Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Policing comes to a stop in New York, people get along peacefully and society continues Filming Cops 2015-01-01 16:58:00 So, where's all the chaos and the murder and the children smoking meth? We are constantly reminded by State institutions, from lecture halls to mainstream "news" organizations, that if it weren't for the police out there arresting everybody, society would break down immediately. Oh there will be the motorcycle gangs with flamethrowers invading supermarkets, the wild-eyed adolescents disobeying teachers and leaving school, the religious conservatives forming new dictatorships, the horde of unwashed illegal immigrants urinating on our golf courses, the rabid murder parties and fornication spilling onto the streets, zoo animals escaping and mauling the children - the end of human civilization. Well, there has finally been a "virtual stoppage" of police activity in New York, and the people there are... reading blogs, working, buying groceries, watching netflix, waiting in lines, saying hi to strangers, checking facebook. Same as usual. It looks like they haven't murdered each other yet. Of course they haven't.

Comment: See also: Psychopaths in power: The Parasite on the Human Super-organism

Puppet Masters

U.S., Turkey agree to train terrorists - but not whom they'll fight Duygu Guvenc and Roy Gutman The News Tribune 2015-01-05 22:35:00 The United States and Turkey have agreed tentatively to start joint training of Syrian rebel fighters in March but have put off the question of defining the enemy - the government of President Bashar Assad or Islamist extremists - the Turkish Foreign Ministry said Monday. Under a memorandum of understanding, the U.S. will send about 100 military trainers to the Kirsehir-Hirfanli base in central Anatolia to train and equip up to 2,000 rebels this year, a senior official told reporters. Altogether, Turkey, Jordan and Saudi Arabia are to host training for 5,000 rebels this year and a total of 15,000 over three years, said the official, who declined to be named because this was not an official announcement. Turkey expects to conclude the deal by late January, but major questions remain open - not only about naming the ultimate foe but also how to choose the rebels and where to base them. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears to have backed down from his demand that the U.S. support a no-fly zone over northern Syria, something the Obama administration adamantly opposed. Other differences appeared to have been papered over.

Comment: Seeing how the trained 'rebels' have an unfortunate tendency of defecting to ISIS and giving them weapons, the U.S.-led coalition will in fact be helping ISIS and they will further escalate the chaos they have sown in Syria and Iraq.

Tajikistan to discontinue CIA puppet Fethullah Gulen 'schools' citing 'shadowy mission' Ayse Sahin Daily Sabah 2015-01-07 21:57:00 Saidov Nuriddin Saidovich, Tajikistan's minister of education and science, announced that they will not extend the agreement they had made with the Gülen Movement over permission to operate schools in the country, since they consider the mission of the schools belonging to the group as "shadowy." According to the local press, an official from the ministry, Rohimjon Saidov, also said there will be an end to the agreement between the Gülen Movement and the Tajik government over the schools they run in the region. Saidov added that the deal made with the education institutions in question expires in 2015 and that the country will no longer extend it. In previous statements, Saidov had said that the issue regarding the status of the schools, which the Turkish government deems as an extension of the Gülen Movement organization in Tajikistan, was being discussed with Tajik President Emomalii Rahmon. "The Gülen schools' mission is shadowy," Saidov was quoted as saying, adding that the Tajik government will not grant the schools a license unless they come to the conclusion that they had "humane purposes." "The purposes of the schools will be reviewed," Saidov had previously said. There are currently 10 schools in Tajikistan run by the movement. The first school affiliated with the group was opened in the country in 1992. For the last decade, the purposes of the schools have become a hot debate in the Turkish government. There have been numerous demands for their closure by Ankara.

Comment: Gulen's U.S.-based madrassas, which span the globe (over 600 schools, with over 4 million followers), particularly in Central Asia, are widely regarded as CIA fronts. His 'schools' are banned in Russia. All signs point towards Gulen being a key player in the creation and maintenance of the U.S.'s radical Islam groups. The following is what Sibel Edmonds had to say about Gülen's network and how it is being used in Central Asia: "He has since established more than 300 madrasahs in Central Asia and what he calls universities that have a front that is called Moderate Islam, but he isclosely involved in training mujahideen-like militia Islam who are brought from Pakistan and Afghanistan into Central Asia where his madrasahs operate, and his organization's network is estimated to be around $25 billion. He has opened several Islamic universities in the United States. As I said it's being promoted under Moderate Islam. It is supported by certain U.S. authorities here because of the operations in Central Asia, but what they have been doing since late 1990s is actually radical Islam and militizing (phonetic) these very, very young, from the age 14, 15, by commandoes they use, and this is both commandoes from Turkish military, commandoes from Pakistani ISI in Central Asia and Azerbaijan, and after that they bring them to Turkey, and from Turkey they send them through Europe, to European and elsewhere."

Paris shooters were involved with NATO's proxy war against Syria Tony Cartalucci New Eastern Outlook 2015-01-08 20:08:00 In an all too familiar pattern and as predicted, the shooters involved in the attack in Paris Wednesday, January 7, 2015, were French citizens, radicalized in Europe and exported to Syria to fight in NATO's proxy war against the government in Damascus, then brought back where they have now carried out a domestic attack. Additionally, as have been many other domestic attacks, the suspects were long under the watch of Western intelligence services, with at least one suspect having already been arrested on terrorism charges. USA Today would report in an article titled, "Manhunt continues for two French terror suspects," that: The suspects are two brothers - Said, 34, and Cherif Kouachi, 32, both French nationals - and Hamyd Mourad, 18, whose nationality wasn't known, a Paris police official told the Associated Press. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. USA Today would also report (emphasis added): The brothers were born in Paris of Algerian descent. Cherif was sentenced to three years in prison on terrorism charges in May 2008. Both brothers returned from Syria this summer. The implications of yet another case of Western-radicalized terrorists, first exported to fight NATO's proxy war in Syria, then imported and well-known to Western intelligence agencies, being able to carry out a highly organized, well-executed attack, is that the attack itself was sanctioned and engineered by Western intelligence agencies themselves. This mirrors almost verbatim the type of operations NATO intelligence carried out during the Cold War with similar networks of radicalized militants used both as foreign mercenaries and domestic provocateurs. Toward the end of the Cold War, one of these militant groups was literally Al Qaeda - a proxy mercenary front armed, funded, and employed by the West to this very day. Additionally, in all likelihood, the brothers who took part in the attack in Paris may have been fighting in Syria with weapons provided to them by the French government itself. France 24 would report last year in an article titled, "France delivered arms to Syrian rebels, Hollande confirms," that: President Francois Hollande said on Thursday that France had delivered weapons to rebels battling the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad "a few months ago." Deflecting blame for the current attack on "radical Islam" is but a canard obscuring the truth that these terrorists were created intentionally by the West, to fight the West's enemies abroad, and to intimidate and terrorize their populations at home.

Curious timing - Paris shootings occur just as Islamic State gets exposed as fake U.S. enemy Joachim Hagopian Global Research 2015-01-08 19:50:00 With information just breaking that the United States has been air dropping arms, food and medical supplies to Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) forces in Iraq, supposedly the world's latest terrorist enemy on steroids, what has been suspected all along is now being confirmed. To add fuel to the fire, this news comes just as warmonger Senator McCain got busted for secretly and illegally entering Syria to meet with ISIL to coordinate strategy on that warfront. Clearly the ISIL is an ally to the US government in both Iraq and Syria. The command headquarters operating out of the US Embassy in Baghdad has been overseeing the US military airdrops of war supplies to our purported latest enemy in various provinces throughout Iraq. Back in October the US lied about an accidental dropping of supplies that went to the Islamic State jihadists instead of to the Kurds. The strategy in Iraq is to prolong the "war" against ISIL in order to ensure that permanent US military bases there get established, something recently deposed Iraqi President Maliki refused. It wasn't so much Maliki's poor leadership that spearheaded persecution and killing of so many Sunnis during his reign of terror that caused Washington to finally pull the plug on him. It was his kicking Americans out of his country entirely at the end of 2011 that brought his US orchestrated removal from power several months ago. Just as the US Empire created al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden back in the 80's to finish off the Russians in Afghanistan, then backed al Qaeda's ethnic cleansing of Serbs in Kosovo and Bosnia, paving the way for bin Laden to play the heavy in collusion by Saudi-Israeli assistance to pull off thecoup d'etat of the century on 9/11, it all became false pretext to wage permanent war on terror. Now that the US government has torn the Middle East asunder into multiple war ravaged failed states, with these latest revelations coming out of Iraq, the US cover has been completely blown - ISIL turns out to be just another axis-of-evil Empire creation by the US-Israeli-Saudi governments. Based on these latest on the ground accounts filtering in through Iranian and Iraqi intelligence sources, those previous reports from months ago on how the United States was covertly financing and training this "new and improved" brand of Islamic State terrorism again created by the US turns out to be absolutely true.

