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Ennio Addams
Sott.net 2014-12-30 00:00:00
In recent months it's come to light that the U.S. government and allied Western powers have arrayed all of their economic, social, political, martial, and propagandizing forces against Russia and the leadership of its president, Vladimir Putin. Some of the policies, strategies and approaches towards destabilizing Russia are out in the open. Some less so. But this is where it gets most interesting. For while it was fairly easy to spot some of the aggression aimed at Russia from without, seeing it occur even more covertly from within is another story. Which brings us to some recent news. The western media is now carrying the story of a protest on the streets of Manezh Square in Moscowwhich occurred on Tuesday, December 30th. At the center of the rally was Alexei Navalny, self-proclaimed "anti-corruption" blogger and head of the largest opposition movement of the leadership of Vladimir Putin and his administration in Russia. Navalny was just convicted of defrauding a cosmetics company of about $440,000 and given a suspended sentence of 3 1/2 years. Relating to the same case, his brother, Oleg, will be sent to prison for the same period of time. In 2013, Alexei Navalny was also tried and convicted of embezzling over $500,000 from the state-owned timber company Kirovles, where Navalny worked as a volunteer in 2009.
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Adam Curtis
A five minute excerpt from Adam Curtis' soon-to-be-released documentary Bitter Lake that deals with politics and politicians in America, Britain, Russia, Saudi Arabia and, most of all, Afghanistan.2015-01-03 06:00:00
Curtis is British documentary film maker, best known for The Trap - What Happened to our Dream of Freedom and Century of the Self. | |
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| Puppet Masters |
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David Ferguson
Raw Story 2015-01-03 22:06:00
Outgoing Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R) took to social media late this week tocongratulate herself for bringing the price of gas down under two dollars per gallon. The erstwhile 2012 presidential contender posted a photo of herself standing under a gasoline station's pricing sign on Friday via the social medium Twitter. She captioned the image "$2 gas, anyone?" Bachmann was referring to a campaign promise from her failed run at the presidency in which shevowed to bring gas prices back down under two dollars per gallon. "Under President Bachmann you will see gasoline come down below $2 a gallon again," Bachmannsaid at a South Carolina rally in 2012. "That will happen." Now, gas prices have tumbled, which Bachmann is more than happy to take credit for, in spite of the fact that she lost her bid for the GOP nomination in 2012, let alone the presidency. | |
Comment: Wow, and these are the types of people we vote into office!
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Nafeez Ahmed
Middle East Eye 2015-01-01 16:32:00
A new report by the US Army War College's Strategic Studies Institute emphasises the need for "US security and military support" to its key allies in the Eastern Mediterranean, particularly Israel, over access to recent vast discoveries of regional oil and gas. The Army study, released earlier in December 2014, concludes that extensive US military involvement "may prove essential in managing possible future conflict" in case of "an eruption of natural resource conflict in the East Mediterranean," due to huge gas discoveries in recent years. Visible US engagement is also necessary to ward off the regional encroachment of "emerging powers and potential new peace brokers such as Russia - which already entertains a strong interest in East Mediterranean gas developments - and notably China." | |
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George Eliason
Global Research 2015-01-03 00:00:00
Over the last week, more publications, including Zero Hedge, have started reporting on a still developing nuclear problem at the largest nuclear plant in Europe. This news has been widely circulated in Eastern Europe over the last few weeks. The problem in Ukraine has been and remains verification: Ukrainian sources have not been forthcoming. When this first occurred I was contacted through a second party and told directly after the officially reported transformer incident that a radiation spike was observed in Crimea, which is 140km away from the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant. The spike was small against background radiation but noticeable on a geiger counter. I was also given hacked files of the emergency conversation that happened at the plant that day. They are included at the bottom of the article. The proximity to what is coming to light means they cannot be ignored. | |
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Dmitry Orlov
ClubOrlov 2014-12-30 17:37:00
Some people enjoy having the Big Picture laid out in front of them - the biggest possible - on what is happening in the world at large, and I am happy to oblige. The largest development of 2014 is, very broadly, this: the Anglo-imperialists are finally being forced out of Eurasia. How can we tell? Well, here is the Big Picture - the biggest I could find. I found it thanks to Nikolai Starikov and a recent article of his. Now, let's first define our terms. By Anglo-imperialists I mean the combination of Britain and the United States. The latter took over for the former as it failed, turning it into a protectorate. Now the latter is failing too, and there are no new up-and-coming Anglo-imperialists to take over for it. But throughout this process their common playbook had remained the same: pseudoliberal pseudocapitalism for the insiders and military domination and economic exploitation for everyone else. Much more specifically, their playbook always called for a certain strategem to be executed whenever their plans to dominate and exploit any given country finally fail. On their way out, they do what they can to compromise and weaken the entity they leave behind, by inflicting a permanently oozing and festering political wound. "Poison all the wells" is the last thing on their pre-departure checklist. | |
Comment: Yup, 2015 will be fascinating to watch as the world power players begin their moves in earnest on the grand chessboard. It seems like an all-or-nothing scenario.
