. You spoke about relations between Russia and Germany, building Europe in cooperation with Russia, but you also gave a warning. You said that the Cold War ideas had to be eradicated. You also noted that we share the same values, yet we do not trust each other. Why were you being a little pessimistic back then? Vladimir Putin: First of all, I gave no warnings or admonitions and I was not being pessimistic. I was just trying to analyse the preceding period in the development of the situation in the world and in Europe after the collapse of the Soviet Union. I also took the liberty of predicting the situation based on different development scenarios. Naturally, it reflected the situation as we see it, through the prism, as diplomats would put it, from Russia's point of view, but still, I think it was a rather objective analysis. I reiterate: there was no pessimism whatsoever. None. On the contrary, I was trying to make my speech sound optimistic. I assumed that having acknowledged all the problems of the past, we must move towards a much more comfortable and mutually advantageous relationship-building process in the future.
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Max Blumenthal
AlterNet 2014-11-18 00:00:00
Rep. John Conyers wanted to block U.S. funding to neo-Nazis in Ukraine. But the ADL and Simon Wiesenthal Center refused to help. AlterNet has learned that an amendment to the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would have forbidden US assistance, training and weapons to neo-Nazis and other extremists in Ukraine was kept out of the final bill by the Republican-led House Rules Committee. Introduced by Democratic Representative John Conyers, the amendment was intended to help tamp down on violent confrontations between Ukrainian forces and Russian separatists. (Full text of the amendment embedded at the end of this article). A USA Today/Pew poll conducted in April while the NDAA was being debated found that Americans opposed by more than 2 to 1 providing the Ukrainian government with arms or other forms of military assistance. If passed, Conyers' amendment would have explicitly barred those found to have offered "praise or glorification of Nazism or its collaborators, including through the use of white supremacist, neo-Nazi, or other similar symbols" from receiving any form of support from the US Department of Defense. | |
Comment: Yet another reminder of just how powerful the Israel lobby in the U.S. is; that they're not supporting such an obviously sensible amendment as Conyer proposed could actually prevent it from getting passed. But far more than this, these facts further reveal just how incredibly ambitious and ruthless the psychopathic cabal in Israel is in its quest for geopolitical power.
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RT
2014-11-20 13:16:00
The EU's attempts to coerce Serbia into joining anti-Russian sanctions are nothing but blackmail, says the head of the State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee. "Presently the European Union is trying to force Serbia, which is not an EU member, to join their sanctions program. They are practically blackmailing Serbia: either it joins the sanctions against Russia or [the bloc] won't see it as a country with a chance of joining the EU," MP Aleksey Pushkov (United Russia) told reporters at a Thursday press conference in Moscow. "The problem for Serbia is that in any case it has no prospects for joining the EU anytime soon. Even if they join the anti-Russian sanctions now, they would simply succumb to blackmailers and no one would accept them in the EU in one year for doing this," he added. | |
Comment: Because the former Yugoslavia had implemented economic and social policies that made it a model for the entire world, the anglo-American empire fomented "civil war" in the country with the US of proxy mercenaries, and then bombed it to "protect" it. The result was the break up of Yugoslavia into smaller, more 'manageable' states. The anglo-American empire builders are in no mood to see any part of their 'creation' move out of the Western sphere of influence, and will use any and all methods to prevent any Baltic state from doing so.
See the excellent documentary The Weight of Chains for the inside story on Yugoslavia and why is posed such a threat to the Empire that it had to be destroyed. | |
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Sophie Shevarnadze
RT 2014-11-17 11:44:00
The EU's biggest foreign crisis mission, expected to tackle corruption in troubled Kosovo, has itself become a target of bribe-taking allegations. Maria Bamieh, the prosecutor who shed light on the crimes within the EULEX program, is on SophieCo today, to talk about who's to blame and why the EU still hasn't properly investigated her revelations.
Sophie Shevarnadze: Prosecutor, member of the EU Rule of Law Mission to Kosovo Maria Bamieh. Welcome to the show, it's great to have you with us. Now, you accused top officials who were part of the EULEX mission in Kosovo of corruption and taking bribes. Did you confront them right away? Maria Bamieh: No, I didn't. I confronted one of them in 2012 as I was reporting the evidence that I've found to the Head of Justice. Myself and my direct manager, line manager both went to see him as a result of the interceptions that I came by innocently, and one of the perpetrators was in his room and I was made to confront her directly. The main perpetrator, Judge Florit (former chairman of EULEX' Assembly of Judges - RT), I didn't confront directly. I thought EULEX were investigating the matter, but I subsequently found out they weren't, but recently on KTV in Kosovo I confronted the other perpetrator directly. | ||
Comment: Maria Bamieh would greatly benefit from reading "Political Ponerology", to understand the role that pathological deviants play in our society and how pervasive it is. The parasites are thoroughly entrenched in the vital organs of the societal body for all with eyes to see.
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Neil Clark
I'm confused. The first thing I'm confused about is democratic legitimacy after elections are held in war-torn countries.RT 2014-11-20 11:15:00 Western leaders have hailed the recent parliamentary elections in Ukraine, as a great triumph of "democracy." Barack Obama said it was "an important milestone in Ukraine's democratic development." Top EU officials said it represented "a victory of the people of Ukraine and of democracy." Yet large parts of war-torn Ukraine took no part in the vote. Turnout, according to the Ukraine Central Election Commission was just 52.42 percent. In May's presidential elections, turnout, according to official figures, was 60.3 percent. They were won by Petro Poroshenko with 54.7 percent of the vote. Again, western leaders hailed the results as a great victory for "democracy." Now let's consider the case of Syria, another war-torn country where there were also important elections this year.
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Dmitry Orlov
Club Orlov 2014-11-18 09:49:00 Comment: Dmitry Orlov predicts that the end of the dollar is near. You can listen to the informative SOTT Talk Radio interview with Mr. Orlov here, the transcript is available here.
