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John W. Whitehead
The Rutherford Institute 2015-01-27 08:34:00
Roughly 1500 kids are tied up or locked down every day by school officials in the United States. At least 500 students are locked up in some form of solitary confinement every day, whether it be a padded room, a closet or a duffel bag. In many cases, parents are rarely notified when such methods are used. On any given day when school is in session, kids who "act up" in class are pinned facedown on the floor, locked in dark closets, tied up with straps, bungee cords and duct tape, handcuffed, leg shackled, tasered or otherwise restrained, immobilized or placed in solitary confinement in order to bring them under "control." In almost every case, these undeniably harsh methods are used to punish kids for simply failing to follow directions or throwing tantrums. Very rarely do the kids pose any credible danger to themselves or others. | |
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| Puppet Masters |
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RT
2015-01-27 22:53:00
Federal prosecutors in the United States have announced charges against three Russian men who allegedly operated an international spy ring based out of New York City. US attorneys said Monday that Evgeny Buryakov, Igor Sporyshev, and Victor Podobnyy have been charged "in connection with Buryakov's service as a covert intelligence agent on behalf of the Russian Federation." Buryakov unlawfully acted as an unregistered agent of a foreign government, the federal complaint alleges, and his co-defendants are charged with conspiracy thereof. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation says that their investigation into the three co-defendants began shortly after ten alleged Russian spies, including Anna Chapman, were arrested in 2010 following a multi-year investigation. "Within a few months" of the Russians' subsequent guilty pleas, according to this week's statement, the FBI began investigating Buryakov, Sporyshev and Podobnyy. According to the FBI, Buryakov maintained a cover job in the US as an employee in the Manhattan office of a Russian bank, but actually worked to gather intelligence for Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service, SVR. A public LinkedIn profile for a man with the same name as Buryakov suggests he may have been working as a deputy representative in the US for Russia's Vnesheconombank. Just in: FBI arrests Russian spy in the Bronx who was part of ring attempting to collect economic intelligence & recruit #NYC residentsSporyshev and Podobnyy posed as a Russian trade rep and a United Nations attaché, respectively, but allegedly worked as intermediaries between Buryakov and the SVR, according to the Department of Justice. | |
Comment: If anyone thinks that the U.S. isn't doing the exact same things in other countries, especially Russia, and probably more, they are deluding themselves. If the U.S. wanted to stop spying, they should quit doing some much meddling in other countries.
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David Edwards
Raw Story 2015-01-27 22:47:00
TV preacher Pat Robertson on Tuesday advised a senior citizen who was a paying member of his700 Club teleministry that a reverse mortgage was a "good deal" if she was having trouble making ends meet. "I have been a 700 Club partner for many years," a woman named Maria explained in an email. "I am 67 years old and still working because retirement money does not cover our basic expenses." "I was thinking about a reverse mortgage but have my doubts," Maria wrote. "What do you think?" Robertson pointed out that a reverse mortgage prevented the bank from taking "your house away from you as long as you are alive and living." "You don't have to pay it off, but somebody has to pay it off, namely the United States taxpayer," Robertson continued. "So, it's not a good deal for the taxpayers, but for most people it's a pretty good deal." The televangelist recommended that Maria speak to a financial adviser, but added that "it could be a good deal for you." Becoming a 700 Club partner starts at $240 a year for a basic membership. A Chairman's Circle membership runs $10,000 a year. | |
Comment: An alleged Christian leader openly feeding on the elderly. Disgusting.
Sam Harris: Is Christian morality psychopathic? | |
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RT
2015-01-27 22:43:00
An internet video reportedly showing the confession of a man saying he was a spotter in the deadly shelling of Mariupol is just another low-quality fake created by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the Russian Defense Ministry said. The ministry also hinted that closer examination of the footage actually points to the fact that Ukraine forces were responsible for the bombardment. The video was published on the internet on Sunday, one day after shelling in the eastern Ukrainian port city killed at least 30 people and left another 100 injured. "The SBU needed 24 hours to force this story out of a man, which - as we see in the clip - is read by the detainee from a piece of paper located left to the screen," the statement by the Russian Defense Ministry said.