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RT
2015-01-01 15:00:00
The Islamic State has released a guidebook for young mothers with "helpful tips" on how to raise a Mujahid Child, outlining techniques they believe will develop the body and jihadi spirit of the new generation of extremist fighters. Entitled Sister's Role in Jihad, the latest propaganda move by the extremist organization tries to convince their loyal followers that the "most important" role women can play in Jihad is to raise their kids "not only in spirit", but also to develop their physical ability and training. The key to success, IS argues lies in introducing these values in them while they are babies. "Don't wait until they are seven to start, for it may be too late by then!," the handbook that recently surfaced online states. | |
Comment: Trapped in the destructive games of the western and eastern psychopaths, the victims are these children.
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Konrad Stachnio
New Eastern Outlook 2015-01-02 14:03:00
The victims of the current political events in Baltic States will not be politicians or oligarchs, but the so-called ordinary people who, as usual, will pay the highest price for their political ignorance. They were always paying for it, usually by their own death, the death of the loved ones, political and economic repression, etc. Like everything in this world, the so-called 'peace of mind' has its own price, and it is usually paid by those people who just want to have the 'peace of mind'. Ukrainians have already paid and will pay a price for their 'ignorance'. But it will not stop on them only. The Baltic States are increasingly drawn into the scenario of war. Where the public opinion, day after day, is being prepared for a scenario chosen in advance by the US. And as my last interlocutor geopolitical analyst Mr Konrad Rękas said: As we know, the second war has started in Poland, it seems that someone in Washington probably had an idea that it would be good to start the third war from Poland as well.Propaganda that is used to carry out this purpose is similar to propaganda of Joachim Goebbels in Public Relations, a man who said that our propaganda should not comment on the facts already occurred, but create their own facts. So the opposition will be busy pulling down only those facts which are made up in advance. Take for instance never confirmed information about the Russian troops in Eastern Ukraine. The truth does not count, important is only who control the narrative - its amount and intensity. This operation repeated day after day of even the most idiotic narrative makes you start to get used to it. It is slowly become something acceptable, normal and finally something for what you're gonna fight as a useful idiot, as Kiev pawns bombing civilians in eastern Ukraine in the name of a few most rich guys on the planet like Poroshenko, $1.3 Billion according to Forbes. | |
Comment: See also: The Saker "End of Year" report and a look into what 2015 might bring
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Pepe Escobar
OpEdNews 2015-01-02 02:33:00
Fasten your seat belts; 2015 will be a whirlwind pitting China, Russia and Iran against what I have described as the Empire of Chaos. So yes -- it will be all about further moves towards the integration of Eurasia as the US is progressively squeezed out of Eurasia. We will see a complex geostrategic interplay progressively undermining the hegemony of the US dollar as a reserve currency and, most of all, the petrodollar. For all the immense challenges the Chinese face, all over Beijing it's easy to detect unmistakable signs of a self-assured, self-confident, fully emerged commercial superpower. President Xi Jinping and the current leadership will keep investing heavily in the urbanization drive and the fight against corruption, including at the highest levels of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Internationally, the Chinese will accelerate their overwhelming push for new "Silk Roads" -- both overland and maritime -- which will underpin the long-term Chinese master strategy of unifying Eurasia with trade and commerce. Global oil prices are bound to remain low. All bets are off on whether a nuclear deal will be reached by this summer between Iran and the P5+1. If