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In the latest episode of Truth in Media, Investigative Journalist Ben Swann looks at the root of America's current problem with the militarization of police. "The militarization of America's police forces has captured the nation's attention, largely because of Ferguson, Missouri," said Swann. "But what media has not told you, is how police forces got militarized in the first place, and why militarization is about a lot more than just military equipment."
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Emran Feroz
Alternet 2014-12-15 16:34:00
After the release of the CIA torture report by Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA) the world is reeling in shock at the level of brutality revealed in the documents. In fact, the whole report is nothing more than a confession of sadistic procedures that could have been lifted from the diaries of Torquemada, from "rectal feeding" to nude beatings and humiliation - horrors that were well-known but not officially confirmed. But the report remains incomplete. Indeed, some 9000 documents have been withheld. What new horrors could be discovered with the publication of these records? Perhaps the most gut-wrenching story to emerge from Bagram has been buried in the German media and remains unknown to much of the world. Published by German author and former politician Juergen Todenhoefer in his latest book, Thou Shalt Not Kill, the account stems from a visit to Kabul. At a local hotel, a former Canadian soldier and private security contractor named Jack told Todenhoefer why he could not longer stand working in Bagram. "It's not my thing when Afghans get raped by dogs," Jack remarked. | |
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| Puppet Masters |
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Larchmonter 445
The Vineyard of the Saker 2014-12-22 21:04:00
Vladimir Putin said it clearly: "Russia and China will have a significant effect on the entire system of international relations. The relationship will be a significant factor in world politics and will affect the contemporary architecture of international relations . . ." And to state precisely what this relationship means in geopolitical sea change, President Putin continued: "Russia and China have never had such trusting relations in the military field as they do now. Military exercises have been in joint war games at sea and ground both in Russia and China." (1) The mega trade deals we have seen this year and military exercises are more than normal cross-border trade or cooperative events between neighbors or partners. (2) The 'relationship' is affecting the global order. The two nations are forming a resistance front against destabilization and the weapons of chaos of a unipolar system. Russia and China are working together to stabilize international trade, diplomacy and military balances; yet, ironically, this is disruptive. Russia and China are sovereign nation resistance fighters against the Hegemon. The Hegemon is the unipolar Empire of the United States. | |
Comment: Merry Christmas, from China and Russia with love! This analysis describes what may be a game-changer in terms of the geopolitical status quo. In short, the American Empire is dying a fast death, and Russia and China just may be able to pick up the pieces and create a system not based on cold, brutal, myopic psychopathy. The article also gives what may be a motivation for the recent 'Sony hack' and renewed pressure on North Korea. See also:
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RT
2014-12-24 20:27:00
Russia's Investigative Committee has confirmed the claims by a Ukrainian, who said he witnessed the deployment of a Ukrainian warplane armed with air-to-air missiles on the day the Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 was shot down. The interview was conducted on Tuesday, spokesman for the committee Vladimir Markin told the media on Wednesday. This followed a report in a Russian newspaper, in which the Ukrainian citizen, who preferred to remain anonymous, voiced his allegations. The investigators used a polygraph during the interview, which showed no evidence of the witness lying, he added. "The facts were reported by the witness clearly and with no inconsistencies. The investigators lean towards considering them truthful. A polygraph examination confirmed them too," the official said.
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Scott Kaufman
Raw Story 2014-12-24 20:03:00
The Seattle Police Department (SPD) hosted a contest last week in which it invited hackers to compete to see who could redact dashboard and body camera footage most efficiently. According to the official site for the SPD's first-ever "HACKATHON," the goal is "looking for a better, faster way to redact [the 1,612,554] videos and make them accessible as public records." Over the past five years, the SPD claims, it has recorded over 314,636 hours of dashboard footage of 911 responses, but cannot allow the public to access it because of privacy concerns about victims and witnesses. It must blur the faces and distort the voices of victims and witnesses in order to protect their identities, but the process they use to do so is so cumbersome at the moment that a "simple redaction in a one minute video can take specialists upwards of half-an-hour, whereas more complicated edits - like blurring multiple faces or pieces of audio - can take much, much longer." So the SPD is seeking "a few good hackers" who can assist it in the doctoring of this video evidence - and they must be able to do so in a manner that "leave[s] recordings in their original format." John Vibes at the Free Thought Project does not accept the SPD's claim that the "HACKATHON" is "only seeking to protect the identities of innocent people who may get caught on camera." "It is only a small change in coding that is necessary to alter how the entire footage is edited, so this cover story may be nothing more than an excuse to censor the footage," he wrote. "Also, even if they are telling the truth about their motives, this new development still shows that the footage is only as transparent as the police will allow it to be." "This event highlights the vulnerability of police-worn body cameras," he concluded, "and shows that they really do have the power to alter the footage if they are the ones in control of it." | |
Comment: There doesn't seem to be any mention of what the prize for the winner is. Good way to collect data on potential hackers.
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Syed Nazakat
In local elections, the governing BJP won in Jammu and a local Muslim party won in Kashmir. All eyes are now on Prime Minister Modi and a popular Kashmiri politician named Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.Christian Science Monitor 2014-12-23 00:00:00
The party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made significant electoral gains in the troubled region of Jammu and Kashmir, underscoring the Indian leader's desire to seek closer integration of the troubled Himalayan region with the rest of the country. In results announced today, the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 25 of 87 seats in Kashmir, its best showing ever in the Muslim-majority state. But the figure is far short of the 44 seats needed to form a new government. And the BJP failed to win any seats in the strategic Kashmir valley, raising concerns that political affairs and relations inside the state could become seriously polarized, at least initially. The BJP had campaigned aggressively in Kashmir, which is claimed by both India and Pakistan and has been a source of two wars and continuous border tension. Mr. Modi himself held a series of rallies in the state at which he promised jobs, economic development and justice, while his party ran an extensive media campaign, despite being ideologically at odds with most voters. | |
Comment: A huge turnout in the Kashmir elections was unthinkable just six months ago. Indian PM Narendra Modi was praised for his handling of recent devastating floods in Kashmir.
Modi's Kashmir Flood Relief May Earn Him Muslim Goodwill PM Narendra Modi monitored Kashmir flood operations day and night | |
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By Vladimir Sungorkin, Dmitry Steshin, Nikolay Varsegov Translated from Russian by Kristina Rus for FortRuss.blogspot.com. Originally published in Russian by one of Russia's leading newspapers, Komsomolskaya Pravda. In the "case of Malaysian Boeing" a "secret witness" stepped forward whose testimony remove all charges from the militia and Russia. And explain the mysterious behavior of Western experts. | |
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Mac Slavo
SHTFplan.com 2014-12-21 19:03:00
Though it's taken a backseat to Ferguson and the Sony hacking story, the Ebola virus remains a threat in the United States. According to Fox News Channel's investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson, who recently reached out to the Centers for Disease Control, the agency is still very much involved in monitoring individuals for the deadly African-borne virus. The problem, says Attkisson, is that the CDC is covering up the numbers, presumably to minimize panic across the United States.
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Comment: Keep in mind that 1400 monitored people does not imply 1400 confirmed cases of Ebola in the U.S. However, given the signs of media cover-up, it's a definite possibility that confirmed cases are being covered up, and if Attkisson's testimony can be trusted, this gives us some idea of the possible scope. As Attkisson reported on her website on December 1, these 1400 people "are being actively monitored by state and local health departments after returning from West Africa. The CDC told her: "They are being monitored because they came from one of the four countries with ongoing Ebola outbreaks." (Until March of this year, Attkisson had worked for CBS News for 21 years before resigning, critical of CBS's reporting of Benghazi and Obamacare. She had received numerous awards for her investigative journalism.)
