| Puppet Masters |
Gen. Ahmad Reza Pourdastan, the Iranian army's chief commander of ground forces, described today the new Iranian drone as a 'mobile bomb.' According to Iranian state media, 'Yasir' is a flying bomb, designed to strike air, ground and naval targets. I am delighted by the news and congratulate the Iranian engineers and military industry. Iranian advanced technology is needed in order to deter Israel from celebrating its genocidal inclinations. However, the Israelis label the new Iranian bomb a 'suicidal drone,' no less no more. I would like to grasp what the Israeli media means when it tags a bomb 'suicidal'? Does it leave a note before it plunges into an IDF's headquarter? Are IDF's guided missiles targeting Palestinian family homes also suicidal bombs? Do the Israelis expect the new Iranian drone to 'knock on the roof' just before it goes off? Or is a bomb becoming suicidal only when it is set to hit a Jewish strategic target | |
Comment: Good questions Gilad.
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Haaretz
2014-12-28 18:38:00
It is impossible to overstate the significance of the High Court of Justice ruling ordering the state to demolish within two years the Amona illegal outpost, which was built on private Palestinian land. After years of evasion, legal tricks, forged documents and unfulfilled pledges, even the High Court came to realize that the state cannot be trusted, not to mention the settlers, to voluntarily agree to return the land they plundered from their owners. Amona was born in sin in 1997, when a group of settlers established residence in an area that had been earmarked for an archaeological site and a Mekorot Water Company reservoir. Cease and desist orders issued by Civil Administration inspectors in 2004 halted building for four years, but it resumed in force despite new stop-work orders. | |
Comment: It's past time Israel began demolishing its illegal settlements (ALL of them) and showing that it is a country bound by the "rule of law" (a buzzword bandied about by the West in relation to countries it doesn't like, but one which certainly doesn't apply to criminal Israel). But how realistic is it to expect the psychopaths ruling Israel to do something right? Is it possible that world opinion will eventually have an effect on Israeli leadership, or would they rather take the world down with them rather than show a shred of human decency?
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Alex Christoforou
Russia Insider 2014-12-28 17:10:00
Person of the Year, we say Puppet of the Year is more appropriate. British newspaper, The Times, has named German Chancellor Angela Merkel "Person of the Year" for her contribution to European security. The British daily noted her important role in establishing a dialogue between the West and Russia. The Times noted: European security. Unless you consider promoting a new cold war, and moving the world closer to a full scale hot war, European security...then sure, she deserves the award. | |
Comment: Just goes to show the media's role of shoving propaganda down our throats and to believe in an alternate reality.
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Press TV
2014-12-27 12:21:00
Volunteer forces fighting against the ISIL Takfiri terrorists say US military aircraft have dropped weapons in areas held by the terrorist group in Iraq. American helicopters dropped boxes of weapons in Yathrib and Balad districts in Iraq's Salahuddin Province, according to the fighters. The report comes as the Iraqi army and volunteer fighters appear to be gaining the upper hand and making significant gains against ISIL. In October, a video showed the terrorist group captured a bundle of US weapons airdropped in the Syrian border town of Kobani. The US military admitted that it had dropped 28 bundles filled with grenades, mortar rounds and other supplies that were intended for Kurdish fighters. The video showed masked terrorists inspecting the military equipment, which was airdropped in areas controlled by ISIL near Kobani. The US Central Command said that the airdrops, including weapons and ammunition, and medical supplies, were "intended to enable continued resistance against ISIL's attempts to overtake Kobani." The US and its allies have been conducting airstrikes against ISIL in Iraq and Syria. They say they are carrying out the airstrikes against the Takfiris in both countries in order to curb their advances in the region. However, the air raids have so far failed to halt the insurgents' military gains. | |
Comment: What a surprise, just as their proxy army is losing, the U.S. steps in and provides aid to the terrorist group they claim to be fighting. This is by no means an isolated incident as the same happened last October when the U.S. military airdropped weapons to ISIS during the siege on Kobani.