sanctions (actually economic war) against Iran remain and continue to seriously hurt its economy, Tehran's reaction will be firm, and will include even more integration with Asia, not the West. Washington is well-aware that a comprehensive deal with Iran cannot be reached without Russia's help. That would be the Obama administration's sole -- and I repeat -- sole foreign policy success. A return to the "Bomb Iran" hysteria would only suit the proverbial usual (neo-con) suspects. Still, by no accident, both Iran and Russia are now subject to Western sanctions. No matter how it was engineered, the fact that stands is that the current financial/strategic oil price collapse is a direct attack against (who else?) Iran and Russia. | |
Comment: Yes, 2015 will be full of surprises!
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Andrew Griffin
The Indepedent 2015-01-02 01:22:00
A woman has alleged that she was repeatedly forced to have sexual relations with Prince Andrew as part of a lawsuit that claims an American investment banker passed her around rich and powerful friends as a "sex slave" while she was still underage. A Buckingham Palace spokesman has said the claims are "categorically untrue". The accusation was made in a lawsuit brought by women who say they were exploited by Jeffrey Epstein, an American multi-millionaire who was convicted of soliciting sex with an underage girl in 2008, reports the Guardian. The woman filed the case anonymously, and is understood to have been 17 at the time, which is considered a minor under Florida law. The prince is not a named party in the legal claim, and has not had any opportunity to respond to the allegations. He has previously denied any sexual contact with young women associated with Epstein or any knowledge of his behaviour. | |
Comment: If these elites were sane and rational, they could maintain their position of power for centuries to come. However, greed and amassing personal wealth is not enough; these human-looking creatures simply have to indulge every dark, destructive desire. When the people find out what has been and is really going on, the sadism that characterizes the psychopathic mindset will also be their undoing.
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Voice of America
2014-12-27 21:39:00 Comment: Read this report, then read it again, while keeping in mind that Radio Free Europe was at first an openly acknowledged CIA operation, until 1972 after which it fell under the purview of the Board for International Broadcasting. It is 'overseen' by the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the "independent" entity responsible for U.S.-government-related international broadcasting. (John Kerry happens to be on the board of directors.) Leopards don't change their spots.
Azerbaijan police raided the Baku bureau of U.S.-government-funded Radio Free Europe early Friday, shutting down the office and ordering its journalists to stop working. RFE chief editor Nenad Pejic called the raid "a flagrant violation of every international commitment and standard Azerbaijan has pledged to uphold." He told VOA that officials from the state prosecutor's office took documents and questioned staff members from Radio Azadliq into Friday evening. | |
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| Society's Child |
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Sputnik
2015-01-03 23:10:00
Israeli authorities are looking for Jewish settlers in the West Bank who have attacked US diplomats, an official from the US State Department has told Sputnik. "The Israeli authorities have communicated to us that they acknowledge the seriousness of the incident and are looking to apprehend and take appropriate action against those responsible," the official said Friday. According to the official, the American side has video evidence of the attack that it is willing to share with the Israeli law enforcement. | |
Comment: It's almost funny that these pitiful excuses for human beings just can't contain their over-the-top insanity. Not only are they callously inhuman enough to steal and live on other people's land, they systematically torture the people they have displaced, and then are stupid enough to attack US diplomats. But then, that idiom about biting the hand that feeds isn't in their bible.
