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Ennio Addams
Sott.net 2015-01-02 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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Pierre Lescaudron
Sott.net 2015-01-02 13:01:00
Credit Defaut Swap (CDS), mortgage backed security (MDS), bottom-up investment, high frequency trading, naked short sale... these are the kind of complicated terminology you encounter when you start exploring the financial jungle. But don't be mislead. This overuse of jargon is designed to confuse and destroy any motivation to explore further. Clearly 'they' don't want you to understand because they are hiding some rather dirty secrets wrapped up in apparently complicated jargon. Scratch beyond this seemingly complex veneer however, and the reality of finance is surprisingly simple... and disgusting. The objective of this article is to explain, in layman terms, finance principles and the slavery most individuals and states are subjected to. I will also show why things might soon change dramatically and offer some sound advice for such times of financial turmoil. | |
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Sott Editors
Sott.net 2014-12-27 13:33:00
Dear Readers, 2014 is about to end, and if you have been following our website closely, you will be aware that it has been one heck of a year! By paying attention to the truth behind events as they unfold on our planet,you begin to see the world more as it is rather than as you would like it to be. That knowledge can bring you a certain sense of liberation, where you finally understand what is wrong with our world. With that understanding, you can then begin to make the choices that will change your life for the better, despite the increasing chaos all around you. As we're fond of saying, 'knowledge protects'. And that is what we wish you for the incoming year: Knowledge and awareness, and hence protection. Saying goodbye to the year 2014, we'd like to tell you a little bit about our accomplishments, since you may not be aware of them all. We have reason to be proud. There is always much more we can do, but this year, just as we thought our plates were too full, thanks to our readers' support, and the impetus from many new volunteers around the world, we have been expanding! The SOTT Talk Radio Show has now become the SOTT Radio Network, with three different shows:"Behind the Headlines" (Sundays), "The Truth Perspective" (Saturdays), and "Atando cabos"(Saturdays, in Spanish). Listeners from all over the world listen in and participate. If you haven't tuned in yet, you're missing out! More shows are planned for 2015, including a show on health, psychology and well-being, to be launched in early January. Some articles we picked up this year 'went viral' in 2014 (such as this one, this one and this one), and we have also been producing much more original content. In addition to our SOTT Focus articles, SOTT Exclusive articles analyze and summarize breaking news events and global trends. Meanwhile, our Earth Changes Summary monthly videos are now being translated into multiple languages, including French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Croatian, Russian, and Vietnamese. Recognizing how important these "signs of the times" are, people have been sharing them far and wide on social media. This year we also launched SOTT WorldView, a visual, interactive map of world events that lets you read the news in a whole new way by seeing the links between different types of events for any chosen time period. Check it out, and search according to the parameters that interest you most. We have also been working hard to release, early in 2015, SOTT.net in 5 new languages: Dutch, Danish, Finnish, Greek and Croatian. More and more people are going to be able to read our news, without being hindered by language barriers!
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Tyler Durden
Zerohedge 2015-01-04 00:15:00
Slowly but surely Europe is figuring out that as a result of the western economic and financial blockade of Russian, it is Europe itself that is suffering the most. And while Germany was first to acknowledge this late in 2014 when its economy swooned and is now on the verge of a recession, now others are catching on. Case in point: the former head of the European Commission, and Italy's former Prime Minister, Romano Prodi who told Messaggero newspaper that the "weaker Russian economy is extremely unprofitable for Italy." The other details from Prodi's statement: In other words, just as slowly, the world is starting to grasp the bottom line: it is not the financial exposure to Russia, or the threat of financial contagion should Russia suffer a major recession or worse: it is something far simpler that will lead to the biggest harm for Europe's countries. The lack of trade. Because while central banks can monetize everything, leading to an unprecedented asset bubble which if only for the time being boosts investor and consumer confidence, they can't print trade - that all important driver of growth in a globalized world long before central banks were set to monetize over $1 trillion in bonds each and every year to mask the fact that the world is deep in a global depression. | |
Comment: It makes so much sense but it will take overcoming the psychopathic elite's plans.
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sputnik
2015-01-05 17:43:00
On January 1, 2015 Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan formed the Eurasian Union. The new economic alliance is a further step in the three countries' cooperation, replacing as it does the Customs Union that Moscow, Minsk and Astana formed in 2010. The Eurasian Economic Union creates a common market of the three countries based on rules of the World Trade Organisation. In line with the treaty the territory of the EAU is free for the movement of goods, services and labour resources while the signatories undertake to carry out coordinated or unified economic policies. Member states also have agreed to bring their national legislations in line with Union rules within 10 years. The new economic alliance comprises countries with a combined population of 170 million and is the biggest organisation of its kind in the post-Soviet space. Its trade turnover currently stands at $66 billion having increased by almost 50% over the past three years in the framework of the Customs Union. The three member countries of the new Union account for 20% of global reserves of gas and 15% of oil. President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan welcomed the emergence of the Union as the 'birth of a new geopolitical reality of the 21st century'. At the same time he also cautioned against repeating mistakes of the European Union: "The point is that none of the participating countries were subject to de-industrialisation, and traditional industries did not suffer. Lessons from the European recession are in this." | |
Comment: No fanfare, no artsy displays, little media attention... quietly, quietly, a new pole in the multipolar world came into being on New Year's Day 2015. Four times the size of the EU, with one third of the people and three times the natural resources, the Eurasian Union could soon be calling the shots.
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Ante Sarlija
Sott.net 2015-01-05 12:55:00
An estimated 2,500 neo-Nazis decided to take to the streets of Kiev on the 1st of January and commemorate the birthday of the Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera, holding a torchlight procession in his honor. The fanatics carried portraits of Bandera as well as flags of the Svoboda and the Right Sector parties, shouted slogans such as: "Glory to the nation! Death to enemies!", "Ukraine belongs to Ukrainians" and "Bandera will return and restore order." The hooligans also assaulted and robbed Russian reporters in front of the police! Welcome to the new democratic Ukraine, brought to you by the U.S. and their 'partners' in the EU.
The Czech President Milos Zeman was appalled after watching the video of the demonstrations,saying that there was "something very wrong with Ukraine", as well as with the EU, which "doesn't condemn such rallies". In recent months the Western media has repeatedly excused or ignored the presence of Neo-Nazis in Ukraine and asserted that any such allegation were 'Russian propaganda'. Below are a few more photos from the rally. Judge for yourself.