Oil price blowback: Financial machinations aimed at Russia come home to roost Mike Whitney Counterpunch.org 2015-01-08 19:16:00 "If undercharging for energy products occurs deliberately, it also effects those who introduce these limitations. Problems will arise and grow, worsening the situation not only for Russia but also for our partners." - Russian President Vladimir Putin It's hard to know which country is going to suffer the most from falling oil prices. Up to now, of course, Russia, Iran and Venezuela have taken the biggest hit, but that will probably change as time goes on. What the Obama administration should be worried about is the second-order effects that will eventually show up in terms of higher unemployment, market volatility, and wobbly bank balance sheets. That's where the real damage is going to crop up because that's where red ink and bad loans can metastasize into a full-blown financial crisis.

Comment: The efforts intended to sink Russia are coming home to roost. Not only will the millions of people reliant on the oil industry suffer, but the follow-on effects may well devastate the global economy. The wishful thinking idiots running the US do not appear to comprehend that their ill-conceived policies are not working out quite as they planned as Putin is still winning the oil war.

Are the Paris shootings a direct result of France's foreign policy of arming rebels? Tony Cartalucci Land Destroyer Report 2015-01-08 19:23:00 Heavily armed, well-trained gunmen executed what appears to be a well-planned attack in Paris, France, killing 12, including 2 police officers. Where did these terrorists get their weapons, training, political backing, funds, and inspiration? A short timeline featuring news stories from 2011 to 2014 helps explain how France's recent national tragedy was a direct result of its own insidious, callus, terroristic foreign policy that has visited this very same carnage seen in Paris, upon the people of Libya and Syria, a thousand fold. 2011 - France supplying weapons to Libyan rebels, London Telegraph: A French military spokesman, Colonel Thierry Burkhard, said it had provided "light arms such as assault rifles" for civilian communities to "protect themselves against Col Gaddafi". But the decision to arm the rebels is a further move towards direct involvement in the land war on top of the air war against Col Muammar Gaddafi. The Nafusa rebels have come closest to breaking through to Tripoli itself of any of the front lines of the conflict, while three months of Nato bombing have failed to dislodge Col Gaddafi from power. Le Figaro, the French newspaper which first reported the air drops, said the shipment included rifles, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, along with Milan anti-tank missiles. 2011 - Libyan rebel commander admits his fighters have al-Qaeda links, London Telegraph: Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi, the Libyan rebel leader, has said jihadists who fought against allied troops in Iraq are on the front lines of the battle against Muammar Gaddafi's regime.

Bill Clinton's connections to billionaire Jeffrey Epstein: Was the former president visiting the convicted child rapist's private island to have sex with underage girls? RT 2015-01-07 04:38:00 A new lawsuit has revealed more details about former President Bill Clinton's friendship with a fundraiser who was later jailed for having sex with an underage girl - including the fact that Clinton's name was listed in the man's phone book 21 times. In the civil lawsuit complaint, Virginia Roberts alleges that she was used as a sex slave by billionaire hedge fund manager Jeffrey Epstein. She claims Epstein made her have sex with his political and business contacts, including on three occasions with British royal, Prince Andrew. The lawsuit also reveals Clinton took multiple trips between 2002 to 2005 to the billionaire's private island in the Caribbean, where underage girls were reportedly kept hidden away. Clinton severed his connections with Epstein once allegations over his illegal behavior surfaced and he was arrested back in 2005. Court documents indicate numerous phone numbers leading back to Clinton and his adviser Doug Band, though there is nothing to suggest the former president is linked to Epstein's crime or that he did anything wrong. Comment: If Clinton visited multiple times Epstein's island between 2002 and 2005 when these abuses happened, he would still be legally responsible as an eyewitness to contact law enforcers and share what he knows about these horrible crimes. Not to mention the moral obligation, although in that respect, people like Clinton or Andrew might not have the samepsychological makeup as normal human beings.

Comment: Taking into account all the information of this case, it seems a bit unlikely that Clinton, or Andrew, would not have noticed the abuse that was going on at Epstein's private island. Perhaps they have good reason for remaining silent. Read the links below and you'll see that there's very likely an international pedophile network in operation, involving many high level politicians and power-holders from different countries. The U.K. political pedophile ring scandal is just the tip of the iceberg - The full story is much more disturbing Jeffrey Epstein's journal made public, includes 97 pages of contact info for victims, celebs, UK, US, and Israeli politicians 'Slick Willy's' past can bite Hillary: Bill Clinton identified in lawsuit against his former friend and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein About 40 politicians on UK pedophile ring: Report Britain's Prince Andrews accused of having sex with underage girl - case makes its way to US court 2014: The pedophilia scandals that swallowed Britain whole UK 'Establishment': Unmasking psychopathic faces - Pedophilia and murder in VERY high places Dutroux: High-level Belgian pedophile ring ignored

What else is there to learn? CIA 'experimenting' on people in 60+ year old torture program Benjamin Page Sputnik News 2015-01-08 04:58:00 The "Torture Report" has received much heated criticism, both from human rights activists and those more concerned with national security. But the CIA was also engaged in human experimentation, raising questions about international standards of practice confirmed more than half a century ago. During the war on terror in the wake of 9/11, the CIA hired James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, two psychologists charged with developing interrogation and detention protocols for use at the Agency's "black sites." "We believe their expertise was so unique that we would have been derelict had we not sought them out when it became clear that CIA would be heading into the uncharted territory of the program," the CIA said in response to the release of the Torture Report, which names Mitchell and Jessen.

Comment: Torture has been justified by the "national security" threat of terrorism. It is alleged that torture can produce reliable intelligence that saves innocent lives from 'terrorists'. Therefore torture has been firmly embedded into the War on Terror industry. Removing the debate from this protective context is an interesting idea. But as far as justice goes, though torture might be removed from this context, the population and the courts cannot. Fed on lies for so long, Americans need this system to avoid a bitter disintegration - to be stripped of the idea that America the Beautiful is really a ravenous rapist would be too much for many people to recover from. This is one major reason few will see justice for their crimes. Obviously America has been sufficiently ponerized, along the lines of Germany following World War I: The Germans inflicted and suffered enormous pain during the first World War; they thus felt no substantial guilt and even thought they had been wronged, as they were behaving in accordance with their customary habit without being aware of its pathological causes. The need for this state to be clothed in heroic garb after a war in order to avoid bitter disintegration became all too common. A mysterious craving arose, as if the social organism had become addicted to some drug. That was the hunger of pathologically modified psychological material, a phenomenon known to psychotherapeutic experience. This hunger could only be satisfied by another personality and system of government, both similarly pathological. For a rich background to the CIA's mind control experiments check out the SOTT Blogtalk Radio interview with renowned mind control researcher Colin Ross:

Paris shooting: Who profits from killing Charlie? Pepe Escobar Asia Times Online 2015-01-08 14:43:00 Putin did it. Sorry, he didn't. In the end, it was not Russia "aggression" that attacked the heart of Europe. It was a pro-style jihadi commando. Cui bono? Careful planning and preparation; Kalashnikovs; rocket-propelled grenade launcher; balaclavas; sand-colored ammunition vest stuffed with spare magazines; army boots; piece of cake escape in a black Citroen. And the icing on the lethal cake; faultless Paris-based logistical support to pull that off.A former top French military commander, Frederic Gallois, has stressed the perfect application of "urban guerrilla technique" (where are those notorious Western counter-terrorism "experts" when one needs them?)  They might have spoken perfect French; others said it was brokenFrench. Anyway, what matters is that they uttered the magic word; "We're al-Qaeda." Better yet; they told a man in the street, "Tell the media that this is al-Qaeda in Yemen", which means, in American terror terminology, al-Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula (AQAP), which had Charlie Hebdo's editor/cartoonist Stephane Charbonnier ("Charb") on a hit list duly promoted by AQAP's glossy magazine Inspire. Accusation: "Insulting the Prophet Mohammed." And just to make sure everyone had the perpetrators implanted on their brain, the killers also said, "Allahu Akbar"; "We have killed Charlie Hebdo"; and "We have avenged the Prophet."  Case closed? Well, it took only a few hours for French police to identify the (usual?) suspects; French-Algerian brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi. The third man - the driver of the black Citroen, 18-year-old Hamyd Mourad - then turned himself in with an ironclad alibi. So the third man remains a cipher. They all wore balaclavas. The Kouachi brothers have not been captured. But the police seem to know very well who they are. Because they found an abandoned ID in the black Citroen (oh, the troubles of being a command in a rush ...) How come they didn't know anything before the carnage?