Since late September, 6 people with Ebola have been brought to the U.S. for treatment, and an additional 4 have been diagnosed within the U.S. For more on Ebola, see: Ebola: Fear, lies and the evidence (VIDEO) | ||
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Sputnik
2014-12-24 19:00:00
Russian energy giant Gazprom confirmed receiving $1.65 billion from Ukraine in the final portion of Kiev's planned $3.1 billion gas debt repayment. Russian energy giant Gazprom confirmed it had received $1.65 billion from Ukraine on Wednesday as the final portion of Kiev's planned $3.1 billion gas debt repayment. "We have just received $1.65 billion from [Ukraine's state-run oil and gas company] Naftogaz in our account," Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov said. After a six-month break, Russia resumed gas sales to Ukraine on December 9 under a deal stipulating that Ukraine repays $3.1 billion of its $5.3 billion gas debt and pay for future supplies in advance. | |
Comment: Looks like "General Winter" is making his presence felt in Ukraine.
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AFP
Information Clearing House 2014-12-23 18:48:00
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas warned on Tuesday that his administration would "no longer deal" with Israel if a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a final peace deal fails. "If the Arab-Palestinian initiative submitted to the Security Council to put an end to (Israeli) occupation doesn't pass, we will be forced to take the necessary political and legal decisions," Abbas was quoted as saying by the Algerian APS news agency. "If it fails, we will no longer deal with the Israeli government, which will then be forced to assume its responsibilities as an occupier," he added. The Palestinian draft resolution sets a 12-month deadline for wrapping up negotiations on a final peace settlement and the end of 2017 as the timeframe for completing an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian territories. A final peace deal would pave the way to the creation of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as a shared capital, according to the text. Speculation has been mounting since the death in December of a Palestinian official who was struck by an Israeli soldier that the Palestinian Authority could suspend security coordination with Israel in the West Bank if the resolution fails to pass. "We are determined to regain the rights of our people, including the right of return (for refugees) and the freedom of all Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails," Abbas said. | |
Comment: Yup, that sure will help the cause for peace.
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Oliver Holmes
Reuters 2014-12-23 18:43:00
Satellite imagery indicate that 290 cultural heritage sites in Syria, whose history stretches back to the dawn of civilization, have been damaged by its ongoing civil war, the United Nations' training and research arm (UNITAR) said on Tuesday. Syria's heritage spans the great empires of the Middle East but cultural sites and buildings around the country, such as Aleppo's Umayyad Mosque, have been looted, damaged or destroyed in the three-year-old conflict. Using commercially available satellite pictures, UNITAR found that 24 sites were completely destroyed, 189 severely or moderately damaged and a further 77 possibly damaged. This is "an alarming testimony of the ongoing damage that is happening to Syria's vast cultural heritage", UNITAR said in a new report. | |
Comment: The real reason for the ongoing Syrian civil war is that the US is using proxy armies in an attempt to bring down the Assad regime. Despite the fact that they have so far been unsuccessful, the empire continues its onslaught, killing civilians and destroying the Syrian infrastructure.
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UNIAN
NATO respects Ukraine's decision to abandon its non-aligned status and confirms that Ukraine will be a member of the organization - if it requests membership and complies with all alliance standards and principles, NATO headquarters said on Tuesday, according to an UNIAN correspondent.2014-12-23 17:20:00
"We respect the decision of the Ukrainian parliament. Ukraine is an independent and sovereign state and it is the one who can make decisions on its own foreign policy." Comment: This is quite false, Ukraine, along with most European countries, is under the tight grip of the U.S. Putin revealed one possible reason why this is so: Putin: There are reports that a number of world leaders are getting undisguisedly blackmailed "As it was agreed at the summit in Bucharest in 2008, our doors are open, and Ukraine will become a member of NATO if it requests this and if its complies with [NATO] standards and adheres to its principles," the report reads. Comment: For instance, in order to join NATO, candidate states have to spend at least 2% of their GDP on military acquisitions and equipment (from NATO approved suppliers of course.) These weapons also need to be 'interoperable.' "If Ukraine decides to apply for membership of NATO, we will assess its readiness to join the alliance in the same way as we do with any other candidate," the headquarters said. As UNIAN reported earlier, today, on December 23, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted a presidential bill "On amending to some laws of Ukraine on Ukraine's abandoning its non-alignment policy." The Verkhovna Rada vote was 303 MPs for, out of 369 registered in the session hall. Eight MPs, from the Opposition Bloc voted against. Article 6 of the Law of Ukraine "On the basis of domestic and foreign policy of Ukraine" establishes that the priorities of national interest include the integration of Ukraine into the European political, economic, legal space to gain membership of the European Union and the Euro-Atlantic security [system]; [and] the development of equal and mutually beneficial relations with other countries in the interests of Ukraine. | |
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Ante Sarlija
Sott.net 2014-12-23 22:27:00
Why has the release of the U.S. Senate's report on CIA torture caused such an outrage? After all, the use of torture is a longstanding U.S. policy that began with the founding of the 'great' nation. The torture of Native Americans is a documented fact. The narrative that the U.S. somehow 'strayed away from the right course' only recently shows how tight a grip the psychopathic 'reality creators' have on us and just how effective their revision of history has been. As Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz noted in 'The Grid of History: Cowboys and Indians,' in the Monthly Review: "We didn't just stray from wonderful premises and values: those premises and values were profoundly flawed from the beginning." Gilbert Mercier recently wrote that We have only to read the horrific eyewitness accounts of the Sand Creek Massacre in 1864 to understand that the use of torture is nothing new for the U.S. government: such immorality is not a deviation from the norm. It is, and has always been, the norm... | |
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Press TV
2014-12-23 12:17:00
A report says Israeli businessmen are buying properties belonging to the displaced minorities in the ISIL-held regions in northern Iraq to prepare the ground for accommodation of more than 2,000 people there. Citing a local source, Fars News Agency reported that estate agencies in Mosul and other cities of the Nineveh province in northern Iraq have began purchasing the houses and lands of Iraqi minorities including Christians and Izadis and Turkmens. The estate agents offer "attractive prices" in exchange for the properties and later sell them to Israeli businessmen, the unnamed source said. The source added that more than 2,000 Jews have recently returned to Iraq's Kurdistan region to resettle in Iraq's northern areas. Thousands of Iraqi Christians and other communities have been forced out of their homes in Mosul since June following an ultimatum by ISIL terrorists. Most Christians in the northwestern Nineveh province escaped after the Takfiris overran the region. | |
Comment: The Israelis never let a good crisis go to waste.
For more on Israel-ISIS ties see: SOTT EXCLUSIVE: Match made in Sheol: Israel working with terrorists in Syria (says UN), Mossad training ISIS (says Putin aide) | |
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Youtube
2014-12-16 08:16:00
For this Daily Show, Jon Stewart took on the $1.1 trillion omnibus, lampooning the clandestine way in which lawmakers inserted new laws and rolled back some regulations via a spending bill. In addition to funding government expenses for the next fiscal year, the bill included non-budgetary deals like ending the ban on incandescent light bulbs, fighting the legalization of marijuana in D.C., and the rolling back of regulatory provisions in the Dodd-Frank financial bill. How did those, and other non-budgetary items, get into the omnibus? According to CNN's Chris Moody, lawmakers "came in, in the middle of the night, when not a lot of people are looking," to sneak in items that would not pass on their own. "What? They just wait until nobody is looking and slip the toxic stuff in?" an incredulous Stewart said, setting up the punch line: "The Bill Cosby of legislation."