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Comment: The NAF has a strict policy of not using artillery within a half-kilometer of residential areas. These are their civilians, after all. With conflicting eyewitness reports, video of English-speaking mercenaries in the city, and the quickness with which Kiev managed to get a full confession from the alleged 'spotter', this is looking more and more like a deliberate false flag. Mariupol is a strategic city: losing it would have grave consequences for the government in Kiev.
Remember, the UAF are the ones with no compunction about killing civilians. Mariupol may have made the news, but this kind of shelling of residential areas has been standard operating procedure for months. Where is the media and public outcry for Gorlovka, Donetsk, and Pervomaisk? | ||
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Washington's attack on Russia has moved beyond the boundary of the absurd into the realm of insanity. The New Chief of the US Broadcasting Board of Governors, Andrew Lack, has declared the Russian news service, RT, which broadcasts in multiple languages, to be a terrorist organization equivalent to Boko Haram and the Islamic State, and Standard and Poor's just downgraded Russia's credit rating to junk status. Today RT International interviewed me about these insane developments. In prior days when America was still a sane country, Lack's charge would have led to him being laughed out of office. He would have had to resign and disappear from public life. Today in the make-believe world that Western propaganda has created, Lack's statement is taken seriously. Yet another terrorist threat has been identified - RT. (Although both Boko Haram and the Islamic State employ terror, strictly speaking they are political organizations seeking to rule, not terror organizations, but this distinction would be over Lack's head. Yes, I know. There is a good joke that could be made here about what Lack lacks. Appropriately named and all that.) Nevertheless, whatever Lack might lack, I doubt he believes his nonsensical statement that RT is a terrorist organization. So what is his game? The answer is that the Western presstitute media by becoming Ministries of Propaganda for Washington, have created large markets for RT, Press TV, and Al Jazeera. As more and more of the peoples of the world turn to these more honest news sources, Washington's ability to fabricate self-serving explanations has declined. RT in particular has a large Western audience. The contrast between RT's truthful reporting and the lies spewed by US media is undermining Washington's control of the explanation. This is no longer acceptable. Lark has sent a message to RT. The message is: pull in your horns; stop reporting differently from our line; stop contesting the facts as Washington states them and the presstitutes report them; get on board or else. | |
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Alexander Mercouris
Russia Insider 2015-01-27 22:30:00
A few days ago I wrote a piece for RI tentatively suggesting on the basis of certain comments Putin made at the meeting of Russia's Security Council on 23rd January 2015 that Russia's policy towards Ukraine has hardened and that Russia is no longer trying to restrain the rebels whilst it looks for a diplomatic solution to the conflict. Putin provided dramatic confirmation of this in certain comments he made to the students of the Mining Institute in St. Petersburg on 26th January 2015. These were those words as quoted on his website: Regrettably, the government in Kiev has refused to take the road of a peaceful settlement and does not want to resolve the problem through political means. First they used the law enforcement agencies, then the security services, and then the army. Later, when they ran up against resistance, they suspended military operations, but sadly, they only used the temporary peace to regroup and then start their operations again. They are pursuing these operations again now. Thousands of people have already been killed. This is certainly a real tragedy.Once again Putin pointedly did not call the political leadership in Kiev "the Ukrainian government".Instead he called it "the government in Kiev", once again calling into question its right to speak for the whole of Ukraine. | |
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Pepe Escobar
RT.com 2015-01-27 18:36:00
No one in Western corporate media will tell you why US President Barack Obama is hitting Riyadh with a high-powered delegation to "pay his respects" to the new House of Saud potentate, King Salman. Talk about a who's who - including CIA head John Brennan; General Lloyd Austin, head of US Centcom; Secretary of State John Kerry; leading House Democrat Nancy Pelosi; and even senile Senator John "Bomb Iran" McCain. It must have been heart wrenching for most in this crowd to skip a visit to the Taj Mahal in India so they would be part of the last-minute, "unscheduled" stop in Riyadh. This is how the astonishing mediocrity that doubles as US Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes, spun it; "Principally, I think this is to mark this transition in leadership and to pay respects to the family and to the people of Saudi Arabia, but I'm sure that while we're there they'll touch on some of the leading issues where we cooperate very closely with Saudi Arabia." The White House and the Pentagon did not bother to "pay their respects" in person to the people of France after the Charlie Hebdo massacre. The House of Saud - "our" top bastards in the Persian Gulf - is of course much more valuable. | |
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RT
2015-01-27 17:38:00
European Union finance ministers have agreed to loan Ukraine €1.8 billon to stave off a default. Some governments pressed for €2.6 billion in medium-term loans for 2015 and 2016. "The European Commission put €1.8 billion on the table. Some wanted us to do more," French Finance Minister, Michel Sapin, told reporters Tuesday. "What is urgent today is to start implementing this package ... because Ukraine needs it so the government will not be faced with an unbearable situation." | |
Comment: Deeper and deeper the debt hole goes for Ukraine.