This just in: it turns out that the rumors were right after all. At least part of the reason the US State Dept./CIA staged a coup in Ukraine that overthrew its democratically elected government and installed a neo-Nazi puppet regime was to steal Ukraine's gold. Rumor had it that shortly after the coup the gold was quietly loaded onto a plane that took it to the US. And now comes the official revelation: Ukraine has no gold reserves left. The gold was sold to pay for a failed military campaign in Eastern Ukraine, and to prop up the fake paper gold market for a little bit longer. One would expect that once the fix is off, the price of gold will skyrocket, the US dollar will drop like a rock, and Americans will need to add the word "hyperinflation" to their list of national woes. | |
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Kate Sheppard
Moyers and Company 2014-11-19 04:45:00
This post originally appeared on The Huffington Post and was produced in collaboration withClimate Desk. TransCanada Corp., the company seeking to build the Keystone XL pipeline, has teamed up with the world's largest public relations firm to promote a proposed alternative pipeline that's entirely in Canada. Greenpeace Canada obtained documents that the US public relations firm Edelman drafted for TransCanada that outline a campaign to promote Energy East, the company's proposed 2,858-mile pipeline that would transport crude oil from the Alberta tar sands to the east coast of Canada. The company filed an application to build the Energy East pipeline last month - a project that has been described as an "oil route around Obama" amid political wrangling over Keystone XL in the United States. Greenpeace says the documents show a company increasingly concerned about the fate of Keystone XL, which would connect the tar sands with Gulf Coast refineries. TransCanada's Energy East also faces increasing opposition, as does a proposed pipeline to the west, Enbridge's Northern Gateway. Enbridge got approval from the Canadian government to build Northern Gateway, but work has been delayed, in large part because of opposition from First Nation communities along the pipeline route. "TransCanada has been saying, 'If you don't let us build Keystone, we will build to the east,'" said Keith Stewart, the climate and energy campaign coordinator for Greenpeace Canada. "These documents show that they're clearly worried about the Energy East pipeline as well. It's going to face just as rough a ride as Keystone or Northern Gateway." The Energy East documents outline plans to create a "grassroots" advocacy campaign on behalf of TransCanada, recruit outside voices backing the company, and investigate environmental groups seen as threats to the project. Stewart said the documents show Edelman and TransCanada "systematically organizing what we'd call a dirty tricks campaign" typical in the US, but not in Canada. "We're nice, we don't do things like that," Stewart said. | |
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RT
2014-11-19 23:11:00
The US has no plans to humiliate Russia, but instead wants to subdue it, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said, adding that no one had ever succeeded in doing so - and never will. Speaking at a forum of the All-Russia Peoples' Front in Moscow on Tuesday, the Russian leader said that history was not about to change, and that no one would manage to suppress the country. "Throughout history no one has ever managed to do so toward Russia - and no one ever will," Putin said. Responding to a question about whether America was trying to humiliate Russia, Putin disagreed, saying that the US wanted "to solve their problems at our expense." He said that people in Russia really like the Americans, but it's the US politics that are not accepted so well. "I think America and its people are more liked than disliked by people here [in Russia]. It's the politics of the ruling class [in the US] that is likely negatively viewed by the majority of our citizens," he said. The Russian leader said the US had managed to subordinate its allies to its influence - with such countries "trying to protect foreign national interests on obscure conditions and perspectives."
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Justin King
The AntiMedia 2014-11-20 20:01:00
A question posed by a reader has kept my mind churning ever since it was asked. The question itself was genuine and expressed a desire to change the world for the better, but hinted that he was resigned to the fact that it would get worse before it gets better. This is probably the driest article I have ever written, but it may prove to be the most important. It started as a simple list, but grew as I realized the subject matter deserved better treatment than typical guerrilla journalism provides. What started as a simple hit and run piece developed into a guide for thought criminals. | |
Comment: The more knowledge you gather now, the more choices you'll have when confronting potentially catastrophic situations.
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Bruce A. Dixon
Black Agenda Report 2014-11-20 21:41:00
For the last three elections now, 2010, 2012 and 2015, corporate media and corporate politicians have ceaselessly assured us that "the economy" whatever that is, is "back on track", wherever that is. Despite what corporate media and politicians tell us, the positive indicators of soaring stock market valuations, rising real estate prices and the rigged unemployment figures that don't count the jailed, the recently released from jails and prisons, and those who've given up on finding work or those working part time who desperately want full time hours real life for most real people hasn't got any better since 2008 or 2009. Last week an extraordinary and shameful study emerged from the National Center on Family Homelessness confirmed it by demonstrating that almost 2.5 million children in the US were homeless at some point during 2013. That's one child in every thirty, in what we're accustomed to thinking of as the richest nation on earth. In the most recent months for which statistics exist, the rate of homelessness among children is spiking, increased 8% nationally from 2012 to 2013, and by 10% or more in 13 states and the District of Columbia. In 2006 one in 50 children were homeless. In 2010 it was one in 45. Now, in the age of Obama, the 2013 number is 1 in 30. The causes of homelessness among children are not your comforting stereotypes of drug use and mental illness. These are "comforting" because they encourage us to blame the drug-addicted, and pity the mentally ill, and our comfort keeps us from questioning the capitalist system which declares that we must have poverty in the midst of plenty, or wondering why we ourselves are no more than a month or two from homelessness. | |
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Kyle Olson
Is that a student's lunch or a dog's vomit?Eagnews.com 2014-11-20 21:27:00 That's what parents might be wondering after they see student Hunter Whitney's recent "mystery mush" lunch.
Had a very #healthylunch today. The apple definitely made up for the "mystery mush"#ThanksMichelleObama pic.twitter.com/RWCnQRCxJKWhen asked, the student theorized it was rice or an "artificially flavored rice substitute." Whitney confirms the lunch was served at Richland Center High School in Wisconsin. Marissa Garrett tweeted: So disappointed in this modified Thanksgiving lunch.. @MichelleObama#She then provided this photo: @EAGnewspic.twitter.com/Jess Sency tweeted this ball of who-knows-what: Yum school lunches #thanksmichelleobama | |
Comment: What's next? More control, of course! Fascism is here, now. There are forces behind the scenes manipulating the education of children, along with the food they eat. Stupid, malnourished, hungry people are much easier for psychopaths to dominate.
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Ellen Brown
Web of Debt 2014-11-19 00:00:00
While 49 state treasuries were submerged in red ink after the 2008 financial crash, one state's bank outperformed all others and actually launched an economy-shifting new industry. So reports theWall Street Journal this week, discussing the Bank of North Dakota (BND) and its striking success in the midst of a national financial collapse led by the major banks. Chester Dawson begins his November 16th article: It is more profitable than Goldman Sachs Group Inc., has a better credit rating than J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and hasn't seen profit growth drop since 2003. Meet Bank of North Dakota, the U.S.'s lone state-owned bank, which has one branch, no automated teller machines and not a single investment banker.He backs this up with comparative data on the BND's performance:
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Comment: Costa Rica also has a public banking system that works well. Unfortunately options such as this are unlikely to gain much traction here as the US government is in league with Wall Street's rapacious banksters. For more information on the corruption of the banking system, see the transcript of the SOTT Talk Radio: Interview with 'Web of Debt' author Ellen Brown - How the banking system controls the world.