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Sputnik
2014-12-23 00:34:00
The draft resolution on Palestinian Statehood, submitted to the UNSC last week, should be withdrawn, a senior spokesperson for Hamas Sami Abu Zuhri told Sputnik Tuesday. The draft resolution on Palestinian Statehood that was submitted to the United Nations Security Council last week must be withdrawn, a senior spokesperson for Hamas Sami Abu Zuhri told Sputnik Tuesday. The resolution sets a deadline of 12 months from the document's approval to the removal of Israeli forces from the occupied Palestinian territories. Zuhri said that the different Palestinian factions had not managed to reach a consensus regarding the resolution's project and therefore it must be cancelled. The Hamas spokesperson noted that the draft resolution "leaves many loopholes" and does not satisfy the minimum demands of Palestinians, therefore making the resolution of conflict impossible. | |
Comment: It comes as no surprise this controversial figure would throw a monkey wrench into the Palestinian statehood initiative. He is known for his violent stance against Israel and even has some dirty laundry of sexual harassments. He has even been attacked by Gazan civilians for inciting violence upon them. Makes one wonder who he really is working for?
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| Society's Child |
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CBS New York
2014-12-23 22:18:00
A Long Island woman claims she was treated like a criminal and pulled off of a flight just because she wanted to change seats. As CBS2's Jennifer McLogan reported exclusively, the in-flight fight turned into a three-day stay in jail for the woman. "They did handcuff me, there were three policemen that dragged me out of the plane," said Jean Mamakos. (And did they tell you what they were charging you with?) They said trespassing." Mamakos, 68, of Huntington, held up her jeans to show where they were ripped, she says as she was pulled down the aisle of the plane. She never made it to her ski trip in Alaska. Police in Seattle, where Mamakos and her ski club were changing planes, were called aboard the United aircraft to arrest her, McLogan reported. One of the passengers recorded the incident. Officer: "Do you want to come willingly or be arrested for trespass?" Mamakos: "Whatever you have to do." Officer: "OK." Mamakos said she resisted the arrest because she had paid thousands in airfare for the round trip flight, and claims unfriendly flight attendants overreacted when she tried to move to an empty row after the doors closed for take off. | |
Comment: It is absolutely ridiculous that the airline would kick her off the plane after she went back to her seat. She wasn't being a disturbance any more. It's almost as if she was being punished for not buying the seat upgrade. The fact that police then arrested and put her in jail for 3 days is unconscionable. She deserves every penny of the $5 million she's suing for.
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CBS Los Angelese
2014-12-23 22:01:00
Orange County is threatening substantial fines to one neighborhood over their extreme Christmas decorations. Twenty-one residents in Baudin Circle in Ladera Ranch say they received letters from the Orange County Public Works department, stating that their lights are safety hazards. Some homeowners at Baudin circle have taken pride in putting together an impressive Christmas lights show for ten years. "We had to take down any cords that ran across our sidewalk, as well as any of the roads," resident Jeff Stover said. The fines are said to be in the amount of $500 per day if the lights are not taken down by 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday. "This was, I think, our second notice today, and basically it says we have twenty-four hours to take (the lights) down, before we get fined five-hundred dollars a day," resident Cynthia Mellow said. "I texted my husband 'we need to take those lights down'." A spokesperson for OC Public Works says that a crew will visit Baudin Circle on Wednesday morning to make certain residents there are in compliance with the county. "We really understand," OC Public Works' Shannon Widor said. "People love to celebrate the holidays. We just ask that they take the proper step, and that would be obtaining a permit, because safety is the top priority." Residents say that they intend to comply, but will be applying for permits for next year. | |
Comment: This looks to be more about generating revenue than concerns about safety. Surely there would be a better way to deal with this, but unfortunately even local governments only know how to act through threats.
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Nate Raymond
Yahoo 2014-12-24 21:32:00
Comment: It's likely that Facebook has done much more than just read people's private messages. They are probably aggregating tons of data and then passing it off to the U.S. government. Facebook Inc must face a class action lawsuit accusing it of violating its users' privacy by scanning the content of messages they send to other users for advertising purposes, a U.S. judge has ruled. U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton in Oakland, California, on Tuesday dismissed some state-law claims against the social media company but largely denied Facebook's bid to dismiss the lawsuit. Facebook had argued that the alleged scanning of its users' messages was covered by an exception under the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act for interceptions by service providers occurring in the ordinary course of business. But Hamilton said Facebook had "not offered a sufficient explanation of how the challenged practice falls within the ordinary course of its business." Neither Facebook nor a lawyer for the plaintiffs responded to a request for comment Wednesday. | |
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Alastair Jamieson
NBC NBC News 2014-12-24 20:49:00
A white police officer shot a black teenager to death at a gas station in the city next door to Ferguson, Missouri, touching off clashes early Wednesday between demonstrators and law enforcement. The mayor said that video from the confrontation, in the city of Berkeley, appeared to show the teenager pointing a gun at the officer, and police said a handgun was recovered at the scene. Police said the officer feared for his life. "This was not the same as Ferguson," Mayor Theodore Hoskins said. He took pains to say that the shooting could not be compared to the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson or to the chokehold death of Eric Garner in New York. The mayor, who is black, pointed out that the Berkeley police department is majority-black. He promised a thorough investigation but said that the video showed it was not a police officer going off "half-cocked." "Everybody don't die the same," he told reporters. "Some people die because the policeman initiated. Some people die because they initiated it. And at this point, our review indicates that the police did not initiate this, like Ferguson." | |
Comment: Whether or not the shooting was justified it's going to add to the increasing high tensions between the public and police. It seems at this point all it's going to take is a match to ignite the powder keg that's building and escalate the violence on both sides.
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PressTV
2014-12-24 09:49:00
Palestinian activists have decorated a Christmas tree with leftover Israeli tear gas canisters and stun grenades in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem. The activists garnished the tree in Bethlehem's Manger Square on Tuesday in a symbolic move to show their anger at Tel Aviv's atrocities in the occupied territories, said Farid al-Atrash, the head of the independent commission for human rights in the south. The leftover tear gas canisters and stun grenades had been used by Israeli forces during clashes with Palestinians in the city. "The world has to move to save the Palestinian people and hold the occupation accountable for its crimes against unarmed people in Palestine," al-Atrash said. In a separate incident in the day, Israeli forces fired tear gas to disperse the Palestinian protesters dressed as Santa Claus in the city. The protesters were marching towards a checkpoint connecting the ancient city to East Jerusalem al-Quds Jerusalem. The Palestinian demonstrators carried signs reading, "Jesus came with a message of: Peace, Freedom and Justice" and "We want Christmas without occupation." Tensions have been running high for over a month in the West Bank and East al-Quds over the desecration of al-Aqsa Mosque by Israeli troops and the recent killing of a Palestinian minister in the occupied West Bank. | |
Comment: 'Jesus' was Julius Caesar (Divus Iulius). His 'teachings' have been subverted to create the political and religious narratives for the illegal occupation of Palestine.
The Gospel of Caesar: Documentary reveals true origins of the 'Passion of Christ' 'As important as the scientific discoveries of Darwin and Galileo': Linguist Francesco Carotta proves real identity of 'Jesus Christ' to be Julius Caesar Ancient confession found: 'We invented Jesus Christ' SOTT Talk Radio - Who was Jesus? | |
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Jim Suhr
Yahoo 2014-12-24 20:16:00
A suburban St. Louis police officer shot and killed a man who pointed a gun at him at a gas station, police said. The shooting happened around 11:15 p.m. Tuesday at a convenience store in Berkeley, Missouri, just a few miles from Ferguson, where Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old, was killed by a white officer in August. St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar says the Berkeley shooting victim was black and the officer white. Police were called to the gas station about a theft and as the officer questioned two men, one pointed a gun at him. The officer fired three shots. One hit the gunman. Violent protests broke out early Wednesday between police officers and a vocal crowd of several hundred people who taunted the officers at the scene of the shooting. Two officers were injured, police cars were damaged and fire was set at a QuikTrip store. Four people were arrested. After the police officer arrived at the store, one of the men pulled a handgun and pointed it at the officer, St. Louis County police spokesman Sgt. Brian Schellman said. The officer fired several shots, fatally wounding the man. The second man fled, and the dead man's handgun has been recovered, according to Schellman. | |
Comment: Another case of the police excusing the actions of one of its own who murdered a young black man. The police know they can always fall back on the "he-said, she-said" dynamic of what happened, since the majority of the public will believe what the police say happened. Unfortunately, their version of the truth is often at odds with objective reality. If people start paying attention, they will no longer trust what comes out of the mouths of police captains and chiefs. They will do and say whatever they can to protect their officers, even at the expense of justice. Such is the state of the American Police State.