Stepan Bandera, the man that the regime in Kiev considers their hero, was one of the leaders of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). The organization collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II and was involved in the ethnic cleansing of Russians, Poles and Jews. The following is a list of atrocities commited against civilians by this organization. | |||||||
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RT
2015-01-05 16:55:00
The euro fell to $1.1861, its weakest level since 2006 on the back of uncertainty over Greece's position within the single currency. A strong dollar and expectations that the European Central Bank will beef up its stimulus program have also not helped. The euro dropped to a low of $1.1861 against the dollar during Asian trading hours on Monday. However, it did pick up slightly to trade at $1.1950 during European trading. This has seen the single currency lose as much as 1.2 percent of its value. European shares were volatile, initially falling sharply before rebounding into positive territory within an hour of the open as investors digested the implications of the weak euro and yet another hefty slide in oil to a 5-1/2 year low, Reuters reports.
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Comment: The failing Euro has little to do with anything Greece does or does not do. It has to do with the same type of blind and disastrous policies that caused Greece to collapse and kept her in economic ruin. It's really quite obvious by now that the EU is calling on its own destruction by following along with the US sanctions on Russia. But sure, Greece makes a nice scapegoat.
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Richard Sauder
Event Horizon 2015-01-05 17:13:00
It could not have happened to a nastier person. On New Year's day, in an Reid also previously dislocated his shoulder, bumped his head and got a black eye, while "jogging" in 2011. It Happens All The Time To high level politicians, I mean. Getting savagely brutalized by home exercise equipment, dislocating their arms while jogging. By contrast, how many times have you gone to work out at the gym, and inadvertently smashed your face on a piece of exercise equipment, breaking facial bones and ribs, and getting a black eye? Probably never, but then you are not a high level politician. | |
Comment: On a point of interest: Whittington was the first person to be shot by a sitting vice president since Alexander Hamilton, who was shot and killed by Aaron Burr during a duel over issues of honor and political maneuvering. In more modern times however, duels have been dispensed with and the 'offended' politician simply spontaneously shoots his opponent in the face to get even.
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Binoy Kampmark
Global Research 2015-01-04 12:00:00
In the latter part of 2014, China became the world's largest economy, dethroning the United States which has held the position since 1872. The technique for identifying such sizes will always be up for question, even if the IMF did account for the issue of purchasing power parity. Those in the US can still summon relatively larger pay packets than their Chinese counterparts. Be that as it may, China now makes up for about 16.48 percent of the world's purchasing-power adjusted GDP, with the US coming in at 16.28 percent. Analysts point out that these figures ignore "raw terms" (Business Insider, Oct 8, 2014), though that doesn't diminish a spectacular transformation - in 1980, China's overall economic output was a mere tenth that of the US. The chatter about Beijing's economic surge coincided well with its Balkans drive, yet another means by which the Chinese business juggernaut is seeking satiation. Chinese diplomats and figures are not strangers to the region. Their involvement during the eccentric relationship between Beijing and the communist Albanian state of Enver Hoxha is well noted. The love affair with Hoxha went cold in the late 1970s. China began cultivating ties with Yugoslavia and Romania, insisting that both the Soviet Union and the United States adopt more constructive approaches to the Balkan region. Then, as now, the Balkans was to provide an entry point into the markets of European states while also enabling a currying of favour with so called third world countries.[1] Then, as now, China's regimes boasted new, reformist faces, at least in rhetorical aspiration. | |
Comment: The Chinese are looking to increase their position in Europe through the Balkans by investing in infrastructure and energy, which benefits both parties. The Chinese have now two cargo piers at the Greek port of Piraeus, with 35-year contracts and plans to expand, so a new road to Europe seems to be emerging, through Greece and the Balkans into Eastern and Central Europe.
As CSEBA communication manager Sinisa Malus commented on the beyondbrics blog: It's important for Europe to start looking more towards the east, towards both Russia and China, where, in plain cost-benefit terms, they get a better deal than being a 'vassal state' of United States. That's where a viable future for Europe lies. | |
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Christine Stone
Ron Paul Institute 2014-12-15 16:46:00
Despite the firmness shown by the EU's biggest players when it comes to sanctioning Putin's Russia, lower down the pecking order some member states are not happy. Unlike the most craven and obedient puppets - the Baltic States and Poland - it took some arm twisting to get the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary to agree to punish Moscow for annexing Crimea. Each country is dependent for much of its energy on Russia with which there are also valued economic ties. Why rock the boat? Despite hyperbole claiming that Vladimir Putin was intent on taking them over and rebuilding the iron curtain, in reality, Russia has been an unproblematic neighbour for a quarter of a century. Could these ripples of discontent with the famed Washington consensus develop into something more troubling for both the US and Brussels? What can they do about it? All three countries are members of both NATO and the EU. Promoting regime change inside the Euro-Atlantic tentsurely becomes more problematic. Or, does it? Let us examine each case separately and see what the auguries bode. On 17th November 2014, it was drab and raining in Prague as the Czechs celebrated 25 years since the so-called "velvet revolution," unlike the classic freezing, East European winter day of 17thNovember 1989. Demonstrations to mark the event were slated to take place and a mass of candles filled the passage way on Národní Třida (National Street) where student "Martin Šmid" died at the hands of the police, an event that was said to have triggered the collapse of the communist regime.But, hold on: it soon emerged that Martin Šmid didn't exist; he had been invented by the Czechoslovak security services, the STB (Státní Bezpečnost) as part of a ploy to bring a new, reformed post-communist regime to power. Emoting over a death that never took place seems weird but, in a way it sums up the banality that lays at the heart of all things connected with the "velvet" events. This was only reinforced later in the day when a group of anti-capitalist protesters snaked its way through the city centre wearing papier maché masks, some bearing the image of the evil Putin, others the reviled (at least, by the local cogniscenti) Czech president, Miloš Zeman. A few Ukrainian flags brought up the rear. Other banners denounced Ecuador's left wing president, Rafael Correa, hardly a household name in Prague.[I] As the hundred or so protesters passed the Rudolfinum concert hall, a group of elderly rock musicians with lank, grey hair plugged away at some ancient protest songs watched by a handful of leather clad biker types. | |
Comment: The West's attempts to subvert the interests of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary demonstrate not only the type of relationships that exist, but also show just how desperate the US et al are in trying to maintain its imperialist foothold over the region. Anyone with eyes to see can recognize the emerging economic stability coming out of Eurasia while the EU teeters towards collapse. The Eurasian Economic Union was officially established last Thursday, but it has been a long time coming, and there's quite a bit of momentum behind it. Things are moving quickly on the geopolitical scene, and it seems not a matter of if but when the countries in the region will align with their natural interests in the East. If the EU knew what was good for them (which they apparently don't), they'd take up Putin's invitation to join the Eurasian Economic Union tout de suite!