Russia rightly doubts the efforts of the U.S.-led coalition. Just look at their track record:
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The BRICS Post
2014-12-27 01:38:00
Moscow has prioritised "efforts to transform the BRICS into one of the most important elements of the system of global governance" as part of a major foreign policy impetus, said the Russian Foreign ministry on Saturday. "Crucial progress towards this goal has been made during the Fortaleza Summit (July 15-16)- the decision to establish a multilateral framework of the association of financial institutions - a New Development Bank and a contingent of foreign exchange reserves with a total resource of $200 billion," said a Russian Foreign Ministry statement on Saturday outlining the major foreign policy events in 2014. BRICS leaders, who met on the sidelines of a G20 summit in November, have instructed their finance ministers to name the new bank's president by the time they next meet in Russia. BRICS agreed on the structure of a $100 billion development bank, which will have its headquarters in China and with India holding its first rotating presidency. They also agreed on the creation of a $100 billion currency exchange reserve. Russia has spoken "with one voice with its partners in the BRICS for the promotion of international stability in its various dimensions" said the Russian Foreign Ministry statement on Saturday. | |
Comment: Despite recent new levels of self-defeating idiocy and on going information warfare by the Empire of Chaos and their puppets; the evidence is that the rise of BRICS nations has ushered in a new order which is a viable alternative to the US dominated world economic system and canachieve the "international stability" and "system of global governance" which Russia aims for.
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Ali Abunimah
Electronic Intifada 2014-12-26 00:47:00
The massive upsurge of Israeli violence against Palestinians is invisible to The New York Times. Two recent stories in The New York Times involve violence against Palestinian and Israeli children. But it is striking how differently the stories are treated based on the identity of the victim. The first, from today, is headlined "Israeli Girl Severely Wounded in Firebomb Attack in West Bank." The second, from November, is headlined "Palestinian Shot by Israeli Troops at Gaza Border." Both are by Isabel Kershner. Today's report begins: JERUSALEM - An 11-year-old Israeli girl was severely wounded on Thursday when a firebomb was thrown at the car in which she was traveling with her father in the West Bank, the Israeli military said.The report names the girl - Ayala Shapira - and describes "third-degree burns on her face and upper torso" and says that her wounds were "life-threatening." | |
Comment: It's very simple. The NYT can claim is it accurately reporting the facts. It's just not reporting all the facts. And as pointed out clearly in this article, the lack of context for those accurately reported "facts" allows the NYT to lead readers to form the opinions desired by its masters.
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Peter Symonds
World Socialist Web Site 2014-12-27 00:00:00
From the outset of the police siege in central Sydney on December 15 - 16, the response of the federal and state governments was based on a lie: that hostage-taking by a lone gunman in the Lindt café constituted a national "terrorism" crisis justifying the activation of the entire counterterrorism apparatus and the deployment of thousands of police, not only in Sydney, but other major cities around Australia. The lie serves a definite political purpose. On December 17, Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced a joint review with the state government of New South Wales (NSW), not to investigate what had taken place, but to focus entirely on the hostage-taker Man Haron Monis as the pretext for deeper inroads into basic democratic and social rights. The incident is also being exploited to justify Australian involvement in Washington's predatory new "war on terror" in the Middle East against Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militias. However, the official story of the Sydney siege is riddled with discrepancies and contradictions and has provoked widespread suspicion and questioning. In response, Abbott sought to maintain the atmosphere of fear and hysteria, declaring on Tuesday that there had been "a heightened level of terrorist chatter." The tragic death of two innocent hostages has been mercilessly exploited to construct an image of a nation under siege coming together and thereby to render any criticism of the police and government illegitimate. A massive cover-up is underway to whitewash the actions of the governments, the police and intelligence agencies. The extraordinary regime of censorship imposed during the 16-hour standoff at the Lindt café has continued. There is no official account, even in outline, of what took place during the siege or its tragic denouement. In the early hours of December 16, heavily-armed paramilitary police stormed the café, leaving Monis and two hostages - Katrina Dawson, a barrister and mother of three, and café manager Tori Johnson - dead. | |