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Jamie Schram and Christina Monello
New York Post 2014-12-23 19:41:00
A man suffering from Ebola-like symptoms was rushed from an Upper West Side apartment building to Bellevue Hospital on Tuesday - but officials determined that he did not have the disease, authorities said. The patient recently returned from Liberia and started suffering symptoms such as high fever Saturday night, sources said. Hazmat, police officers, EMS and fire officials helped transport the man from the building at 201 W. 70th St. near Amsterdam Avenue just before noon, FDNY said. The patient was given a blood test at Bellevue and it showed negative for Ebola. He was given an alternative diagnosis and is currently in critical condition. Additional reporting by Aaron Feis. | |
Comment: Interesting this was allowed to get out, considering the almost non-existent reportage on ebola in the last few months. It's probably because the determination was that he did not have the disease. Everybody relax now! However, the possibility of misdiagnosis is high. Ebola can mutate like any other virus, rendering current tests ineffective.
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Barry
DREscapes.com 2014-12-24 18:36:00
If the social and financial structure around you collapsed tomorrow, as it did for many people during the fall of the Soviet Union, are you prepared to survive and even prosper? In my latest interview with best selling author Dmitry Orlov we discuss lifestyle and how your lifestyle decisions may dramatically impact how your family will fare if times get tough. Dmitry left Russia with his family in 1976 and settled in the Boston area to pursue an education in computer science and linguistics. Along the way Dmitry realized he was trapped in the traditional American pursuit of a career. He was working day and night to make money to pay for the car and city condo and all the trappings of success. He needed the car and condo and all the trappings of business to keep making money. The same vicious cycle most Americans face every day. Well Dmitry gave it all up for a life on a sailboat full of travel and freedom. | |
Comment: For more, listen to SOTT Talk Radio #66 - Lessons from collapse of USSR for USA: Interview with Dmitry Orlov
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RT
2014-12-24 18:31:00
Just as it seems the question of police brutality largely involves white cops attacking unarmed racial minorities, it emerges that African-American police officers face a whole range of injustices from within the force. An overwhelming majority of injustices perpetrated by one police officer against another involved black cops being mistaken for criminals by their white colleagues. But the statistic only emerged in a task force report in 2010, when the first comprehensive study of the problem was carried out, Reuters reports. The fresh disclosure to the news agency of a slew of accusations and complaints of racial profiling filed by black officers comes at a difficult time for America, which is already preoccupied with allegations of police brutality - largely white-on-black. The current tension in race relations in American society has even escalated to a black gunman murdering NYPD cops in retaliation amid nationwide protests over the question of police using disproportionate violence against unarmed black men.
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Comment: The attitude displayed by white cops towards minorities is a reflection of US society as a whole. We've been induced to be more discreet about our racial prejudices, but it's still as deeply rooted as ever. By keeping different segments of society at odds with each other, the elites have an easy time of keeping control. They understand clearly, if the common people unite against their real enemy, the psychopaths, the game is up.
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Robert Parry
Consortium News 2014-12-22 00:00:00
Exclusive: American pundits are often more interested in scoring points against their partisan rivals than in the pain that U.S. policies inflict on people in faraway lands, as columnists Paul Krugman and Thomas L. Friedman are showing regarding Russia and Ukraine, writes Robert Parry. Among honest and knowledgeable people, there really isn't much doubt about what happened in Ukraine last winter. There was a U.S.-backed coup which ousted a constitutionally elected president and replaced him with a regime more in line with U.S. interests. Even some smart people who agree with the policy of going on the offensive against Russia recognize this reality. For instance, George Friedman, the founder of the global intelligence firm Stratfor, was quoted in an interview with the Russian liberal business publication Kommersant as saying what happened on Feb. 22 in Kiev - the overthrow of President Viktor Yanukovych - "really was the most blatant coup in history." Brushing aside the righteous indignation and self-serving propaganda, Stratfor's Friedman recognized that both Russia and the United States were operating in what they perceived to be their own interests. "The bottom line is that the strategic interests of the United States are to prevent Russia from becoming a hegemon," he said. "And the strategic interests of Russia are not to allow the U.S. close to its borders." Another relative voice of reason, at least on this topic, has been former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger who - in an interview with Der Spiegel - dismissed Official Washington's conventional wisdom that Russian President Vladimir Putin provoked the crisis and then annexed Crimea as part of some diabolical scheme to reclaim territory lost when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. | |
Comment: If Parry's analysis is correct, and it appears that it is, then we may take it as granted that the level of character, intelligence and integrity of the mentioned journalists is far lower than we might have expected from some of the U.S.'s most respected liberal-leaning thinkers. Sadly, their propagandizing has and will have it's own special deleterious effect on the unsuspecting numbers of individuals with progressive leanings who read them.
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Benjamin Fearnow
CBS Cleveland 2014-12-22 16:04:00
A man indicted on arson and burglary charges allegedly set fire to a woman's home after she rejected his advances on Facebook. Frankfort police say the "disturbing" reason that James Graham, 37, broke into a 22-year-old single mother's Franklin County home and set it on fire on Nov. 28 is because she "rebuffed" several uncomfortable comments he posted to her Facebook wall, WLEX-TV reports. Investigators say Graham set Joanie Yount's Hillview Drive home on fire in November, although she and her 3-year-old son were not home at the time. "You can actually see from my window standing up on the couch, you could actually see inside there and you couldn't see no flames, all you could see was smoke," Samantha Beagle, Joanie's neighbor and sister, told WLEX. Beagle said there was no relationship between her sister and Graham and that Yount is a busy single mother who "just wants people to leave her alone." Yount says she and Graham were only acquaintances but he was demanding something more and pursuing her through social media. | |
Comment: This incident should be a reminder to everyone to be careful who to allow into their life, especially via social media.
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David Edwards
Raw Story 2014-12-18 15:50:00
A Kansas mother has been charged with the chilling death of her 10-year-old son, who she allegedly stabbed to death while he was sleeping because she thought he would be better off in heaven. In a Sunday night 911 call to Wellington police, 33-year-old Lindsey Nicole Blansett explained to dispatchers that she had just killed her son. "Hi, this is Nicole Blansett. I just stabbed my son," she told 911 the operator, adding that she had stabbed him "in the chest, several times." "God what did I (expletive) do?" Blansett said. "I'm never going to get out of jail, never... I'm going to have to live with that. Oh God, why, why? Because I thought I was saving him from the pain that was coming." According to a criminal complaint filed by Sumner County Attorney Kerwin Spencer, Blansett "decided his life would be full of suffering and pain and that it would be better for him to go to heaven tonight." "She took a knife and rock into his bedroom, struck him with the rock and stabbed him with the knife multiple times until he was dead," the complaint noted. When officers arrived at the residence, Blansett's 10-year-old son, Caleb, was already dead. A 9-year-old girl who was in the home was not harmed. | |
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Press TV
2014-12-24 12:38:00
A Syrian opposition group says the ISIL Takfiri militants have shot down a US-led coalition warplane over northern Syria. The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Wednesday that ISIL militants also "took a [non-Syrian] Arab pilot prisoner after shooting his plane down with an anti-aircraft missile near Raqqa city." The ISIL also released photographs purportedly showing a captured Jordanian pilot on its websites. Jordanian officials have not made any comment on the incident. Comment: Jordan has just confirmed that one of their pilots was captured by ISIS. Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain are among a number of countries that have joined the so-called US-led alliance carrying out airstrikes against ISIL in Syria and Iraq. This comes as most of these countries have been supporting Al-Qaeda-linked militant groups fighting the Syrian government. If confirmed, this would be the first coalition warplane shot down since the airstrikes started in September. | |
Comment: Will the incident be used to further the U.S. invasion of Syria?