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RT
2015-01-05 01:28:00
The chilling slogans and a flagrant demonstration of nationalist symbols during the neo-Nazi march in Kiev reminded the Czech President Milos Zeman of Hitler's Germany. He said something was "wrong" both with Ukraine and the EU which didn't condemn it. Zeman was commenting on the appalling scenes, which showed thousands of Ukrainian nationalists holding a torchlight procession across the Ukrainian capital on Thursday to commemorate the 106th birthday of Stepan Bandera, a Nazi collaborator and the Ukraine nationalist movement's leader during World War II. "There is something wrong with Ukraine," the Czech Republic's leader told radio F1 on Sunday."Yesterday evening I was browsing the Internet and discovered a video showing the demonstration on Kiev's Maidan on January 1." | |
Comment: It won't be long before it's clear to even to the most ignorant European citizens and politicians that Ukraine has serious fascists elements in its society and government. These Svoboda and Right Sektor members are Nazis, and they're not hiding it. It's utterly disgusting that the EU is a silent bystander to the rise of extreme nationalism in Ukraine. Read these SOTT articles for the bigger picture behind the Ukraine crisis and Ukrainian Nazis:
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Andrew Rettman
EUObserver 2015-01-02 16:44:00
BRUSSELS - Russia's EU ambassador has urged Brussels to launch talks with the newly born Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) despite the Ukraine crisis. Vladimir Chizhov told EUobserver: "Our idea is to start official contacts between the EU and the EAEU as soon as possible. [German] chancellor Angela Merkel talked about this not long ago. The EU sanctions [on Russia] are not a hinderance". "I think that common sense advises us to explore the possibility of establishing a common economic space in the Eurasian region, including the focus countries of the Eastern Partnership [an EU policy on closer ties with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine]". "We might think of a free trade zone encompassing all of the interested parties in Eurasia". | |
Comment: The Russians appear to be under the impression that the tide is turning and their 'real politik' efforts are paying off. There does seem to be an element of dissent in the EU ranks. Recently, French President Hollande said that economic sanctions against Russia must be stopped. The German Vice-Chancellor of Economic Affairs and Energy Minister said that tougher sanctions against Russia could destabilize the country and provoke an "even more dangerous" situation in Europe and have negative consequences for the entire world.
Also rather coincidentally, just a few days ago there was a renewed "drone attack" on another French power plant by someone with very high tech drones. The effect is to put pressure on the French government, to send a signal, that they and some of their most sensitive (and dangerous) infrastructure is being watched and can be easily infiltrated. Now we wonder who might be behind that effort.... We also wonder what the anglo-American warmongers and empire builders have in store for Germany if it 'slips' any further out of the Western 'sphere of influence'. It may take more than further NSA spying to force it back into the fold. | |
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Sott.net
2015-01-05 14:00:00
This documentary follows the lives of children in Donetsk and other Eastern parts of Ukraine, where Kiev's ethnic cleansing operations have left them with serious physical and psychological traumas. Many have had to leave families and homes. Although not fully aware of what is happening, they are already beginning to think that this is 'normal life'. Hiding out in bunkers as shells and missiles explode all around, this is how thousands of children in Eastern Ukraine spent Christmas 2014...
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RT.com
2015-01-05 13:40:00
Tougher sanctions against Russia could destabilize the country and provoke an "even more dangerous" situation in Europe and have negative consequences for the entire world, German Vice-Chancellor Economic Affairs and Energy Minister has warned. "Those who want it, provoke an even more dangerous situation for all of us in Europe," Sigmar Gabriel said in an interview with the Bild am Sonntag newspaper on Sunday. "Those who are seeking to even more destabilize Russia from the economic and political point of view are pursuing quite different goals." The goal of sanctions against Russia was to return Moscow to the negotiating table to find ways for a peaceful resolution to the crisis in Ukraine, he said. He elaborated that additional sanctions may exclude Moscow from partnership in the resolution of conflicts which "will have very dangerous consequences for the entire world." | |
Comment: How glaringly obvious is it that EU nations have very little independence of action in foreign policy, when it conflicts with US foreign policy? Yet there does seem to be an element of dissent in the EU ranks. Recently, French President Hollande said that economic sanctions against Russia must be stopped.
Also rather coincidentally, just a few days ago there was a renewed "drone attack" on another French power plant by someone with very high tech drones. The effect is to put pressure on the French government, to send a signal, that they and some of their most sensitive (and dangerous) infrastructure is being watched and can be easily infiltrated. Now we wonder who might be behind that effort.... | |
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TASS
2015-01-05 12:44:00
Russia's economic crisis cannot bring any benefit to the European Union, and so the introduction of sanctions against Moscow should be stopped, French President Francois Hollande said on France Inter radio on Monday. He said the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine is the main condition for the sanctions' lifting. If Russia is in crisis, this means no good for Europe, said the French leader. He said he was against the confrontation policy and that the sanctions must be stopped. He said, however, that the sanctions regime would remain in the old format if the asides fail to make progress on the Ukrainian issue. "I think the sanctions must stop now. They must be lifted if there is progress. If there is no progress, the sanctions will remain," Hollande said. | |
Comment: Someone needs to remind Hollande that progress in the Ukrainian issue doesn't depend on Russia!
Also, put the above comments by Hollande together with this: More drones break into France's nuclear air space And you get an example of the ways in which the US "puts pressure" on its lackeys in Europe and elsewhere. | |
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RT
2015-01-04 22:01:00
Two aircraft - presumably drones - were spotted flying over a French nuclear power plant on Saturday. The incident happened amid the country's efforts aimed at detecting and intercepting such flying objects above nuclear facilities. The latest intrusion happened at a nuclear power plant in Nogent-sur-Seine in north-central France, AFP reported on Sunday. "Around 6:40 p.m., site safety officers observed two flying objects that flew over the land reserve located on the perimeter of the nuclear plant," a spokesman for the power station told AFP. The objects were believed to be drones, and the gendarmerie has been alerted.
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Comment: Is someone still applying pressure on the French government?
