 | |||||
 |  |  |  | ||
|
|
Aeneas Georg
'The Russians are slow to saddle their horses, but they run really fast'... And as Dmitry Orlov said inan interview a couple of days ago:
It should be added that when they act, it is significant. And boy did they act recently! Putin announcedyesterday the decision to scrap the South Stream pipeline and simultaneously open a new one to Turkey with the same capacity, which thus makes NATO member Turkey a strategic partner for Russia.Sott.net 2014-12-02 19:20:00
That was a surprise and it didn't take long for the fallout and finger-pointing to begin. The Bulgarians, who have several times blocked the South Stream pipeline under the excuse of 'following EU directives', didn't see this coming. After not taking Russia seriously at first, they're now blaming Russia for the project's collapse! | |
 |
| No new articles. |
| Puppet Masters |
|
Alexander Mercouris
The Vineyard of the Saker 2014-12-03 21:11:00 Comment: Must-read analysis on the recent South Stream developments involving Russia, the EU and Turkey, by Alexander Mercouris. For more details, don't miss SOTT's coverage here: EU losers! Russia scraps South Stream pipeline project, announces major alternative gas deal - Did Putin just poach Turkey?
The reaction to the cancellation of the Sound Stream project has been a wonder to behold and needs to be explained very carefully. In order to understand what has happened it is first necessary to go back to the way Russian-European relations were developing in the 1990s. Briefly, at that period, the assumption was that Russia would become the great supplier of energy and raw materials to Europe. This was the period of Europe's great "rush for gas" as the Europeans looked forward to unlimited and unending Russian supplies. It was the increase in the role of Russian gas in the European energy mix which made it possible for Europe to run down its coal industry and cut its carbon emissions and bully and lecture everyone else to do the same. However the Europeans did not envisage that Russia would just supply them with energy. Rather they always supposed this energy would be extracted for them in Russia by Western energy companies. This after all is the pattern in most of the developing world. The EU calls this "energy security" - a euphemism for the extraction of energy in other countries by its own companies under its own control. | |
Comment: Bam! Once again, Moscow transmutes Europe's blustering machismo into a win for Russia and a defeat for the EU. They really should get it by now: you can't bluff with Russia when everyone KNOWS she has a better hand. You just end up looking like the arrogant, ignorant sycophants you really are, completely divorced from objective reality. You know it, your people know it. And you'll get what you deserve: ridicule and obsolescence.
| |
|
|
Alexander Mercouris
The reaction to the cancellation of the Sound Stream project has been a wonder to behold and needs to be explained very carefully.Vineyard of the Saker 2014-12-03 21:35:00
In order to understand what has happened it is first necessary to go back to the way Russian-European relations were developing in the 1990s. Briefly, at that period, the assumption was that Russia would become the great supplier of energy and raw materials to Europe. This was the period of Europe's great "rush for gas" as the Europeans looked forward to unlimited and unending Russian supplies. It was the increase in the role of Russian gas in the European energy mix which made it possible for Europe to run down its coal industry and cut its carbon emissions and bully and lecture everyone else to do the same. However the Europeans did not envisage that Russia would just supply them with energy. Ratherthey always supposed this energy would be extracted for them in Russia by Western energy companies. This after all is the pattern in most of the developing world. The EU calls this "energy security" - a euphemism for the extraction of energy in other countries by its own companies under its own control. It never happened that way. Though the Russian oil industry was privatised it mostly remained in Russian hands. After Putin came to power in 2000 the trend towards privatisation in the oil industry was reversed. One of the major reasons for western anger at the arrest of Khodorkovsky and the closure of Yukos and the transfer of its assets to the state oil company Rosneft was precisely because is reversed this trend of privatisation in the oil industry. Comment: It is easy to see why Putin has been so demonized in the West, as he acted for the interests of the people of Russia rather than the European/US bankers and corporations. | |
|
|
Raw Story
2014-12-03 20:04:00
Hungary's Foreign Ministry on Wednesday summoned the U.S. ambassador in Hungary over comments made by U.S. Senator John McCain on Tuesday, calling Prime Minister Viktor Orban a "neo-fascist dictator." The ministry called in Chargé d'Affaires André Goodfriend over McCain's comments, in which the Arizona Republican called on his Senate colleagues to block the approval of the new Ambassador to Hungary, Hollywood producer Colleen Bell. | |
Comment: Hungary is part of EU and a NATO member. EU was concerned about Hungary's drift towards Russia. So it's not a surprise to see war-mongering mad dog John McCain barking at Hungary at the behest of the American empire.
Viktor Orban said regarding his priorities: It's not new for the fascist American empire to brand anybody who looks after their own interests, instead of following the empire's orders, or who allies with anybody who defies them as "neo-fascists". | |
|
|
Raw Story
2014-12-03 00:00:00
Daily Show host Jon Stewart and correspondent Larry Wilmore rebuked conservatives on Tuesday for harping on crime statistics in response to the Ferguson demonstrations. "What would you say to those people?" Stewart asked Wilmore, who will debut as host of the Nightly Show next month. "I would say they can go f*ck themselves, Jon," Wilmore said. "First of all, can we quit calling it 'Black-on-Black' crime? It's just crime, ok? I mean, 'Black-on-Black' just makes it sound like a category on Redtube." The conversation about "Black-on-Black" crime, Wilmore argued, is already happening within Black communities. | |
Comment: Truth from a comedian. Sadly, they're often the best place to look: George Carlin, Bill Hicks... Maybe that's because it really takes a sense of humor to understand the total absurdity of modern civilization.
| |
|
|
RT
2014-12-03 17:34:00
Human Rights Watch (HRW) says Kiev has failed to investigate its army's use of prohibited cluster bombs against civilians in the country's east. It also recommends Kiev invite the International Criminal Court to investigate. The human rights watchdog is dissatisfied with the investigation conducted by the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office into the use of cluster bombs by the Ukrainian armed forces in the east of the country, Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth told a media briefing in Kiev on Wednesday. "Instead of analyzing physical evidence," Ukraine's Prosecutor General looked into the"presence of weapons in depots," and said they were not taken anywhere, said Roth. He explained the watchdog had appealed to Ukraine's Military Prosecutor's Office regarding the use of cluster bombs and Grad multiple rocket launchers by Kiev's military in residential areas. In turn, the prosecutor appealed to the Ministry of Defense. Therefore he said "it's no surprise" the ministry did not find any violations by Kiev's military. In addition, the inspection did not check cluster bombs, but mines, he added.