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Flint Taylor
Truthout 2014-12-19 13:41:00
The preordained failure of biased local prosecutors to obtain indictments against Darren Wilson and Daniel Pantaleo should not surprise us. But the outrage that followed has brought widespread attention to the nationwide problem of systemic and racist police violence and highlighted the movement that has come together to battle against it. The Ferguson grand jury's decision not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson for the killing of African-American teenager Michael Brown, followed by an equally unfair result in New York City in the Eric Garner case, were equally heartless. But it is important to place these cases in context with the history of police violence investigations and prosecutions in high profile cases - and the systemic and racist police brutality that continues to plague the nation. In doing so, there are lessons for the movement for justice in the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases as well as for those who are engaged in the broader struggle against law enforcement violence. What follows, then, is a brief history of similar high profile cases where public outrage compelled the justice system to confront acts of racially motivated police violence - with, to say the least, less than satisfactory results. Chicago Over the past 45 years, Chicago has been a prime example of official indifference and cover-up when it comes to prosecuting the police for wanton brutality and torture. On December 4, 1969, Black Panther leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark were slain in a police raid that implicated the Cook County State's Attorney and the FBI's Cointelpro program. A public outcry led to a Federal Civil Rights investigation. Despite finding that the raiding police fired more than 90 shots to one by the Panthers, the Grand Jury in 1970 did not indict, but rather issued a report that equally blamed the police perpetrators and the Panther victims. | |
Comment: The road to tyranny is paved by those who allowed it to happen.
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David Edwards
Rawstory 2014-12-22 09:13:00
A man in Canada has been placed under arrest for allegedly beating a 6-year-old girl, and then leaving her naked to die in the snow. According to Global News, emergency services responded on Saturday at 4 p.m. to the Paul Band First Nation, a group of Aboriginal peoples in Alberta. A spokesperson for the Shock Trauma Air Rescue Service (STARS) said that first responders found a 6-year-old girl suffering from "traumatic injuries related to blunt trauma." She was taken to a hospital in Edmonton, where she was described in critical condition on Sunday. Family members told Global News that the girl returned home from skating with friends, and then left the home with a relative. Family and friends assumed at the time that the girl had gone back to the skating rink. But the 6 year old was later found lying in the snow, naked and unconscious. The family said that she was left for dead in the woods. "The way he beat her, put her in a coma, and raped her. That shouldn't happen to little children," one family member explained to Global News. "This person that did that has got to be some kind of an animal, to not even think that he's harming another human being." The girl was beaten so badly that she could not be recognized, a family member recalled. "It's so heartbreaking," another relative lamented. "I can't imagine... I mean, she's just a little girl. And he's a full grown man." Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) arrested a man, and an investigation was ongoing. The RCMP said that it was not releasing the suspect's name to protect the identity of the victim. | |
Comment: Who does that? A sadistic psychopathic pedophile. Protect your children by educating yourselves on pedophiles, how they think and where these knuckle-dragging degenerates find their victims.
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| Secret History |
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Live Science
2014-12-18 14:45:00
Volcanoes punched through a remote part of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet twice in the last 50,000 years, according to research presented Monday (Dec. 15) here at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union. Distinctive layers of brown ash in a deep ice core are evidence of violent volcanic explosions that occurred about 22,470 and 45,381 years ago, near the West Antarctic divide. Their source, however, is a mystery. The closest active volcanoes that rise above the ice are more than 185 miles (300 kilometers) away, said study leader Nels Iverson, a volcanologist and graduate student at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro. Powerful eruptions from these peaks have dusted the West Antarctica divide with ash, leaving glassy shards embedded in younger layers of the ice core. However, the ash particles described here Monday are too blocky and coarse to travel long distances, even on Antarctica's fierce winds. The ash is also chemically different from eruptions at the distant volcanoes. And to draw the circle in tighter, neither ash layer appears in an ice core drilled about 60 miles (100 km) to the southeast. | |
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Tia Ghose
Live Science 2014-12-24 09:01:00
An earthquake nearly 3,000 years ago may be the culprit in the mysterious disappearance of one of China's ancient civilizations, new research suggests. The massive temblor may have caused catastrophic landslides, damming up the Sanxingdui culture's main water source and diverting it to a new location. That, in turn, may have spurred the ancient Chinese culture to move closer to the new river flow, study co-author Niannian Fan, a river sciences researcher at Tsinghua University in Chengdu, China, said Dec. 18 at the 47th annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. | |
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| Science & Technology |
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Helen Thompson
The Daily Beast 2014-12-21 14:34:00
When it's not the holiday posterplant, mistletoe spends its days sucking the life out of trees worldwide. Mistletoe is basically a vampire - but one of those an anti-hero type vampires. Yes, I was surprised to learn that the same forest shrub that we love to smooch under every December is a parasite that spends its days sucking the "lifeforce" from trees round the globe. Out of roughly 1,400 species of mistletoe, most are hemiparasites, meaning they depend on host trees for minerals and water but still harvest energy from the sun in their leaves. Many view the plants as a pest, but that's starting to change. "Even though they can be really hard on a tree, they can also be really important to wildlife," saysDavid Shaw, a forest health specialist at Oregon State University. While stealing hard-earned resources from trees, the bushy brooms that mistletoe creates provide food and shelter to birds, bugs, and a few mammals. Recent research suggests this mix of thieving and generosity - they could be essential to the health and prosperity of an ecosystem. | |
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Ian Sample
The Guardian 2014-12-24 21:41:00
Early-stage sex cells research in Cambridge has potential to help people with fertility problems Scientists have made primitive forms of artificial sperm and eggs in a medical feat that could transform the understanding of age-related diseases and fertility problems. Researchers in Cambridge made the early-stage sex cells by culturing human embryonic stem cells under carefully-controlled conditions for a week. They followed the success by showing that the same procedure can convert adult skin tissue into precursors for sperm and eggs, raising the prospect of making sex cells that are genetically matched to patients. The cells should have the potential to grow into mature sperm and eggs, though this has never been done in the lab before. The next step for the researchers will be to inject the cells into mouse ovaries or testes to see if they fully develop in the animals. British law prohibits fertility clinics in the UK from using artificial sperm and eggs to treat infertile couples. But if the law was revised, skin cells could potentially be taken from patients and turned into genetically identical sperm or eggs for use in IVF therapies. Skin cells from a woman could only be used to make eggs because they lack the Y chromosome. Those from a male might theoretically be turned into eggs as well as sperm, but Azim Surani, who led the work at the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge, said that on the basis of current knowledge, that was unlikely. | |
Comment: Many of our scientific advances are focusing on increasing our lifespan and ability to procreate. But what affect does this have on the environment around us, where nature helps to control and stabilize the delicate ecosystems?
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oldbrew
Tallbloke's Talkshop 2014-12-24 19:30:00
This Atlantipedia report (reproduced below) from 2010 concerns research by English-born George Dodwell, who held the post of Government Astronomer for South Australia for 43 years (1909 - 1952) until his retirement. He came across a study by a Professor Drayson who cited ancient astronomical observations and put forward a revision to standard Earth precession theory which Dodwell found 'untenable', but he became interested in the data. Dodwell: 'it seemed to me worthwhile to trace out more clearly just how much, and why, the ancient and mediaeval observations of the obliquity of the ecliptic, on which Professor Drayson based his conclusions, differed from Newcomb's internationally accepted formula for the secular, or age-long, variation of the obliquity. These observations went back to values given by Strabo, Proclus, Ptolemy, and Pappus in the early centuries of the Christian era. They indicated a consistent and increasing divergence in past ages from the values calculated by means of Newcomb's formula.' [bold added] | |
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Peter Shadbolt
CNN 2014-12-23 17:47:00
Editor's note: Tomorrow Transformed explores innovative approaches and opportunities available in business and society through technology. Bold claims for new battery technology have been around since the invention of the lead-acid battery more than 150 years ago. But researchers at Manchester University in the UK say their latest discovery involving the new wonder material graphene could be the most revolutionary advance in battery technology yet. According to a study published in the journal Nature, graphene membranes could be used to sieve hydrogen gas from the atmosphere -- a development that could pave the way for electric generators powered by air. "It looks extremely simple and equally promising," said Dr Sheng Hu, a post-doctoral researcher in the project. "Because graphene can be produced these days in square metre sheets, we hope that it will find its way to commercial fuel cells sooner rather than later." | |
Comment: Although graphene is being touted with all these technological wonders, it is not so clear what the side effects of graphene oxide (when graphene is exposed to air) is to the environment and people.