As well as these latest incidents, yet another 'mysterious' drone was spotted flying over a Belgium nuclear plant last month, and British nuclear power stations were deemed "highly vulnerable to drone attack", according to a confidential report. | ||
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Eric Zuesse
Global Research 2015-01-05 11:56:00
U.S. President Barack Obama said in a December 30th Oval Office interview with Steve Inskeep of National Public Radio, that, "wherever we have been involved over the last several years, I think the outcome has been better because of American leadership." This statement from him was part of his answer when Inskeep asked whether the President had regrets about "overthrowing the Gadhafi regime" in Libya. Obama answered: "We are hugely influential; we're the one indispensable nation. But when it comes to nation-building, when it comes to what is going to be a generational project in a place like Libya or a place like Syria or a place like Iraq, we can help, but we can't do it for them." In other words: the Libyan people failed, and the Syrian people failed, and the Iraqi people failed, according to America's President - but he himself and his predecessor Bush did not fail by bombing those countries under false pretenses as they did.Inskeep (who apparently was ignorant that the people of Crimea had always opposed the donation of Crimea from Russia to Ukraine by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in 1954, and who was also ignorant that Crimeans in March 2014 were delighted to be reunited again with Russia and had not been "taken" by Russia but were instead saved by Russia from the fate that befell Donbass) interjected, there, for clarification to his listeners, that Obama meant that Putin was thought to be a "genius" "for taking Crimea." Inskeep was here trying to help Obama by clarifying Obama's anti-Putin reference in his "genius" term; and, by doing so, Inskeep falsely assumed that Crimea had been seized, against the will of Crimeans. The President skillfully built upon Inskeep's ignorance, and anti-Russian bias, here, by playing along with Inskeep's false intrinsic assumption, and by continuing directly from it in such a way as to present himself as being the real "genius"; he asserted, "And he had outmaneuvered all of us and he had, you know, bullied and, you know, strategized his way into expanding Russian power. And I said at the time we don't want war with Russia [even though his February 2014 anti-Russian coup in Ukraine and actions afterwards show otherwise] but we can apply steady pressure working with our European partners, being the backbone of an international coalition to oppose Russia's violation of another country's sovereignty [as if it weren't the case that two recent Gallup polls in Crimeashowed an overwhelming public support there for leaving Ukraine and for reuniting with Russia, and as if it weren't the case that America's takeover of Ukraine on Russia's border hadn't been the aggressive act here], and that over time, this would be a strategic mistake by Russia [when, in fact, Obama knows quite well that the people he installed in his February coup in Ukraine had already been initiating the process to kick out of Crimea, Russia's crucial Black Sea Fleet, which had been stationed there since 1783, and that this reversal of Khrushchev's 1954 gift of Crimea to Ukraine was crucial for Russia's own national security]. And today, you know, I'd sense that at least outside of Russia [such as among the trusting listeners to NPR], maybe some people are thinking what Putin did wasn't so smart [when Obama knows quite well that what Putin did by his re-absorbing Crimea back into Russia was actually vital to Russian national security under the circumstances of Obama'sFebruary coup in Ukraine]." | |
Comment: Lying damages the brain, and Obama is a great example. See also: Obama reveals his idiocy and mendacity to NPR: Oil price strategy to destabilize Russia
Obama states four "facts" about Russia in interview. His facts are all wrong | |
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TASS
They all have been included in a special register2015-01-05 11:44:00
The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) is putting on a wanted list all actors and musicians who come to areas of Donbass (Donetsk and Lugansk regions) not controlled by Kiev, Vasily Vovk, head of the SBU main investigation department, said Sunday on 112 TV channel. "They all have been included in a special register and put on a wanted list," Vovk said when asked what actions the SBU is taking against Russian artists who perform in Donbass. Russian singer Yulia Chicherina in early January visited the eastern Ukrainian city of Lugansk with a charity concert. Singer Iosif Kobzon, actors Mikhail Porechenkov, Ivan Okhlobystin and Alexey Panin, as well as other actors and performers, have visited the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People's republics. Fierce clashes between troops loyal to Kiev and local militias in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions during Kiev's military operation, conducted since mid-April, to regain control over the breakaway southeastern territories, which call themselves the Donetsk and Lugansk People's republics, have killed over 4,000 people and forced hundreds of thousands to flee Ukraine's southeast. The parties to the Ukrainian conflict agreed on a ceasefire at talks mediated by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on September 5 in Belarusian capital Minsk two days after Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed his plan to settle the situation in the east of Ukraine. Numerous violations of the ceasefire, which took effect the same day, have been reported since. A "day of silence" in eastern Ukraine began at 09:00 a.m. local time (0700 GMT) on December 9. It is seen as another attempt by both parties to the intra-Ukrainian conflict to put an end to hostilities. | |
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Scott Kaufman
Raw Story 2015-01-04 22:33:00
A drug task force video of an arrest differs markedly from the police reports written by the plainclothes detectives involved in the incident, The Kansas City Star reports. The video - available below - begins with the final moments of a car chase between Timothy Whittle and two plainclothes detectives, Michael Chinn and Kip Bartlett. Chinn and Bartlett were members of the Mid-Missouri Drug Task Force, and they were approaching Whittle's home in order to serve a warrant allowing them to search the premises for materials used to manufacture methamphetamine - but they never got the chance, as Whittle and another man left the home in an SUV and drove to a nearby property. Once they arrived, Whittle exited the SUV and entered a black pickup truck. At that point, task force officers charged and Whittle took off. The officers gave chase - as did a Missouri National Guard helicopter, which was recording the events. After a long pursuit, Whittle drove into a field, jumped out of the still-moving truck and ran. He eventually gave up, and raised his hands in surrender. He then lay down on his stomach. | |
Comment: The police routinely lie giving their statements, like in this situation where the video disproves the statements made by the officers involved. But what is the deterrent? They can make up all the lies they want, and even when there is video evidence that proves the statements as false, nothing happens. What is there to stop any police officer from making up events in order to make the citizens they are apprehending look bad and them look good? Nothing, and that's why the U.S. has become a police state. You can put all the cameras on police that you like, if nothing happens when the police's story is contradicted by the video evidence, the cameras will turn out to be useless for the purpose they are being used.
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Tom Boggioni
Raw Story 2015-01-05 22:25:00
The family of a Kansas man shot by police Saturday night are saying he was unarmed and they want to know why officers had to kill him, reports KWCH. John Paul Quintero, who recently turned 23, was shot and killed by Wichita Police after the family had called 911 following an incident in their home involving a knife. When police arrived at the home, Quintero was seated in an SUV parked in front of the home with his father. According to police, they approached the vehicle and asked both men to exit the car, and the older Quintero complied. Police state that the younger Quintero was drunk and confrontational and refused commands from the officer. After exiting the SUV he began walking towards the back of the vehicle as officers at the scene ordered him to show his hands. According to authorities, one officer then used a Taser on him when he failed to comply. Saying the Taser seemed to have no effect on him, authorities say the officers saw him reach for his waistband - and a backup officer shot him with a patrol rifle, hitting him twice in the midsection. Following the shooting, Quintero was taken to a local medical facility where he died a few hours later. | |
Comment: This is par for the course for police in the U.S. Instead of being a calming presence, they make things so much worse with their inability to control situations and handle individuals with anything but lethal force. The best thing people can do in almost all instances is to NEVER call the police for help, lest they want to end up another murdered citizen.