The HRW is not satisfied with this kind of investigation, he stressed. Human Rights Watch found out during its own investigation that cluster bombs were used by pro-government forces in residential areas in eastern Ukraine, Roth said. The area affected by the cluster bombs has a distinctive appearance, so the watchdog can say for sure that it was used in the area, Roth added. In addition, during talks with the defense ministry officials they didn't deny the "possibility" of the use of imprecise weaponry, however rejected the evidence provided by HWR, he said. | ||
Comment: Considering that the ICC is useless, HRW requesting an investigation is an empty gesture.
| ||
|
|
Dr. Matthew Crosston
Near Eastern Outlook 2014-12-03 19:24:00
Common complaints within Intelligence Studies about the examination of foreign intelligence communities, especially those not residing in the west, run the gamut from being too historically driven to being completely ahistorical and thus nothing more than a simple organizational review of facts and details to being too often inevitably compared against a standard framework that uses either the United States or the United Kingdom as the backdrop. While these analyses are all important, they have failed to look at how the competing conceptualizations of culture within the discipline engender entirely different approaches and therefore radically different conclusions about how we view and evaluate said communities. Below is a 'case glance' of the phenomenon utilizing the Russian Federation. Perhaps most interesting and fairly unexpected is how in terms of security affairs American understanding about Russia seems to be hurt more analytically by grand strategic culture and is often never analyzed from a perspective that emphasizes contemporary reality, purpose-based objectives and actual organizational functionality. | |
Comment: In other words, American analysts are seeing exactly what they want to see regarding Russia while screening out the realities of contemporary Russia's words and actions. When American foreign policy regarding Russia is built on illusions, the result can only be disastrous, as we are witnessing in real time. Worse, the main effects are being visited on others (the EU and EU aspirants). The architects of these policies have yet to really suffer the consequences of their blindness.
| |
|
|
Sputnik International
2014-12-03 18:01:00
Public support for the anti-Russian sanctions is slowly eroding in the EU due to lack of prominent developments in the Ukrainian crisis. German chancellor Angela Merkel may have hard time keeping Russia sanctions in place, as she is facing widespread public discontent, both within her nation and in the EU. The restrictive measures were introduced earlier this year and now their effects on the EU economy, and German in particular, are undermining trade. The EU is facing two possible options at this point, either a gradual revocation of the economic restrictions on Russia or a further tightening of the sanctions regime with the implementation of new restrictions, according to a report by Financial Times. "Keeping sanctions in place is a challenge for German policy," says Gernot Erler, an MP of the opposition Social Democratic Party. | |
Comment: The German people are becoming increasingly fed-up with Washington's dictates, now that their economic well-being is increasingly threatened by such short-sighted policies. Merkel has been holding firm in her support for the US so far, but that may change as it has been reported that German industry and businesses are lobbying Berlin to revise the sanctions policy, which is threatening thousands of German jobs and bilateral trade between Europe and Russia. Other EU ministers are backing off from America's aggressive stance towards Russia as well.
| |
|
|
Julie Lévesque
Global Research 2014-12-03 16:46:00
Several authors have recently asked why Malaysia is not part of the MH17 joint investigation team and why is Ukraine, a suspect in this case, part of it? The questions we should first be asking are what exactly is the joint investigation team, in which legal framework is it operating and why was it established? There are actually several investigations going on on the shootdown of MH17. We will, however, focus on two of them which people seem to get mixed up: the first official inquiry led by the Dutch Safety board (DSB), which published a preliminary report on September 9, 2014 and the joint investigation team inquiry, which was established August 7, 2014. The first investigation, led by the DSB an independent organization, is ruled by the Convention on International Civil Aviation, also known as the Chicago Convention, which was established by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a United Nations agency. | |
Comment: The MH17 false flag is part of an ongoing strategy of NATO's that is primarily aimed at to destabilizing and then conquering. Unfortunately NATO has grown old and, through the corruption it spreads (especially in places like Ukraine), it has become a raving lunatic and places lunatics in power:
| |
|
Putin's model of handling the internal and external partners, competitors and even enemies have long been known to all who are willing to look at things rationally. At the first stage, Putin offers a very good compromise. It is taken as a sign of weakness and rejected. At the second stage, the situation for those who rejected the compromise is rapidly deteriorating and a new compromise is offered, but significantly less profitable. And this continues up until there is no more compromise, or until a forever inflexible partner will "choke on a polonium scarf" in London. For example, in the situation with South Stream, we are observing phase two: the deterioration of EU's position with a hint of a new compromise in the form of an extended "Blue Stream" and a gas hub on a border with Greece. | |
Comment: This situation that Europe is in, is selfmade. EU's
See also: SOTT Exclusive: EU finger pointing and fallout from Russia's decision to halt South Stream | |
|
Occasionally Israeli political and military leadership fail to survive Israeli wars. PM Golda Meir and her Chief Of Staff (David "Dado" Elazar) were sent home after the 1973 blunder (Yom Kippur war). PM Menachem Begin lost his sanity after the first Lebanon war (1982). Defense Minister Amir Peretz and his Chief Of Staff' Dan Halutz' were treated harshly by the Israeli media following the 2006 defeat in Lebanon. PM Benjamin Netanyahu is now paying a price for the recent Israeli disaster in Gaza and the Palestinian uprising that followed. Strong nations tend to unite behind their leaders in times of crisis. The Israelis are spoiled. They prefer to turn against their leaders in times of conflict and not because they crave peace. Quite the opposite, they want to see a conclusive victory; buckets of Arab blood. Bibi didn't provide the goods and in the eyes of many Israeli patriots he was a softy. Israelis didn't perform well in the last round of violence. The IDF didn't achieve a single military objective. After a few days, its forces withdrew, humiliated and exhausted. The Israeli military admitted that it lacked an answer to Palestinian ballistics, tunnels and fierceness. In addition, the conflict in Gaza spilled over to the West Bank and to Israeli cities. Throughout, Netanyahu's cabinet reacted slowly. It seemed confused by events. Soon Israelis were openly admitting that the future of the Jewish State was gloomier than ever. The Israeli political establishment was quick to follow - with a total radicalization. The hawks wanted the state to admit that it is a 'Jewish home' instead of a 'Jewish democracy' (a term that in itself, provides a contradiction). The centrists and the Israeli Left insisted that Israel sustain the 'democratic' lie. It sounds good and the Goyim buy it they argued. | |
Comment: You can always count on the psychopaths in power to end up with the exact opposite of what they want.