Comment: Related articles: The alleged suspects in Paris shooting were on police radar for years Former Senate Intelligence Chairman Bob Graham: Charlie Hebdo shooting associated with U.S. cover-up of Saudi involvement in 9/11 attack Paris shooting video: Are the Paris gunmen trained professionals? Operation Gladio: France armed terrorists that struck Paris Sophisticated gunpoint robbery by 'Kalashnikov-wielding, commando-looking men': Unnamed Saudi prince's convoy robbed of 200,000 Euros and 'sensitive documents' in Paris Operation Gladio Redux: At least 11 killed in shooting at Paris magazine Charlie Hebdo

Perfect timing: Germany extending air-defense mission in Turkey on Syrian border for another year StarTribune 2015-01-07 14:16:00 The German government says it plans to extend for another year its troops' participation in a NATO air-defense mission in Turkey operating Patriot missile batteries near the Syrian border. Chancellor Angela Merkel's Cabinet on Wednesday approved plans to extend Germany's participation in the so-called "Active Fence" mission to January 31, 2016, with a maximum of 400 soldiers. Some 240 German soldiers are currently deployed. The decision must be approved by parliament. Germany, the Netherlands and the U.S. each committed two Patriot batteries to help guard the Turkish border in January 2013. Since then other NATO nations have contributed personnel as well. Comment: Despite such a well guarded border, those damned ISIS members always manage to get through. American-Lebanese PressTV reporter Serena Shim was murdered for what she saw and knew about ISIS using NGO vehicles to cross the border from Turkey into Syria. What she knew was probably just the tip of the iceberg. The report titled, "'IS' supply channels through Turkey," confirms what has been reported by geopolitical analysts since at least as early as 2011 - thatNATO member Turkey has allowed a torrent in supplies, fighters, and weapons to cross its borders unopposed to resupply ISIS positions inside of Syria. Germany says the Netherlands is expected to pull out its batteries at the end of the month, but Spain is planning to add one.

Comment: Is it a coincidence that both France and Germany are ramping up their efforts in the U.S.-led 'war on terror' as both announcements come amid the Paris shooting incident. Again we should ask: Who benefits?

One police officer killed during the attack in Paris was a Muslim RT 2015-01-08 13:00:00 French police have identified one of the two officers killed in the shooting attack at the offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris. The victim was a follower of Islam, media reported. The 42-year-old Ahmed Merabet was shot at point-blank range despite apparently pleading for mercy, and his death was tragically caught on camera. Merabet, a Muslim by faith, was serving as a patrolman in the 11th arrondissement, which is the district where Charlie Hebdo's office is located in Paris, the Daily Caller reported. The identity of the second officer has not been confirmed by officials, but media reports stated that he was assigned to protect the defiant editorial director of the provocative outlet, Stéphane "Charb" Charbonnier. Charbonnier was known as a staunch defender of his freedom of expression, as he dismissed both personal threats and the advice of the French government when publishing satirical cartoons deemed sensitive for believers. In 2011, Charlie Hebdo's offices were firebombed after the outlet published a spoof issue which mocked Sharia law and was "guest edited" by the Prophet Muhammad. In 2012, Charbonnier oversaw publication of an even more provocative issue on Muhammad, which showed the prophet naked and in sexual poses. The journal mocked Christianity and other religions, as well.

Comment: Operation Gladio: France armed terrorists that struck Paris The alleged suspects in Paris shooting were on police radar for years

France announced aircraft carrier for Gulf the day before attack on Charlie Hebdo Brandon Turbeville Activist Post 2015-01-07 13:33:00 While certainly not conclusive evidence that the attack on Charlie Hebdo was an "inside job," it is without a doubt very questionable that the French military announced that it will be sending an aircraft carrier to the Gulf for the alleged purpose of "fighting ISIS" the day before the barbaric terror attacks against controversial French magazine. While the two events may indeed be unrelated, such brazen attacks inside France will undoubtedly serve to drum up even more support for French military action in the Middle East. The fact that the military action was announced a full day before the attacks took place will be no matter to the few members of the general public who discover it, as support for retribution and retaliation will be given for military action retroactively. Nevertheless, As Agence France Presse reported on Tuesday January 6, The deployment of the marine battle group is due to be announced by President Francois Hollande when he gives his annual new year's speech to the armed forces on board the Charles de Gaulle on January 14, according to the "Mer et Marine" news site. The Elysee Palace confirmed to AFP that the carrier would travel to the Gulf on its way to India, where it is due to take part in exercises in mid-April. "The Charles de Gaulle will be available to participate, if necessary, in all operational missions", the Elysee spokesman said. According to Mer et Marine, the Charles de Gaulle carrier will travel to the Gulf with its fleet of air and naval craft, including Rafale and Super Etendard fighter jets and an attack submarine, to take part in the US-led bombing campaign against IS forces in Iraq. Interestingly enough, the suspects in the attack are two French citizens of Algerian decent who were recruited for and trained in the battlefields of Iraq and Syria. These individuals are thus recipients of French, NATO, and American support, aid, weapons, training, and ultimately outright directives in their use as a proxy army against the secular government of Bashar al-Assad. This should come as no surprise to those who study the nature of color revolutions and, more specifically, the use of terrorist organizations by national governments for political purposes. After all, it should be remembered that, when the French people and even some French parliamentarians were hesitant to engage in military action in Iraq, ISIS released a video of an alleged beheading of a Frenchman, which provided justification for French involvement. This was the third video in a series that prompted justification for action from each of the "target" countries.

Comment: Related articles: The alleged suspects in Paris shooting were on police radar for years Former Senate Intelligence Chairman Bob Graham: Charlie Hebdo shooting associated with U.S. cover-up of Saudi involvement in 9/11 attack Paris shooting video: Are the Paris gunmen trained professionals? Operation Gladio: France armed terrorists that struck Paris Sophisticated gunpoint robbery by 'Kalashnikov-wielding, commando-looking men': Unnamed Saudi prince's convoy robbed of 200,000 Euros and 'sensitive documents' in Paris Operation Gladio Redux: At least 11 killed in shooting at Paris magazine Charlie Hebdo

The alleged suspects in Paris shooting were on police radar for years Brian Ries Mashable 2015-01-07 10:01:00 French police officials have identified three men as suspects in the deadly terror attack at the Paris offices of the Charlie Hebdo newspaper. One of the men, 34-year-old Cherif Kouachi, was convicted on terrorism charges in 2008. Two of the suspects, brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi, 32, are French nationals who were born to Algerian parents in Paris. The nationality of a third man, Hamid Mourad, 18, is unknown; police believe he is a high school student. Their names circulated on Facebook and Twitter for an hour before French authorities confirmed that the Kouachi brothers had been identified. Comment: Note also that the 3 suspects were identified after one of them allegedly left his ID card in their abandoned getaway car. Are these guys just patsies? Charlie Hebdo Paris shooting: Three prime suspects 'identified after one leaves ID card in abandoned getaway car' But it has now emerged that the suspected terrorists have been identified after one of the brothers left his ID card in the Citroën C3 they abandoned as they escaped. It was also reported that two of the machine gun-wielding murderers went to the wrong office in the minutes before the raid on the headquarters of Charlie Hebdo. After being told by two maintenance workers that the correct location was two doors over, the men are reported to have killed one of the duo before launching their attack on the magazine. One of the officials who spoke to the Associated Press said they were linked to a Yemeni terrorist network. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to publicly discuss the sensitive and ongoing investigation. The older brother was arrested in Paris in January 2005 when he was caught trying to fly to Damascus, Syria, on his way to join the Iraqi insurgency, according to a 2008 Bloomberg report.Cherif Kouachi reportedly told a court that he was inspired by detainee abuse by U.S. troops at Baghdad's infamous Abu Ghraib prison, though he was relieved he was stopped, according to the Bloomberg report. A 2005 Pittsburgh Tribune Review report, citing Kouachi's lawyer, said the would-be terrorist was not religious, drank alcohol, smoked marijuana, had premarital sex with his girlfriend and had a job delivering pizzas. At the time, Kouachi had learned "the basics" on how to handle Kalashnikovs, Le Monde reported. He was convicted in 2008 of terrorism charges for helping funnel fighters to Iraq's insurgency and given a three-year sentence, half of which was suspended. It isn't immediately clear if he had traveled back to the Middle East since he was identified in connection with the attack. Ironically, in 2008, his name again surfaced in an International Herald Tribunestory detailing how security analysts decided their fears over foreign fighters returning to Europe were "overblown." By then, Kouachi was a fishmonger. He then dropped off the grid, only to surface on Wednesday, officials say, in the attack that killed 12 innocent people - eight journalists, two police officers, a receptionist and a guest of a cartoonist.

Comment: Were suspects named in the Paris terror attack trained in Syria? Two of the suspects Said Kouachi and Cherif Kouachi are reportedly brothers, Franco/Algerians who came back from Syria this summer. Related articles: Former Senate Intelligence Chairman Bob Graham: Charlie Hebdo shooting associated with U.S. cover-up of Saudi involvement in 9/11 attack Paris shooting video: Are the Paris gunmen trained professionals? Operation Gladio: France armed terrorists that struck Paris Sophisticated gunpoint robbery by 'Kalashnikov-wielding, commando-looking men': Unnamed Saudi prince's convoy robbed of 200,000 Euros and 'sensitive documents' in Paris Operation Gladio Redux: At least 11 killed in shooting at Paris magazine Charlie Hebdo

Former Senate Intelligence Chairman Bob Graham: Charlie Hebdo shooting associated with U.S. cover-up of Saudi involvement in 9/11 attack Sputnik 2015-01-08 03:00:00 The US government's cover-up of Saudi Arabia's role in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks are associated with the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris, former Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman told Sputnik on Wednesday. "The association is, Saudi Arabia has legitimately received the message by our United States cover-up of their role in 9/11, that they have impunity, that they can act as they want without sanction. It has allowed them to provide financial support first for al-Qaeda, then for groups like al-Shabaab, and now for ISIS [the Islamic State]," Bob Graham told Sputnik. The cover-up has led Saudi Arabia to promoting the most extreme form of Sunni Islam, Wahhabism, former Senate Intelligence Chairman added. Graham led the 2002 Senate investigation into the 9/11 attacks when he served as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. He is currently campaigning for a Senate bill to declassify 28 pages of the 2002 Senate report which allegedly documents Saudi involvement in providing material and financial support to the hijackers who attacked the United States. Three gunmen attacked the office of a weekly French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday morning, killing 12 people. No terrorist group has yet claimed responsibility for the Charlie Hebdo attack.