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David Edwards
Raw Story 2015-01-05 21:44:00
A Texas woman has filed a lawsuit against three police officers in Victoria, claiming that they brutally beat her and broke her ribs without a good reason. Mary Frances Jones told the Victoria Advocate that the three police officers woke her up early in the morning on Dec. 22, 2013 over reports that a truck that she had purchased the day before had been seen driving in a local creek. Jones said that she had been unaware at the time that her sons borrowed the truck while she was sleeping. After officers claimed that she was lying about owning the truck, Jones said she tried to go back inside her home, and that's when they forced her to the ground. "One of them had his foot on my arm, and the other kicked me and broke my ribs," she recalled. "They hurt me. They hurt me bad, and they know they did." According to Jones, she had to plead no contest to a charge of disorderly conduct-vulgar language so that she could go to the hospital. Her fiance, 50-year-old Mathew Milberger and two sons, William and Danny Wallace, were also arrested and charged with disorderly conduct-vulgar language. | |
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Carey Gillam
Reuters 2015-01-05 20:13:00
A member of the grand jury that declined to indict the white Missouri police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black 18-year-old sued the prosecutor in the case on Monday, criticizing the way evidence was presented to grand jurors and seeking court permission to speak publicly about the way the case was handled. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in St. Louis against St. Louis County prosecutor Robert McCulloch by the grand juror, whose name was withheld and was referred to as "Grand Juror Doe." The lawsuit relates to the Aug. 9 shooting of Michael Brown by officer Darren Wilson in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson. Brown's death and the grand jury's decision not to indict Wilson triggered months of protests over police treatment of African-Americans in the United States. | |
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Daniel de Vries
World Socialist Web Site 2015-01-05 17:14:00
Sunday's funeral for New York City Police Officer Wenjian Liu marked the continuation of a political counterattack aimed at rendering illegitimate and even outright criminal the growing resistance to police violence. Similar to last week's ceremony for Rafael Ramos, who was gunned down alongside Liu on December 20, what occurred over the weekend was a political operation coordinated by high-ranking officials from all levels of government. Liu was eulogized not only by family members, but also by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, and FBI Director James Comey. New York Senator Chuck Schumer, Governor Andrew Cuomo and dozens more politicians made appearances either at the funeral Sunday or the wake Saturday. Thousands of cops from around the country traveled to Brooklyn to attend the proceedings. Together with NYPD officers they filled the cordoned-off streets for blocks outside the funeral home. Giant projection screens broadcast the proceedings to the cops assembled outside. Cable news channels carried the event live. | |
Comment: The bizarre execution of two officers was insane, and this reaction is insane. Feeding the ego of a police force filled with ravenous and corrupt thugs is not a good idea:
It's looking like a war of all against all. Meanwhile most people are dreaming that life's just fine and dandy:
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Frederick Trainer
The Conversation 2014-12-28 09:12:00
The aftermath of Christmas is a good time to think about where consumer-capitalism is getting us. The sad fact is that, with these values, our society can never be ecologically sustainable or just.Accelerating global problems cannot be solved in a society obsessed with production and consumption, affluent living standards, market forces, the profit motive and economic growth.The only way out is via a huge and radical transition to The Simpler Way. An exaggeration? Only if you fail to grasp the magnitude of the overshoot. Consider, for instance, the well-known "footprint" numbers. It takes eight hectares of productive land to provide water, energy, living space and food for one person in Australia. If the 9 billion people of the future were to live as Australians do now, we would need about 72 billion hectares of productive land - about nine times the total on Earth. Even now, footprint analyses indicate that the world is consuming resources 1.5 times faster than we can sustain. It gets worse. Our affluence, comfort and security could not be possible if we few who live in rich countries were not hogging most of resources. The per capita consumption of the top 10 countries for iron ore use is more than 80 times that of all the rest. If the global economy were not so grossly unjust we would have to get by with a tiny fraction of what we use now. | |
Comment: Learning to live in a self-sufficient manner and forming communities that work together would be wise steps to take. There are many techniques that people should begin to implement, on their own, because it is clear that the ruling class will never institute any programs that benefit society. In fact, this same group of psychopathic elites have managed to bring civilization to its breaking point. While no one can predict the future, things are not looking good on the BBM, so taking steps to prepare for an uncertain future would be prescient.
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The explosion of a fireworks factory near the Colombian capital was captured on video and caused at least two injuries. Firefighters in Granada, near Bogota, said two people were injured in the Sunday morning blast, including a driver who was passing by at the time of the explosion. The Crue emergency center of Cundinamarca province said the driver suffered shrapnel wounds on his right arm and was released following treatment. Carlos Espinoza, the man filming the explosion, was thrown by the force of the blast, the video shows. Authorities said the factory blast and ensuing fire destroyed five warehouses that were being used to store gunpowder. Provincial Gov. Alvaro Cruz said the cause of the explosion is under investigation.
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CBC News
2015-01-02 13:36:00
Edmonton police have identified the victims in this week's mass murder, saying Phu Lam's shooting rampage claimed the life of his wife, several of her family members - including her eight-year-old son and three-year old niece - and a family friend. Lam, who took his own life after the killings, appears to have spared the lives of a one-year-old and an eight-month-old baby who may have been in the north Edmonton home at the time of the deadly attack. Lam's wife, Thuy Tien Truong, 35, was slain along with her son, her sister, her parents, her niece and a friend at a north Edmonton home between 3:45 a.m. and 8 a.m. on Sunday, police said Friday.
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Oliver Stone
Information Clearing House 2015-01-04 04:27:00
I interviewed Viktor Yanukovych for 4 hours in Moscow for a new English language documentary produced by Ukrainians. He was the legitimate President of Ukraine until he suddenly wasn't on February 22 last year. Details to follow in the documentary, but it seems clear that the so-called 'shooters' who killed 14 police men, wounded some 85, and killed 45 protesting civilians, were outside third-party agitators. Many witnesses, including Yanukovych and police officials, believe these foreign elements were introduced by pro-Western factions - with CIA fingerprints on it. Remember the Chavez 'regime change'/coup of 2002 when he was temporarily ousted after pro and anti-Chavez demonstrators were fired upon by mysterious shooters in office buildings. It also resembled a similar technique early this year in Venezuela when Maduro's legally elected Government was almost toppled by violence aimed at anti-Maduro protestors. Create enough chaos, as the CIA did in Iran '53, Chile '73, and countless other coups, and the legitimate Government can be toppled. It's America's soft power technique, called 'Regime Change 101.' | |
Comment: Stone knows that right now is 'do or die' time for people with conscience, and the means to share it, to get out there and spread the truth about where the U.S. is leading the world. Big Kudos to him for putting his butt on the line.