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Thierry Meyssan
VoltaireNet.org 2015-01-26 17:17:00
The crisis gripping the US state apparatus is directly threatening the survival of the Empire. This is no longer merely the opinion of Thierry Meyssan, but the subject that is shaking the ruling class in Washington to the point that the honorary president of the Council on Foreign Relations is demanding the resignation of the chief advisers of President Obama and the appointment of a new team. This clash has nothing to do with a typical opposition of Democrats and Republicans, nor even with that of the doves / hawks. What is at stake is leadership in the United States and NATO. For several months now, I've been noting that there is no foreign policy in Washington, but two factions that oppose each other in all things and separately conduct contradictory and inconsistent policies. [1] The climax of this situation has been reached in Syria, where the White House first organized the moult of Daesh and sent it to ethnically cleanse Iraq, then fought it even though the CIA continues to support it. This inconsistency has gradually spread to the Allies. Thus, France joined the anti-Daesh coalition while some of its legionaries are part of the Daesh cadre [2]. When the Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, requested written clarification, he not only received no answer, but he was fired. [3] | |
Comment: It will be interesting to see if some or all of these requested changes come to fruition soon.
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Tass
2015-01-27 16:09:00
Vladimir Putin delivered a speech at an event dedicated to the 70th anniversary of liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Tuesday against the policy of double standards, which can be observed during the ongoing military conflict in the south-east of Ukraine. "We all know well how dangerous and destructive double standards, indifference and apathy to fate of others are," Putin said at an event dedicated to 70th anniversary of liberation by the Red Army of the inmates of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp in Oswiecim /Poland/. "This is what for instance is happening with present day's tragedy in Ukraine's south-east, where in the course of many months peaceful residents of Donbas, Luрansk and other towns and residential areas are killed in cold blood," Putin said addressing the event, held at the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center in Moscow. According to the data provided by the United Nations, over 5,000 people were killed and up to 11,000 wounded since mid-April last year as a result of armed clashes between Ukrainian troops and local militias in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions during Kiev's military operation to regain control over the breakaway territories. | |
Comment: Of course Putin wouldn't be invited to the murderer's club that is the current crop of memorialists. How could they, knowing Putin would (oh, so courteously) point out their hypocrisy.