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If only George Orwell could see us today. When he wrote 1984 back in 1948, he probably never imagined that the "totalitarian, bureaucratic world" that he imagined would ever actually become a reality. But that is precisely what is happening. We live at a time when the government monitorsbillions of our phone calls and emails and hardly anyone gets upset about it. We live at a time when corporations systematically collect our voiceprints and our televisions watch us. We live at a time when reporters that try to dig into the misdeeds of the governmenthave their computers hacked, and when nearly one out of every three Americans has a file in the FBI's master criminal database. The control freaks that run our society are absolutely obsessed with watching, tracking, recording and monitoring virtually everything that we do. We truly are becoming a "1984" society, and if we continue on the path that we are currently on eventually our world will be transformed into something more hellish than anything that George Orwell ever imagined. | |
Comment: How close are we to 1984?:
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Anne Kingston
Maclean's 2014-11-17 19:41:00
In August, Quebec Justice Valmont Beaulieu stated the obvious when he addressed the double standard in the treatment of teachers who have sex with students: "The sexual exploitation of a male adolescent by a female teacher must be punished just the same as a male posing the same actions toward a female adolescent," he said before sentencing Tania Pontbriand to 20- and 18-month jail terms to be served concurrently, plus two years probation. The former high school gym teacher from Rosemère, Que., had been found guilty of sexual exploitation and sexual assault of a male student with whom she had a two-year relationship. | |
Comment: "Stunning lack of judgement, cold calculation, impetuous immaturity, grooming of victims, lack of insight into harm caused"....sounds like a sex-offending psychopath. And as with all psychopaths, these sex offenders in dresses should be removed from society.
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Aleida Guevara
The West keeps calling dictators those leaders who are raising cultural, healthcare and educational standards, Che Guevara's daughter Aleida told RT, adding that her father would certainly give a hand to those changing peoples' lives for the better.RT 2014-11-20 14:06:00
RT: Miss Guevara, it's a pleasure to see you here in Moscow again. Now, you once said once that your father's ideas will last as long as there is injustice in the world. If your father was alive, what do you think would upset him the most today? Aleida Guevara: Actually, I don't really like having to deal with this sort of question about my father, who is not with us anymore. It's difficult for me to speak for him or say what he would be doing. But judging by the speeches he made, by his personal notes and letters, I can say that he always cared a lot for his people and for the poor in particular. And I am convinced that he would be deeply concerned over what is happening in the Arab world now. He would definitely be thinking of ways to help. He was always respectful of people. And though he criticized socialism quite heavily, he had a lot of respect for the Soviet people, too. That's why I believe he would have been deeply frustrated over what is going on between Russia and Ukraine - after all, these people have lived in harmony for so many years... That's why all of this aggression looks so unnatural to us. So yes, I think my father would take a keen interest. RT: In one of your interviews with RT you said that if Ernesto Che Guevara were alive, he would be supporting Hugo Chavez in every possible way. Unfortunately, Chavez passed away some time ago. So who would Che Guevara be backing today, and in what ways? AG: He would be backing all the revolutionary movements, I guess. He was a great revolutionary himself, and he would be helping all the men and women who are trying to change their lives. I have close connections to the landless workers' movement in Brazil, who are fighting for access to land in order to make a living. In spite of the difficulties that the movement has faced for more than 25 years, they've been able to make huge progress across the continent and in Brazil in particular. And frankly speaking, I do believe that this movement does encourage Latin America to move ahead. But decisions made by Evo Morales, Nicolas Maduro and Rafael Correa are also important. My father always appreciated staunch advocates of a certain ideology who know exactly what they want in life.No matter if he agreed or disagreed with them, he would certainly give a hand to those leaders who are willing to change their peoples' lives for the better. | |
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Shepard Ambellas
Intellihub 2014-11-20 19:15:00
OpraclaeK./YouTube
A woman who was put on an Ebola watchlist after traveling back into the U.S. from Guinea, West-Africa, about 18-days ago, suddenly died in the African Queen Hair Braiding salon Wednesday morning, bleeding from her eyes and mouth, triggering an all new Ebola scare in NYC.A HAZMAT crew from the N.Y.F.D. arrived on scene shortly after, whisking the woman's body away. Although test results are pending, authorities apparently decided to leave the hair salon open to the general public, failing decontaminate it against all standard Ebola protocols. "We were in the building and all of a sudden the other owner came from the store. And then he said someone dropped in the store. We ran in there, there was a person lying on the floor" with blood coming "from her face, nose and mouth, everything", reports one eyewitness, who said that he "didn't touch her". It is not yet known if the woman died of Ebola, while authorities maintain that it was just a "heart attack". Comment: "Heart attack"? How many heart attack symptoms include bleeding "from her face, nose and mouth, everything"? Seems like a lame attempt at spinning a very serious incident. Researchers have evidence that ebola could not only be transmitted by air, but an unknowing victim may not show symptoms. Shepard Ambellas is the founder, editor-in-chief of Intellihub News and the maker of SHADE the Motion Picture. | |
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Annabel Grossman
Daily Mail, UK 2014-11-20 07:52:00
Yolanda Ostoloza, 39, faces up to 15 years in prison after she was convicted of promoting prostitution and endangering the welfare of a child in Manhattan Supreme Court. She was arrested in January after undercover Bronx detectives set up a date with her daughter at the New York Hilton in Midtown and struck up a deal to pay $200 for an undisclosed sex act. The girl told detectives that she was just 15 and her mother was waiting for her at another hotel, theNew York Daily News reported. 'Think about what a barely 15-year-old girl is supposed to be doing. Planning for her Sweet 16, preparing to get her driver's permit,' Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Rachel Ehrhardt said in summations at the trail. 'Doing her homework during her sophomore year of high school. Maybe even thinking about a high school sweetheart.' 'But for [Ostoloza's daughter], her mother had another plan for her... sexually exploit her child for money.' Officers found Ostoloza waiting for her daughter at the Double Tree Metropolitan, where she was arrested and later charged. Her arrest was part of a NYPD crackdown on prostitution across the city during Superbowl week. According to the Daily News, after she was arrested, the mother told police she thought her daughter was just going to do 'fetish stuff'. | |
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Haaretz
2014-11-20 19:16:00