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Stephanie Linning
Daily Mail, UK 2015-01-03 21:46:00
Eight people are missing after their cargo ship overturned in stormy seas. A major air and sea rescue operation has been mounted after the upturned hull of the vessel was spotted off the north coast of Scotland this afternoon. But hopes of finding any survivors are rapidly diminishing as weather conditions in the area continue to deteriorate as darkness falls. The upturned hull of the Cemfjord, a cargo ship registered in Cyprus, was spotted by a passing passenger ferry at 2.30pm today. It is understood that there were eight people onboard. The 83-metre ship, which was carrying cement from Denmark to Runcorn, Cheshire, is now drifting in freezing waters of the Pentland Firth - 15 miles north-east of Wick. A spokesperson for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said: 'We have discovered wreckage but, at present, there are no survivors in the immediate vicinity.' | |
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Yahoo! News
2015-01-01 00:00:00
A young entrepreneur from New York has some enemies in the airline industry. Aktarer Zaman has a website that helps people find cheap airline tickets, but now he's facing a lawsuit. | |
Comment: Sued cheap-flights site owner: 'It's not illegal'
Read this article for analysis on the lawsuit.
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RT
2015-01-01 00:00:00
For many people around the world, New Year was a time of celebration and joy, but for some it was quite the opposite. Stabbings, mortar shelling, massive fires and a fatal stampede all hit seasonal revels, causing havoc and heartbreak. Stampede 'over fake money' kills dozens At least 36 people were killed in China's Shanghai on New Year's Eve in a stampede, city authorities said. It was later reported that they rushed to pick up what turned out to be fake US money bills thrown from a building in Chen Yi Square in the city's Bund waterfront district. | |
Comment: Symbolic beginning to the year?
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Jackson Marciana
Counter Current 2015-01-02 11:17:00
Tasha Thomas, 26, the girlfriend of John Crawford was just confirmed as the victim of a fatal car crash, along with 30-year-old Frederick Bailey. Thomas was with Crawford at the Beavercreek Walmart near Thomas' home, when Beavercreek Police Officer Sean Williams shot and killed the African American father, even though he had not broken any law. The New Year's Day crash comes as police response to protests and "die ins" at the Beavercreek Walmart and Fairfield Commons Mall have drawn national scrutiny. Police say that Thomas' vehicle was traveling at nearly 100 miles per hour on a city street at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, when it crashed into a pole and overturned several times. There is no explanation for why Thomas and Bailey would have been driving at such uncanny speeds on downtown Dayton streets in the middle of the afternoon. | |
Comment: How convenient her death is for the Beavercreek police.
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Mattie Quinn
The Atlantic 2014-12-23 00:30:00
For Peg Hacskaylo and her team at the District Alliance for Safe Housing in Washington, D.C., the holiday season is an especially hectic time. Working to prevent domestic violence is already a trying profession, she says, but the shelter will "typically always see an uptick in activity right around New Year's Day." 2014 shone a glaring spotlight on violence against women, including the incident with NFL player Ray Rice, the contentious Rolling Stone article profiling an alleged, then retracted, campus gang rape at the University of Virginia, and the "No More" PSAs playing during high-profile television events. In the days after the footage of Ray Rice punching his then-fiancée emerged, calls to the National Domestic Violence Hotline jumped 84 percent, according to Katie Ray Jones, chief executive officer of the National Domestic Violence Hotline. | |
Comment: It is disheartening to acknowledge the suffering that many families experience during the holiday season, especially when it comes to domestic violence. The following article gives some jaw dropping information about the reality of domestic abuse in the U.S.A: Thirty jaw-dropping U.S. domestic violence statistics
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Hyacinth Mascarenhas