Miracle material graphene can pose danger to the environment | |
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| Earth Changes |
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Space Weather
A possible outbreak of polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) is underway around the Arctic Circle. Unlike normal grey-white clouds, which hug Earth's surface at altitudes of only 5 to 10 km, PSCs float through the stratosphere (25 km) and they are fantastically colorful. Ivar Marthinusen sends this picture of the phenonenon from Skedsmokorset, Norway:2014-12-23 20:52:00
"Right after sunset on Dec. 22nd, the clouds were so bright they were uncomfortable to look at directly," says Marthinusen. Also known as "nacreous" or "mother of pearl" clouds, these icy structures form in the lower stratosphere when temperatures drop to around minus 85ºC. Sunlight shining through tiny ice particles ~10µm across produce the characteristic bright iridescent colors by diffraction and interference. Once thought to be mere curiosities, some PSCs are now known to be associated with the destruction of ozone. "Nacreous clouds far outshine and have much more vivid colours than ordinary iridescent clouds, which are very much poor relations and seen frequently all over the world," writes atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley. "Once seen they are never forgotten." | |
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BBC
2014-12-17 20:17:00
A "massive" sinkhole has appeared in the front garden of a house in Berkshire. The 10m (32ft) wide and 5m (16ft) deep crater formed outside the family home of Sarah Jenkins, in Upper Basildon, near Reading. Ms Jenkins said: "It's massive and it's getting bigger all the time." Consultant engineer Dr Clive Edmonds described it as "one of the larger of the hole sizes to appear". The hole first appeared on 5 December but is continuing to grow. Ms Jenkins added: "The only access to our property has been across our neighbour's garden. "It's taken out quite a bit of the driveway and garden and it's sitting underneath my children's climbing frame, so it's very serious. "It's dangerous. Living with this is absolutely dreadful." | |
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maravipost.com
2014-12-24 20:05:00
A hippopotamus attacked and killed a womanin the Vwaza WildlifeReserve early Tuesday morning where she had gone to fish in Lake Kazuni. Rumphi Police and Vwaza Wildlife Reserve official confirmed the incident in separate interviews and identified the deceased as Dorica Banda, 36, from Chauluntha Village in the area of Traditional Authority Mpherembe in Mzimba District. Rumphi Police Spokesperson Victor Khamisi said the deceased was among a group of poachers who had gone into the protected area to fish. "While they were casting their nets, a hippopotamus suddenly emerged and charged at them before it went for Banda, who was at the time in the water, and attacked her. "When she shouted for help, the rest of the group ran away, leaving her at the mercy of the beast," Khamisi said. | |
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A rare winter robin has been spotted in Bethel and it has folks wondering what exactly it means. Locals and a biologist say they think it has to do with climate change. Bethel resident Myron Angstman spotted and videotaped a robin outside his window on Wednesday(12/17). He says that's not the only unusual thing he saw. Angstman says his wife looked out through the kitchen window and saw a red squirrel hanging out with the robin. "And the red squirrel bounded into the feeder and chased the robin out and the robin came and landed in a tree by the kitchen window. So then we got a good look at it and we got some pictures," said Angstman. Angstman says the robin was eating bird seed because the bugs it would normally feed on are nowhere to be found in the winter. He adds that in his 40-years of living in Bethel, he's never seen a robin in the middle of December. "It's always really spring before they get here. They don't show up in the end of winter at all. It's usually May sometime, usually late May I think, but it's usually pretty warm out when you see your first robin," said Angstman. | |
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The Daily Star (Bangladesh)
2014-12-24 17:44:00
Twelve critically endangered Himalayan Griffon vultures have been rescued after they fell on the ground in several areas of Panchagarh. Officials of Rajshahi and Dinajpur forest departments and Panchagarh district administration rescued the rare vulture species from Mirgarh, Malipara, Station Road, bus terminal areas of the district. Tapan Kumar Dey, conservator (Wildlife) of the forest department, said the vultures had flown from Nepal, Bhutan and Himachal of India. | |
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Al-Zaquan Amer Hamzah
Reuters 2014-12-24 05:48:00
Nearly 60 foreign tourists are among almost 100 people stranded at a resort in a Malaysian national park lashed by its heaviest rainfall in more than four decades, staff said on Wednesday, and authorities are sending boats and a helicopter to rescue them. About 84 guests, including travelers from Canada, Britain, Australia and Romania, and 10 staff members at the Mutiara Taman Negara Resort, in the East Coast state of Pahang, were marooned after riverbanks overflowed, a resort official told Reuters. The local fire and rescue department was sending boats and looking for a safe spot for a helicopter to land, he said. | |
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The Telegraph, UK
2014-12-24 17:11:00
Critically-endangered Kemp's ridley turtles were found in Cumbria and Merseyside, 5,000 miles from their home Two rare sea turtles have washed ashore on beaches in the North West, some 5,000 miles from their home in the Gulf of Mexico. The critically-endangered Kemp's ridley turtles were found in Cumbria and Merseyside, and it is feared that more could yet appear. Rod Penrose, a Marine mammal expert, said that they could have been "cold-stunned" by a drop in ocean temperatures in the US, which would leave them unable to feed or swim against strong currents. Rob Archer, who was walking with his girlfriend on Saturday when he found one of the turtles on Sefton Beach, near Formby, told the Liverpool Echo: "At first I thought it was a crab. "It seemed in a stupor as if there wasn't much life left in it. | |
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Sean Breslin
Weather.com 2014-12-24 08:25:00
Severe weather swept across the South Tuesday, spawning at least five reported tornadoes that killed at least four people, injured at least 50 others and destroyed homes. Mississippi was particularly hard hit. All four reported deaths took place in the state - two in Marion County and two in Jones County. "If Tuesday's storm deaths prove to all have been caused by tornadoes, it will become the deadliest December tornado event in Mississippi since 38 died in the Vicksburg tornado of Dec. 5, 1953," said Nick Wiltgen, weather.com senior meteorologist. In all, NOAA's Storm Prediction Center relayed a total of 69 storm reports across the Deep South on Tuesday. Most of those were wind damage reports, but there were 14 tornado reports as well. Keep in mind that those are just reports, not confirmed tornadoes, and the final tornado count is likely to be fewer than 14.
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant issued a state of emergency Tuesday for Marion and Jones counties, along with other parts of the state affected by severe weather. At around 2:30 p.m. local time, strong circulation with a debris signature was spotted on radar moving toward the town of Columbia, in Marion County. The reported tornado damaged businesses, flipped cars and toppled power lines onto U.S. 98, closing the road for several hours. Two people were killed, one in a trailer park, the other in a strip mall, the Associated Press reports. Another two people were dead in the aftermath of severe weather in Jones County, according to Jones County Emergency Management Agency. Jones County Sheriff Alex Hodge said the two were killed when a mobile home was destroyed, WAFB-TV said. | ||
Comment: For easy to understand science on the electric universe and the crazy weather we are having here on the planet, read Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection.