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RT
2014-12-22 09:51:00
China's foreign minister has pledged support to Russia as it faces an economic downturn due to sanctions and a drop in oil prices. Boosting trade in yuan is a solution proposed by Beijing's commerce minister. "Russia has the capability and the wisdom to overcome the existing hardship in the economic situation," Foreign Minister Wang Yi told journalists, China Daily reported Monday. "If the Russian side needs it, we will provide necessary assistance within our capacity." The offer of help comes as Russians are still recovering from the shock of the ruble's worst crash in years last Tuesday, when it lost over 20 percent against the US dollar and the euro. The Russian currency bounced back the next day, but it still has lost almost half of its value since March. At his annual end-of-year press conference on Thursday, Vladimir Putin acknowledged the ruble has been tumbling along with the price of oil, and estimated that Western sanctions account for 25-30 percent of the Russian economic crisis. However, the president's economic forecast is that the slump will not be a lasting one. | |
Comment: The current economic war against Russia might not work as the U.S empire would wishfully think. The ruble has been hurting but it seems that China is not going to be a passive bystander in this episode. Also the Eurasian Union will go into effect January 1st, 2015, which will further improve the collaboration between Eurasian countries, not to mention the ongoing BRICS partnership development. Europe and its citizens will have to choose whether they align themselves with a unipolar or multi-polar world. We know that every imperium will eventually crumble down and the United States is not an exception with its $18 trillion debt, ever-increasing social inequality and out-of-control military-industrial complex.
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Maram Susli (Syrian Girl)
New Eastern Outlook 2014-12-27 00:35:00
US supplied TOW anti-tank missiles have ended up in the hands of Jabhat Al Nusra, Syria's branch of Al Qaeda. The US provided the missiles to CIA vetted Syrian rebel faction Harakat Hazm in May. A video posted by Al Nusra shows the weapons being used to take over Syrian military bases, Wadi Deif and Hamidiyeh in Idlib province. A story that should have been headline news of Obama's arming of Al Qaeda across all US media, largely went unnoticed. The only evidence of the story in the mainstream media can be found in theInternational Business times and the Washington Post. However both articles try to cast doubt on the claims that Al Nusra has TOW missiles, choosing to quote the Syrian Opposition Council spokesman Oubai Shahbandar who downplayed the incident, calling it an "Al Nusra psyop". TheNew York Times did not headline the story and instead buried the information in an article headlined "2 Military bases in Syria Fall to Rebels". However, The New York Times claimed the TOW missiles may have plaid a central role in Jabhat AL Nusra's takeover of the bases. | |
Comment: It's not just highly doubtful the U.S. didn't predict this 'turn of events', it's a pretty sure bet that the U.S. planned for the missiles to make their way into Al Qaeda's hands. Al Qaeda and ISIS are proxy mercenary groups created and controlled by the U.S. Plain and simple.
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Eric Zuesse
Washington's Blog 2014-12-27 23:58:00
On Friday, December 26th, National Public Radio aired two superbly done pieces of anti-Russia propaganda, which could as well have been written by the U.S. CIA, or by Voice of America, it was so skillfully deceiving. One of these propaganda-pieces, on "Morning Edition," presented Eleanor Beardsley alleging that the anti-immigrant political parties in Britain and France are anti-U.S. and pro-Russian because they are supposedly all "far right"; and the other piece, on "All Things Considered," presented Corey Flintoff alleging that Russia's President Vladimir Putin "seized Crimea" (as if he hadn't actually rescued it) and thereby caused U.S. President Barack Obama and the EU to respond with economic sanctions as punishment for the 'seizure' (actually, as we'll show, rescue). | |
Comment: The goal is obvious: the U.S. wants regime change. How backwards is that? 1) Putin is the democratically elected president of Russia. 2) The people love him and want him to continue his leadership. The U.S. has absolutely no right to interfere in Russia's affairs in this regard or any other, like they have done countless times before (e.g., in Ukraine). If any country is deserving of total regime change, it is the United States of America.