We have only ourselves to blame.Global Post 2015-01-01 11:13:00 British broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough once asked: "Are we happy to suppose that our grandchildren may never be able to see an elephant except in a picture book?" This year marked the 100th anniversary of the death of the last passenger pigeon, Martha, who managed to survive only 14 years in captivity after her species became extinct in the wild. More recently, Angalifu, a 44-year-old northern white rhinoceros, died at the San Diego Zoo, leaving just five other white rhinos worldwide, all in captivity. Chances are our grandchildren will never get to see this remarkable creature. In fact, the world is losing dozens of species every day in what experts are calling the sixth mass extinction in Earth's history. As many as 30 to 50 percent of all species are moving toward extinction by mid-century - and the blame sits squarely on our shoulders. "Habitat destruction, pollution or overfishing either kills off wild creatures and plants or leaves them badly weakened," said Derek Tittensor, a marine ecologist at the World Conservation Monitoring Centre in Cambridge. "The trouble is that in coming decades, the additional threat of worsening climate change will become more and more pronounced and could then kill off these survivors." About 190 nations met last month at the United Nations climate talks in Lima, Peru to discuss action needed to curb rising greenhouse gas emissions. It ended with a watered-down agreement that seems unlikely to help much in the battle against global warming. Corruption and illegal online trafficking also threaten conservation efforts. The illegal wildlife trade isan estimated $10-billion-a-year industry. It's the fifth largest contraband trade after narcotics, fueled by the rising demand for animals as pets, trophies, and ingredients in medicine, food and other products. There's no doubt that we're facing an uphill battle against mankind's unsustainable greed and consumption, but it's a battle we can't afford to lose. "The thought of having to explain to my children that there were once tigers - real, wild tigers, out there, in the great forests of the world - but that we let them die out, because we were busy - well, it was bad enough explaining about the Tooth Fairy, and that wasn't even my fault," said English comedian Simon Evans. Here are a few of the planet's most endangered animals who we may have to say good-bye to in 2015: 1) Amur leopard
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Comment: There is no doubt that the psychopathic, pathologically greedy nature of the world we live in is destroying this planet. That has created significant voids in our ecosystem and we humans have allowed it. These extinctions are about more than just humanity's effect on this planet.
Cyclic cataclysms have wiped out the Earth before. Human beings are likely to be the next species to become extinct.
SOTT Talk Radio show #70: Earth changes in an electric universe: Is climate change really man-made? | |
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| Secret History |
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April Holloway
Ancient Origins 2015-01-03 14:14:00
A Spanish-Italian archaeological team, in cooperation with the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, has made an incredible discovery in the necropolis of Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, on the West Bank at Thebes, Egypt - an enormous ancient reproduction of the mythical Tomb of Osiris as described by Egyptian legend, complete with multiple shafts and chambers. Inside the tomb complex, researchers found a carving of Osiris and a room with a wall relief depicting a demon holding knives. | |
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| Science & Technology |
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Chalmers University of Technology
ScienceDaily 2015-01-02 14:08:00
A 70 year old mystery in traffic research has been solved: an until now inexplicable jerkiness when we steer a vehicle. The discovery may lead to safety systems in cars that can correct dangerous steering movements before they occur. "With the driver model I have developed, it is possible to predict what drivers are going to do with the steering wheel before they do it. It is possible to predict how far the driver is going to turn the wheel, right when the person starts a wheel-turning movement. It's like looking into the future," says a researcher. | |
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Phys.org
2015-01-01 00:00:00
Cholera is caused when the bacterium Vibrio cholerae infects the small intestine. The disease is characterized by acute watery diarrhea resulting in severe dehydration. EPFL scientists have now demonstrated that V. cholerae uses a tiny spear to stab and kill neighboring bacteria - even of its own kind - and then steal their DNA. This mechanism, known as "horizontal gene transfer", allows the cholera bacterium to become more virulent by absorbing the traits of its prey. The study is published in Science. The lab of Melanie Blokesch at EPFL has uncovered how V. cholerae uses a predatory killing device to compete with surrounding bacteria and steal their DNA. This molecular killing device a spring-loaded spear that is constantly shooting out. This weapon is called the "type VI secretion system" (T6SS) and is known to exist in many types of bacteria. When V. cholerae comes close to other bacteria, the spear punches a hole into them, leaving them to die and release their genetic material, which the predator pulls into itself. | |
Comment: To use the hermetic maxim, 'As above, so below' - what about our societal environment. Do we have an inter-species predator amongst us?