For more background of the situation and to read the latest hysterical outbursts from Natanyahu see: Bibi bets big: Netanyahu fires key centrist ministers 'plotting coup' | |
|
|
Steven Rosenfeld
AlterNet 2014-12-02 05:18:00
Chief Ramsey has been a national leader in militarized policing. Philadelphia Police Chief Charles Ramsey, one of two co-chairs apppointed by President Obama to head a commission on ways to demilitarize local police, is known for leading repeated bloody and abusive crackdowns on protesters when he was Washington, D.C.'s chief a decade ago, according to a civil rights attorney who won millions in damages for 100s of citizens attacked by D.C. police. "If the president's idea of reforming policing practices includes mass false arrests, brutality, and the eviscerating of civil rights, then Ramsey's his man. That's Charles Ramsey's legacy in D.C.," said Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Executive Director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund(PCJF), speaking of the ex-D.C. chief and current Philadelphia Police Commissioner. "Obama should immediately rescind his appointment of Commissioner Ramsey, who is a mass violator of civil rights and civil liberties." On Monday, Obama appointed Ramsey and Laurie Robinson, a George Mason University professor of criminology, law and society, to head a commission that the president said will suggest steps that the executive branch can take to unwind the most visible aspects of America's militarized police - its domestic use of military gear. "They are going to co-chair a task force that is not only going to reach out and listen to law enforcement, and community activists and other stakeholders, but is going to report to me specifically in 90 days with concrete recommendations, including best practices for communities where law enforcement and neighborhoods are working well together," Obama said Monday, continuing, "How do they create accountability; how do they create transparency; how do they create trust; and how can we at the federal level work with the state and local communities to make sure that some of those best practices get institutionalized?" Obama's focus on militarized policing is sparked by the overly aggressive response by St. Louis area departments to the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, this past summer and fall after a white police officer shot and killed an unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown. Those protests were broken up by police SWAT teams in battle dress, the use of tear gas, and other outsized and disproportionate surplus military weaponry that is distributed across America through a mix of Pentagon and Department of Justice programs. | |
|
|
Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich
Global Research 2014-12-02 00:00:00
US - Russia relations have deteriorated severely in the past decade and they are about to get worse, if the House passes H. Res. 758. NATO encirclement, the US-backed coup in Ukraine, an attempt to use an agreement with the European Union to bring NATO into Ukraine at the Russian border, a US nuclear first-strike policy, are all policies which attempt to substitute force for diplomacy. Russia's response to the terror unleashed by western-backed neo-nazis in Crimea and Odessa came after the local population appealed to Russia to protect them from the violence. Russia then agreed to Crimea joining the Russian Federation, a reaffirmation of an historic relationship. The Western press begins its narrative on the Crimea situation with the annexation, but completely ignores the provocations by the West and other causal factors which resulted in the annexation. This distortion of reality is artificially creating an hysteria about Russian aggressiveness, another distortion which could pose an exceptionally dangerous situation for the world, if acted upon by other nations. The US Congress is responding to the distortions, not to the reality. | |
Comment: When Petro Poroshenko, the US-installed puppet president of Ukraine came to visit Washington last September he was uniformly greeted as the conquering hero and given several standing ovations for his empty utterances before congress. The body of myopic, sycophantic and ponerized individuals that make up the US government are so blinded by their own lies, greed, and lust for power, that they do not realize that they are, in fact, sowing the seeds of their own destruction. Their destruction seems inevitable at this point, the only question that remains now is how.
See also: | |
|
|
Sarah Lazare
Common Dreams 2014-12-02 22:23:00
Large multinational corporations are behind the majority of documented bribes worldwide, with most payers and takers hailing from rich nations, according to a study released Tuesday by the 34-nation Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The report, which evaluated data obtained from 427 bribery offense cases spanning the past 15 years, found that 57 percent of all bribes examined involved corporate efforts to obtain public contracts - mostly in western, more developed states. Customs and defense officials accounted for a significant proportion of bribe recipients, at 11% and 6% respectively. According to the study, the average bribe amounts to 10.9% of the total value of the transaction, with the average payout calculated at nearly $14 million for the cases reviewed. | |
|
|
Mark Chapman
Russia-Insider 2014-12-02 23:55:00
Western media trumpets ridiculous claims by a comically obscure "think-tank" that is loaded with pro-NATO politicians What I wanted to talk about today is the emergence of a disturbing meme - that whenever aircraft of the Russian Air Force conduct sovereignty patrols or reconnaissance flights, they endanger civil aviation. This notion has been floated by several sources lately, and it is bulls***. The first I noticed it (more accurately, it was brought to my attention) was a month ago, at the end of October. | |
Comment: As Dmitry Orlov stated in a recent interview concerning the US-NATO's declining role ininternational affairs:
| |
|
|
RT
2014-12-02 00:15:00
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Tuesday that he would be calling early elections, firing two of his key ministers prior to the dissolution of the Knesset and suggesting they were plotting a putsch against him. Netanyahu fired Finance and Justice Ministers Yair Lapid and Tzipi Livni respectively, saying that they had "harshly attacked" both himself and the coalition government. In a televised statement on Tuesday evening, Netanyahu said that "from within the current government, it is impossible to lead a state." Netanyahu accused Livni and Lapid of playing "old politics" and claimed that they had conspired against him. "Something Lapid and Livni have in common in their leadership is grandiloquent statements about new politics. But in effect they are part of the same old politics," he said. "In recent weeks they attempted to entice the ultra-Orthodox parties into deposing the prime minister while sitting in government." In comments shortly after a meeting on Tuesday he also criticized the current coalition government. "I will no longer tolerate an opposition within the government. I will not tolerate ministers who, from within the government, attack government policies and the person who leads the government," he added. Comment: So anyone who disagrees with him or want to discuss different options get the boot. Doesn't sound like democracy. "If the unprecedented behavior of some government ministers continues, there will be no choice but to go to elections again," Netanyahu said in a statement after an hour long meeting, reportedHaaretz. | |
Comment: The state of Israel is certainly in flux now, especially with more countries recognizing a Palestinian state . It will be interesting to see what the outcome of the elections will be.