Ashkelon math teacher sends photo of Muslim cemetery to students via WhatsApp, says it was meant for other group of contacts. One day before the mayor of Ashkelon decided to ban Arab construction workers from kindergartens, a high school teacher in the city sent a group of students an image of a Muslim cemetery with the caption, "In times like these, it's important to remember there are also good Arabs! And they can be found here." The teacher sent the image on Wednesday to a group of 11th and 12th graders via the social messaging service WhatsApp, Ynet reported. The math teacher reportedly regretted sending the image to his students, saying he sent it to them accidentally and that it was intended for a different group on WhatsApp, according to Ynet. After receiving the image, one student responded that it was inappropriate to send such an image to students. The Education Ministry called the incident "extremely grave" and told Ynet that the image "goes against the values of the Education Ministry and the country." It added that local authorities in Ashkelon would be summoning the teacher for disciplinary action. The ministry said it would continue to follow the case to ensure the correct disciplinary measures are taken, but told Ynet that "it should be noted the teacher apologized to his students and expressed regret for his actions." | |
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RT
2014-11-19 19:12:00
A 29-year-old correctional officer in Ferguson, Missouri, has been accused of raping a pregnant woman while she was in his custody, and then setting her free. A federal lawsuit has been launched, and the officer Jaris Hayden, has been so far released on $10,000 bail. In the legal documents obtained by the Huffington Post, it is said that the victim, known as JW, was arrested last October after police stopped her for an expired license plate, and she also gave the officers a false name. The victim claims Hayden frequently sexually harassed her before the rape. For instance, when taking her to Ferguson jail, he said, "You smell good" and "This will teach you a lesson." JW was visibly pregnant at that time. When in the cell, JW was crying and begged to let her go home. Hayden allegedly said to her that she was "the kind of girl who would get me in trouble" and took the woman to the boiler room, unbuttoning his pants and told the victim that they were to have oral sex. | |
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Travis Gettys
Raw Story 2014-11-20 19:06:00
A former Cleveland police officer blames stress for videotaping himself having sex with a 15-year-old girl while in uniform. Charles Locke pleaded guilty last month to five counts of pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor, two counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, and one count of possessing criminal tools. A judge sentenced him to 19 ½ years in prison Wednesday, citing the psychological damage he inflicted on the girl and the former officer's abuse of the public trust. The 42-year-old Locke was fired after he admitted to the charges. The internal affairs investigator who handled the case called Locke an embarrassment and cancer to the Cleveland Police Department. "Charles Locke is a monster," said internal affairs officer Carl Hartman. | |
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Abby Zimet
Common Dreams 2014-11-20 18:48:00
When Harry Reid announced a new Senate Democratic leadership role for Elizabeth Warren, he was asked what he expected her to do. His response: "I expect her to be Elizabeth Warren." And now she is. A day after meeting with Walmart workers and vowing to fight for them, she decimated the new head of Federal Housing Finance Agency at a hearing for failing to help a single family - out of 5.3 million homeowners facing foreclosure - by using principal reduction relief programs required by law, and proven by numerous studies to be a win-win for both families and mortgage holders. Mel Watt stammered and mumbled that "it has been a very difficult issue" and "we have to do this in a way that is responsible." Warren minced no words and ripped him a new one. The night after the hearing, in her first major speech in her new role, Warren went on to blast GOP so-called trickle-down economics for having "failed spectacularly." This is a leader. The woman below the video, not so much. | |
Comment: Kudos to Elizabeth Warren - we need more women in government who are willing to go up against the useless bureaucrats in Washington. What a refreshing contrast she is to war-mongering Hillary Clinton.
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Jason Parham
Gawker 2014-11-20 18:47:00
The truth is, Bill Cosby stopped being funny a long time ago. It hurts to write that. I grew up watching The Cosby Show and A Different World (Cosby's other popular sitcom). Those shows have had a major influence on the man I've become. Cliff Huxtable, the loving father on The Cosby Show, was upstanding and open-hearted, strict, but not too strict. Cliff wasn't perfect - no father is perfect - but he was a model, like all good fathers should be. A good man. With the Huxtables, Cosby established an "idealized version of family life." The Cosby Show quickly became the most popular sitcom on TV and, with the creation of A Different World, Cosby anchored the most successful TV programming block in history around fatherhood and family values. For five consecutive seasons, from 1985 to 1990, Cosby was the highest rated show in households on Thursday nights. Cliff was America's Dad, and Cosby's significance as a world-building TV pioneer was undeniable. But Bill Cosby is not Cliff Huxtable. Cliff Huxtable was fiction. Hilton Als reminds us: "The power of fiction is that it includes everyone." The power of Cliff Huxtable was his ability to embody many meanings. We all saw fragments of the dad we knew or the dad we wanted in Cliff. Bill Cosby, now, has become something other. He has become something more repulsive. We can no longer ignore the multiple allegations of rape that have been hurled at the legendary comedian. Fifteen women have accused Cosby of sexual assault. For so long, Cosby has been indestructible - beyond fame, his comedy and TV careers afforded him a cozy and safeguarded place in the public imagination. Not unlike Michael Jackson or Joe Paterno, our belief in Cosby's goodness and what he personified far outweighed the generations-old grime hidden underneath the mask. His importance became so immeasurable that, among particular circles, speaking ill of America's most beloved dad was treason - no matter how crazy he sounded from time to time. But more victims keep coming forward and we can no longer look away. The accounts of Cosby's terror are gruesome. | |
Comment: It's also worth watching this interview of Bill Cosby with the Associated Press where he asks that they "scuttle" the part of the interview where he's questioned about the rape allegations. He also clearly starts bullying the interviewer, showing off his mode of intimidation which, at least partly, is how he has gotten away with his predations for as long as he has.
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On Wednesday, according to a press release, Tennessee State Representative Andy Holt (R-Dresden) introduced a resolution in the Tennessee House of Representatives that seeks to clarify Tennessee's position on Common Core and dismantle the de facto federal education program. "A few weeks back, I asked my constituents what issues were most pressing to them. A full repeal of Common Core landed inside the top five. This resolution is a direct response to those calls for action," says Holt. "Our parents and local school boards know what is best for our children, not federal bureaucrats that have never stepped foot in Tennessee's 76th House District." The resolution commends activists and parents in Indiana, Missouri, South Carolina, Oklahoma and North Carolina for successfully fighting off Common Core's implementation, and parents in other states like Tennessee that are entangled in a battle paralleling that of "David and Goliath". "I want to ensure parents and activists in Tennessee know that I hear them loud and clear, and I want them to know how appreciated they are. This is for each and every one of them," says Holt.