Yes, we do - Psychopaths in power: The Parasite on the Human Super-organism. How much energy or information do they "absorb" from us? Well, as Andrew Lobaczewski, author of Political Ponerology states: For more information on how pathology is reflected on our societal level, read: Global Pathocracy, Authoritarian Followers and the Hope of the World | |
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| Earth Changes |
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arko.asia
2014-12-28 22:45:00
An elderly man attacked by rhino in Chitwan district has died on Saturday night. According to the District Police Office, Chitwan, Sadabahar Community Forest member Chaudhari was attacked by a rhinoceros while inspecting the forest. 64 year old Nathuram from Megauli-5 died while receiving treatment. He had suffered severe injuries on the leg, chest and head. | |
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news.com.au
2015-01-04 21:11:00
Strong winds are expected to fan South Australia's worst bushfire in 30 years with dozens of homes believed destroyed by the massive blaze. The out-of-control Sampson Flat fire in the Mount Lofty Ranges is feared to have destroyed dozens of homes and burnt out more than 11,000 hectares of scrub and farmland since Friday afternoon and no relief is in sight for Sunday. Although temperatures are forecast to be lower on Sunday, winds will keep fire crews and residents fighting desperately to save lives and property as South Australia faces the worst fire conditions since the 1983 Ash Wednesday disaster. | |
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Joe Knight
Leader Telegram 2015-01-03 20:57:00
Since early December, a rare visitor - a northern hawk owl - has been hanging out just south of Eau Claire, to the delight of local bird-watchers. "Usually, the crows will help you find it. There's four or five crows who like to harass it," said David Lund of rural Eleva, who has seen the bird several times in recent weeks. The owl is only about 14 inches tall and is unusual among owls because it is just as happy hunting in the daytime as at night, which also has made the bird popular with local birders. | |
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The Hindu
2015-01-03 20:34:00
A giant Blue Whale was found washed ashore on Valai island, one of the 21 islands in the Gulf of Mannar region. Wildlife Warden, Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park, Deepak Bilgi said the marine mammal was found dead near the shore of the island two days back and initial studies revealed that it had died long back. As the whale was found away from the shore, post-mortem could not be conducted immediately, he said, adding the whale was expected to hit the shore on Friday. A veterinary surgeon would be taken to the island, situated six km off Devipattinam near here, for conducting the post-mortem, he said. | |
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G1.com
2014-12-30 16:37:00
Four people in Brazil have been killed by a lightning strike on a beach crowded with holidaymakers, according to media reports. Four others were taken to hospital - two of them are said to be in a serious condition. | |
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Larry Pynn
The Vancouver Sun 2015-01-01 15:19:00
A juvenile golden eagle is making a rare appearance in the Boundary Bay area in South Delta. A golden eagle - a rare visitor to a region known for its bald eagles - had birders all aflutter on New Year's Day in south Delta. "I have been here a couple of days for this guy," said Vancouver's Michelle Lamberson, taking her place in a line of photographers along 72nd Street near Boundary Bay. "I've got some decent shots." The juvenile bird sat like an ornament atop a large poplar tree on the edge of a golf course about 75 metres from the roadside. Lamberson, who is director of flexible learning special projects at the University of B.C. and a birder for eight years, added: "I've not seen one in the Lower Mainland before. Bald eagles don't like them." Mark Wynja, a birder for more than 40 years who works in a bird-supply shop in Vancouver, said the golden eagle rules the roost along the Boundary Bay foreshore. He watched as the raptor flew into a stand of red alders and scattered four bald eagles from their perches, although they later returned. "He tends to be the dominant bird," he said. "He's tougher than a bald eagle, which is a glorified scavenger." | |
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East Anglian Daily Times
2015-01-02 14:47:00
An extremely rare bird is reported to have roosted in a Suffolk nature reserve. The lesser white fronted goose was reported to have crossed the North Sea on Tuesday night and taken up residence at RSPB Minsmere on the county's coastline. Publicity officer Ian Barthorpe said the bird was a rapidly declining species that usually winters in the Black Sea and is very rarely spotted in Britain. The goose is likely to be one of the most sought-after species for spotters taking part in tomorrow's winter wildlife walks at the reserve.