Comment: See also: Operation Gladio Redux: At least 11 killed in shooting at Paris magazine Charlie Hebdo

EU showdown: Greece takes on the Vampire Squid Ellen Brown The Web of Debt Blog 2015-01-06 02:33:00 Greece and the troika (the International Monetary Fund, the EU, and the European Central Bank) are in a dangerous game of chicken. The Greeks have been threatened with a "Cyprus-Style prolonged bank holiday" if they "vote wrong." But they have been bullied for too long and are saying "no more." A return to the polls was triggered in December, when the Parliament rejected Prime Minister Antonis Samaras' pro-austerity candidate for president. In a general election, now set for January 25th, the EU-skeptic, anti-austerity, leftist Syriza party is likely to prevail. Syriza captured a 3% lead in the polls following mass public discontent over the harsh austerity measures Athens was forced to accept in return for a €240 billion bailout. Austerity has plunged the economy into conditions worse than in the Great Depression. As Professor Bill Black observes, the question is not why the Greek people are rising up to reject the barbarous measures but what took them so long. Ireland was similarly forced into an EU bailout with painful austerity measures attached. A series of letters has recently come to light showing that the Irish government was effectively blackmailed into it, with the threat that the ECB would otherwise cut off liquidity funding to Ireland's banks. The same sort of threat has been leveled at the Greeks, but this time they are not taking the bait.

Comment: Yup, 2015 sure looks like it will be an interesting ride. 10 key events that preceded the last financial crisis are happening again

Society's Child

Hungry in America: Ten cities where a shocking number of people don't have enough food Alex Henderson Alternet 2015-01-07 22:21:00 "Hunger" is a word that is often used in connection with poor developing countries, but it is also a word that has become increasingly common in the United States - where, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 49.1 million households experienced food insecurity at some point in 2013. And newly released figures by the U.S. Conference of Mayors serve as additional proof of just how dire the problem remains as the U.S. continues to grapple with the fallout of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s. On December 11, the U.S. Conference of Mayors released its 32nd Annual Report on Hunger and Homelessness. The report covered 25 American cities: 71% of them said that the number of requests for emergency food assistance had increased in the last year, while only 25% said that requests for emergency food assistance had decreased. And 84% of the cities surveyed expected emergency food requests to increase in 2015, but many food banks may not have the resources to meet those requests. Helene Schneider, mayor of Santa Barbara and co-chair of the Task Force on Hunger and Homelessness, warned in the report that Congress will increase hunger in U.S. cities if it defunds federal anti-hunger programs: the report found that in eight of the 25 cities, at least 20% of the emergency food being distributed came from federal funding (in Los Angeles, it was 51%). And if Republicans step up their attacks on food stamps and federal anti-hunger programs after retaking the U.S. Senate in January, hunger in American cities will likely worsen. Comment: It doesn't matter if the psychopath is Republican or Democrat. They do not have the emotional capability to empathize with anyones' suffering. Below are ten U.S. cities in which an appalling number of Americans are going hungry. 1. Memphis In 2010, a study by the Food Research Action Center declared Memphis to be the hunger capital of the U.S. and found that 26% of its residents had suffered from food insecurity at some point during the previous 12 months. And four years later, Memphis had the worst hunger problem of the 25 cities examined in the U.S. Conference of Mayors' new report: 46% of the requests for emergency food assistance in Tennessee's largest city - almost half - were being unmet. Food pantries in Memphis are overwhelmed with requests, and according to the report, they are having a hard time "securing funds to purchase the food needed to meet the need." Unemployment, low wages and poverty were cited as the main causes of hunger in Memphis, where the official unemployment rate is 7.5% and 26.2% of its residents are living below the poverty line. And the Conference of Mayors noted that in 2015, "city officials expect requests for food assistance to increase moderately and resources to provide food assistance to decrease moderately."

Comment: New year, same social sickness in the U.S.

Canadian radio host Jian Ghomeshi facing new charges of sexual assault as questions about CBC cover-up continue Andrea Hopkins Yahoo 2015-01-08 22:21:00 Canadian radio star Jian Ghomeshi was charged with three more counts of sexual assault in a court appearance on Thursday in a widening sex scandal that has prompted suspensions at the country's national public broadcaster. The three new charges, linked to three more women, bring the total number of charges facing Ghomeshi to eight and the number of complainants to six. A publication ban prevents naming any of the women. The Canadian Broadcasting Corp fired Ghomeshi as host of Q, an internationally syndicated CBC Radio music and arts program, in October. The CBC said it had seen graphic evidence that he had injured a woman in what Ghomeshi said were consensual sex acts involving bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism. Ghomeshi, 47, who interviewed a long roster of A-list celebrities including Woody Allen, Barbra Streisand and Paul McCartney in seven years at the helm of Q, initially defended his sexual tastes as a "mild form of 'Fifty Shades of Grey'," referring to the bestselling erotic novel.

Comment: From the BBC to CBC, it's appears that many large media organizations, and the executives that run them, are more concerned with their ratings and bottom-line than in protecting women and children from predators that work for them.

Father arrested for hosting Playboy-themed party for 18-year-old daughter Edward Sifuentes U-T San Diego 2015-01-03 22:01:00 Sheriff's deputies arrested a homeowner as they broke up a large house party in Poway where underage people were allegedly drinking Friday night, authorities said. Deputies were called to a home on Avenida Del Valle near Avenida La Valencia at 10:30 p.m. about underage drinking at a party, said sheriff's Sgt. Angela Pearl. When the deputies arrived, they saw minors walking up and down the street, some of them carrying alcoholic beverages, the sergeant said. The deputies found a 17-year-old boy passed out in a bathroom and a 19-year-old passed out in a closet. Both of them were turned over to their parents. There were about 150 to 200 people at the party, she said. A resident at the home, Jeffrey Lake, 48, was arrested on charges of violating the city's "social host" ordinance, Pearl said. The law makes it illegal to provide an environment where underage drinking takes place, regardless of who provides the alcohol. Lake is an attorney who has handled medical marijuana cases and ran unsuccessfully for the Poway City Council in 2004. Minors found to be drinking at the gathering were released to their parents, the sergeant said. The resident will also be charged $3,600 to recover the department's expenses during the call, including the deputies' time, authorities said. Pearl said five deputies and a sheriff's helicopter responded to the call.

Comment: It's a sad state of our society when the sexualization of our children has pervaded to even the parents of our children.

Lawyer: Dad accused of tossing girl off bridge acted strange Tamara Lush Charlotte Observer 2015-01-08 21:36:00 The man accused of throwing his 5-year-old daughter off a bridge early Thursday had been acting strangely hours before, calling his attorney "God" and asking her to translate a Bible in Swedish, according to sheriff's documents. Attorney Genevieve Torres said she met with John Jonchuck on Wednesday to discuss the custody case for his 5-year-old daughter, Phoebe, who was found dead in Tampa Bay after police said he tossed her into the water. Torres was so worried about Jonchuck and Phoebe that she reported the odd statements to police. They interviewed Jonchuck and his daughter as he was picking her up from a church day care and both appeared to be in good health. Jonchuck said he didn't want to harm himself or anyone else, the documents said. "She was smiling and appeared healthy, properly clothed and happy," according to the documents. A little more than twelve hours later, police said Jonchuck threw his daughter over a bridge.

Comment: Such a terrible tragedy!

Policewoman gunned down just outside Paris Yahoo 2015-01-08 21:10:00 Police are hunting a gunman who shot dead a policewoman and seriously hurt a street sweeper in the second "terrorist act" in France in as many days. The attacker wore a bullet-proof vest and carried a handgun and automatic rifle in the shooting in Montrouge just south of Paris on Thursday morning. But there were no indications so far it was linked to Wednesday's attack on the Paris office of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo that left 12 people dead, including two police officers. The latest shooting happened after police and maintenance workers were called to the scene following a traffic accident involving a grey Clio just before 8am (7am UK time). The gunman opened fire and the trainee policewoman - who was around 20 - was shot dead. A street sweeper was seriously injured. Witness Ahmed Sassi, 38, who was watching from his kitchen window, said it was "a scene of panic".He said he saw "a police officer standing in the road. A man with dark clothes shot them at point blank range, while continuing to run." The shooting is now being treated as a "terrorist act" by the French authorities. Security forces detained a man soon afterwards but he was not the shooter, police said.