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Parallax
Sott.net 2015-01-27 05:03:00
"Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practise to deceive!" Sir Walter Scott There has been a great deal of words written since Je suis Charlie and all that that entails, so this is not an attempt to enter into that debate, except perhaps to point out that there are some interesting details surrounding the crime scene. For one example; on the same day as the attacks occurred,there was a very mysterious suicide that would surely whet the appetite of any honest detective. Unfortunately, these days, whether it is MH17, the London 7/7 bombings or 9/11 itself, the word "investigation" takes on a whole different meaning: there isn't any real investigation to speak of, except of course for the curious minds of regular people who want to try to understand. The official narratives of these events are usually extremely high on MSM-driven propaganda networks and are almost exclusively bereft of pertinent facts. | |
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Raúl Ilargi Meijer
The Automatic Earth 2015-01-27 03:18:00
In what universe is it a good thing to have over half of the young people in entire countries without work, without prospects, without a future? And then when they stand up and complain, threaten them with worse? How can that possibly be the best we can do? And how much worse would you like to make it? If a flood of suicides and miscarriages, plummeting birth rates and doctors turning tricks is not bad enough yet, what would be? If you live in Germany or Finland, and it were indeed true that maintaining your present lifestyle depends on squeezing the population of Greece into utter misery, what would your response be? F##k 'em? You know what, even if that were so, your nations have entered into a union with Greece (and Spain, and Portugal et al), and that means you can't only reap the riches on your side and leave them with the bitter fruit. That would make that union pointless, even toxic. You understand that, right? | |
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RT
2015-01-26 23:55:00
Following comments from the US overseas broadcasting chief listing RT as a challenge alongside the Islamic State and Boko Haram, critics said the outlet was singled out for "daring to advocate a point of view," as well as for "competing for viewership." Comment: How dare RT have a point of view! They should be repeating the U.S. government's talking ad nauseam without any critical thought. Don't they know that that is how things are done in the great U.S.A.? On Wednesday, the new chief of the US Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), Andrew Lack, told the New York Times that RT posed a significant challenge - putting the broadcaster in a list alongside the Islamic State and Boko Haram terror groups. The comments have since been denounced on social networks and across the media spectrum. Speaking to RT, legal analyst and media commentator Lionel said the channel was being outrageously singled out and equated to the Islamic State for "daring to advocate a point of view." "In the history of incoherent statements, this might be the granddaddy of them all. In reading this, he alleges that Russia Today pushes... 'a point of view,'" he told RT's Ameera David. Georgetown University journalism professor Chris Chambers added that Lack's words were "supremely silly and careless," especially considering his media background. Lack previously worked for NBC, Bloomberg, and Sony Music.
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When the former Goldman Sachs executive who runs the European Central Bank (ECB) announced that he was going to print 720 billion euros annually with which to purchase bad debts from the politically connected big banks, the euro sank and the stock market and Swiss franc shot up. As in the US, quantitative easing (QE) serves to enrich the already rich. It has no other purpose. The well-heeled financial institutions that bought up the troubled sovereign debt of Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain at low prices will now sell the bonds to the ECB for high prices. And despite depression level unemployment in most of Europe and austerity imposed on citizens, the stock market rose in anticipation that much of the 60 billion new euros that will be created each month will find its way into equity prices. Liquidity fuels the stock market. Where else can the money to go? Some will go into Swiss francs and some into gold while gold is still available, but for the most part the ECB is running the printing press in order to boost the wealth of the stock-owning One Percent. The Federal Reserve and the ECB have taken the West back to the days when a handful of aristocrats owned everything. The stock markets are bubbles blown by central bank money creation. On the basis of traditional reasoning there is no sound reason to be in equities, and sound investors have avoided them. But there is no return anywhere else, and as the central banks are run by the rich for the rich, sound reasoning has proved to be a mistake for the past six years. This shows that corruption can prevail for an indeterminable period over fundamentals. | |
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| Society's Child |
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Evan Sernoffsky & Henry Lee
SFGate.com 2015-01-27 00:00:00
Thieves in ski masks smashed a stolen sport utility vehicle into the site of the original Wells Fargo Bank in San Francisco's Financial District early Tuesday and held a security guard at gunpoint before making off with gold nuggets from California's Gold Rush era, police said. The crash-and-grab heist - the latest of a series of similar incidents in San Francisco - happened about 2:30 a.m. at the bank's museum at 420 Montgomery St. The intruders rammed the GMC Suburban through the museum's glass revolving doors, police said. A security guard investigating the crash was held at gunpoint by the assailants, who then smashed into display cases and made off with historic nuggets and gold ore, police said. | |
Comment: Wow, even thieves understand that gold has value whereas cash will soon have none.