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Comment: Similar recent reports of birds completely losing their way across the Northern Hemisphere: Rare Eurasian kestrel appears in Nova Scotia, Canada
Another completely lost avian species: Couch's Kingbird flies from southern Texas to New York Warbler that should be wintering in western Mexico turns up in Louisiana Bean goose from Eurasia takes a wrong turn and winds up on the Oregon Coast Four lost flamingos fly NORTH for the winter and turn up in Siberia Wrong place, wrong time: European robin turns up thousands of miles away in China Rare bird from Mongolia turns up in Wakefield, UK Wrong time, wrong place: Rare bird found in Barrie, Canada | ||
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news.com.au
2015-01-03 23:21:00
An out-of-control fire has been raging in Victoria's west, threatening the lives of Moyston, Rocky Point and Willaura North residents, while emergency warnings have also been issued for fires in the Adelaide Hills and South East. Fire Services Commissioner Craig Lapsley confirmed one house had burnt down in Moyston. While crews have contained the bushfire and downgraded an emergency fire warning to a watch and act message, Mr Lapsley said crews would be fighting the blaze throughout the night. He said wind forecast overnight meant the fire could pose challenges for crews. Elsewhere, an uncontrolled bushfire at Humbug Scrub in South Australia's Mount Lofty Ranges is threatening lives. The serious bushfire is burning in scrub, the Country Fire Service says. | |
Comment: As southern and western parts of Australia are currently facing raging wildfires, eastern parts of the country experienced the worst storm in decades nearly a month ago, which was followed by destructive multiple thunderstorms.
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Steph Cockroft
Daily Mail, UK 2015-01-02 23:11:00
Four passengers were injured today after a plane was blown off the runway amid 80mph winds, as Britain braces itself for days of grey skies and heavy downpours. The twin-propeller Saab 340 was attempting to take off from Stornoway Airport on the Isle of Lewis just before 8.30am when strong gusts caused it to veer off the tarmac and nose-dive into the grass, sparking a major investigation. It came as a deep Atlantic depression whipped Machrihanish, Argyll, with 77mph winds, while gales of 71mph were detected in Edinburgh. | |
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| Fire in the Sky |
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LunarMeteoriteHunters Blogspot
2015-01-03 03:00:00
There are currently 5 known NEO Asteroids discovered that will pass within approximately 10LD or less, LD stands for "Lunar Distance", in the month of January; expect that 10 or more NEOs will be discovered before month end. Be ready for some bolide, fireball, and meteor activity! Unfortunately we will be Moonblind for ground-based detection from 02DEC until about the 11JAN and from 28JAN-12FEB2015 so expect several asteroids that will go undetected. There are four small mountan-sized asteroids that will safely pass this month. | |
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| Health & Wellness |
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Ben Farmer
The Telegraph, UK 2015-01-03 22:15:00
A patient suspected of having the deadly Ebola virus is being transferred to hospital in Swindon, while doctors say Pauline Cafferkey, the Scottish nurse already stricken with the disease, has deteriorated to a critical condition A new patient displaying symptoms of the deadly Ebola virus is being rushed to hospital as doctors say the Scottish nurse already suffering from the disease has worsened and is now in a critical condition. Hospital officials said the unnamed new patient was being transferred to hospital in Swindon by specialist ambulance team after being taken ill after returning from West Africa. The patient, from South Gloucestershire, will undergo tests at the hospital and if necessary be transferred to the specialist quarantine unit in London where nurse Pauline Cafferkey is already being treated. A spokesman for the Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: "Any suspected patients will be tested for a variety of things. If there was a confirmed Ebola case, they would be transferred to London."