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| Secret History |
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WMBF News
2014-11-19 19:22:00
Seaside, Oregon - A man who was trying out his newly-purchased metal detector on the Oregon coast stumbled upon what might be historical artifact. Seaside resident Ben Hidy said he was just hoping to find some coins when he ventured out to the dunes to try out his new metal detector. However, Hidy said he picked up a reading for "solid iron" and started digging. He and a friend found about 20 feet of wood with metal pieces attached to it buried under the sand. He and an archaeologist who examined it think the wood could be the keel of an old ship. Hidy said his research shows the area where he found the wood was once the tide line in the late 1800s and early 1900s. "I'm still kind of in shock about it, like it really hasn't set in," Hidy said. "There is still a lot more to learn about it. We're gradually learning more every day about it. I really don't know what to think yet. I want to be excited, but cautious. I don't want to get too far into it." Additional images Video link | |
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Annalee Newitz
io9 2014-11-17 00:00:00
Roughly 9,000 years ago, humans had mastered farming to the point where food was plentiful. Populations boomed, and people began moving into large settlements full of thousands of people. And then, abruptly, these proto-cities were abandoned for millennia. It's one of the greatest mysteries of early human civilization. The dawn of the age of agriculture falls during the "Neolithic," also known as the late stone age. At that time, about 12,000 years ago, people had already developed incredibly sophisticated stone tools, weapons, and clay vessels for cooking and storage. And when they found seeds that grew into particularly delicious plants, they took them along on their treks, planting them in river valleys on their route, so that they would have a tasty harvest the following year. Once these informal farms had gotten a little bigger, it started to seem less advantageous to keep roaming when there was so much food in one place. In the Levant area along the eastern Mediterranean, nomadic groups who had once lived by hunting and gathering began settling down in small villages for part of the year. | |
Comment: The advent of farming was not necessarily a positive step forward for humans. Skeletal evidence tends to support the idea that the first farmers were shorter, weaker and died younger than their forebears. People have been shrinking for millennia since paleolithic times and only very recently have those in the developed world begun to approach the statures of our prehistoric ancestors. Farming ushered in a new era of property rights, created huge inequalities, paved the way for a wealth-based economy, divided the sexes and led to the creation of military machines needed to defend all this. In short, the onset of agriculture has caused the gradual deterioration of the human species.
Agriculture: The Worst Mistake In The History Of The Human Race | |
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| Science & Technology |
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Eric Blair
Activist Post 2014-11-19 16:26:00
The principle of net neutrality is easy to understand and support; to treat the delivery all data equally. This has been the status quo. Works great. Few oppose that, but supporting the principle of net neutrality is not the same thing as supporting the government's plan to enforce that principle. The alleged problem that the government claims needs fixing is that Internet service providers (ISPs) want to charge different rates to websites for different levels of data usage, often referred to as fast lanes. Simply put, ISPs want the opposite of net neutrality and the corporate-run FCC supports this plan. | |
Comment: Classic problem >reaction >solution: create a false problem that concerns your constituents who beg for your assistance thereby allowing you to sell a solution you would have never been able to get away with before.
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phys.org
2014-11-13 11:54:00
Today's climate models predict a 50 percent increase in lightning strikes across the United States during this century as a result of warming temperatures associated with climate change. Reporting in the Nov. 14 issue of the journal Science, University of California, Berkeley, climate scientist David Romps and his colleagues look at predictions of precipitation and cloud buoyancy in 11 different climate models and conclude that their combined effect will generate more frequent electrical discharges to the ground. "With warming, thunderstorms become more explosive," said Romps, an assistant professor of earth and planetary science and a faculty scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. "This has to do with water vapor, which is the fuel for explosive deep convection in the atmosphere. Warming causes there to be more water vapor in the atmosphere, and if you have more fuel lying around, when you get ignition, it can go big time." More lightning strikes mean more human injuries; estimates of people struck each year range from the hundreds to nearly a thousand, with scores of deaths. But another significant impact of increased lightning strikes would be more wildfires, since half of all fires - and often the hardest to fight - are ignited by lightning, Romps said. More lightning also would likely generate more nitrogen oxides in the atmosphere, which exert a strong control on atmospheric chemistry. While some studies have shown changes in lightning associated with seasonal or year-to-year variations in temperature, there have been no reliable analyses to indicate what the future may hold. Romps and graduate student Jacob Seeley hypothesized that two atmospheric properties - precipitation and cloud buoyancy - together might be a predictor of lightning, and looked at observations during 2011 to see if there was a correlation. "Lightning is caused by charge separation within clouds, and to maximize charge separation, you have to loft more water vapor and heavy ice particles into the atmosphere," he said. "We already know that the faster the updrafts, the more lightning, and the more precipitation, the more lightning." Comment: Lightning discharge events are increasing in intensity and frequency because the solar wind is being grounded while comet dust loading of the atmosphere increases nucleation and resistance, leading to greater precipitation and greater charge-rebalancing respectively. Precipitation - the total amount of water hitting the ground in the form of rain, snow, hail or other forms - is basically a measure of how convective the atmosphere is, he said, and convection generates lightning. The ascent speeds of those convective clouds are determined by a factor called CAPE - convective available potential energy - which is measured by balloon-borne instruments, called radiosondes, released around the U.S. twice a day. | |
Comment: As Earth 'opens up' we are seeing an increase and intensification of lightning strikes, and other natural phenomena too - such as Jet stream meanderings, Gulf stream slow-downs, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, meteor fireballs, tornadoes, deluges, sinkholes and noctilucent clouds. See Earth Changes and the Human Cosmic Connection for more in depth explanations of these related Earth changes, and how they may be connected to a common cause - the close approach of our Sun's 'twin' and an accompanying cometary swarm.
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Activist Post
2014-11-18 00:00:00
If there is anything good to be said about mass surveillance, overcharging and monopolization by telecom/ISP companies, and government censorship including cell phone and Internet shutdowns as they see fit, it is that these heavy-handed measures only create a stronger desire for freedom. For many in the modern world, open access to the World Wide Web is being viewed as an essential human right - it is a gateway to knowledge, peer-to-peer communication, innovation and economic opportunity. Basically: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. For the 5 billion people who still do not have access, it represents the universal dream of self-determination. There are several devices in various stages of development that aim to rectify the gaps in knowledge and communication which keep large portions of humanity enslaved and threaten freedom for the rest of us if the restrictions mentioned above are permitted to flourish. It is clear that some, if not all, of what is mentioned below carry various hurdles and challenges that might be difficult to overcome if widespread adoption is a goal. However, the ideas are there to be expanded upon - and as we know: "There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world, and that is an idea whose time has come." | |
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| Earth Changes |
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US Geological Survey
2014-11-20 21:33:00
As freezing air swept into the Upper Midwest this past week, juvenile common loons took a cue from the weather and began their migrations to the warm Gulf of Mexico. By this past Monday, eight young loons, recently tagged by the U.S. Geological Survey and partners, had reached the Gulf of Mexico from the midwestern United States, and eight were en route to southern wintering areas. The scientists captured and radiomarked the juvenile common loons on lakes scattered across Minnesota and Wisconsin during the last two weeks of August 2014 to study the challenges facing these birds during their first two years, when they are most vulnerable. "Midwest loons are susceptible to avian botulism in the Great Lakes and pollution found in U.S. waters during migration and overwintering," said Kevin Kenow, USGS lead scientist for the study. "Resource managers need information on the iconic birds' first critical years to develop effective conservation strategies." Common loons are large, black-and-white, fish-eating waterbirds with haunting calls and are bioindicators, or living gages of ecosystem health, in the Great Lakes states. The survival rate of loons during their first few years of life - about 50 percent over three years - is much lower than that of adults, which have a rate of about 93 percent annually. | |
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Blake Matthews
Thursday morning not only broke an "ancient" record from 1873, but we also dropped to the second coldest temperature ever recorded in the month of November in Jacksonville.News4jax.com 2014-11-20 09:06:00 According to the National Weather Service, for the second morning in a row, Jacksonville set a new cold weather record. Thursday mornings temperature dropped to a bone chilling 24 degrees breaking the old record of 30 degrees set in 1873. If that wasn't cold enough for you, Thursday's 24 degrees also marks the second lowest temperature ever recorded in the month of November, beaten out only by the year 1970 when the mercury dropped to 21 degrees in Jacksonville in November. Some areas around Woodbine, GA flirted with the upper teens as the temperature officially there dropped to 20 degrees. Any thoughts that the winter of 2014-2015 wouldn't be as bone-chilling as last year's may have just been put on thin ice. And it's only November. Tuesday morning was the coldest Nov. 19 across the United States since 1976, some 38 years, according to Dr. Ryan Maue, meteorologist with WeatherBell. The average temperature across the entire country was just 19.4°. An astounding 226 million people in all 50 states, that includes the tropical paradise of Hawaii, were below freezing at the same time putting an exclamation point on an already paralyzing winter season -- that hasn't even officially started yet.