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Binoy Kampmark
Global Research 2015-01-25 19:38:00
It all begins with a view of history seen through the eyes of the late Navy Seal Chris Kyle, deemed one of the US Army's deadliest snipers who served on four tours of duty in Iraq. It is from that preserve that the cinematic account springs from, guided by the memoirs titled American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in US Military History (2012). Eastwood's choice of conflict is excruciatingly cruel, an example of naked force exercised on false pretences. It was a war that commenced with a deception, marshalled against the dictates of international law. The Bush administration, doing its level best to imaginatively read available intelligence, invaded Saddam Hussein's Iraq, assuming it had those fabled Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs). The conflict served to destabilise not merely a state but the Middle East, unleashing the Sunni-Shiite fault line with incandescent fury and laying the ground for a future fracturing of the state. The Islamic State, to name but one force, has profited immensely from the zealous, foolhardy exercise. | |
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Cassandra Rules
The Free Thought Project 2015-01-27 18:20:00
A 16 year old girl named Jessica Hernandez was fatally shot by two Denver Police officers early Monday morning. The young girl was driving a car that the police allege was stolen, and claim she hit an officer's leg with the vehicle before both officers opened fire on the car containing four teenage girls and a teenage boy. It is unclear who reported the car stolen, who stole it, or who it belonged to. No information has been given on whether or not the vehicle belonged to a relative of one of the teens. The department has stated that they do not know if Hernandez intentionally struck the officer, but this is the third time they have claimed to have shot someone in response to a vehicle being used as a weapon in less than seven months. The officer was treated and released from the hospital with a minor leg injury. Hernandez was reportedly unarmed. | |
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Philip Townsend
WFAA.com 2015-01-27 07:03:00
Wise County - Jack, a two-year-old black lab, has been missing from the Lewis family's backyard since Dec. 27. His bright blue collar still hangs above his kennel."It makes me think of him," said Robin Lewis. But it wasn't until Robin turned to Facebook that she realized there may be much more to his disappearance. "If you back track it to the beginning of November, it's frightening." Two dogs from her neighbor Jana's yard went missing on the same day. Around the same time, Cassidy McKibben's four-year-old Jack Russell terrier, Lily, disappeared. "I noticed that my fence was messed up, and I have posted something everyday since she's been gone," McKibben said. They would eventually learn more than 40 dogs have gone missing in and around Wise County in just the last two months. | |
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John Vibes
The Free Thought Project 2015-01-26 17:40:00
According to multiple recent media reports, Eau Claire County police officers were sent out onto the street to select people at random and forcibly take them in for jury duty. Ironically, after these people were threatened and had their day wasted, the judge in the case decided that the jury was unfit and dismissed all of them! "We did talk about cases like this where a number of people have to go out and get people summoned to the jury," Eau Claire County Sherriff Ron Cramer told reporters. Susan Schaffer, Eau Claire County Clerk of Courts was the official who gave the orders, saying that the Wisconsin Statute on "Insufficient Jurors" allows them to forcibly pull people off the street to serve in juries. | |
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Chris Hedges
Truthdig 2015-01-25 17:01:00
"American Sniper" lionizes the most despicable aspects of U.S. society - the gun culture, the blind adoration of the military, the belief that we have an innate right as a "Christian" nation to exterminate the "lesser breeds" of the earth, a grotesque hypermasculinity that banishes compassion and pity, a denial of inconvenient facts and historical truth, and a belittling of critical thinking and artistic expression. Many Americans, especially white Americans trapped in a stagnant economy and a dysfunctional political system, yearn for the supposed moral renewal and rigid, militarized control the movie venerates. These passions, if realized, will extinguish what is left of our now-anemic open society. The movie opens with a father and his young son hunting a deer. The boy shoots the animal, drops his rifle and runs to see his kill. "Get back here," his father yells. "You don't ever leave your rifle in the dirt." "Yes, sir," the boy answers. "That was a helluva shot, son," the father says. "You got a gift. You gonna make a fine hunter some day." The camera cuts to a church interior where a congregation of white Christians - blacks appear in this film as often as in a Woody Allen movie - are listening to a sermon about God's plan for American Christians. The film's title character, based on Chris Kyle, who would become the most lethal sniper in U.S. military history, will, it appears from the sermon, be called upon by God to use his "gift" to kill evildoers. The scene shifts to the Kyle family dining room table as the father intones in a Texas twang: "There are three types of people in this world: sheep, wolves and sheepdogs. Some people prefer to believe evil doesn't exist in the world. And if it ever darkened their doorstep they wouldn't know how to protect themselves. Those are the sheep. And then you got predators." The camera cuts to a schoolyard bully beating a smaller boy. | |
Comment: Again and again, as we observe what is going on in the world, we can see how conscienceless acts are glorified and rewarded. This is the influence macrosocial evil has on our society. It is truly sickening to see such barbarity embraced by the population.