See chapter 10 of his sprawling documentary 'Untold History of the United States':
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| Secret History |
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Owen Jarus
LiveScience 2015-01-01 12:00:00
An ancient, two-sided amulet uncovered in Cyprus contains a 59-letter inscription that reads the same backward as it does forward. Archaeologists discovered the amulet, which is roughly 1,500 years old, at the ancient city of Nea Paphos in southwest Cyprus. One side of the amulet has several images, including a bandaged mummy (likely representing theEgyptian god Osiris) lying on a boat and an image of Harpocrates, the god of silence, who is shown sitting on a stool while holding his right hand up to his lips. Strangely, the amulet also displays a mythical dog-headed creature called a cynocephalus, which is shown holding a paw up to its lips, as if mimicking Harpocrates' gesture. | |
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| Science & Technology |
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RT.com
2015-01-05 12:16:00
A potentially hazardous asteroid, at least 20 times the size of the Chelyabinsk meteorite, will approach the Earth on January 26. The rock is expected to fly by at a distance of 1.2 million kilometers. The asteroid, named 2004 BL86 by scientists, is estimated to be between 440-1,000 meters in diameter. 1.2 million kilometers is approximately three times the distance from the Earth to the Moon. According to astronomers, there is no threat of the object colliding with our planet. The Goldstone Observatory, located in California's Mojave Desert, will observe the asteroid during its approach. 2004 BL86 was discovered on January 30, 2004, by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR), responsible for the majority of asteroid discoveries from 1998 until 2005, when it was overtaken by the Catalina Sky Survey (CSS). As of mid-September 2011, LINEAR had detected some 231,082 new objects, of which at least 2,423 were near-Earth asteroids and 279 comets. A space object is considered potentially dangerous if it crosses the Earth's orbit at a distance of less than 0.05 AU (approximately 19.5 distances from the Earth to the Moon), and if its diameter exceeds 100-150 meters. Objects of this size are large enough to cause unprecedented destruction, or generate a mammoth tsunami in case they fall into the ocean. When a meteorite burst above the city of Chelyabinsk in February 2013, the impact was estimated to be equivalent to 440-500 kilotons of TNT. But the Chelyabinsk meteorite was relatively small, about 17 meters in diameter. It disintegrated with a blast at an altitude of over 20 kilometers. | |
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Stephanie M. Lee
San Francisco Chronicle 2015-01-03 19:03:00
In Austen Heinz's vision of the future, customers tinker with the genetic codes of plants and animals and even design new creatures on a computer. Then his startup, Cambrian Genomics, prints that DNA quickly, accurately and cheaply. "Anyone in the world that has a few dollars can make a creature, and that changes the game," Heinz said. "And that creates a whole new world." The 31-year-old CEO has a deadpan demeanor that can be hard to read, but he is not kidding. In a makeshift laboratory in San Francisco, his synthetic biology company uses lasers to create custom DNA for major pharmaceutical companies. Its mission, to "democratize creation" with minimal to no regulation, frightens bioethicists as deeply as it thrills Silicon Valley venture capitalists. With the latest technology and generous funding, a growing number of startups are taking science and medicine to the edge of science fiction. In the works or on the market are color-changing flowers, cow-free milk, animal-free meat, tests that detect diseases from one drop of blood and pills that tell doctors whether you have taken your medicine. | |
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RT
2015-01-04 11:41:00
A giant dark hole has appeared on the sun's flaming surface, a recently-taken NASA picture has revealed. So far, scientists are stumped by why this spectacular phenomenon, known as a "coronal hole," occurs. "The Sun starts 2015 with an enormous coronal hole near the South Pole," scientists of NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory wrote in their blog, having posted a picture of the flaming sun with a gaping dark space in its lower part. What modern science knows is that "coronal holes" are places where particles leave the sun's surface at huge speeds - of up to 500 miles per hour (800 kilometers per hour). What's still unclear is why this is happening. The sun's glowing comes from the "trapped" particles. The coronal holes "contain little solar material, have lower temperatures, and therefore, appear much darker." The first pictures of the phenomenon were taken by NASA astronauts in the early 1970s. | |
Comment: As well as this "spectacular phenomenon" on the Sun, in the past year we have seenmethane outgassing on Mars, "increasingly stormy" conditions on Uranus, increased volcanic activity on Jupiter's moon Io, scientists have been puzzled by the wobble of Saturn's moon Mimas and amajor increase in asteroid activity has seen MIT astronomers upgrade the solar system from stable to dynamic
What is causing these recent solar system-wide 'climate changes'? Could it be part of an overall 'grounding' of our solar system, caused perhaps by the close approach of the system's Twin Sun? Nemesis: Does the Sun Have a 'Companion'? | |
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Shelley M. White
Collective Evolution 2014-12-13 00:37:00
The idea that plants possess intelligence worthy of in depth exploration is an idea still largely scoffed at, despite the emergence of research suggesting otherwise. In large part, this is due to the widespread belief that "intelligence" and "brains" are inextricably connected, that the two must coexist to exist at all. The problem with this is our perception of what a "brain" is. When defining the brain, we fixate too much on the physicals, like that it exists within a skull, and not enough on the invisibles, such as how it functions. Due to this, we believe brains can only exist in lifeforms that have skulls, like humans and animals, to rest in. However, when looking deeper into the characteristics of plants, we begin to find they have impressively elegant mechanisms, ones typically reserved only for those with brains. This, of course, brings us to the regrettably too often overlooked intelligence of plants. | |
Comment: More articles on the intelligence of plants
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| Earth Changes |
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Business Standard
2015-01-06 20:32:00
At least eight persons including a woman were injured, four of them seriously when a wild boar allegedly attacked them at Lunipada and Khetri-Berhampur villages under Central forest range in Ganjam district of Odisha, officials said today. The injured persons were admitted to nearby Gobara hospital, while those in serious condition shifted to the sub divisional hospital at Bhanjanagar and MKCG Medical College and Hospital here, divisional forest officer (DFO), Ghumusara North division, Rama Swamy P, said. The boar might have attacked the people when they apparently tried to drive it away on Friday evening in order to save the standing vegetable crops in the nearby village, forest officials said. | |
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New Strait Times
2015-01-05 20:12:00
The peaceful, silent library of the Malaysia Multimedia University (MMU) today was "disturbed" by a wild boar which became trapped in the building after crashing through a glass panel of the rear door. The male animal entered the building about 1.30pm and was trapped in the library for almost two hours. Firemen from the Cyberjaya station arrived 10 minutes after the boar entered the library and told those in the building to leave. In a statement, MMU chief librarian Kamal Sujak said staff and students in the library at the time were startled to see the animal. | |
Comment: See also these similar recent reports: Wild boar creates havoc at Yonsei University, South Korea
More odd animal behaviour: Wild boar smashes into German hardware store | |
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Rebecca Quilliam
The New Zealand Herald 2015-01-05 20:11:00
A spate of strong earthquakes have struck the central South Island this morning. Four quakes measuring between 6.4 and 4.1 in magnitude hit the Methven and Arthur's Pass area between 6.48am and 6.59am. The first tremor, measuring 6.4, struck 35km north of Methven at 6.48am, GNS Science reported. Did you feel it? Do you have photos or video to share? Email us here. The tremor, which was 11km deep, was classified as severe. A southern police communications spokesman said they had not received any reports of damage. Four minutes later at 6.52am, a second quake measuring 4.1 in magnitude rocked the region. It was centred 30km west of Arthur's Pass and was 5km deep. GNS classified the quake as strong. At 6.58 a third quake, measuring 4.1 hit the same spot, GNS said. It was 5km deep. Then, a minute later at 6.59am, another strong quake hit the same location, measuring 4.2 in magnitude. It was also shallow, centred 5km deep. | |
Comment: USGS has the first earthquake as being 5.6. One wonders why USGS often has the same earthquakes recorded as being of lower magnitude than other more local geological surveys.