Even Florida didn't escape the icy grip. | |
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Steve Young
Argus Leader 2014-11-20 20:44:00
Pine Ridge authorities are looking for a pack of dogs that attacked and killed an 8-year-old girl Tuesday, and are warning parents not to leave their children outdoors unsupervised. Deputy Police Chief John Mousseau said Wednesday that the girl, who has not been identified, was attacked around 5 p.m. while sledding near her family's home along Highway 407 just south of Pine Ridge. He would not release details of the incident, but said his department was "devoting every resource available to locate the responsible pack." They had not found it as of Wednesday evening. Police Chief Ron Duke told the Rapid City Journal that the girl's death has renewed concerns about packs of dogs moving unrestrained in every district of the reservation. Duke was urging parents to not leave their children outdoors unsupervised until this particular pack was located.
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Comment: See also: Feral dog pack found to have killed woman on Wyoming Indian reservation
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RT
2014-11-20 19:45:00
A sinkhole 20 by 30 meters (65 by 98 feet) in size has been found near a Uralkali mine in Russia's Perm region. While the company says the development is of no further threat, locals fear the whole nearby town could go underground. The sinkhole was first discovered by Uralkali's Solikamsk-2 mine workers on November 18.According to local emergency services, it's located some two miles from the mine itself, in an old abandoned mine. Old, out-of-use garden patches were affected by the accident, and there is no danger to locals, as the sinkhole is in no close proximity to any residential buildings, the company said. There are no "catastrophic" effects of the sinkhole neither for the company, nor for the locals, Uralkali CEO Dmitry Osipov said, adding that the incident has been localised. | |
Comment: Sinkholes are becoming a common occurrence - here is a global map of sinkholes reported just this year alone:
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Tia Ghose
Live Science 2014-11-20 19:12:00
A mysterious glowing worm has been discovered lighting up the soil in the Peruvian rainforest. The strange glow worms, which are thought to be the larval stage of an as-yet-unidentified species of beetle, may use their phosphorescence to lure unsuspecting flies and ants into their waiting, open jaws. Ants or termites will "fly right into their jaws, and then they'll just clamp shut and that's their meal," said Aaron Pomerantz, an entomologist who works with a rainforest expedition company at the Refugio Amazonas near the Tambopata Research Center in Peru, where the glowing larvae were discovered. In tests, the glow worms readily devoured stick insects and termites, Pomerantz said. Their style of attack seems similar to that of the enormous, man-eating worms in the 1990 campy movie Tremors, albeit at a much smaller scale, he said. "They're underground, and they burst from the earth," Pomerantz told Live Science. | |
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CBS San Francisco
2014-11-19 18:37:00
San Juan Bautista - Two moderate earthquakes have struck central California, one of which was widely felt across the region. The U.S. Geological Survey reported a magnitude-3.6 earthquake struck at 10:21 p.m. Wednesday and a magnitude-4.2 temblor struck five minutes later. At least one smaller quake followed later. The epicenter was about 2 miles south of San Juan Bautista and 11 miles northeast of Salinas. Nearly 1,500 people reported on the USGS website that they felt the first quake and more than 30 reported the second. USGS data | |
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Hannah Osborne
International Business Times 2014-11-20 18:29:00
A volcano sitting beneath Iceland's Mýrdalsjökull ice cap is due for a "big" eruption, Nasa has said. Satellite images showing Mýrdalsjökull reveal the ice cap has shrunk dramatically over the last 30 years, and experts believe this is a result of recent volcanic episodes. Comment: Well, it's nice to see the 'experts' didn't blame the shrinkage on 'global warming'. The images, from Nasa's Earth Observatory, show before and after photos of the ice cap - the first from September 2014, the second from September 1986. More than half of Iceland's ice caps and glaciers sit either directly above or near active volcanoes, meaning fire and ice often unite. Additional images | |
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Jim Sullivan
The Salem News 2014-11-18 18:23:00
After a banner season last winter, the snowy owls are back."These animals are constantly moving around and they don't stay around very long," Parker River National Wildlife Refuge visitor services manager Matt Poole said. "You may hear that there is a snowy owl or a pair of snowy owls that have been seen on Plum Island for maybe a week but it is very possible that those are not the same individuals. They come in and they move through, maybe moving further south to where they are finally going to be for the winter. But if they leave, there may be more animals coming in behind them." The powerful raptors made wildly popular in the Harry Potter novels and films, have already been spotted and photographed at the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge this week."It is typically not a resident bird, if you will," Poole said. "They are a very popular winter bird in this area. They are something that all the birders hope will be around. Given the huge number of them last year, contrast that with the year before when as far as I know there was only one sighted the entire winter. It is highly variable." While exact numbers are not known, snowy owls were spotted in the area regularly from November of last year through May of 2014 and with their return this month, birders are hoping for another big year. But each year is different for the nomadic bird, said Poole. | |
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Michael Hirtzer
Reuters 2014-11-20 03:43:00
The shipping season on the upper Mississippi River will end on Thursday as ice surrounding locks and dams near Minnesota's Twin Cities forced the earliest winter closure on records that date back to 1969, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said. "There's so much ice through the whole system," said Bryan Peterson, navigation manager for the Army Corps' St. Paul district. "They're getting the barges they can out and not risking getting stuck there all winter." There were two tow boats waiting to pass lock and dam No. 2 near Hastings, Minnesota. Once they moved down river, no more vessels were expected, Peterson said. The shipping season typically ends around the beginning of December on upper portions of the Mississippi River in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois. In 1989, no more vessels reached the Twin Cities after Nov. 24, Peterson said. | |
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Oldham Evening Chronicle
2014-11-14 17:46:00