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Matt Berman
Many of the politicians aligning themselves with King now would balk at his beliefs about American power.National Journal 2015-01-27 00:10:00
Martin Luther King Jr. was not just the safe-for-all-political-stripes civil-rights activist he is often portrayed as today. He was never just the "I Have a Dream" speech. He was an antiwar, anti-materialist activist whose views on American power would shock many of the same politicians who now scramble to sing his praises. King's more radical worldview came out clearly in a speech to an overflow crowd of more than 3,000 people at Riverside Church in New York City on April 4, 1967. "The recent statement of your executive committee are the sentiments of my own heart and I found myself in full accord when I read its opening lines: 'A time comes when silence is betrayal,' " he began. It wasn't about the civil-rights movement - not directly, at least. "That time has come for us in relation to Vietnam." | |
Comment: Last week's broadcast on The Truth Perspective discussed on the assassination of Martin Luther King and what he would say about US policy if he were alive today.
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Kendall Anderson
Salon 2015-01-24 18:30:00
He pinned me down on the bed and pressed a pillow on my face. But when I went to the police, I was called a suspect I sit in the windowless interrogation room, fingers brushing against the cool metal of handcuffs attached to the chair, and try to comprehend what the detective sitting across from me is asking. "Were you a virgin?" he says, his lips curling slightly as he repeats the question. "Explain to me, how could you have been bleeding if you weren't on your period? Have you had sex before?" I feel my face flush with embarrassment as I think about how to respond. Before I can say anything, there's a knock at the door and another officer walks in. "The suspect's attorney is here." Suspect? My stomach drops. Did he really just refer to me as a suspect? The detective turns to his colleague. "She agreed not to have the lawyer come in for this." I open my mouth to object. Our "agreement" consisted of the detective asking me why I needed a lawyer if I was innocent. Before I can speak, the other officer leaves, the door closes and it's just me and the detective again, alone in the windowless room. "Let me get this straight, you can't remember how your clothes came off? Well, what were you wearing?" Though I am in an interrogation room, and have just been referred to as a suspect, I have not committed a crime. It is October 2013, I am 19 years old, and I am in the middle of reporting that I was raped on my college campus. | |
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Jillian MacMath
AccuWeather.com 2015-01-26 18:31:00
In an effort to improve air quality across Utah during the winter season, the Utah Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has proposed a seasonal wood burn ban, much to the chagrin of many locals. The ban would eliminate solid fuel burning in fireplaces and wood/coal stoves from Nov. 1 to March 15, except for homeowners whose homes are heated solely by wood. The proposal comes after Gov. Gary Herbert requested the the Air Quality Board explore options for improving wintertime air quality along Utah's Wasatch Front and Cache Valley. The region suffers from winter temperature inversions, which occur when a dense layer of cold air becomes trapped under a layer of warm air. | |
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| Secret History |
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Anna Liesowska
Taxidermy expert uses painstaking techniques to create first ever replica of the ice maiden found preserved in the Siberian high altitude plateau.Siberian Times 2015-01-26 14:23:00
The first replica face has been created of the famous tattooed Siberian princess found mummified and preserved after almost 2,500 years in permafrost. A Swiss expert has used special taxidermy techniques to build an accurate reconstruction of the ice maiden who was uncovered by archaeologists in 1993. Known as Princess Ukok, after the high altitude plateau on which she was discovered, her body was decorated in the best-preserved, and most elaborate, ancient art ever found. While her discovery was exciting, particularly given how intact her remains were, her face and neck skin had deteriorated, with no real clue as to what she once looked like. However, now her face has been revealed to the world for the first time following the work by Swiss taxidermist Marcel Nyffenegger. | |
Comment: Archaeology studies have come a long way in respecting indigenous traditions. May the Princess rest in peace after sharing so much about her culture.