You can also listen to the SOTT editors interview the authors below: SOTT Talk Radio show #70: Earth changes in an electric universe: Is climate change really man-made? | ||
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HawaiiNewsNow
2014-12-24 05:50:00
The summit areas of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii have been placed under a Blizzard Watch from Tuesday morning through Wednesday afternoon. The National Weather Service in Honolulu said low pressure developing near the islands could spread a band of deep moisture and layered clouds over the Big Island. If that happens, heavy snow and blizzard conditions are possible at summit areas about 12,000 feet. A Blizzard Watch means there is a potential for falling and/or blowing snow with strong wind and extremely poor visibility, leading to whiteout conditions that will make travel very dangerous. | |
Comment: Are the global warming folks ready to give it up yet?
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Kiran Moodley
Independent, UK 2014-12-23 03:00:00
Tourists have been flocking to a section of China's Yellow River in far greater numbers recently as part of the Hukou Waterfall has frozen over in the incredibly cold weather. With temperatures dropping to as low as -12° Celsius, part of China's second-largest waterfall has become a wall of ice, making it seem like someone has emptied the contents of a fire extinguisher over the entire scene. The Hukou Waterfall is situated where the provinces of Shanxi and Shaanxi meet and it is roughly 66-ft high. Located on China's Yellow River - the third-longest on the continent - the waterfall is hugely popular among tourists and the recent cold snap in the area has not deterred many visitors now keen to see the natural phenomenon in its new guise as an ice palace. One tourist told reporters, "Ice is everywhere. Icicles on the waterfall; everywhere. I did not know the Yellow River could be frozen so it's surprising. I came here specifically for the stunning view of the Yellow River." While some may be in a hurry to see "Hukou on ice", temperatures in the far west of China may drop even further. Two years ago, the mercury fell to -40° Celsius, so the waterfall could freeze over entirely by the onset of Spring. | |
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| Fire in the Sky |
No new articles.
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| Health & Wellness |
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Dr. Thierry Vrain
Wake-up World 2014-12-24 21:10:00
It is high time to change the debate from the safety of engineering food to the pesticides that are inside the food. The technology is essentially about spraying a weed killer on the crops and the herbicide RoundUp is an integral part of the technology - the engineered crops are called RoundUp Ready. Farmers everywhere have been assured complete safety, higher yields and savings of herbicide. When these promises don't quite pan out, the farmers don't have much of an opportunity to do something different. It turns out the technology has been incredibly successful, so much so that there is not much of a market for non-engineered seeds now. Monsanto has a monopoly and has cornered the seed supply of much of the planet. Since all engineered foods come from crops sprayed with RoundUp, they all contain residues of RoundUp. And it turns out other crops are also sprayed with this herbicide, but much later, just before harvest, because it kills the plants and they are dried fast to make harvesting easier for the farmers. This is commonly done with sugar cane, beans, grains, potatoes and many other crops. I usually say in my lectures that if you want to avoid any residue of RoundUp herbicide in your food, go organic. That is the only choice. A bit of history to show why RoundUp should be avoided... | |
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April McCarthy
PreventDisease.com 2014-12-24 18:59:00
Speciesism: The Movie is an award-winning and controversial new documentary that takes viewers on a sometimes funny, sometimes frightening adventure across North America, exposing the biggest secrets about modern factory farms, and asking the biggest philosophical questions about the belief that our species is more important than the rest. You'll never look at animals the same way again. Especially humans.
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James Beattie
Western Journalism 2014-12-23 18:18:00
Investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson argued Sunday it was not an accident that there has been less coverage by the media of the Ebola crisis. She buttresses her point with a phone conversation she had with a representative from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The former CBS reporter told Fox News' Howard Kurtz that since the appointment of Ebola czar Ron Klain by President Obama, CDC Director Tom Frieden has been virtually absent from the public sphere. "Infectious disease experts remain very concerned about the disease," Attkisson said. | |
Comment: One could argue that the media is silent on Ebola in the US to prevent panic. Another argument could be made that through controlling the flow of information on this plague, the media, under the influence of government and Big Pharma, are holding on to information now only to release it later for their own benefit.
See also: Ebola outbreak rages on despite little media coverage | |
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Dr. Brownstein
Natural News 2014-12-23 12:07:00
Statins are the most profitable medications in the history of Big Pharma. They are promoted as the go-to medications to prevent/treat heart disease. A recent study found nearly 100% of men and 62% of women aged 66-75 should take a statin medication even if their cholesterol level is normal.[1] Listening to conventional cardiologists, the American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology and many other mainstream groups would have you believe that statins should be placed in the water supply. If statins significantly lowered the risk of heart disease -- they don't -- and if statins were not associated with adverse effects -- they are -- then I could entertain a discussion on the widespread use of statins. However, statins are associated with a wide range of serious adverse drug reactions which should cause any health care provider to think twice or at least to use caution when prescribing this class of medication. | |
Comment: For more on the numerous dangers of statin drugs see:
Statin Drugs Linked to Arthritis, Heart Trouble and Over 300 Adverse Health Effects Big Pharma Lies About Statin Drugs Finally Exposed in British Medical Journal Getting Off Statin Drug Stories | |
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David Ferguson
Raw Story 2014-12-19 02:27:00
A couple in Calgary, Canada are facing charges after their 14-month old son died from a treatable infection in November, 2013. Prosecutors say that the child's death was preventable and that has body had been severely weakened by the family's strict, vegan diet. According to CTV News Calgary, at the time of his death, toddler John Clark had never seen a doctor in his life nor received any form of pre- or post-natal care. The boy was born at home and perished of a staph infection two months after his only birthday. Parents Jeromie Clark, 31, and Jennifer Clark, 34, are Seventh Day Adventists who practiced a strict vegan diet and shunned traditional medical interventions in favor of prayer. John Clark was admitted Foothills Hospital in Calgary on November 28, 2013 when a family member urged the parents to seek medical attention for the child. The next day he was transferred to Alberta Children's Hospital where he died of a systemic staph infection complicated by malnutrition. Calgary Police Service Staff Sgt. Doug Andrus said, "We believe that the family followed a strict dietary regimen based on their beliefs" and conspired to conceal the baby's failing health from outsiders. | |
Comment: This is another sad story of people believing that a vegetarian or vegan diet high in carbohydrates is a healthy dietary choice. There is plenty of evidence showing that the opposite is true, that a diet high in fats and moderate protein along with low carbs is the optimal diet choice:
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Dr. Eldon Dahl
Nanotechnology is still in its early days, and whether it will be of value to resource-poor countries is still hotly debated. Critics argue that when millions of people in countries like India or those in Sub-Saharan Africa are dying because of a lack of access to even basic healthcare, investing in cutting-edge technologies is a ludicrous waste of money. And experts are concerned that the toxicity of nanoparticles to human health and the environment has not been studied extensively enough.Prevent Disease 2014-12-23 14:24:00
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Comment: As with GMOs, mad scientists in the nanotech field believe that they can get away with manipulating mother nature. They will soon learn who is boss. From Nanotechnology - the new threat to food:
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| Science of the Spirit |
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American Psychological Association
2014-12-23 21:59:00
Study helps explain why stress often leads to binge eating, relapses in drug addiction or gambling. Feeling stressed may prompt you to go to great lengths to satisfy an urge for a drink or sweets, but you're not likely to enjoy the indulgence any more than someone who is not stressed and has the same treat just for pleasure, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association. "Most of us have experienced stress that increases our craving for rewarding experiences, such as eating a tasty bar of chocolate, and it can make us invest considerable effort in obtaining the object of our desire, such as running to a convenience store in the middle of the night," said lead author Eva Pool, MS, a doctoral student at the University of Geneva. "But while stress increases our desire to indulge in rewards, it does not necessarily increase the enjoyment we experience." Stress prompted chocolate lovers in an experiment to exert three times as much effort to smell chocolate than unstressed chocolate lovers, but both groups reported about the same level of enjoyment when they got a whiff of the pleasing aroma, according to the study, published in APA'sJournal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition. | |
Comment: If stress leads to binge eating or relapses in drug addiction, then one way to prevent such incidents is to work on reducing the stress. And one of the most useful things one can do to off-set, ameliorate and even reverse the effects of anxiety and stress is to learn about and practice the techniques shared in Éiriú Eolas.