Scores of bird watchers are flocking to Saddleworth's Dovestone reservoir to catch sight of rare rough-legged buzzards. Three birds have taken up residence after flying in from Scandinavia. Their flights have attracted groups of avid twitchers. Dave O'Hare, RSPB's Dovestone site manager, said: "These are the first rough-legged buzzards to have stayed in the area for many years. It's a real treat for local birdwatchers." Tim Melling, the RSPB's senior conservation officer, said: "The birds could hang around until March, but are likely to move away to the coast if snow blankets the hills." | |
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John Ingham
Daily Express, UK 2014-11-17 17:21:00
More than 100 miles from land this owl is very much all at sea. And it is in the vanguard of an invasion which could see hundreds flocking here from Scandinavia. The short-eared owl battling towards Scotland was one of four spotted at dawn by birdwatcher Andy Williams flying low over the North Sea halfway between Norway and Aberdeen. Andy, who is working on a survey vessel in the North Sea in the Forties area, said on his pelagicbirder blog: "A couple of days ago I was treated to four short-eared owls flying over the sea and heading WSW. Quite a weird sight seeing these lovely birds on passage over the waves. "I saw them all in the first hour of daylight so my photos are not the best but they will have to do. "I saw two single birds then two together and it was interesting to see them occasionally harried and mobbed by the herring and great black backed gulls - as if the owls did not have enough to contend with! "Although their buoyant flight was relatively strong one bird almost ditched as it banked sharply to avoid an aerial assault from a herring gull. Hopefully they all made it ashore." | |
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So what happens when all this melts? 'Mother Nature is showing us who's boss' says New York Governor
M. Alex Johnson
ABC News 2014-11-20 16:29:00
If "Mother Nature is showing us who's boss," as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said of snowfall that dumped five feet on parts of Buffalo, she's not done with the lesson. Hard as it may be to believe, the weather in areas of upstate New York socked in by a historic mountain of snow this week will be springlike by early next week - and that means melting, which could, in turn, could cause floods, the National Weather Service warned Wednesday. Temperatures are forecast to begin warming up on Saturday, and by Monday, they could approach 60 degrees around Buffalo and other communities that are still bracing for as much as two more feet of snow on top of the 5 feet or more that many of them are buried under. It's also expected to rain on Monday - a combination that the weather service said could trigger "major snowmelt" and "significant" flooding in small streams, as well as at least some larger creeks and rivers. | |
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News.com.au
2014-11-20 07:06:00
Video of a man doing backstroke in Brisbane's Queen Street Mall has emerged after the city suffered through one of its most devastating thunderstorms in years. Residents and businesses have been cleaning up today after a severe storm caused flooding and saw houses set on fire in south east Queensland. Damage from the storm and flash flooding includes a four metre sinkhole that opened up on Orchard Rd, Richlands.
During the storm yesterday afternoon more than 16,000 lightning strikes were recorded on the GPATs system, according to electricity provider Energex. Footage also emerged of a possible tornado on the outskirts of Brisbane. While some watched in awe at nature's display from the comfort of their homes, others embraced the downpour, with one man captured doing breaststroke in Brisbane's Queen Street Mall. | ||
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Mike Opelka
The Blaze 2014-11-20 04:15:00
People who live in the northern states are used to being hit with snowstorms in winter. However, it's not often that a town gets more snow in one day than some cities receive in an entire year. NY State Thruway in Buffalo this morning! #BuffaloSnow pic.twitter.com/3bKjr1f3WTThe relentless snowstorm currently battering the region could eventually total more than seven feet of the fluffy white stuff. CNN's Jennifer Gray posted this report last night: Here's what it's like in the middle of the #BuffaloSnow storm: http://t.co/89A11glAL3via@JenniferGrayCNN #gothere https://t.co/YkJB4cP9XtThe bands of snow were so well formed that they appeared to be a wall. Buffalo, NY was hit by snow so intense it looked like a wall, leaving up to 60 inches (1.5 meters). #BuffaloSnow pic.twitter.com/MoKsOg18PI
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Comment: You can check out more images from Buffalo here: Buffalo buried by wall of snow
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Dr. Sircus
Sr. Sircus 2014-11-19 10:41:00
This is the face of rapid global cooling, which will change life on our planet more quickly than anyone is yet prepared to acknowledge. All 50 states will see freezing temperatures on Tuesday and Wednesday with millions of Americans facing another bitter blast of unseasonably cold air. A ferocious storm dumped massive piles of snow on parts of upstate New York, trapping residents in their homes and stranding motorists on roadways, as temperatures in all 50 states fell to freezing or below. Even hardened Buffalo residents were caught off-guard Tuesday as more than 4 feet fell in parts of the city. Authorities said snow totals by Wednesday afternoon could top 6 feet in the hardest-hit areas south of Buffalo, with another storm expected Thursday. The snow has gotten so bad in Western New York that Gov. Cuomo has called out the troops. Bone-chilling nights will be followed by frosty cold days with highs struggling to reach the 20-degree mark over the regions on Monday and Tuesday. Some locations in the Central states are forecast to stay below 20 F until Wednesday afternoon. | |
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| Fire in the Sky |
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Stephen Roberts
TheAurora.ca 2014-11-18 19:39:00
When Blanche Ward of Charlottetown stepped outside her door on Monday afternoon, she spotted something unusual: there were two small trails of smoke slowly flying high across the sky. Ward immediately rushed back into her house and grabbed her camera. When she zoomed in and took her shot, she saw a small red dot with the two lines of smoke trailing behind. She says the object remained in the sky for one or two minutes before dropping below the horizon and out of view. | |
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Sott.net
2014-11-20 12:19:00
A spectacular meteorite/fireball lit up the Oklahoma morning skies yesterday, Nov. 19th 2014. The large and bright fireball is seen streaking relatively slowly across the sky before flaring and leaving a smoke trail. There has been a stark rise in fireball sightings and impacts across the world over the last seven years, with sightings and reports of 'boom's associated with meteorite explosions in the atmosphere occurring almost daily. Notable recent events include an apparent enormous overhead meteor explosion in the sky over the Urals, Russia, two days ago, and a similar event in Ukraine yesterday.