Plane lands safely at Heathrow after declaring urgent safety condition Simon Calder The Independent, UK 2015-01-08 20:01:00 The aircraft landed without problem at 5.26pm, and passengers disembarked as normal A British Airways Dreamliner has touched down safely at Heathrow after declaring a "pan" - a level of urgency short of a full-scale emergency. It is believed one of the engines had been shut down. Flight BA103, a routine service to Calgary, had taken off from the airport shortly after 4pm with 213 passengers on board. The Boeing 787 had travelled about 120 miles north-west and was over Derbyshire at a height of 35,000 feet when it turned around to return to the London area. The jet flew circuits over Buckinghamshire in order to burn fuel before landing. It is understood the captain declared a "pan", indicating an urgent safety concern but not a full-scale emergency that a mayday call would signify. In a statement, British Airways said: "The flight crew requested a priority landing as a precaution".

Comment: See also these other recent reports: Panicking passengers refuse to re-board AirAsia plane after engine stops with loud bang on Surabaya airport runway Plane bursts tyre upon landing at Rio de Janeiro airport Philadelphia-Manchester flight is forced to make emergency landing after flames appear under the plane UK EasyJet flight makes emergency landing after pilot declares medical emergency Air Asia plane overshoots runway in the Philippines Thai Airways flight to London dumps fuel and returns to Bangkok due to 'hydraulic leak' Problems with another Air Asia aircraft: Flight AK6242 makes emergency landing due to technical difficulties SOTT EXCLUSIVE: Year of the planes: Cluster of plane problems as 2014 comes to a close

Mark of the Beast: Torture advocates outnumbered critics 2-to-1 on T.V. news Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting 2015-01-07 00:00:00 A new FAIR study finds that torture defenders outnumbered critics of torture by nearly 2 to 1 in TV news coverage of the Senate Intelligence Committee report released on December 9. FAIR surveyed the guests of nine news programs for the week of December 7 to December 14, whendiscussion of the torture report's findings was most prominent. The programs included the Sunday talk shows (NBC's Meet the Press, CBS's Face the Nation, ABC's This Week, Fox News Sunday and CNN's State of the Union) along with four weekday news shows (MSNBC's Hardball, Fox's Special Report, the first hour of CNN's Situation Room and the PBS NewsHour). Of the 104 guests discussing the topic on these shows, 53 expressed a discernible opinion either for or against the use of torture. Thirty-five of those who took a position, or 66 percent, were supportive of torture. This included a few individuals who claimed to be against "torture," but defended interrogation methods such as waterboarding and other "enhanced interrogation techniques" that are recognized as torture under US and international law. Only 18 guests (34 percent) articulated clear opposition to the CIA's torture practices--about half as many as spoke up in defense of torture.

Comment: One has to wonder whether or not the majority of news outlets received 'directives' from on high about who and how to cover the story of CIA-implemented torture. Or whether most of the individuals interviewed and doing the interviewing simply have no conscience and have acquiesced to the most base parts of their nature - if they aren't in fact completely psychopathic altogether. Whatever the relative truth is here, one thing is clear, the greater message being communicated by the major media is that torture is permissible and justified, period. And in that sense we can say that the greater influence that they are attempting to impart on their viewers is that it is appropriate to take a psychopathic mind-set in regards to torturing another human being.

The Saker: I am NOT Charlie The Saker Vineyardsaker.net 2015-01-08 19:32:00 Okay, let's be clear. I am not Muslim. I oppose terrorism. I don't even support the death penalty. I loathe Takfirism. I oppose violence as a means to make a political or ethical point. I fully support freedom of speech, including critical speech and humor. But this morning I am most definitely NOT Charlie. In fact, I am disgusted and nauseated by the sick display of collective hypocrisy about the murders in France. Here is why: Charlie Hebdo for the Darwin Awards The folks at Charlie Hebdo had it coming. Here is what I wrote about them in September 2012 when they published their famous caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed: Worthy of the Darwin Awards, if you ask me. Excellent, the "gene pool" of the French "caviar-Left" badly needs some cleaning". Today I fully stand by my words. Let me ask you this: what would be the point of, say, taking a nap on train tracks? You don't have to "agree" with the train which will run you over, but it still will, won't it? What about taking a nap on train tracks specifically to make a point? To prove that the train is bad? To dare it? To make fun of it? Would that not be the height of stupidity? And yet, that is *exactly* what Charlie Hebdo did. I would even argue that that his how Charlie Hebdo made it's money, daring the "Muslim train" to run them over. You think I am exaggerating? Check out the caricature which one of the folks who got murdered yesterday had just posted. The text reads: "Still no terrorist attacks in France - Wait, we have until the end of January to send you are best wishes". The crazy person shown in the drawing is packing a Kalashnikov and wearing an Afghan "Pakol" - the typical "crazy Muslim" in Charlie Hebdo's world. Talk about a stupid dare...

Comment: See also: Are the Paris shootings a direct result of France's foreign policy of arming rebels? Paris shooting: Who profits from killing Charlie? The alleged suspects in Paris shooting were on police radar for year Operation Gladio: France armed terrorists that struck Paris

Men who take more selfies have higher than average narcissistic, psychopathic traits - study Dina Rickman The Independent, UK 2015-01-07 17:57:00 Men who take more selfies have higher than average traits of narcissism and psychopathy, a study from academics at Ohio State University has found The research, published in the journal of Personality and Individual Differences, looked at 800 men between the ages of 18-40 who completed an online survey about how many photos they posted on social media, and another questionnaire looking at their personality traits. It also found men who edited their selfies before posting them were more likely to have traits of narcissism but editing selfies was not linked to psychopathic traits. Professor Jesse Fox, the study's lead author, said while it may not be surprising that men who spend a lot of time posting selfies and editing them are more narcissistic, it had not yet been confirmed in a scientific research. For Fox, the "more interesting finding" was that selfie-obsessed men had more psychopathic traits and self-objectified, which means valuing oneself primarily on the basis of appearance. "We know that self-objectification leads to a lot of terrible things, like depression and eating disorders in women," Fox said. "With the growing use of social networks, everyone is more concerned with their appearance. That means self-objectification may become a bigger problem for men, as well as for women."

Comment: Taking selfies is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to learning about and identifying psychopaths and narcissists. For a better understanding of the psychopath and their effects on society, a must read is Political Ponerology by Andrew M. Lobaczewski. See following article for an introduction: Political Ponerology: A Science on The Nature of Evil adjusted for Political Purposes

First order of business: Congress undermines solvency of Social Security Michael Hiltzik Los Angeles Times 2015-01-06 21:21:00 Well, that didn't take long. As one of its first orders of business upon convening Tuesday, the Republican House of Representatives approved a rule that will seriously undermine efforts to keep all of Social Security solvent. The rule hampers an otherwise routine reallocation of Social Security payroll tax income from the old-age program to the disability program. Such a reallocation, in either direction, has taken place11 times since 1968, according to Kathy Ruffing of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. But it's especially urgent now, because the disability program's trust fund is expected to run dry as early as next year. At that point, disability benefits for 11 million beneficiaries would have to be cut 20%. Reallocating the income, however, would keep both the old-age and disability programs solvent until at least 2033, giving Congress plenty of time to assess the programs' needs and work out a long-term fix.

Comment: These politicians are well aware of what they are doing and could not care less. Most are extremely wealthy and as such have no real understanding of the struggles that most Americans face in their daily battle to keep afloat financially. In all likelihood, many of them have psychopathic tendencies which render them incapable of empathy. And, it does not matter whether they are Democrats or Republicans as their only motivation stems from greed and the hunger for power. Chris Hedges: Sacrificing the vulnerable, from Gaza to America

Phyllis Schlafly: Campus sex assault is on the rise because too many women go to college Luke Brinker Salon 2015-01-08 04:15:00 The college-educated Schlafly thinks colleges should reduce the number of women they admit Conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly is worried that college campuses are populated by too many women, a phenomenon she insinuated has contributed to increased sexual assault on campus. In a Monday column for the far-right website World Net Daily, the longtime anti-feminist crusader lamented the declining portion of university enrollments accounted for by men. Schlafly - BA and JD, Washington University in St. Louis; MA, Radcliffe College - argued that it may even be time to implement quotas to ensure that men constitute at least half of a college's enrollment. "Long ago when I went to college, campuses were about 70 percent male, and until 1970 it was still nearly 60 percent," Schlafly wrote. "Today, however, the male percentage has fallen to the low 40s on most campuses." Never one to shirk victim-blaming, Schlafly proceeded to link the problem of campus sexual assault to the increased enrollment of women in postsecondary institutions. "Boys are more likely than girls to look at the cost-benefit tradeoff of going to college," Schlafly asserted. "The imbalance of far more women than men at colleges has been a factor in the various sex scandals that have made news in the last couple of years." With so many women around, what do you expect a college man to do - seek consent!?