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| Science & Technology |
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Bob King
Universe Today 2015-01-26 08:23:00
Wonderful news! Asteroid 2004 BL86, which passed closest to Earth today at a distance of 750,000 miles (1.2 million km), has a companion moon. Scientists working with NASA's 230-foot-wide (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, California, have released the first radar images of the asteroid which show the tiny object in orbit about the main body. While these are the first images of it, the "signature" of the satellite was seen in light curve data reported earlier by Joseph Pollock (Appalachian State University, North Carolina) and Petr Prave (Ondrejov Observatory, Czech Republic) according to Lance Bennerwho works with the radar team at Goldstone. 2004 BL86 measures about 1,100 feet (325 meters) across while its moon is approximately 230 feet (70 meters) across. The asteroid made its closest approach today (Jan. 26th) at 10:19 a.m. (CST), however it will peak in brightness this evening around 10 p.m. (4:00 UT) at magnitude +9.0. Unlike some flybys, 2004 BL86 will remain within a few tenths of a magnitude of peak brightness from 6 p.m. tonight (CST) through early tomorrow morning, so don't miss the chance to see it in your telescope. | |
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RT
2015-01-26 18:53:00
Pointing to climate change and the rise of tropical diseases, British researchers hope to sell their idea of releasing millions of genetically modified mosquitoes in the Florida Keys. Almost 140,000 people have signed a petition against the plan. For many years, the neighborhoods of the Florida Keys have been sprayed with insecticides to ward off a host of bugs, including perhaps the mother of all pests, the mosquito. Over time, however, Aedes aegypti, a mosquito that can spread the dengue fever, chikungunya, and yellow fever viruses has built up resistance to many of the insecticides used to kill them. The rising risk of a mosquito infestation and disease outbreak presents an opportunity for one British firm, Oxitec, which has developed a method for breeding Aedes aegypti that kills mosquito larvae, AP reported. According to Oxitec's website, the process involves injecting a "lethal gene" into either the male sperm or female egg that eventually kills the offspring. | |
Comment: Last year a town in Brazil issued an emergency decree due to the abnormal situation characterized as a biological disaster of dengue epidemic during a trial of GM mosquito releases. Even though concerns were raised by biologists who reported that in some circumstances releases of these GM mosquitoes could make dengue worse, they were ignored. The corporations developing and promoting GM organisms always claim that such organisms are safe, yet no independent risk studies have been undertaken. Thus people are left to rely on the word of the profiteers whose research is kept secret.
Fooling Mother Nature with Genetically Modified Mosquitoes | |
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| Earth Changes |
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Zoe Szathmary
Daily Mail, UK 2015-01-27 21:51:00
A sinkhole gobbled up one family's car in Maryland on Tuesday morning. Darwin Mendoza says he was in the car with his 8-year-old son, and two daughters, a 4-year-old and a 6-month-old baby, when it hit the hole as he was backing out of his driveway. The hole was hidden by water. Mendoza says at first, only one tire sank, and that he and his children got out of the car. They then watched as the sinkhole got bigger and swallowed the car whole. 'They were running to leave. Thank God they didn't put their seat belts on. It helped them get out of the car,' neighbor Luz Martinez told NBC Washington.
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Katharine Q. Seelye and Jess Bidgood
New York Times 2015-01-27 20:32:00
The first major storm of the winter blasted across eastern New England on Tuesday, unleashing whiteout conditions driven by gale-force winds that pelted faces like small icy daggers and made cars disappear under igloo-like formations. The storm may not have lived up to its billing in New York City, but it more than delivered in New England. It cut off the island of Nantucket, where almost all 12,000 year-round residents lost power and telephone service, and it flooded the Atlantic coastal town of Scituate, where a car floated downtown. As snow continued to swirl Tuesday afternoon, forecasters were still expecting the predicted two to three feet. In Shrewsbury, about 40 miles west of Boston, 31 inches had fallen by 10 a.m.; Worcester, nearby, had received 26 inches and was on track to break records.
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According to Peru's Civil Defense Institute (INDECI), around 3,000 people from 690 families have been forced from their homes after several days of heavy rain caused flooding in areas of San Martin region, northern Peru. Peru's central government has since declared a state of emergency in the region. The heavy rain caused the Huallaga and Huayabamba rivers to overflow, inundating around 3,000 hectares of farmland, as well as causing damage to homes and property.