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ITAR-TASS
2014-12-27 23:35:00
Russian supplies of coal and electricity to Ukraine without prepayment prove Russian President Vladimir Putin's goodwill to provide real support to the Ukrainian people, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS on Saturday. He confirmed Ukraine's reports on starting such supplies. "Against all the odds as President Putin said earlier in the hard times he had never given up the consistent policy towards supporting the Ukrainian people and providing real and not eventual support, due to the critical energy situation Putin took a decision on such supplies regardless the absence of prepayment, which is the condition of making them," Peskov said. "This proves President Putin's political goodwill to provide support for Ukrainians, particularly before New Year," he said. | |
Comment: The West destroys Ukraine; Russia picks up the pieces and provides cheap coal, not to mention humanitarian aid to the regions being starved by Kiev. Once more, Putin shows himself to be perhaps the only leader on this planet with a real conscience. Sure, he'll play hard-ball with the corrupt oligarchs ruling Ukraine -- demanding the money owed for gas -- but when it comes down to it, he is more than willing to give real support to the people of Ukraine. Something that not even its own inept leaders can do. Russia has also agreed to provide ready-made electricity, since Kiev has been unable to meet the country's energy needs. (Due to their historical reliance on Russia for such needs -- e.g., fuel for their nuclear reactors -- which put in jeopardy due their needless and idiotic antagonizing of Russia.)
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| Society's Child |
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John Phillips
The Telegraph, UK 2014-12-28 19:59:00
Hundreds of people have been stranded for ten hours on the top deck of a burning ferry in the Adriatic sea as strong gales and rough waves hampered attempts to save them. As the sun set, rescue helicopters had resorted to the slow process of lifting the passengers on board the Norman Atlantic from the top deck in pairs, as a fire blazed around them. At least two Britons were among the 478 people who were travelling on the car ferry between Patras in Greece and Ancona in northern Italy. The mother of Nicholas Channing-Williams, a British horse rider who lives in Greece, said she had spoken to her son, but that the line had been cut off. "People in Greece are saying that their communications have been cut off, so as not to hamper rescue operations which I can fully understand," said Dotty Channing-Williams,to Sky News. "They're keeping me updated via the news coming over the Greek television. But nevertheless it is very, very worrying and very scary. | |
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Sputnik
2014-12-28 19:16:00
Libya's official government conducted several tactical airstrikes in the vicinity of the town of Misrata Sunday, another episode in the ongoing war between the internationally recognized government of Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni and the coalition of his political opponents known as Libyan Dawn. According to the official reports, the Libyan air force, controlled by Thinni, hit several targets in the Libyan Dawn controlled city of Misrata, including a sea port, an air force academy near the airfield and a steel mill, the largest in the country, in an attempt to disrupt the town's economic viability. Representatives for Libyan Dawn confirmed the airstrikes, claiming no immediate victims or damage. | |
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Ian Johnston
The Independent 2014-12-28 09:51:00
Millions of the poorest people in Britain are struggling to get enough food to maintain their body weight, according to official figures published this month. The Government's Family Food report reveals that the poorest 10 per cent of the population - some 6.4 million people - ate an average of 1,997 calories a day last year, compared with the average guideline figure of about 2,080 calories. This data covers all age groups. One expert said the figures were a "powerful marker" that there is a problem with food poverty in Britain and it was clear there were "substantial numbers of people who are going hungry and eating a pretty miserable diet". | |
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Sputnik
2014-12-28 18:58:00
The missing AirAsia plane with 162 people on board might have crashed, according to Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla, Chinese news agency Xinhua reports Sunday. "We haven't got any information that indicates where the plane crashed," Kalla said during a televised press conference Sunday evening, as quoted by Xinhua. Previously, it was reported that Kalla was directly in charge of supervising the rescue operation of the missing plane at the headquarters of the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) in Kemayoran, North Jakarta, according to Jakarta Post. However, rescue teams had to halt the search operation as the night settled in. Indonesia's Transport Ministry said the search operation would resume on Monday morning, as early as 7 a.m. local time (12 a.m. GMT). | |
Comment: Could this be another MH370, gone without a trace? If nothing is found, it will certainly be suspicious, especially given that the possible crash zone is probably much easier to identify and search than was the case with 370.