| |
|
| Society's Child |
|
Sam Blumenfeld
The New American 2014-12-03 21:30:00
Class Dismissed, a new full-length documentary film about homeschooling, was screened in the Boston area on December 1, having already been seen by sold out audiences in November on the West Coast (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland). It explores the rapidly growing homeschool movement - its challenges and great successes. I was informed about it by my old friend and "unschooling" pioneer Pat Farenga, who appears briefly in the film. He described it in an e-mail:
| ||
Comment: The homeschooling movement is growing as more parents and children realize the futile attempts of main stream education's attempt to create "slaves" for the corporate state.
| ||
|
|
David Ferguson
Raw Story 2014-12-03 00:00:00
A Baptist pastor in Tempe, Arizona called for the mass extermination of LGBT people on Sunday in a sermon entitled "AIDS: The Judgement of God." In the sermon, which was uploaded to YouTube on Monday from Faithful Word Baptist Church, Pastor Steven Anderson said that God has ordered in the scriptures that gays should be killed, and that if humanity wants to have an "AIDS-free world by Christmas," he said, that's what should be done. "Turn to Leviticus 20:13," he says in the video, "because I actually discovered the cure for AIDS." | |
Comment: Someone lock this man up! What type of god kills his own children, even if he dislikes some of his children's actions? Only the 'devil' and his followers would do something like that.
| |
|
|
RT
2014-12-03 20:37:00
A New York City grand jury has decided not to indict the New York Police Department officer accused of killing a Staten Island man by putting him in an illegal chokehold. The NYPD is now preparing for more protests stemming from the decision. Early Wednesday afternoon, CNN, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post all reported that a grand jury declined to indict the officer. Although the special grand jury declined to indict Daniel Pantaleo, the white officer accused of strangling Garner, who was black, the police department can still reprimand Pantaleo under a basic rule that loosely states if an officer does anything to embarrass the department, then they can be disciplined. "It's sad if they take that position," Ed Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, told Staten Island Live. "I'd be surprised and a bit disappointed if he was used as a political pawn to appease the community."
The incident occurred on July 17, when at least five New York Police Department officers took 43-year-old Eric Garner, a Staten Island father of six, to the ground in an attempted arrest on Staten Island. One put Garner in a chokehold that caused Garner - who suffered from asthma - to lose consciousness and reportedly go into cardiac arrest. He was declared dead at a nearby hospital. The Staten Island District Attorney's Office convened the grand jury in September, but did not announced the list of potential charges against Pantaleo. But prosecutors outside the district told ABC News that the range could have included second-degree manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, felony assault or reckless endangerment. Legal experts and former prosecutors had said that, despite the medical examiner's ruling the death a homicide, murder charges were unlikely, theNew York Times reported. | ||
Comment: The chokehold of death for (allegedly) selling cigarettes illegally? Completely outrageous! The police are completely out of control and have been given the license to kill YOU. In a police state, they are just doing their jobs...
| ||
|
|
John W. Whitehead
The Rutherford Institute 2014-12-03 19:13:00
After a year dominated with news of police shootings of unarmed citizens (including children), SWAT team raids gone awry, photo ops of militarized police shouldering assault rifles while perched on top of armored vehicles, and reports on how the police are using asset forfeiture laws to pad their pockets with luxury cars, cash and other expensive toys, I find myself wrestling with the question: how do you prepare a child for life in the American police state, especially when it comes to interactions with police? Do you parrot the government line, as the schools do, that police officers are community helpers who are to be trusted and obeyed at all times? Do you caution them to steer clear of a police officer, warning them that any interactions could have disastrous consequences? Or is there some happy medium between the two that, while being neither fairy tale nor horror story, can serve as a cautionary tale for young people who will encounter police at virtually every turn? Children are taught from an early age that there are consequences for their actions. Hurt somebody, lie, steal, cheat, etc., and you will get punished. But how do you explain to a child that a police officer can shoot someone who was doing nothing wrong and get away with it? That a cop can lie, steal, cheat, or kill and still not be punished? Kids understand accidents: sometimes drinks get spilled, dishes get broken, people slip and fall and hurt themselves, or you bump into someone without meaning to, and they get hurt. As long as it wasn't intentional and done with malice, you forgive them and you move on. Police shootings of unarmed people - of children and old people and disabled people - can't just be shrugged off as accidents, however. Aiyana Jones was no accident. The 7-year-old was killed after a Detroit SWAT team launched a flash-bang grenade into her family's apartment, broke through the door and opened fire, hitting the little girl who was asleep on the living room couch. The cops weren't even in the right apartment. | |
|
|
RT
2014-12-02 15:52:00
A global study of adolescents from low-income neighborhoods revealed that teenagers from Baltimore, a city located just 40 miles from the US capital, are faring worse than their counterparts in Nigeria. Many people tend to associate child poverty with desperate scenes out of Africa or India. But according to a recent WAVE study, an international survey that examined the living conditions of 15-19 year olds in poor areas in Baltimore, Shanghai, Johannesburg, New Delhi and Ibadan (third largest city in Nigeria), the problem is much closer to home than many people realize. In the five neighborhoods examined in the study, poverty was the common thread that linked these culturally diverse locations. Differences among the teens in these urban areas became obvious, however, when it came to how they perceived their state of well-being. Teens from Baltimore and Johannesburg, South Africa, viewed their communities more negatively than the other locations in the study. | |
Comment: Notice this study makes no active recommendations for improving the lives of these children. A psychopathic elite would take this study and think "Perception is the key? All we need to do is brainwash them things are better." This worked for a long time, but the cracks in the illusion are becoming bigger every day.