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Nathan Rao
Express, UK 2015-01-26 06:26:00
Panicked forecasters raised the alert in the past hour after spotting the freak system on the weather models.Rare in the UK it is identical to the phenomenon which triggered crippling whiteouts and ice storms in the United States.Sparked by the frenzied and volatile behaviour of the jet stream it threatens to bring the fury of the North Pole tearing across the country next week. Forecasters say temperatures will plunge to below -15C (5F) while feet-deep snow drifts on a par with the worst winters in history are likely.The whole of the UK will be scourged by screaming Arctic gales and blizzards right through the first half of February. A repeat of the historic freeze of 2010 which brought the coldest temperatures on record and ground airports to a standstill, is feared. Weather experts say they have issued a stark warning to emergency services and the Government to take action now.Airports, railway lines and roads are expected to grind to a shivering halt with extreme cold threatening the lives of thousands of people. Piers Corbyn, forecaster for WeatherAction, warned a "catastrophic" set of circumstances have come together to trigger a lethal spell of weather. He said: "This could lead to anything, gales, huge snowstorms and the lowest temperatures of winter so far. "We are now 95 per cent certain that the whole of the country will be affected from the start of February. "Such is the severity of this situation I have written to the Government's Cabinet Office Briefing Room (COBRA) committee urging them to take immediate action." The terrifying prediction is the result of a deeply meandering jet stream which has been largely responsible for the erratic weather this winter. At the start of the season forecasters warned this big freeze would hit towards the end of December, but the frenzied deviation of the jet stream nudged it out of the way.The fast-flowing band of air is now poised to shift to a much more southerly position allowing the contents of the North Pole to flood into the UK.Swathes of the UK face knee-deep snow drifts with roads set to turn into deadly ice rinks sparking travel chaos. Mr Corbyn said: "This is going to be a severely damaging spell of weather, the NHS is thoroughly unprepared and has been lucky up until now as it has not been too severe."But this is about to change dramatically with a displaced Polar vortex likely to dominate the weather for the first half of next month." | |
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| Health & Wellness |
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Bill Thompson
Following is a fascinating interview with Dr. Mitchell Gaynor, a leading oncologist who has pioneered new strategies for the treatment and prevention of cancer. Dr. Gaynor, author of the book The Healing Power of Sound, actively uses sound in his integrative oncology practice. This interview was reprinted with permission from Mr. Bill Thompson. It should be noted here that singing bowls are horizontal gongs. More information about sound healing can be found here.Gong Sound Healing 2015-01-24 12:44:00
NT: How did you discover Tibetan "singing" bowls and their usefulness in healing? Gaynor: Well, I took care of a Tibetan monk in 1991. I'm a cancer specialist and also a hematologist and I had been working with guided imagery and meditation with my patients since the mid-1980's. I was actually asked to see this Tibetan monk at Cornell Medical Center for a routine medical problem which was anemia. But he was suffering from a very severe disease that was destroying his heart muscle called cardiomyopathy. I talked with him about what we could do for his anemia and what diagnostic work-up we'd do. | |
Comment: For more on the link between stress and illness see Gabor Mate's book When the Body Says No: Exploring the Stress-Disease Connection.
Also, the Éiriú Eolas Stress Control, Healing and Rejuvenation Program is an informative and easily practiced form of breathing and meditation techniques. Interested in learning more about the numerous benefits of a breathing and meditation program like Éiriú Eolas? Check out the programhere and try it today! | |
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Heather Callaghan
Natural Blaze 2015-01-26 13:24:00
Since the "Disneyland Outbreak" of measles in California, there's been a mass hysteria and calls for quarantine and forced injection scarcely seen since...that brief break we got from Ebola. So when a medical doctor boldly stands up and flies against the face of the narrative, the mainstream press cannot help but capture his "shocking statement." What they won't heavily highlight about Dr. Jack Wolfson is that he is a respected integrative cardiologist who does not use medicine to help his heart patients, but instead a whole body view of nutritional and lifestyle changes. | |
Comment: The fact that a doctor's dissenting view on vaccination was even shown on mainstream news is shocking indeed. The show wrapped up with a pro-vaccine doctor, of course, but it was nice to see.
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