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Gideon Levy
Poverty and unemployment in the West Bank - a direct result of the occupation - drive Palestinian laborers to endure the pain and humiliation of working in Israel.DesertPeace 2014-12-28 06:27:00
Israelis see them and they don't see them. They are on the scaffold of the building going up next to ours. We see them and we don't see them. We have no idea what they endure and we don't care. The people who build our homes and pave our roads left their own homes at around 2 A.M. last night. They will return in the evening, after a long, exhausting day of work, nearly 24 hours of hard labor, hard traveling and humiliation. Tonight they will again leave their homes for jobs in Israel. While some Israelis come to work bleary-eyed because their baby woke them up two or three times during the night, these people know no day or night. | |
Comment: Just another example of the psychopathic Israeli system. It's not enough that Palestinians are kept in the world's largest open-air prison, they must be subjected to daily humiliation and oppression that wears on their psyches and breaks them down.
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Effie Orfanides
Inquisitr 2014-12-27 17:56:00
A Monroeville Mall brawl left several teens injured on Friday evening. According to the Canada Journal, the Monroeville Mall in Pennsylvania was closed early following "multiple fights" that broke out. Hundreds of teens showed up at the mall around 5 p.m., and the fights broke out around 8 p.m.. Mall employees said that the fights started on the first floor, and then the teens made their way up the escalators to the second floor, where they continued fighting. At least two people were transported to a nearby hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Chief K. Douglas Cole said that he didn't believe that this was an organized protest of any kind. However, it's unclear why the teens showed up at the mall around the same time or how/why the fights broke out. Police said that some information circulated on social media, and at least two calls to 911 were placed after the fights started. | |
Comment: This mall brawl also took place on the day after Christmas in 2013.
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Martin Armstrong
Armstrong Economics 2014-12-22 17:49:00
Philadelphia prosecutors agreed Thursday to halt efforts to seize the homes of two of the lead plaintiffs in a widely publicized federal suit challenging the city's use of civil forfeiture laws in drug cases. Philadelphia drops a Civil Asset Forfeiture case to prevent any court from ruling just seizing people's property is unconstitutional. Phily.COM has reported the case of Christos Sourovelis and Doila Welch, who were both caught up in having their homes seized to pay police pensions when the police arrested a relative they claimed was dealing drugs on their properties. Today, you basically have to shun relatives and never pick up a hick-hiker in trouble for if they have any drugs, even marijuana, there goes your assets. The prosecutors, only after these people with money for lawyers and the press got involved, moved for dismissal in Common Pleas Court. The prosecutor agreed to drop the cases against properties as long as both owners took "reasonable measures" to ensure no further drug crimes occurred there. | |
Comment: How much more can people take before finally realizing the horror of the situation?
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RT
2014-12-28 13:02:00
466 passengers and crew are being evacuated from an Italian car ferry that caught fire near a Greek island on Sunday morning. The evacuation is being complicated by strong winds and lack of places in lifeboats, according to the media. Fire broke out on an Italian Norman Atlantic car ferry traveling from western Greece to eastern Italy at around 6.00 am local time (0400 GMT), coast guard officials said on Sunday. "The captain has requested the evacuation of the ship, according to initial information," spokesman Nikos Lagkadianos said. The international evacuation effort including Italian and Albanian forces is complicated by dangerous weather conditions with strong winds blowing in the area northwest of Corfu. The ferry has 411 passengers and 55 crew on board, as well as 222 vehicles. An official told Sputnik news agency that within the framework of the rescue operation some 150 people had already been transferred from a lifeboat to a container ship that had been sailing nearby.