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breitbart.com
2014-12-24 23:02:00
New research suggests muscles respond to simple thoughts of exercise; simply imagining exercise can trick the muscles into delaying atrophy and even getting stronger. It's further proof that brain and body, which evolved together, are more intwined than separate. To demonstrate the power of the brain, researchers at Ohio University wrapped a single wrist of two sets of study participants in a cast - immobilizing their muscles for four weeks. One set was instructed to sit still and intensely imagine exercising for 11 minutes, five days a week. More than just casually daydream about going to the gym, participants were instructed to devote all of their mental energy towards imagining flexing their arm muscles. The other set of study participants weren't given any specific instructions. At the end of the four weeks, the mental-exercisers were two times stronger than the others. Researchers also used magnetic imaging to isolate the area of the brain responsible for the specific arm muscles. Participants that imagine exercise not only had stronger arms but also a stronger brain; their mental exercises created stronger neuromuscular pathways | |
Comment: This begs the question, what else is the brain capable of changing in the body?
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bdwilson1000
If obeying orders of the Christian god is the only criteria for determining right and wrong, it's hard to argue otherwise.YouTube 2011-07-12 00:09:00
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Maria Konnikova
The New Yorker 2014-12-24 20:32:00
Last year, Dimitris Xygalatas, the head of the experimental anthropology lab at the University of Connecticut, decided to conduct a curious experiment in Mauritius, during the annual Thaipusam festival, a celebration of the Hindu god Murugan. For the ten days prior to the festival, devotees abstain from meat and sex. As the festival begins, they can choose to show their devotion in the form of several communal rituals. One is fairly mild. It involves communal prayer and singing beside the temple devoted to Murugan, on the top of a mountain. The other, however - the Kavadi - is one of the more painful modern religious rituals still in practice. Participants must pierce multiple parts of their bodies with needles and skewers and attach hooks to their backs, with which they then drag a cart for more than four hours. After that, they climb the mountain where Murugan's temple is located. Immediately after each ritual was complete, the worshippers were asked if they would be willing to spend a few minutes answering some questions in a room near the temple. Xygalatas had them rate their experience, their attitude toward others, and their religiosity. Then he asked them a simple question: They would be paid two hundred rupees for their participation (about two days' wages for an unskilled worker); did they want to anonymously donate any of those earnings to the temple? His goal was to figure out if the pain of the Kavadi led to increased affinity for the temple. For centuries, societies have used pain as a way of creating deep bonds. There are religious rites, such as self-flagellation, solitary pilgrimages, and physical mutilation. There are the rites of passage into adulthood, like the Melanesian rite where boys "may be extensively burned, permanently scarred and mutilated, dehydrated, beaten, and have objects inserted in sensitive areas such as the nasal septum, the base of the spine, the tongue, and the penis." There are also the less intense initiation rituals of fraternity houses and military branches, of summer camps and medical residencies. Painful rites seem to be a way of engineering the kind of affinity that arises naturally among people who have suffered similar traumatic experiences. | |
Comment: There may be a point after all to the pain and suffering endured by the human race on a daily basis. Perhaps it exists to wake us up.
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Traci Pedersen
PsychCentral 2014-12-23 00:00:00
Service dogs can significantly reduce symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression in veterans, according to the preliminary findings of a Kaiser Permanente study. The dogs were also found to improve veterans' relationships and lower their substance abuse. Researcher Carla Green led the year-long "Pairing Assistance-Dogs with Soldiers" (PAWS) study and recently shared her findings with legislators at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. "The study is significant because no research has been conducted on how service dogs affect the mental health of veterans," Green said. Although benefits for veterans cover service dogs for physical disabilities, they are not available for help with mental health problems. | |
Comment: Anything the federal government can do to improve the lives of veterans should be undertaken and funded to the fullest extent possible. These soldiers have endured horrific treatment by the government and the VA, including excessive waiting for health care, inadequate treatment for PTSD, homelessness as a result of their inability to reincorporate into society and the destruction of their families.
Millions of U.S. veterans and soldiers suffering needlessly; suicides, mental illness, poverty Why Does The U.S. Government Treat Military Veterans Like Human Garbage? | |
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Lisa Suhay
The video of a monkey in India patiently and persistently working to revive a fellow monkey has gone viral. Check out this and other animal rescue stories. Christian Science Monitor 2014-12-22 00:00:00
Last week Pope Francis proclaimed that animals have souls and can go to heaven. Now, one monkey in Kanpur, India, has displayed the kind of compassion and heroics many humans might admire. Comment: Whether heaven exists or not, most mammals care for their offspring and behave like souled beings. They demonstrate more 'humanity' than many of us humans, that is for sure. This monkey - probably a Rhesus macaque, the most common urban dweller in India - worked frantically to revive another monkey that had passed out on the train tracks after getting a severe shock while cavorting on an electric wire above the station. Dozens of humans watched, took videos and snapped photos on Dec. 21, but none made a move to help as the doggedly determined little monkey shook, bit, slapped, and splashed water on the unconscious primate. When his companion was finally revived, the two huddled together in a safe space between the tracks. | |
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Susan Maury
The Conversation 2014-12-24 00:00:00
We're enjoying the one time of year when protests of "I can't sing!" are laid aside and we sing carols with others. For some this is a once-a-year special event; the rest of the year is left to the professionals to handle the singing (except, perhaps, some alone time in the shower or car). Music - and singing in particular, as the oldest and only ubiquitous form of music creation - plays a central role in our lives and shared community experiences, and this has been true for every culture for as far back as we can trace our human ancestors. So does singing in a group provide specific and tangible benefits, or is it merely a curious ability that provides entertainment through creative expression? | |
Comment: The numerous benefits of music should encourage everyone to incorporate music into their lives in as many ways as possible. Learning to play an instrument, joining a choir, or singing Karaoke with friends are great ways to begin. See also:
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ukraina.ru
Serhiy Kaplin, a member of the Petro Poroshenko bloc in the Verkhovna Rada, has recommended that Aresniy Yatsenyuk change his ride2014-12-22 19:14:00
The deputy was enraged by the fact that the Ukrainian prime minister changed the tires on his service Mercedes with government money at an obviously inflated rate. Meanwhile, the wealth of most Ukrainian citizens is vanishing every day. In some regions, people are even starving. "You should ride a donkey while the country is going through such a crisis," the parliament member told Yatsenyuk. The state paid over $10,400 for the snow tires. Kaplin claims Yatsenyuk is no better in his spending habits than the unpopular ex-prime minister Mykola Azarov. "Just recently, Yatsenyuk bought winter tires for his Mercedes that used to belong to Azarov. One tire cost $2,655. It is a cold shot for the entire country where regular people can't even afford to change their tires and have to use summer tires. And he did that on government money," Kaplin said on Ukrainian TV. The deputy believes all government officials must reduce their expenses during such difficult times, including government members, judges, prosecutors and their assistants. Also, the government should be more careful with its ministerial expenses. | |
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Melissa Melton
Truthstream Media 2014-12-17 12:55:00
No, seriously. Or maybe alternately, "Who in their right mind would eat at McDonalds ever again after visiting the company's website?!?!" See video above. They don't say, "Hi, how are you?" or try to dazzle you with the requisite "Here are all of our glorious food products you know and love" slideshows...or really anything remotely close. You don't even get the flat, emotionless "Hey..." you might expect to receive from one of the teenagers working the cash register after school. No, what you are confronted with when you currently visit the front page of the main U.S. version of the McDonalds website is something downright...frightening. |