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Sharon Roznik
Fon du Lac Reporter 2015-01-04 18:53:00
It's not often a deer get its revenge. A man was injured Friday evening, Jan. 2, in Fond du Lac County when he was attacked by the deer that he had wounded with an arrow. The 72-year-old man was transported by ambulance to St. Agnes Hospital in Fond du Lac, according to Fond du Lac Sheriff's Officer Jeff Bonack. The ambulance call came in around 7:30 p.m. The man's condition is unknown. The man was out bow hunting earlier with a crossbow on the Peebles Trail near Highway K in the town of Taycheedah. He wounded the doe with an arrow and went back out later to track the animal, Bonack said. "Apparently the man was going through some thick brush and the deer leaped out and went after him," Bonack said. "The doe struck him in the leg with her head." The injured hunter was transported by Mount Calvary Ambulance. Bonack said the 72-year old had been out hunting with other family members. "I'm guessing the deer got away," Bonack said. | |
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A middle-aged man employed with the Chhattisgarh Forest Department died after he was attacked by a full-grown bear in the dense forests of Surjapur on Monday. According to reports, the forest official was badly mauled by the enraged bear. The man soon succumbed to injuries and died on spot. The victim was part of the forest department team that went to hunt down the bear following complaints of attack on several persons in the recent past. Some locals, who witnessed the incident, tried to shoo away the animal by shouting but in vain as nobody cold gather enough courage to go near the wild animal and save the dying man. It is claimed that the bear had attacked two more persons in the past. The bear was also shot dead by the authorities later. The victim's body has been sent for post-mortem. This is the second such incident of a wild animal attacking and mercilessly killing a human being in the recent past. Few months back, a teenage boy was attacked and killed by a tiger after he accidentally fell inside its cage in the national capital. | |
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cbc.ca
2015-01-05 16:17:00
As of 4 p.m. ET on Sunday, more than 150,000 Hydro-Québec customers were without electricity on and around the island of Montreal after freezing rain encased southern Quebec in ice. The power failures began on Sunday afternoon and affected small pockets around the greater Montreal region. However, by late afternoon the blackouts were widespread across Montreal, the Montérégie (South Shore and areas west of the island of Montreal), the Richelieu Valley and elsewhere in southern Quebec. Hydro-Québec spokeswoman Elaine Beaulieu said many of the power failures are due to fallen branches. "Our crews are presently patrolling to find out where the power outages are and trying to restore the power as soon as possible. It's mainly due to the weather conditions," Beaulieu said. Some Hydro poles and wires seemed to bow to the weight of the ice. Tree branches snapped and fell to the sidewalks and roads below in the Montreal region as the day wore on.
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| Fire in the Sky |
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Strange Sounds
2015-01-05 22:17:00
Loud booms are actually usual on New Year's Eve. However, I think that all the rockets and fireworks have already exploded two or three days after! So what are these mysterious booms heard and felt across the US in the first days of 2015? Yesterday, mystery booms have been reported across the US from Texas to North Carolina, California to Indiana and Georgia, so literally all over the country. Freaky, isn't it? Lucy banks shared on the DSW Scanner's Facebook page: "Loud booms in Euless, Texas just now lots of them started off really loud and then got quieter." On the same thread Kim Walk Prazak reports another boom in Keller, Tx. Any ideas about their origin? Jennifer Whitacker reports 2 loud booms again, the first was louder than the second in Indiana. Just remember that the New Madrid fault lies right under this state. Is the next big one around? | |
Comment: In all likelihood most of these blasts are overhead explosions of incoming space rocks and other seismic interactions brought about from our changing cosmic climate.