Three out of five Americans don't have savings to cover unexpected expenses Tyler Durden Zerohedge.com 2015-01-07 11:52:00 While various CNBC anchors may be willing to say that the US is "growing gangbusters" yet again confusing the liquidity-oozing equity markets with the economy, there are a couple hundred million Americans who would bet to differ (which incidentally may also explain why the Comcast channel no longer wishes to have its viewership calculated by Nielsen): the reason is that according to the latest Bankrate survey released today, more than three in five Americans don't have money in their savings accounts to cover any unexpected bills such as a $500 car repair or a $1,000 emergency room visit. In fact, only 38% of respondents said they have enough funds in their bank accounts to cover even the most mundane of spending emergencies... Most others would need to take on debtor cut back elsewhere. As the WSJ reports, citing Bankrate banking analyst Claes Bell, "a solid majority of Americans say they have a household budget but too few have the ability to cover expenses outside their budget without going into debt or turning to family and friends for help." The survey found that an unexpected bill would cause 26% to reduce spending elsewhere, while 16% would borrow from family or friends and 12% would put the expense on a credit card. The remainder didn't know what they would do or would make other arrangements. Ok, so clearly more than half of Americans not only cannot budget more than a few months down the road, but is living pay-check to pay-check: hardly a surprise.

Strange black substance invades Chicago train station LeeAnn Shelton Chicago Sun-Times 2015-01-06 00:56:00 Comment: One has to wonder, if it was a burst pipe that caused this, just why was the water black? The bitterly cold weather may be to blame for a burst pipe that spilled dark-colored water onto part of Union Station Tuesday afternoon. Train service was not affected. BREAKING: Mystery substance pouring out of ceiling in Union Station near Metra's south concourse. @OnTheMetrapic.twitter.com/GpvxZW0Bff - Ben Bradley (@BenBradleyABC7) January 6, 2015 The pipe leading to a sprinkler in the south concourse of Union Station burst about 3:15 p.m., Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said. "There was an issue perhaps related to the extreme cold in the station that caused the pipe to break," Magliari said. Union Station leak has stopped, crews working to clean up "mystery liquid" in Metra's south concourse. pic.twitter.com/w5nhmX27WU - Ben Bradley (@BenBradleyABC7) January 6, 2015 Crews cleaned up the spill within 15 minutes, and there was no impact on train service during the afternoon rush, he said.

Secret History

No new articles.

Science & Technology

Cyborg-style implant could allow paralyzed to walk again Sarah Knapton The Telegraph 2015-01-08 22:11:00 Paralysed patients have been given new hope of recovery after rats with severe spinal injuries walked again through a 'groundbreaking' new cyborg-style implant. In technology which could have come straight out of a science fiction novel or Hollwood movie, French scientists have created a thin prosthetic ribbon, embedded with electrodes, which lies along the spinal cord and delivers electrical impulses and drugs. The prosthetic, described by British experts as 'quite remarkable', is soft enough to bend with tissue surrounding the backbone to avoid discomfort. Paralysed rats who were fitted with the implant were able to walk on their own again after just a few weeks of training. Researchers at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne are hoping to move to clinical trials in humans soon. They believe that a device could last 10 years in humans before needing to be replaced.

Comment: While this would be a fantastic advancement towards allowing those paralyzed to walk again, it should be concern to have a one's body connect to an implant that mimics the body's most sensitive area, the spine and brain. This will only further blur the line between man and machine, and while some will say it is worth it to be able to cure paralysis, it's worth considering the ramifications of such an invention.

NASA releases 3-D imagery of superstar Eta Carinae Brooks Hays UPI 2015-01-08 21:53:00 Some 8,000 light-years from the sun, there lies Eta Carinae, a massive, unstable stellar system featuring two stars locked in a violent orbital tussle. It's the most luminous star system within 10,000 light-years of our solar system. This week, NASA unveiled new imagery of the two-star struggle, allowing viewers to explore Eta Carinae in 3-D, from the inside out.

Adding extra second to 2015 could cause computer chaos Andrew Griffin The Independent 2015-01-07 21:46:00 The year 2015 will have an extra second - which could wreak havoc on the infrastructure powering the internet. At 11.59 on June 30, clocks will count up all the way to 60 seconds. That will allow the Earth's spin to catch up with atomic time. The Earth's spin is gradually slowing down, by about two thousandths of a second per day, but atomic clocks are constant. That means that occasionally years have to be lengthened slightly, to allow the slowing Earth to catch up with the constant clock. But last time it happened, in 2012, it took down much of the internet. Reddit, Foursquare, Yelp and LinkedIn all reported problems, and so did the Linux operating system and programmes using Java. The reset has happened 25 times since they were introduced in 1972, but the computer problems are getting more serious as increasing numbers of computers sync up with atomic clocks. Those computers and servers are then shown the same second twice in a row - throwing them into a panic. If a computer is told to do an operation at the time that is repeated, for instance, the computer is unsure what to do. Or if an email is received in that moment, it could find its way in the wrong bit of the server. Last time, Google anticipated the problem and built a smart update, which it called "leap smear". It modified its servers so that they would add a little bit of extra time every time they were updated, so that by the time of the leap second they were already caught up with the new time. It said when it laid out the plan in 2011 that it would use the same technique in the future, when new leap seconds are announced. Leap seconds were initially added at least once a year, but have slowed since 1979. The US wants to get rid of them entirely, arguing that they cause too much disruption, but others have opposed the change. Britain, for example, has said that the leap second should stay. Getting rid of it would mean the end of Greenwich Mean Time, which is measured by the sun and would no longer be accurate.

Forecasters to use number of lightening strikes to predict supercell formation Phillip Gentry Phys.org 2015-01-08 00:00:00 A sudden jump in the number of lightning strikes inside a garden-variety thunderstorm might soon give forecasters a new tool for predicting severe weather and issuing timely warnings, according to research at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). The sudden increase in lightning is one sign a normal storm is rapidly evolving into a supercell,with a large rotating updraft - or mesocyclone - at its heart. "Supercells are more prone to produce severe weather events, including damaging straight line winds and large hail," said Sarah Stough, a UAH graduate student in atmospheric science. "Supercells also produce the strongest and most deadly tornadoes."

Comment: Considering the bizarre weather being witnessed globally, even minutes of advance warning and preparation could mean the difference between life and death for many. Here is a map showing storms around the world in the past month:

Earth Changes

Are wolves on the loose in Stockholm, Sweden? thelocal.se 2015-01-08 21:01:00 Officials in Stockholm say they have found evidence that a wolf pack has formed in the south of the city, including tracks, droppings and urine spotted when snow fell earlier this week. Animal experts believe that two wolves have made the Swedish capital their home and are currently analysing what are believed to be their droppings. The County Administrative Board of Stockholm (Länsstylrelsen), which is responsible for monitoring the movement of animals in the city, is investigating. "The collected droppings will be DNA tested and this will hopefully provide answers on whether the two wolves have been marking their territory," said Arne Söderberg, a spokesperson for Länsstylrelsen in a statement.

Man mauled to death by his own dog in Frederick, Maryland inquisitr.com 2015-01-07 19:26:00 Eugene Smith, 87, was taking down his Christmas Tree today in his Frederick County, Maryland, home when his pet pit bull attacked him, according to officials. The Frederick County Bureau of Investigations is still investigating the attack, which ended in death. Smith was pronounced dead at the hospital. Around 2:30 pm today, the Frederick County Sheriff's Department, Maryland State Police, and Frederick County Animal Control were called to the home. When they arrived, the dog was still mauling Smith. They were able to get the dog off the victim, but it was too late. At the time of the attack, the elderly man was laying on the ground, taking down the Christmas tree. Smith lived with his son and his son's fiancé. The only other person home at the time of the attack was the son's fiancé. The pit bull was a rescue dog that had been adopted by Smith in May 2014. It is unknown if the dog had displayed violent tendencies before. The attack was completely unprovoked and the 84 pound dog did not stop attacking the victim until several authorities were able to contain him.

Elderly UK couple fears they may lose their home to giant sinkhole Thomas Burrows Daily Mail 2015-01-08 17:58:00 An elderly couple fear their £210,000 bungalow could be swallowed up after a giant sink hole appeared in their front garden. Great-grandparents David Mason, 77, and his wife Sylvia, 75, first spotted a small hole by the kerb outside their home on December 30 but thought it was caused by a lorry. But the hole expanded at a 'staggering' speed and now measures 16ft by 12ft and is only a few feet away from their front door. The 3ft-deep crater was first caused by a burst water main but heavy rain meant it grew even further.

Comment: Sinkholes have been appearing with alarming regularity around the world. Many are being explained as being due to heavy rainfall after storms, or subsidence caused by some nearby disturbance, whether natural or man-made. However, combined with the numerous earth changes occurring worldwide, sinkholes provide more evidence that earth's surface appears to be breaking up. For more information on what is really causing these changes, read Pierre Lescaudron's bookEarth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection.