A Greek TV station got comments of some passengers, who dramatically described the evacuation. "They tried to lower some boats, but not all of us could get in. There is no coordination," one said, as cited by Reuters. "It's dark, the bottom of the vessel is on fire. We are on the bridge, we can see a boat approaching... we opened some boxes and got some life vests, we are trying to save ourselves." | ||
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Sputnik
2014-12-28 12:41:00
AirAsia's flight AK6242 en route from Penang to Langkawi has made an emergency landing due to technical problems. An AirAsia aircraft has reportedly made an emergency landing due to technical problems during its flight from Penang to Langkawi (Malaysia) hours after another of the company's planes went missing. AirAsia's flight AK6242 en route from Penang to Langkawi has made an emergency landing due to technical problems, the Malaysian New Strait Times newspaper said on Twitter. Earlier in the day, another AirAsia aircraft, flight QZ8501, en route from Surabaya, Indonesia to Singapore lost contact with air traffic control and went missing with 162 people on board. Search and rescue operations are being conducted in the Java Sea by the Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas), but no traces of the aircraft have been found so far. AirAsia issued a statement confirming the crash of the aircraft due to bad weather conditions. Nevertheless, the Indonesian Ministry of Transportation said it was too early to confirm this information. AirAsia Indonesia operates domestic flights within the Indonesian archipelago and international flights to Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and Thailand. The company is an affiliate of the Malaysian company AirAsia. In 2007, AirAsia Indonesia was banned from operating flights to the European Union (EU) due to safety concerns; however, the ban was lifted in July 2010, the BBC reports. | |
Comment: First a whole plane goes missing and then another one lands due to technical problems. Just what is going on?
Air Asia flight from Indonesia to Singapore 'missing' | |
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RT
2014-12-28 03:36:00
Air Asia flight number QZ8501, bound from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore, has reportedly lost control with air traffic control. The missing flight is an Airbus A320-200 with 155 people on board, Reuters reports. The plane lost contact with Jakarta air traffic control on Sunday, Indonesian media said, citing Transport Ministry official Hadi Mustofa. Mustofa said the contact was lost at 6:17 a.m. local time (23:17 GMT on Saturday), after the crew asked for an "unusual route." According to an unnamed Indonesian transport official, there are 155 passengers and crew aboard the plane. The flight was due to land in Singapore at 8:30 a.m. local time (00:30 GMT) and is currently listed as"delayed." | |
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Mike Sawyer
The Free Thought Project 2014-12-28 03:03:00
Tario Anderson was simply walking down the street. Because of that he was assaulted, kidnapped, and charged with a crime and the Greenville police department doesn't see anything wrong with it. Greenville, SC - An innocent 34-year-old autistic man was tasered and arrested by police on Christmas eve because he walking down the street at night. Greenville City Police were in the area responding to reports of gunshots when they came across Tario Anderson and shined a spotlight in the innocent man's face. Anderson reacted by walking away from this stressful sensory overload. "When they put their spotlight on him, he immediately put his head down, put his hands in his pockets and began to walk away from him," Officer Johnathan Bragg with Greenville Police said. "They then got out of the vehicle and approached him and ordered him to stop at which point he did flee from the officers and they pursued him." Anderson had committed no crime but since he did not immediately bow down to the police, he was tasered and cops piled on top of him. His mother, Carolyn Anderson, said he has severe autism, does not understand much and did not need to be arrested or shocked with a Taser. "Tario can say yes or no, he might ask for a thing or two, but just verbal, no," Carolyn Anderson said. | |
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Evelyn Nieves
AlterNet 2014-12-25 01:00:00
The city refuses to provide affordable housing, yet won't tolerate people living outdoors. When San Jose dismantled the "Jungle," the nation's largest homeless encampment, many of its residents with nowhere to go scattered. They found hiding places in the scores of small, less visible encampments within the city, where more than 5,000 people sleep unsheltered on a given night. But one group of about three dozen evictees gathered what they could salvage in backpacks and trash bags, and crossed a bridge to a spot about a mile away. They found a clean patch of grass near Coyote Creek, the same creek that the Jungle abutted. There, they pitched tents donated by some concerned citizens, assigned themselves chores and hoped for the best. Instead, they got marching orders. After weathering the hardest rains to fall in these parts in a decade, the campers found 72-hour eviction notices on their tents. Once again, a little more than a week after their forced flight from the Jungle, they had no idea where they might live. | |
Comment: The rich don't want to help the down and out, they just want them to disappear. Of course not seeming to realize that they helped create the situation in the first place with their psychopathic greed.