| |
|
|
Sam P.K. Collins
Think Progress 2014-11-21 15:55:00
A physical fitness assessment program is under scrutiny after a middle school student in Iowa refused to be weighed in front of her classmates. During a check-up in her physical education class, Ireland Hobert-Hochtold told her teacher that she didn't want to take part in the FitnessGram program, a fitness measurement tool her school has used for at least four years. Ireland's decision landed her in the principal's office. "I don't feel like it's [the school's] business," Ireland told the Des Moines Register. "I feel like it's my doctor and my mom and my own business - or maybe not even my own, because I don't need to know that right now." The FitnessGram program, which has been in existence since 1982, assesses six areas of health-related fitness - including body composition, flexibility, muscular strength and endurance, and aerobic capacity. Once physical education teachers conduct tests, they measure scores using the Healthy Fitness Zone standards. School administrators use the reports in letters addressed to parents that explain the importance of physical activity and outline "areas for improvement." | |
Comment: Another example of interference from the 'nanny state'. Instead of supporting the nation's health with sensible measure like banning GMO's, and having effective food inspectionsystems, useless programs such as FitnessGram are brought in. Tellingly, the board running this boondoggle is a hotbed of one-percenters.
| |
|
|
Krasavchik
Fort Russ 2014-12-03 14:56:00 Comment: Putin's announcement that the South Stream project is stillborn and that Russia will concentrate their efforts elsewhere has sent shockwaves across Europe and especially in Bulgaria, which apart from being the poorest of the EU countries also stood to gain $400 million every year in transit fees. The Bulgarian vassal leaders, who have put US interests above those of their electorate of course reject any responsibility, but as can be seen in theblog post below, that is not how the Bulgarian people see it. And rightfully so! See also: EU losers! Russia scraps South Stream pipeline project, announces major alternative gas deal - Did Putin just poach Turkey? I decided to read the comments on Bulgarian information resources. You can feel for our Bulgarian brothers. Translated a couple dozen of them. The vast majority of the comments, of course were written in the following spirit: * * * Yes, something happened, what I was talking about a long time ago - the South Stream will pass through the territory of the country, which is a more reliable partner than we are! Well, we're a wealthy country, for us 400 million euros... is nothing. We will not even ask for compensation from the EU, you can be sure! * * * God, what idiots are in charge right now! * * * Are you Bulgarians or are you stupid? We had to fight!!! * * * It's very simple. To this point we were led by greedy Prime Minister with BSP party. It is a national disaster! |
|
|
Arturo Garcia
Raw Story 2014-12-03 02:14:00
A California woman sued her former employer, the online real estate firm Zillow, after supervisors allegedly harassed and propositioned her for sex and subjected her to what she described as "sexual torture," the Recorder reported. The suit by Rachel Kremer, filed in Orange County on Monday, accuses supervisors at the company's Irvine office of cultivating an "adult frat house" culture and refusing to take action when she reported the offensive behavior. Kremer also accuses the Seattle-based company of firing her for bringing the harassment to light. "Privately, Zillow executives bragged that the office culture led to more sexual encounters than Match.com, and referred to the internal office directory as 'Zinder,' named after the dating application Tinder," the suit states. Kremer began working for the company's sales department in June 2012. Her attorneys enclosed copies of lewd messages she received between December 2012 and her termination this past August. "I have a great opportunity that just opened up on my face in the 92660 market," sales manager Cody Fagnant told her in a text message. "Call me if you are interested. This is an executive position and won't last long. Haha. Goodnight Rachey." | |
Comment: We live in a sickening world dominated by sex offenders. Students rape fellow studentsat educational institutions, police rape people whom they are supposed to protect, and employers rape their employees. The United States rapes other weaker nations with war and destruction.
| |
|
|
RT
2014-12-02 00:00:00
Many young French jihadist fighters who joined the Islamic State militants have started questioning what they are really doing with them. Their lawyers say they want to come home but dread possible criminal charges, France's Le Figaro has reported. "If I go back to France, what will happen to me? Can I avoid prison? "- these are the questions young jihadists ask their lawyers and families. Their messages were exclusively leaked to France's Le Figaro newspaper which says that it contacted the extremists' lawyers. Comment: Did these ISIL foreign recruits expect a picnic or night club when they signed up?! Where are all-knowing, ever-spying NSA and Pentgaon when these kids are getting recruited? Supplying weapons? Some of the "IS newbies" complain they have been misled into journeying to the Middle East. Comment: Misled by whom? Can't they give leads to the authorities about their recruiters? | |
|
|
RT
2014-12-02 16:15:00
Girls as young as seven are experiencing sexual taunts from boys, according to Girlguiding UK. The charity says sexism and harassment are becoming a part of daily life for British girls. Sexual taunts at a young age intensify into sexual harassment during girls' teenage years, the youth charity claims. Almost 60 percent of girls and young women aged 13 to 21 report sexual harassment at school or college. Meanwhile, 20 percent experiencing unwanted touching, the Girls' Attitudes survey revealed. Under UK law, "inappropriate touching and groping" constitutes sexual assault. More than 1,400 girls and young women aged between seven and 21 across the UK were polled. The study warns that such experiences are coming to be seen as just "a normal aspect of being a girl." Of particular concern, more than half of the girls surveyed, aged between 11 and 16, said teachers had told them to ignore incidents of sexual harassment, or dismiss them as "banter." In the older age group (13 to 21), 59 percent said they had faced some form of sexual harassment. Many don't talk about these incidents out of shame or fear of being bullied. | |
Comment: Unfortunately, too many young women who are sexually assaulted don't consider it a form of rape.They aren't supported by the authorities that are supposed to protect them, or the people they consider 'friends'. Sexual violence and rape are endemic on the planet with no end in sight. It's gotten so bad in India, people are taking matters into their own hands.