See: Earth Changes and the Human Cosmic Connection | |
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Michael L. Rasmussen
Sott.net 2015-01-05 20:47:00
Early morning December 28, loud booms accompanied the break-up of a large asteroid/comet fragment into hundreds of meteors over Southern Brazil, over the states of Mato Grosso do Sul, Campo Grande, Paraná and even in Paraguay. People on the ground were startled, amazed and scared by the spectacular display. Local media and 'experts' were quick to throw the 'space junk' hypothesis on the table to account for at least one of the sightings, as what looked like a charred or carbonized gas cylinder had been found in a field in Santa Rita do Pardo, about 300 km from Campo Grande. Space junk may of course fall, yet it cannot account for the increasing numbers of actual cosmic bodies raining down on us these days. The usual 'space junk did it' explanation is an obvious reaction to cover up any possible threat or omen coming from without our globe, as well as a calming agent to a very deep seated fear in the collective human psyche; the association of meteors and large scale human suffering. | |
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| Health & Wellness |
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ScienceDaily
2015-01-05 21:50:00
The roles that white fat and brown fat play in metabolism is well documented, but new research published in the January 2015 issue of the FASEB Journal presents a new wrinkle: each type of fat may change into the other, depending on the temperature. In particular, cold temperatures may encourage "unhealthy" white fat to change into "healthy" brown fat. "Fat cells can adopt a range of metabolic phenotypes, depending on physiological conditions and location in the body," said James G. Granneman, Ph.D., a researcher involved in the work from the Center for Integrative Metabolic and Endocrine Research at the Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, MI. "Our long-term goal is to harness this cellular and metabolic flexibility for the treatment of metabolic disorders linked to dysfunctional fat, such as type 2 diabetes." | |
Comment: Cold therapy enhances immune system function. In this day of superbugs, unending strains of new flu virus and ebola, it only makes sense to do everything possible to strengthen it. Cold therapy is a valuable technique for improving over all health but should be approached in a gradual way. Some helpful articles:
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Caroline Williams
The Guardian 2015-01-04 15:36:00
Barely a week goes by without a celebrity "opening up" about their "battle with depression". This, apparently, is a brave thing to do because, despite all efforts to get rid of the stigma around depression, it is still seen as some kind of mental and emotional weakness. But what if was nothing of the sort? What if it was a physical illness that just happens to make people feel pretty lousy? Would that make it less of a big deal to admit to? Could it even put a final nail in the coffin of the idea that depression is all in the mind? According to a growing number of scientists, this is exactly how we should be thinking about the condition. George Slavich, a clinical psychologist at the University of California in Los Angeles, has spent years studying depression, and has come to the conclusion that it has as much to do with the body as the mind. "I don't even talk about it as a psychiatric condition any more," he says. "It does involve psychology, but it also involves equal parts of biology and physical health." The basis of this new view is blindingly obvious once it is pointed out: everyone feels miserable when they are ill. That feeling of being too tired, bored and fed up to move off the sofa and get on with life is known among psychologists as sickness behaviour. It happens for a good reason, helping us avoid doing more damage or spreading an infection any further. It also looks a lot like depression. So if people with depression show classic sickness behaviour and sick people feel a lot like people with depression - might there be a common cause that accounts for both? | |
Comment: Start healing by eating an anti-inflammatory keto diet! See:
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Dr. Kelly Brogan, M.D.
Greenmedinfo.com 2015-01-04 23:34:00
Millions believe depression is caused by 'serotonin deficiency,' but where is the science in support of this theory?
Herein lies the serotonin myth. As one of only two countries in the world that permits direct to consumer advertising, you have undoubtedly been subjected to promotion of the "cause of depression." A cause that is not your fault, but rather; a matter of too few little bubbles passing between the hubs in your brain! Don't add that to your list of worries, though, because there is a convenient solution awaiting you at your doctor's office... What if I told you that, in 6 decades of research, the serotonin (or norepinephrine, or dopamine) theory of depression and anxiety has not achieved scientific credibility? You'd want some supporting arguments for this shocking claim. So, here you go: | |
Comment: Psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Carlat has said "psychiatry has become a proving ground for outrageous manipulations of science in the service of profit."
Listen to the SOTT podcast Good Science, Bad Science - Psychology and Psychiatry for a lively discussion on this topic: In this second in our series of shows on the topic of science and its benefits and negative consequences for mankind, we'll be taking a look at the use and abuse of psychiatry and psychology. | |
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| Science of the Spirit |
I admit it. I am a "nice-a-holic." Its hard to share this because it is embarrassing, but I have learned that I am happiest when I tell the truth, when my mouth and my heart say the same thing. My new year's resolution is to make them say the same thing always, to trust that if I tell the whole truth and do it with kindness (the real kindness which means telling the truth with integrity), that all my fears won't come true, that in fact the opposite will happen. My guess is I am not the only one who does this, and by sharing my struggles you'll be inspired how to fix yours. It's all about fear really. Being nice and saying "yes" when I mean "no," or not telling people when I am disappointed, or not holding them accountable for things they agreed to or should be doing, at work or in my personal life, causes me all sorts of problems. | |
Comment: Do you have a 'make nice' program? Dr. Hyman asks: "Can anyone relate?
Being nice when you are unhappy or disappointed or need to express what you need is a form of lying. Yet this is what I do, and what I know many do. And I am sick of doing it and the trouble it causes for me and those in my life." Dr. Hyman's statements are spot on. It is a form of lying to not express your true emotions/feelings when dealing with others. Sacrificing our true selves among family, friends and co workers just to 'make nice' and avoid conflict. Is it more important to be accepted, loved by others and thought of as 'nice' at the expense of our own mental, emotional and spiritual well being? As Dr. Hyman shares above the 'make nice program' can literally make you sick! When emotions are repressed the body responds physically. Dr. Gabor Mate addresses such topics in video lectures and his book: When the Body Says No: How Emotions Can Cause or Prevent Deadly Disease The point now is that the emotional centers of the brain, which regulate our behaviors and our responses and our reactions, are physiologically connected with - and we know exactly how they're connected - with the immune system, the nervous system and the hormonal apparatus. In fact, it's no longer possible, scientifically, to speak of these as separate systems, as if immunity was separate from emotions, as if the nervous system was separate from the hormonal apparatus. There's one system, and they're wired together by the nervous system itself and joined together by chemical messengers that they all secrete, and so that whatever happens emotionally has an impact immunologically, and vice versa. So, for example, we know now that the white cells in the circulation of our - of the blood can manufacture every hormone that the brain can manufacture, and vice versa, so that the brain and the immune system are always talking to one another.When the Body Says No: Caring for ourselves while caring for others - Dr. Gabor Maté
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Jeremy Dean
PsyBlog 2015-01-05 12:52:00
People who have a tendency to stay up late are more likely to exhibit anti-social personality traits, like narcissism and psychopathy. Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy - menacingly called 'the Dark Triad' - were all linked with the preference for late bedtimes in research published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences (Jonason et al., 2013). Dr. Peter K. Jonason, explained: "Those who scored highly on the Dark Triad traits are, like many other predators such as lions and scorpions, creatures of the night.The conclusions come from an online survey of 263 students which, along with their sleeping preferences, measured:
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| High Strangeness |
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huffingtonpost.com
2014-12-30 15:40:00
Not much of a creature, I'd say, just two really, really long legs joined somewhere above, making a little pustule of a head, but that, believe it or not, is the creature reportedly seen by a man in Ohio this 12 December. Could it be a mutant? A gray alien? A mutated gray alien? I'll leave the speculation out for the readers. The 60-year-old man who had allegedly seen the creature this 12th December, was contacted by the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), who say that it'll be interesting to find out about similar sightings in the locality. The Highland County Press published an account of the man's bizarre encounter, mentioning that it was while driving along Carmel Road in Ohio that he spotted this gray creature. |