Violent lightning storm erupts inside Indonesia's Sinabung volcano Chris Kitching Mail Online 2015-01-05 12:29:00 This is the jaw-dropping moment a lightning storm erupted in an ash cloud as a notorious volcanospewed hot lava towards villages below. Photographer Martin Rietze's stunning photos of the volatile Sinabung volcano in Indonesia are a fascinating display of the raw beauty and frightening power of planet Earth. As the ash cloud billows into the night sky a barrage of lightning bolts crackle from deep within it - creating a mesmerising scene that looks like the entrance to the underworld. It is believed that the collision of fine ash grains in the air creates huge amounts of static electricity, resulting in a spectacular electrical storm. While it is an amazing display the 8,000ft volcano, in North Sumatra, has proven to be deadly since iterupted in 2010 after being dormant for an estimated 400 years. On this occasion some small villages were wiped out by the lava flow and many acres of farmland were buried by ash, the photographer said. Known as a pyroclastic flow, the deadly mix of burning hot ash, gas and lava can quickly blanket large areas, exterminating anything and everything in its path.

Comment: Such violent lightning storms and tornado activity at volcanoes seem to be evident of an 'electrical phenomena'. Electric universe: Previously dormant Mt Sinabung volcano in Indonesia spews river of fire, pyroclastic cloud and lightning (VIDEO) An important question is: why are volcanoes now demonstrating more electrical activity?

Atlantic storms to batter UK bringing 100mph winds and snow Julian Robinson and Claire Carter MailOnline 2015-01-08 17:34:00 Britain is bracing itself for a storm bringing gale force winds of up to 100mph, which could rip up trees, damage buildings and severely affect public transport. Two powerful Atlantic storms are set to batter the country, with winds as ferocious as those which caused misery last winter due to sweep in from this evening, forecasters have warned. When the twin storms have passed there will be no break from the severe weather, as snow is expected to fall in parts of Britain on Saturday afternoon bringing further transport chaos.

Crazy U.S. Weather: Schools close, 18-car pile-up... and that isn't even the worst of it! Sub-zero chill brings misery to the Northeast and East Coast and Phoenix sets record high of 80 degrees Daily Mail, UK 2015-01-08 16:47:00 Dangerously cold air has sent temperatures plummeting into the single digits around the U.S., with wind chills driving them even lower. Schools in Chicago, Boston and other large cities closed, unable to cope with the third day of sub-zero climes. Frostbite warnings have been reissued across the Northeast and East Coast this morning, with millions of Americans urged to avoid prolonged exposure to the cold. And meteorologists warn there is little relief in sight as an Alberta clipper rolling in from Canada, followed by another arctic surge, is set to make things worse before it gets better.

Comment: SOTT Summary Video - December 2014: Extreme Weather, Earth Changes, Fireballs, High Strangeness

Woman plunging toilet in San Diego pulls up 5 1/2-foot snake Yahoo News! 2015-01-08 02:00:00 Officials in San Diego are trying to sort out how a 5 1/2-foot snake wound up in a toilet at an office building.Stephanie Lacsa told San Diego County authorities she noticed the water level in the toilet was higher than usual when she went to the second-floor restroom Tuesday. When she plunged it, a snake popped up and flicked its tongue. She ran out, taped the door shut and called Animal Services. The department says an animal control officer found a giant Columbian rainbow boa on the floor. The snake was shedding and slightly underweight. It was taken to an animal care facility and bit a handler. If the owner doesn't show up by Friday, the snake will go to a rescue group.How it got in the toilet remains a mystery.

Man gored to death by elephant in Coimbatore, India The Hindu 2015-01-08 14:56:00 A 60-year-old man was killed in an encounter with a single male tusker during the late hours of Monday at Theethipalayam near Karadimadai, which comes under Coimbatore Range. Ramasamy and around ten others were working on a borewell in their farm, which borders the forests, when the elephant charged at the group. Ramasamy was unable to run and was gored to death. The Forest Department has issued an immediate compensation amount of Rs. 25,000. The remaining Rs. 2.75 lakh will be issued after the completion of formalities.

Nevado del Ruiz' ashes prompt closure of Colombian Airport - submarine volcano erupts near Tonga The Extinction Protocol 2015-01-08 14:37:00 The increase in the emissions of ashes from Colombia's volcano Nevado del Ruiz prompted today the closure of nearby La Nubia airport to prevent traffic congestion to and from the terminal. According to Director of the Volcano Observatory of Manizales, Gloria Cortes, the communities near the crater, the most watched over in Colombia, remain on alert because of this increase in its activity. The measure to suspend operations in the terminal was adopted to prevent any air accident because the ashes might interfere with the good functioning of plane turbines. Besides, the volcano, located between the central departments of Caldas and Tolima, continue emitting sulfure dioxide, though for the time being the situation is not serious, said Cortes as quoted by El Espectador newspaper. Located 220 km west of Bogota, is part of the volcanic strip of Los Andes, also including another 74 similar structures. Its first eruptions occurred 1.8 million years ago, in the early Pleistocene, but the most lethal explosion was registered in November, 1985, when an enormous lahar (mud and debris flow) buried the small town of Armero, in Tolima, in Lagunilla valley, where only one fourth of its 28,000 inhabitants managed to survive in the absence of early warnings or predictions. Chinchina town also suffered the impact of the phenomenon, losing nearly 2,000 inhabitants. - Prensa Latina

Comment: Seems Mother Earth is moving about again: Time-bomb? Iceland's Bardarbunga volcano eruption mystery - ground sinking below lava build-up by a foot a day Indonesia's Soputan volcano blows its top in strong, explosive eruption

Rare Harlequin duck turns up in Aberdeen, Scotland Evening Express 2015-01-05 14:05:00 Twitchers travelled hundreds of miles to a city riverbank today to catch an "exceedingly rare" glimpse of a Harlequin duck. The bird turned up at the Don Estuary at Seaton Park in Aberdeen on Saturday afternoon and has been watched closely by eagle-eyed enthusiasts ever since. Within hours of its arrival, twitchers were heading to the grassy park to watch the duck feeding in the river.

Comment: See map of animal related events for the last month below (includes unusual migrations, die-offs, strange behaviour and attacks).

Extreme cold, subzero temperatures to blast Eastern U.S. Alex Sosnowski Accuweather 2015-01-07 20:21:00 As the latest blast of arctic air settles southward, many areas in the East will have their coldest day of the winter so far on Thursday. Throughout the day Thursday, temperatures are forecast to remain below the freezing mark (32 degrees Fahrenheit) from Hatteras, North Carolina, to Atlanta; Birmingham, Alabama; Memphis, Tennessee; and Little Rock, Arkansas. The cold will persist despite sunshine. Frigid temperatures at night into Friday will raise the risk of unprotected pipes freezing and bursting. While chilly air will reach the Florida Peninsula, temperatures will stop short of a damaging frost or freeze in the central and southern counties. Farther north, the combination of dry arctic air, wind and temperatures will contribute to AccuWeather RealFeel® Temperatures remaining below zero much of the time across the Great Lakes to the Ohio Valley, New England and the interior mid-Atlantic. This will occur after RealFeel Temperatures bottom out to start the day at or below minus 30 F in the northern-tier states. In the northern states, the cold will be severe enough to bring the risk of frostbite and hypothermia to those spending time outdoors without the proper clothing. Waiting at the bus stop can not only be a painful experience, but a dangerous one. The cold has been hindering construction projects and causing school delays and closures in some locations.

Comment: Winter is here. Is a new ice age impending? Dangerous cold, snow and ice in the northern hemisphere Snow blankets the Middle East: New Ice Age around the corner? Heavy snowfall disrupts life in Nepal Strongest snowstorm for many years sweeping the Middle East Hawaii breaks 122-year old cold weather record

Fire in the Sky

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Health & Wellness

Australian pro-vaccine lobbyists trying to ban Dr. Sherri Tenpenny from speaking seminars about vaccine safety Heather Callaghan Natural Blaze 2015-01-07 21:59:00 Fresh on the heels of Australia's government effectively silencing criticism of vaccines and the promotion of homeopathic benefits, it appears a heated social media campaign has been launched to stop Dr. Sherri Tenpenny from stepping foot in Australia. Why - because she has talked about the damaging effects of vaccines. It turns out, she is set to give six seminars in March, along with a homeopath, on parenting healthy babies. Coincidentally, last year, the Australian Vaccination-Skeptics Network was literally forced to insert the word "skeptics" into their name. They also lost their charity status "after concerns it could negatively affect children's health."

Comment: It would appear that America is not the only place where the Anti vaxxer debate is a hot topic! Dr. Tenpenny a 'public health menace"? Her scheduled seminars in March, along with a homeopath, are considered 'an endangerment to public health' Why?! Because she is talking about the damaging effects of vaccines? Because she is informing the public about serious concerns based on research? Or maybe she is challenging the current medical status quo in Australia, offering important information to parents that is currently left out of the vaccination discussion. Either way the 'rousing onslaught' against Tenpenny is important to take note of, like other hotly debated topics, in the area of health and wellness, it is no surprise that she is being labeled negatively months before she is scheduled to appear in the country for seminars. If Australia's public health is really a top priority then a discussion on vaccine safety and alleged benefits, should be open for debate from both sides!