See also: Ending India's rape culture The University of Virginia's rape culture in the U.S. | |
|
|
Brian Andrews
CBS Miami 2014-12-02 02:25:00
There was no party for a mega yacht called "RockStar" after a draw bridge unexpectedly came down on the passing vessel. Chopper 4 was over the scene as the ship called the "Rockstar," was being towed from Fort Lauderdale to Miami. The yacht, which costs a little more than quarter of a million dollars to charter for a week was waiting for a visit from the Coast Guard and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission before it could continue on. The broad causeway that connects North Miami with Bay Harbor Islands and Bal Harbour is undergoing tests to make sure the locking mechanism works. Assistant City Mananger J.C. Jimenez said the vessel was under tow when the tow company requested the bridge tender to raise both sides so it could pass. As the ship passed through, the East side of the draw bridge suddenly started to slip and crashed down on the yacht, taking out part of the roof causing tens of thousands of dollars in damages. Fifteen people were reported to be aboard the yacht with no injuries. Incidentally, the broad causeway, which is about 60 years old, is about to undergo a $13-million dollar rehab project which includes replacing parts of the draw bridge mechanism because of past electrical problems. The city has engineers are evaluating the causeway bridge and what to do next. As of Tuesday evening, large vessels were still unable to go under the bridge. Vehicle traffic across the bridge was also restricted. The FWC is investigating the cause of the incident. | |
Comment: Oh the irony: a decrepit bridge falling down on some ultra-rich's yacht. Sign from the universe perhaps?
| |
|
|
Tom Boggioni
Rawstory 2014-11-30 21:55:00
Christian-based Florida homeless program catering to recovering alcoholics and drug addicts has been accused of providing work crews to businesses and local events, then keeping their pay without them ever seeing it in exchange for room and board. In an investigation conducted by the Tampa Bay Times, New Beginnings CEO Tom Atchison is accused of exploiting residents staying in his residences by farming them out as unpaid labor, including working concessions at Tampa Bay Rays, Lightning, and Bucs games, the Daytona 500 and the Florida State Fair. Workers who put in a day of work are unaware of how much they are being paid for their labor since their paychecks go straight to Atchison and the shelter. Atchison, who claims to have a doctorate in theology he earned from a now defunct online school, is currently applying to run Hillsborough County's new homeless shelter with a contract worth millions of public dollars. For residents who are able to pay, New Beginnings charges $150 a week, or $600 a month, which covers rent and three meals per day. The program's CEO calls the labor "work therapy," but advocates for the homeless and labor lawyers say it is exploitative, calling it "indentured servitude." | |
Comment: Another pathological using religion to present himself as a hero only to exploit and feed on humanity. What a sicko!
| |
|
| Secret History |
|
Sarah Knapton
The University of Leicester has studied the DNA of Richard III and found that there could be a break in the royal bloodline.The Telegraph, UK 2014-12-02 16:00:00
When the body of Richard III was discovered in a car park in Leicester in 2012 archaeologists knew it was a momentous find. But little did they realise that it might expose the skeletons in the cupboard of the British aristocracy, and even call into question the bloodline of the Royal family. In order to prove that the skeleton really was Richard III, scientists needed to take a DNA sample and match it to his descendants. Genetic testing through his maternal DNA proved conclusively that the body was the King. However, when they checked the male line they discovered something odd. The DNA did not match showing that at some point in history an adulterous affair had broken the paternal chain. Although it is impossible to say when the affair happened, if it occurred around the time of Edward III (1312- 1377) it could call into question whether kings like Henry VI, Henry VII and Henry VIII had royal blood, and therefore the right to rule. | |
|
| Science & Technology |
|
Emmanuel Barraud
Did Mars ever have life? Does it still? A meteorite from Mars has reignited the old debate. An international team that includes scientists from EPFL has published a paper in the scientific journal Meteoritics and Planetary Sciences, showing that martian life is more probable than previously thought.Source 2014-12-02 19:24:00
"So far, there is no other theory that we find more compelling," says Philippe Gillet, director of EPFL's Earth and Planetary Sciences Laboratory. He and his colleagues from China, Japan and Germany performed a detailed analysis of organic carbon traces from a Martian meteorite, and have concluded that they have a very probable biological origin. The scientists argue that carbon could have been deposited into the fissures of the rock when it was still on Mars by the infiltration of fluid that was rich in organic matter. Ejected from Mars after an asteroid crashed on its surface, the meteorite, named Tissint, fell on the Moroccan desert on July 18, 2011, in view of several eyewitnesses. Upon examination, the alien rock was found to have small fissures that were filled with carbon-containing matter. Several research teams have already shown that this component is organic in nature. But they are still debating where the carbon came from. Maybe biological, but not from our planet Chemical, microscopic and isotope analysis of the carbon material led the researchers to several possible explanations of its origin. They established characteristics that unequivocally excluded a terrestrial origin, and showed that the carbon content were deposited in the Tissint's fissures before it left Mars. | |
Comment: So there could have been "little green men" on Mars after all? How interesting. But what is more interesting, that after decades of adamant denial and ridicule, suddenly mainstream science is allowed to release information about a real possibility of extraterrestrial life on other planets? Even if this life is only some kind of "organic matter"? We don't want to take the conspiratorial route, just wonder if this could be a preparation for much more "revealing" news? Or, perhaps, psychopaths in power decided that concealing the real nature of all the recent Earth changes is much more important than life on Mars. In any case, if you are open minded enough, take a look at the following forum section and search for Mars for more clues.
| |
|
| Earth Changes |
|
T.J. Pignataro
BuffaloNews.com 2014-12-02 20:57:00
Water temperature coldest at this date since 1976 Lake Erie's water temperature at the end of November fell to 40 degrees. That's the coldest Nov. 30 reading in Buffalo since 1976, when the lake temperature was 38 degrees. Anyone old enough to remember November 1976 needs no further reminder of what happened the following January. The lake froze, and sustained winds during the Blizzard of '77 blew 3 feet of accumulated snow off the ice and dumped it across the Niagara Frontier. Great Lakes scientists say it's too early to tell if the lake's present condition will lead to that kind of snow catastrophe this winter. Until the lake freezes, there's always a chance for lake-effect snow. But as the water turns colder, there's less chance for a repeat of the heavy lake-effect snowfall that hit the area a couple of weeks ago. "It really depends on what happens now and over the next few weeks or month," said Eric J. Anderson, a forecaster at the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor, Mich. Anderson said the cooling of the lake was speeded up by to the polar blast that recently dumped more than 7 feet of snow recently in some communities. "The lake is primed," Anderson said. "If the air temperature drops, the lake is ready to freeze." But could that spell trouble, too? Buffalonians know as well as anyone that a frozen lake can be a blessing - there's no more lake-effect snow. "Once you seal it - once the water is not liquid - that cuts the evaporation" and with it the lake-effect snow, said George A. Leshkevich, a Great Lakes ice scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. | |
Comment: Ice ages can start at any time and develop quickly. Are you prepared?