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| Secret History |
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Liz Leafloor
Ancient Origins 2014-12-10 09:28:00
When odd, skull-shaped grave items were found by archaeologists decades ago at an Aztec temple in Mexico, they were assumed to be mere toys or ornaments, and were catalogued and stored in warehouses. However, years later, experts discovered they were creepy 'death whistles' that made piercing noises resembling a human scream, which the ancient Aztecs may have used during ceremonies, sacrifices, or during battles to strike fear into their enemies. | |
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| Science & Technology |
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David Streitfeld
The New York Times 2014-12-27 11:35:00
Authors are upset with Amazon. Again. For much of the last year, mainstream novelists were furious that Amazon was discouraging the sale of some titles in its confrontation with the publisher Hachette over e-books. Now self-published writers, who owe much of their audience to the retailer's publishing platform, are unhappy. One problem is too much competition. But a new complaint is about Kindle Unlimited, a new Amazon subscription service that offers access to 700,000 books - both self-published and traditionally published - for $9.99 a month. It may bring in readers, but the writers say they earn less. And in interviews and online forums, they have voiced their complaints. | |
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Leon Siciliano
the Telegraph 2014-12-23 05:39:00
President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday oversaw the successful test-launch of Russia's newest heavy-class Angara rocket, a rare piece of good news in a week dominated by the economic crisis. The president oversaw by video link the launch of the Angara-A5 from Plesetsk in northern Russia at 0557 GMT, saying the new rocket would allow the country better protection. "Indeed, for our space industry and I suppose for the whole of Russia this is a major, very important event," Putin said from the Kremlin. "Russia remains one of the internationally recognized leaders in space exploration." Putin said that Russia will over the next five years conduct a series of test-launches for the Angara - which is designed for civilian and military use, including the launch of manned spacecraft. | |
Comment: This latest Russian space success, together with that of their BRICS allies earlier this year (India's maiden Mars mission successful and China's first mission to moon and back) is in direct contrast to their Western counterparts; who have suffered various anomalies, in a shockingly bad year for their space dominance. Symbolic perhaps?
Virgin Galactic Space Ship Two destroyed after in flight anomaly Antares rocket explosion: A "vehicle anomaly", a deliberate destruction, or something else? NASA rocket bound for International Space Station explodes just seconds after takeoff | |
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| Earth Changes |
A bird rarely seen in North America has turned a small bay on the Oregon Coast into a major destination for bird watchers this winter. Sarah Swanson and her husband Max Smith run a blog in Portland called the Must-See Bird Blog. They tried to explain what it's like to spot a tundra bean-goose at Nestucca Bay in Oregon. "It's just so exciting, I'm trying to compare it something for a non-birder," Swanson said. "Maybe it's like running into a celebrity at the mall, someone you've always idolized," Smith suggested. Yes, in the celebrity news of bird watching this has been a top story. It's the first-ever confirmed sighting of a tundra bean-goose in the lower 48. Usually these brown and gray geese spend their winters in Asia and Europe. In birding parlance, seeing one here is a "mega-rarity."