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| Science of the Spirit |
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Emma Seppälä
Fulfillment Daily 2014-12-30 12:00:00
The Challenge: Stress, work and life challenges can get the best of us. The Science: Research shows that meditation is linked to a host of benefits from happiness to health! The Solution: Meditate to feel calmer, happier, healthier, more productive and more in charge. Trying to find a New Year's Resolution that's really worth it? How about one that will boost your resilience? This coming New Year will hopefully be full of wonderful surprises, but undoubtedly - like every year - will also throw some challenges at us. I started meditating soon after 9/11. I was living in Manhattan, an already chaotic place, at an extremely chaotic time. I realized I had no control over my external environment. And I realized this would always be the case. No matter what we do, we never have full control over our jobs, partners, health, or environment. However, there is one place we can have a say over: the state of our mind. As a friend once said to me "When my mind is ok, then everything is ok." This statement is so simple yet also so profound. When I started meditating, I realized I was clamer despite any situations I encountered. What I didn't realize, was that it would also make me healthier, happier, and more successful. Having witnessed the benefits, I devoted my PhD research at Stanford to studying the impact of meditation. I saw people from diverse backgrounds from college students to combat veterans benefit. In the last 10 years, hundreds of studies have been released. Here are 20 scientifically-validated reasons you might want to get on the bandwagon come Jan 1 (if not today!) | |
Comment: Carl Jung once said that "There is no coming to consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own Soul. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious."
These meditation studies show that when we process our minds we can have better health and more understanding of ourselves. Meditation is not about imagining figures of light, but making the darkness -the unconscious mind- more conscious. These studies show that when we increase our understanding of ourselves we'll have more compassion towards others too; we learn to think with our hearts. Try out our meditation program Éiriú Eolas to get the full benefits of meditation. | |
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ScienceDaily
2014-12-31 00:00:00
Regular mental imagery exercises help preserve arm strength during 4 weeks of immobilization, researchers have found. Strength is controlled by a number of factors -- the most studied by far is skeletal muscle. However, the nervous system is also an important, though not fully understood, determinant of strength and weakness. In this study, researchers set out to test how the brain's cortex plays into strength development. Anyone who has worn a cast knows that rebuilding muscle strength once the cast is removed can be difficult. Now researchers at the Ohio Musculoskeletal and Neurological Institute (OMNI) at Ohio University have found that the mind is critical in maintaining muscle strength following a prolonged period of immobilization and that mental imagery may be key in reducing the associated muscle loss. Strength is controlled by a number of factors -- the most studied by far is skeletal muscle. However, the nervous system is also an important, though not fully understood, determinant of strength and weakness. Brian C. Clark and colleagues set out to test how the brain's cortex plays into strength development. They designed an experiment to measure changes in wrist flexor strength in three groups of healthy adults. Twenty-nine subjects wore a rigid cast that extended from just below the elbow past the fingers, effectively immobilizing the hand and wrist, for four weeks. Fifteen subjects who did not wear casts served as the control group. | |
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| Don't Panic! Lighten Up! |
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Casey Chan
Sploid 2015-01-02 18:52:00
Elena Rogova's Appearance and Reality is a clever short story that tackles something we can all relate to: the difference between the feelings we show to the world and our hidden true feelings. It's like as we grow up, we put on a mask to suppress our feelings to look cool or appear strong or whatever. Screw that. Sure, growing up teaches you a few things and adds wrinkles to emotions but sometimes, life is more enjoyable when you take that mask off.
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Comment: It's not so much just 'taking the mask off'. Not expressing our true selves is what stops real, healthy development in the first place. It's possible to 'grow up' without becoming a jerk! G.I. Gurdjieff said:
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