| |
|
|
thelocal.at
2014-12-03 20:50:00
The Hohe Wande mountain ridge in the district of Wiener Neustadt was the scene of dramatic evacuations on Wednesday as the state of emergency continued in Lower Austria, caused by five days of ice storms. In the last few hours on Wednesday afternoon, all access to the Hohe Wand was cut off by ice-covered boulders and broken tree branches, as a result of the ice storm. Police and fire departments were busy all morning visiting residents living in the area to ask them to leave their homes, many of which are threatened by falling trees. Some residents left voluntarily, while others refused to leave. Some elderly residents had to be evacuated for medical reasons. | |
Comment: See also: Rare ice storm strikes Waldviertel in Austria
| |
|
|
knoe.com
2014-12-02 18:16:00
An 85-year-old woman who was mauled by stray dogs has died, five days after the attack. Grant Parish Sheriff Steve McCain confirmed the death of Bobbie Cheveallier Monday evening, after it was posted on social media. Dogs attacked Cheveallier on Wednesday as she took out the trash from her home near Pollock. McCain says deputies have caught 15 stray dogs for testing since the attack. Cheveallier's son Randy Cheveallier says her legs had to be amputated. He says nobody saw the attack. Cheveallier says a neighbor's boyfriend saw three dogs in his mother's yard Wednesday afternoon, went over to see what was going on, and found her on the ground, unconscious.
| ||
|
|
presstv.ir
2014-12-02 17:46:00
Around 100,000 passengers have been stranded across the Czech Republic due to the disruption of the railway service as a result of freezing cold weather. "Several hundred passenger trains were cancelled or delayed," Czech Railways said on its website on Tuesday. Czech railways authority said the disruption occurred after ice encased overhead power lines and brought railway traffic to a halt. According to the officials, the freezing began on Monday and continued into Tuesday. They added that people were forced to spend the night, when temperatures dropped to a low of minus 7.3 Celsius (19.4 Fahrenheit), in cold trains and at railway stations. | |
|
|
Brittny Mejia
LA Times 2014-12-03 14:54:00
The first major Pacific storm of the season drenched much of California on Tuesday, slaking a parched and dusty region, but still leaving the state deep in a historic drought. The stream of subtropical moisture dropped more than an inch of rain over much of Los Angeles County by evening, with higher numbers in the local mountains. In foothills and canyons where fires recently burned desiccated brush, residents scrambled to set up barricades to divert debris flows and prepared to evacuate. In Camarillo, gushing mud and water prompted a mandatory evacuation of 75 homes where a slide had buried a residence on Halloween. In Glendora and Azusa, homeowners and fire crews worked feverishly to buttress sandbags with plywood and concrete blocks. Rock slides hit the road in Malibu Canyon, and in Silverado Canyon residents moved horses and other large livestock to lower, flatter terrain. | |
|
|
Rosemarie Francisco
Reuters via Yahoo News 2014-12-03 14:47:00
The Philippine government on Wednesday sent food and medical supplies to central provinces on the path of a category 3 typhoon, with many of them still reeling from devastation brought by super typhoon Haiyan late last year. Residents of coastal villages and landslide-prone communities were told to move to government-designated evacuation areas, as typhoon Hagupit (Filipino for lash) barreled towards Eastern Samar province in central Philippines with winds of up to 140 kph and gusts of up to 170 kph. Hagupit is currently hovering over Palau islands and is expected to pick up strength before hitting eastern Philippines on Saturday. Tropical Storm Risk forecasts Hagupit will become a category 4 typhoon in 36 hours. "Definitely we will now strictly enforce forced evacuation," said Jerry Yaokasin, vice mayor of Tacloban City in central Philippines. | |
|
| Fire in the Sky |
| No new articles. |
| Health & Wellness |
|
Heather Callaghan
Activist Post 2014-12-02 17:59:00
Dear reader: Are you one of these "new technology rejecters"? Apparently you will be the one getting a label if you don't want GMOs or nanoparticles in your food. Read on... Previously, research from North Carolina State University and the University of Minnesota showed that people were willing to consume food with nanotechnology (particles, chips for purposes of tracking and changing texture, taste) - but they wanted it labeled and were willing to pay more to have nano-free or nano-labeled food. The duo is back to tell you what it would take to get consumers to finally accept genetically modified organisms and nanotech in their food - with a dose of chiding, that is. The researchers conducted what they say is a nationally representative survey of 1,117 U.S. consumers. Participants were asked to answer an array of questions that explored their willingness to purchase foods that contained GM tech and foods that contained nanotech. The questions also explored the price of the various foods and whether participants would buy foods that contained nanotech or GM tech if the foods had enhanced nutrition, improved taste, improved food safety, or if the production of the food had environmental benefits. (Hopefully, the questions were asked in a purely theoretical light because so far, GMO and nanotech foods have delivered none of those things.) | |
Comment: Why 'new technology rejecters' won't buy adulterated food:
| |
|
|
TEDx Talks
Youtube 2013-12-03 18:01:00
Dr. D'Agostino is an Assistant Professor at the University of South Florida College Of Medicine, Molecular Pharmacology & Physiology where he develops and tests metabolic therapies, including alternative energy substrates and ketogenic agents for neurological disorders, cancer and wound healing. While studying the effects of gasses on the brains of Navy Seal divers, he developed an approach for metabolically starving cancer cells through diet and compressed oxygen, replacing chemotherapy, surgery, or radiation.
| ||
|
|
Mike Barrett
Natural Society 2014-11-29 00:00:00
There is a myriad of natural foods and compounds that have been studied for their disease-preventing and even disease-treating abilities. While the pharmaceutical industry pushes patented drugs that cause numerous side-effects, researchers are unveiling how we can use nature's gifts to prevent and treat ailments ranging from diabetes, to arthritis, to even cancer. For example, Chineseresearchers have shown how oils as simple as chamomile or thyme can kill up to 90+ percent of breast cancer cells. Studying some of the most popular essential oils in current use, such as mint, ginger, lemon, grapefruit, jasmine, lavender, chamomile, thyme, rose, and cinnamon, researchers sought out to discover how these oils may combat cancer. They did so by testing antibacterial potency as well as in vitro toxicology against human cancer cell lines. The cancer cell lines evaluated were the MCF-7 breast cancer cells, the A-549 lung cancer cells, and the PC-3 prostate cancer cells. | |
Comment: Because the use of natural ingredients such as essential oils don't make billions to feed the coffers of BigPharma, their many benefits are often ignored or discounted by the medical mafia. However, there have been many studies showing that these herbs are often more efficacious thancommonly used disinfectants to kill antibiotic resistant superbugs.