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RT
2014-12-28 16:55:00
Massive snowfall, aggravated by strong winds and ice in the French Alps, has trapped thousands of holidaymakers, with up to 15,000 people forced to spend Saturday night in emergency accommodation centers in the Savoie region in southeastern France. Conditions remained difficult on Sunday, a spokesman for the Savoie prefecture said. Authorities set up shelters in a dozen towns for stranded tourists in the area. The chaos on Saturday left nearly 2,000 passengers stranded at Chambery airport in southeastern France. A spokesman for the Savoy region, which comprises roughly the territory of the Western Alps between Lake Geneva in the north and Dauphiné in the south, said: "We have not estimated the number of people who spent the [Saturday] night in their cars." | |
Comment: See also: Snow and icy weather sweeps across Europe, stranding drivers
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Jonathan Olivier
The Courier 2014-12-28 15:48:00
A bird rarely seen in Louisiana was among 130 species heard or spotted on Grand Isle during the National Audubon Society's annual winter bird count. A Lucy's warbler, which normally lives in the U.S. Southwest or in Mexico, was the exciting find of the day on Grand Isle, said Chris Brantley, who organized the count on Louisiana's only inhabited barrier island and one of nearly 30 planned around Louisiana between mid-December and Jan. 5. There are only a few records of the bird ever being seen in Louisiana, Brantley said.
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Comment: Similar recent reports of birds losing their way across the Northern Hemisphere: Four lost flamingos fly NORTH for the winter and turn up in Siberia
Wrong place, wrong time: European robin turns up thousands of miles away in China Rare bird from Mongolia turns up in Wakefield, UK Wrong time, wrong place: Rare bird found in Barrie, Canada | ||
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The Bismark Tribune
2014-12-28 11:32:00
Snow and icy weather swept through parts of Europe on Saturday, stranding drivers overnight and leaving thousands of homes without power in Britain. Snow also covered parts of Switzerland and southwestern Germany, and more than 20 centimeters (nearly eight inches) of snow has fallen in higher parts of Germany's Black Forest. Many motorists in Britain were forced to abandon their cars or were trapped in vehicles for hours after becoming snowed in. Dozens of people traveling from Sheffield to London spent the night in a church after their bus became stuck. Parts of northern England saw 11 centimeters (4.3 inches) of snow. Western Power Distribution said 36,000 customers were without power, and another 69,000 had short interruptions to supplies. Staff worked through the night to reconnect customers, but thousands in the East Midlands region were still affected. Liverpool's John Lennon Airport and Leeds Bradford International closed late Friday as workers cleared snow from the runways. The airports have reopened. British weather forecasts predict more snow showers, mainly in the north, though the main threat would be ice on roads.
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BBC
2014-12-27 11:16:00
Snow and ice in the French Alps have stranded 15,000 vehicles, snarling up holiday traffic to and from ski resorts, French media report. The country declared an orange weather alert, its second-highest, as local authorities scrambled to put up motorists for the night. One man died when his vehicle slid into a ravine in the Isere region. The government asked drivers to "exercise the utmost caution" and avoid travel if possible. Three people died in other snow-related incidents across France earlier this week, according to French daily Le Monde.
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| Fire in the Sky |
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| Health & Wellness |
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Daily Mail
2014-12-26 21:05:00
Deputy communication minister Theo Nicol said "the lockdown for five days... is meant for us to get an accurate picture of the situation," adding: "Other districts will carry on with their own individual lockdown after this if they deemed it necessary." Ebola has killed more than 7,500 people, almost all of them in west Africa. Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea are the three nations worst-hit by the epidemic, and Sierra Leone recently overtook Liberia as the country with the highest number of Ebola infections. Kamara said shops and markets would be closed throughout the period, and "no unauthorised vehicles or motorcycle taxis" would be allowed to circulate "except those officially assigned to Ebola-related assignments." Among "key objectives" is to allow health workers to identify patients, Kamara said. Sierra Leone declared a state of emergency on July 31 after the Ebola outbreak and imposed restrictions on the movement of people. As of Wednesday six of the country's 14 departments have these restrictions in place. On December 12, the government announced a restriction on large Christmas and New Year gatherings. Several residents in the country's north told AFP by telephone that locals had largely been conforming to the new strictures. | |
Comment: Despite the low interest in the mainstream media, the Ebola outbreak continues without a clear end in sight.
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