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| Health & Wellness |
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Lecia Bushak
Medical Daily 2014-11-18 18:30:00
Vitamin D deficiency is a phrase we've all heard before, but to which we probably rarely take heed. Every so often we might remember the vitamin supplement bottles we have stashed in our rooms somewhere, but by the time we get home from work each day, we've forgotten about them again. More and more research is finding that a vitamin D deficiency isn't just bad for your bones - it also contributes to a variety of other disorders and chronic illnesses. Now, a new study points out that low levels of vitamin D actually increase mortality. The researchers out of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark have established for the very first time that there is a causal relationship between low vitamin D levels and higher mortality rates. In the study, researchers used participants from the Copenhagen City Heart Study and the Copenhagen General Population Study and examined any genetic defects as well as their vitamin D levels through blood tests. They found that genes associated with low vitamin D had an increased mortality rate of 30 percent and a higher cancer-related death rate of 40 percent. Past studies often left researchers with the unanswered question of the chicken or the egg. "In previous studies, a close statistical relationship has been established between low vitamin D levels and increased mortality rates," Børge Nordestgaard, clinical professor at the Faculty of Health and Medical Science at the University of Copenhagen, said in the press release. "However, the fact that vitamin D deficiency can be a marker for unhealthy lifestyles and poor health in general may have distorted the results." For example, scientists didn't know if vitamin D deficiency was causing problems, or if people already had health issues that were causing vitamin D deficiencies. Could it be the unhealthy lifestyle of a patient that led to both vitamin D deficiency and other health problems? | |
Comment: The evidence is growing that we are entering an ice age. Sunshine may not be as abundant in the near future. Aside from cod liver oil, one of the best food sources for vitamin D is pork lard. You can read more about vitamin D on our forum here and here.
See also: Low vitamin D levels correlated with magnesium deficiency | |
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Jon Rappoport
Activist Post 2014-11-17 03:45:00
Over the last 50 years, tireless researchers have uncovered and revealed the existence of various elites that control governments and populations: Banks, super-banks, the military-industrial complex, intelligence agencies, psyop propagandists, Wall Street, and so forth and so on. For some reason, these researchers, many of them, have a blind spot when it comes to the ongoing operations of a shadow medical government. Blind spot. And also fear. Fear of criticism and ridicule for exposing sacred sacraments of society - like vaccination. Like psychiatry. Like (phony) epidemics. | |
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WHDT
The Ebola outbreak is once again, branching off into a new direction. Both here in the U.S., and overseas. In West Africa, another country is on high alert. Mali's government ordered a massive quarantine, forcing more than 600 people to leave their family and friends. While here in the US, we're learning the second patient to die from Ebola could have actually have been misdiagnosed. One man we've talked to throughout this whole story saw this coming months ago. He told us about the Ebola tests and the likelihood of false positives. Today, we welcome Robert Scott Bell back to the broadcast, to catch up to speed on the Ebola story.Next News Network 2014-11-18 13:22:00 |
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| Science of the Spirit |
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Bruce Ecker, Robin Ticic, & Laurel Hulley
Alternet 2014-11-11 22:17:00
Advances in psychology offer hope. Nearly 90 years since F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote his classic The Great Gatsby, Baz Luhrman's film version gave renewed currency to the novel's famous final line: What's afforded this passage such staying power is not only its haunting poetry, but the worldview it expresses - however hard we may try to reinvent ourselves, we're doomed to remain captives of our pasts. Another celebrated author, William Faulkner, put it this way: Eugene O'Neill penned these words: Throughout its history, many in the field of psychotherapy have been similarly pessimistic about people's ability to liberate themselves from the past. It can even be argued that most modern cognitive-behavioral approaches are based on the assumption that, at best, therapists can only incrementally create new emotional and behavioral habits that work around - but don't actually transform - the deep-seated emotional programming that causes clients' most visceral distress. This way of thinking, however, doesn't reflect our current understanding of how memory functions, nor do the therapeutic approaches that aim simply to manage or circumvent entrenched emotions, beliefs, and behaviors rooted in painful past experiences. | |
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Rick Nauert PhD
PsychCentral 2014-11-19 00:00:00
New research may rewrite how we believe pain is processed by the brain. For the last decade, neuroscientists have believed that the brain processes physical and social pain in a similar manner. Now, a new study from the University of Colorado shows that the two kinds of pain actually use distinct neural circuits. Investigators are enthusiastic about the new finding as the discovery may lead to specific treatment protocols for each pathway. Researchers may also gain a better understanding of how the two kinds of pain interact. | |
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Judith Shulevitz
Kids are inheriting their parents' trauma. Can science stop it? Newrepublic.com 2014-11-16 12:25:00
Lowell, Massachusetts, a former mill town of the red-brick-and-waterfall variety 25 miles north of Boston, has proportionally more Cambodians and Cambodian-Americans than nearly any other city in the country: as many as 30,000, out of a population of slightly more than 100,000. These are largely refugees and the families of refugees from the Khmer Rouge, the Maoist extremists who, from 1975 to 1979, destroyed Cambodia's economy; shot, tortured, or starved to death nearly two million of its people; and forced millions more into a slave network of unimaginably harsh labor camps. Lowell's Cambodian neighborhood is lined with dilapidated rowhouses and stores that sell liquor behind bullet-proof glass, although the town's leaders are trying to rebrand it as a tourist destination: "Little Cambodia." | |
Comment: For more information on how trauma effects the body, see these links:
When the Body Says No: How Emotions Can Cause or Prevent Deadly Disease Dr. Gabor Maté: "When the Body Says No: Understanding the Stress-Disease Connection" | |
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Jim Dayton
Activist Post 2014-11-19 00:00:00
A study by a University of Wisconsin-Madison journalism researcher has found that children who watch television shows with action or violence are more susceptible to messages in the advertisements shown during the programs. Eunji Cho, a graduate student in UW-Madison's School of Journalism and Mass Communication, says the excitement of a violent show causes children to be focused and attentive, an effect that carries over to commercial breaks. To perform this study, Cho returned to her native South Korea and observed four different kindergarten classes. Each class was randomly assigned to watch either "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" or "A Dog of Flanders," a calm Japanese program. The kids were then shown an ad for chocolate at commercial breaks. Afterward, the children were asked to choose which candy bar they wanted - the one advertised in the commercials or a generic brand. Cho found that students who watched the violent show overwhelmingly favored the advertised product, while those who watched the calm show were indifferent about which candy bar they chose. | |
Comment: Now we understand the reasons violent programs have not been scaled back for children, even though studies have shown that such programs and video games increase aggressiveness and hinder the development of empathy in children. The simple reason is that such programming is profitable, and sociopaths running corporations have no concern with the developmental consequences on young minds.
ISU psychologists publish three new studies on violent video game effects on youths | |
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| High Strangeness |
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Corey Charlton
Mail Online 2014-11-19 19:56:00
A schoolboy who was almost killed when knocked out by a massive electric shock now claims the accident gave him superpowers like those of X-Men's Magneto. Nikolai Kryaglyachenko, 12, had been walking home after school when he lent briefly against a lamp post that was live from a faulty wire, and was blasted across the pavement. He said: 'When I came round I felt groggy but managed to get home and told my mum what had happened. 'When I woke up the next day and got out of bed I found some coins that had been lying on the mattress had stuck to my body. Then when I was having breakfast and dropped my spoon, it stuck to my chest.' | |
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| Don't Panic! Lighten Up! |
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