See also: Herbs and foods that kill superbugs Essential Oils Offer Many Health Benefits Could Lavender be the solution to drug-resistant infections? | |
|
| Science of the Spirit |
|
Bianca Nogrady
ABC Science, Australia 2014-12-03 03:32:00
Monkeys do not share our irrational preference for more expensive, branded goods over cheaper equivalents, researchers have found. A study in capuchin monkeys, published today in Frontiers in Psychology, showed that unlike humans, they are less swayed by price and more likely to choose based on personal preference. Co-author Professor Laurie Santos, from Yale University, says the work stems from an interest in economic biases in primates. "We got interested in trying to look at what parts of human cognition are evolutionarily old, and we were particularly interested in some of our more irrational biases to try to see where those came from," Santos says. The capuchin monkeys in the study had been previously trained in a 'token market', so they knew how to use tokens to purchase flavoured ice blocks from the experimenter. They also knew that some flavours were more expensive than others, in that a single token would buy them less of one particular flavour than of another flavour. After this training, the researchers placed the monkeys in the situation where the flavoured ice blocks were freely available, without any need for tokens, and the monkeys were allowed to choose whichever flavours they liked. | |
|
|
Arjun Walia
Collective Evolution 2014-11-28 15:03:00
Over the past few decades a significant and noteworthy amount of scientific research has emerged contributing to the notion that human precognition could very well be real, and that we all might possess this potential -amongst various other extended human capacities. Thanks to the research by various scientists presented in this article, extended human capacities are beginning to exit the realm of superstitious thinking, delusion and irrationality and find their way into the world of confirmed phenomena. Claims of precognition or "future telling" have occurred "throughout human history in virtually every culture and period." (source- PDF) It's not hard to see why we are so fascinated with these concepts, they are embedded in popular culture today throughout various outlets such as movies -which can sometimes be counter productive given the fact that they are merged with fictional stories and events. Similar to the extraterrestrial phenomenon, the validity of these concepts seems to shrink due to the fact that they are "just movies." Although the stories that accompany these types of phenomena in movies is probably largely factious, the concepts do hold some validity. Let's examine the truth behind precognition and claims of "future telling." | |
Comment: For more on unconscious processing see Daniel Kahneman's book Thinking, Fast and Slow or our forum thread on the same topic.
| |
|
| High Strangeness |
|
Latest UFO Sightings
2014-12-03 17:25:00
Skywatcher Daniel Sanchez captured this UFO fleet in the sky above Mexico City. It was recorded on 15 April 2014 with infrared camera.
| ||
Comment: Very interesting video using infrared cameras. From the rarity of the sightings it would seem these are difficult to capture.
| ||
|
| Don't Panic! Lighten Up! |
|
Scott Kaufman
Raw Story 2014-12-03 00:00:00
On last night's episode of The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert praised TGI Fridays for its innovative use of drones to spread holiday cheer in his "Blitzkrieg on Grinchitude" segment. "You know nation," he began, "it's getting colder and colder outside and I'm starting to get a hankering for some spiced alcoholic drinkable egg - which can only mean that Christmas is around the corner." "But this year in 'The War on Christmas,' Christmas is fighting back! Folks, Christmas needs a hero once again, and this year - it's TGI Fridays." Colbert then cut to a clip from the Today show reporting about the company's plans to attach mistletoe to drones and fly them over the heads of patrons. "That's right," he said, "TGI Fridays is weaponizing Christmas cheer with a mistletoe drone that forces you to kiss - which is something to keep in mind before you take your dad to lunch." "But what a fantastic idea this is! The only thing missing from your boozy night out was four whirling blades steered by a sixteen-year-old busboy." | |
Comment: However many times the truth is told via alternate media activism, media personnel exposing the truth in palatable comedy, it has not stopped the Wall Street-sponsored drone invasion into our lives from manifesting. Now, it's a reality with Amazon kava robots andTGI friday drones. It will not end there, as corporations will have to follow suit to survive as competitive businesses.
The only choice we have is this: STOP buying from these corporations that use drones or, if you need to buy from them, say "No Drone Delivery". | |
|
|
Yahoo! News
2014-12-02 00:57:00
The University of Texas at Austin is missing about 100 brains - about half of the specimens the university had in a collection of brains preserved in jars of formaldehyde. One of the missing brains is believed to have belonged to clock tower sniper Charles Whitman. "We think somebody may have taken the brains, but we don't know at all for sure," psychology Professor Tim Schallert, co-curator of the collection, told the Austin American-Statesman. His co-curator, psychology Professor Lawrence Cormack, said, "It's entirely possible word got around among undergraduates and people started swiping them for living rooms or Halloween pranks." The Austin State Hospital had transferred the brains to the university about 28 years ago under a "temporary possession" agreement. Schallert said his psychology lab had room for only 100 brains, so the rest were moved to the basement of the university's Animal Resources Center. "They are no longer in the basement," Cormack said. The university said in a statement that it will investigate "the circumstances surrounding this collection since it came here nearly 30 years ago" and that it's "committed to treating the brain specimens with respect." It says the remaining brain specimens on campus are used "as a teaching tool and carefully curated by faculty." The university's agreement with the hospital required the school to remove any data that might identify the person from whom the brain came. However, Schallert said Whitman's brain likely was part of the collection. | |
Comment: Out of sight, out of mind?
|