9 people contract measles after visiting Disneyland CBS LA 2015-01-07 21:34:00 At least nine people have contracted measles after visiting Disneyland parks in Orange County over the holidays, the state Department of Public Health said Wednesday. The local infected patients, who were from Alameda, Orange, Pasadena, Riverside and San Diego, range in age from 8 months to 21 years old. Just one of the infected individuals had been fully vaccinated. The California Health Department has sent out an alert, warning doctors to be on the lookout for signs of measles. Disneyland released a statement on Wednesday, addressing the issue. "We are working with the health department to provide any information and assistance we can," Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Chief Medical Officer Pamela Hymel said. "Two Utah resident cases have also been confirmed and three additional California residents are also suspected to have measles and are under investigation," Ron Chapman of the CDPH said. The confirmed and suspected patients reported visiting either Disneyland and/or California Adventure theme parks between Dec. 15 and Dec. 20 of last year, according to Chapman. "It is likely that a person infectious with measles was at one of the theme parks on these dates," he said.

Study shows a little bit of fat goes a long way to fighting staph infections RT 2015-01-07 20:11:00 It seems those extra holiday pounds could actually be good for your health. A study has found that fat cells under the skin may protect against the most prevalent type of staph infection by producing molecules that can directly kill invasive pathogens. Richard Gallo, MD, PhD, professor, and chief of dermatology at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, and his colleagues have uncovered a previously unknown role for dermal fat cells, known as adipocytes: they produce antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) that help fend off invading bacteria, such as Staphylococcus aureus and other pathogens.

HPV vaccines: 34 deaths reported in one month? Norma Erickson SaneVax, Inc 2015-01-04 16:29:00 Death reports after HPV vaccines have been filed at a rate of less than five per month since Gardasil and Cervarix were approved for use in the United States in 2006/07. The SaneVax team was shocked when the latest available update from the VAERS (vaccine adverse event reporting system) database revealed 34 death reports after HPV vaccines in a single month.  You can pretty much bet that any anomaly of this magnitude bears investigation. The SaneVax team decided to run a search for only the deaths reported after administration of HPV vaccines within the last month. 35 death reports show up (We assume one was prior to the close of the previous month's stats). The other 34 are identical reports from "a nurse via a company sales representative." To run the same search, go to www.medalerts.org and choose the HPV vaccines (HPV2, HPV4 and HPVX), death and a lower appeared on VAERS date of Oct 2014 - to run the same search our team did. You might want to take a look and see what you think.

Comment: We would not be surprised if the numbers were correct and even underestimated:Gardasil: Medical torture and child abuse by Big Pharma: There is something deeply wrong with a giant pharmaceutical company spending hundreds of millions of dollars to manipulate women and influence legislation in order to generate a revenue stream of billions of dollars a year for itself at the expense of a gullible public. Gardasil is possibly the most dangerous vaccine on the market, with the potential to injure, maim, or even kill the children who receive it. [...] Merck let 60,000 Americans die from Vioxx-related heart attacks before finally pulling the drug from the market when it could no longer deny the truth, and cold-bloodedly set aside $1.6 billion with the intention of fighting every claim for damages. Talk about psychopathic calculation!

Adopt wheat-free life for optimal health, doctors say Beth Roessner The Desert Sun 2015-01-06 10:48:00 Lou Alcalay of Palm Desert was never in poor health, but the weight did slowly creep up on him over the years. Alcalay's doctor, Dr. Joseph Scherger, advised losing some weight and suggested the book "Wheat Belly," a book advocating for the removal of wheat from everyday diet. The science within the book resonated with Alcalay, and without hesitation, he gave up all grains, and stopped drinking beer. He still eats plenty of meats, beans and dairy. Within just a few short weeks, he started noticing dramatic changes around his waistline. "The weight came off so fast," Alcalay, 84, who has maintained a 70-pound weight loss for more than a year. "I went from a size 44 waist to a size 34 waist. ... It's the most expensive diet I've ever done in my entire life. I had to get rid of all of my pants."

Comment: Check out some impressive "before and after" photos at Dr. William Davis page. For more information, read Toast was toast, or how Wheat Belly and its author changed my diet.

Calorie myths we should all stop believing Mark Sisson Mark's Daily Apple 2015-01-07 10:31:00 Many people think weight loss is simply about cutting calories. They believe that to lose weight, you must reduce calories (either eat less or burn more), to gain weight you must add calories, and to maintain weight you keep calories constant. To these folks, calories in, calories out is the only thing that matters. They usually oppose the Primal Blueprint because they assume that we "deny" the importance of calories in weight loss. Well, they're wrong. I don't deny the importance of calories. Calories absolutely count. And if someone has lost weight, they have necessarily expended more calories than they consumed. That said, there are some major misconceptions about calories, body weight, fat loss, and health. These calorie myths are often rooted in truth but presented in black-or-white terms that are useless at best, harmful at worst, and do little to help the average person lose body fat. Let's dig right in. Calories in, calories out is all you need to know Simple is nice. Simple is good. But overly simple is dangerously inaccurate, so let's break this statement down. What does "calories in" refer to? Calories in - what we eat. We can't metabolize sunlight or oxygen. We can't feast on the souls of the damned. The food we eat determines "calories in" entirely. Simple.

Comment: Don't miss Why we get fat - Gary Taubes for more information. Taubes reveals the bad nutritional science of the last century, none more damaging or misguided than the calories-in, calories-out model of why we get fat, and the good science that has been ignored, especially regarding insulin's regulation of our fat tissue. He also answers the most persistent questions: Why are some people thin and others fat? What roles do exercise and genetics play in our weight? What foods should we eat, and what foods should we avoid?

Mind over matter: Thinking about exercise can regulate muscle strength Jonathan Benson Natural News 2015-01-06 15:17:00 For some people, having the discipline just to make it to the gym is half the battle in staying fit. But new research suggests that the simple act of thinking about working out without actually doing it may be enough to tone muscle and even promote muscle growth. Researchers from Ohio University discovered this after testing the power of intentional thought on a group of volunteers. Two groups of participants were given wrist casts for four weeks, immobilizing the use of one hand, with one of the groups told to sit and think intensely about working out for 11 minutes daily, five days a week.

SOTT Exclusive - The ultimate dietary terror threat in 2015: Red meat (again) Doug DiPasquale Sott.net 2015-01-06 04:29:00 Where food science and dietetics are concerned, there has been a major hate-on for red meat in the mainstream media and academia since the 1950s. And when you scrutinize the issue, as I have done, you find that there is no (and has never been) solid reasoning behind it. But, with their constant need to acquire grants or sell headlines, or simply justify their own existence, these people need an enemy. Red meat seems to fit the bill, at the moment. Think of it as the ISIS of your dinner plate. This all goes back to the ridiculous hubub that started in the 1950s when seemingly clear-headed nutritional scientists decided to ignore all their schooling (and rational thought) to lend their support to really shoddy science "showing" how saturated fat was related to heart disease. I won't go into the nitty-gritty of it here (there are ample expositions of this story already). The public's perception of red meat never really recovered from that, and the "beat 'em when they're down" media continue to relentlessly take shots at their victim. Pair this ancient knack for blaming scapegoats with the politically-correct trending mythology of the necessity of a "plant-based diet" and you've got the perfect recipe for a 'bad guy' to end all 'bad guys'. Truth be damned: red meat is Hitler (props to Fox News for that one).

Researchers find that electronics in children's bedrooms negatively affects sleep Andrew M. Seaman Reuters 2015-01-08 02:02:00 Parents concerned about their children not getting enough sleep may want to remove televisions and other small electronics from the kids' bedrooms, according to a new study. Children who slept with televisions or other small-screened devices in their bedrooms ended up getting less sleep than children without those electronics in the room, researchers found. "While more studies are needed to confirm our results, we know that too much screen time is bad for children's health in multiple ways," said Jennifer Falbe, the study's lead author from the University of California, Berkley. Past studies found that having televisions in kids' bedrooms is tied to less sleep (see Reuters Health story of April 14, 2014 here: reut.rs/1FbfcBj.) Less sleep is ultimately tied to other issues, including obesity and academic performance. But few studies have looked at the presence of other small electronics in bedrooms, the researchers write in the journal Pediatrics.

Comment: Parents and children would be best served by keeping electronics out of the bedroom altogether, especially television, and turning smaller electronics off when going to bed.

Science of the Spirit

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High Strangeness

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Don't Panic! Lighten Up!

Unwind by winding - Japan's unique cotton-spinning bar Sumitra Oddity Central 2015-01-05 03:06:00 Contrary to what its name suggests, 'Tokyo Cotton Village' isn't a rural settlement of cotton farmers, but a bar located in the heart of Japan's capital city, in Setagaya Ward. The one-of-a-kind establishment allows its patrons to experience spinning cotton, which is supposedly a relaxing activity. The service is available for free to anyone who orders a drink - they get to enjoy spinning threads of wamen, a type of cotton that's cultivated in Japan. The airy texture of wamen is believed to calm the mind and relax the body. The concept is a big hit with customers, many of whom visit the bar several times a week. "Getting absorbed in [spinning threads] lets me forget bad things that happened at work," said Yoshiko Jimura, 32, who visits at least twice a week. "This is a precious time for me to change my mood. "It is interesting because seeds turn into threads," added Yoshio Suzuki, 45.