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Fort Russ
2015-01-28 21:43:00
Two installations of "Tochka U" today left the airfield at Kramatorsk, in the direction of Druzhkovka. Firing positions were between Kramatorsk and Druzhkovka near the village of Kamyshevakha. Rumble at startup and the flying missiles were seen and heard by the residents of Konstantinovka, Druzhkovka, Alekseev-Druzhkovka and several other settlements. The direction of launch: Donetsk, Gorlovka. The first launch was made at 16:00, the second at 18:30. Due to outdated components of the missiles and not without the help of providence (God is still with us!), both missiles had not reached their targets, having broken off in the sky in the vicinity of Gorlovka. Exact time of launch and location of the explosion of the missiles in the air need to be verified further. The main targets for Tochka short-range ballistic missile system (NATO Designation SS-21 Scarab) are airfields, command posts, support facilities, air defense batteries, bridges and troops concentrations. The Tochka can carry conventional, nuclear or chemical warheads. Maximum range of fire is 70 km. It has a CEP of 160 m. A standard missile is 6.4 m long and weights 2 000 kg. Warhead weights about 480 kg, depending on the type. Translated by Kristina Rus | |
Comment: Don't you think firing ballistic missiles with warheads weighing 480kg against your own people, just because they didn't agree with your power grab, is a bit extreme, not to say completely insane? Do you think that it is normal that the Western governments are condoning this and even handing more money and military equipment to Ukraine, while punishing Russia?
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Rasha Foda
SHAREverything 2015-01-28 21:00:00
No sooner than they were sworn in, Syriza came out swinging, asserting strong opposition to an EU statement blaming Russia for Saturday's deadly attacks in Ukraine: The new Greek government has spoken out against the EU partners over the statement that lays the blame for Saturday's fatal attack on the Ukrainian city of Mariupol on Russia. Hungary, Slovakia, and Austria voiced similar objections earlier. | |
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Anastasia Levchenko
Sputnik 2015-01-27 20:34:00
The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) told Sputnik on Tuesday that it plans to remove social media and purchase history screening from its proposal concerning the security control at airports. "The line on social media and purchase history was inadvertently included in this request for proposal (RFP), and will be removed in an updated amendment to the solicitation. All proposals will be evaluated for privacy and civil liberties risks," a TSA press officer said. The proposal to include the collection of "commercial data" about passengers via "press reports, location data and information that individuals post on blogs and social media sites" has provoked criticism from privacy advocates. | |
Comment: The question is: Will the TSA actually keep its word? See also: Security check now starts long before you fly
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JoachimHagopian
Global Research 2015-01-24 19:22:00
Like pretty much all ailments and illnesses in the United States, returning soldiers from the warfronts suffering from acute cases of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are currently being treated, or more like snowed under, with powerful, mind-altering psychiatric drugs. Because it is unnatural for the vulnerable human psyche to witness the insanity of war, watching your buddies or yourself get blown up by IED's (Improvised Explosive Devices), instantly your life can forever be changed into a permanent living nightmare. Just by surviving the trauma after observing your brothers-in-arms (increasingly sisters-in arms with next year's official US policy change deploying women into combat) or even witnessing any humans die in war will often plague combat veterans the rest of their lives as survivor's guilt. Also as human tools of the US Empire killing machine, American soldiers in combat have systematically participated in war crime atrocities killing thousands and even millions of innocent civilians over the many decades of constant US war. Those soldiers who have not been desensitized and numbed to the extent that they cannot block out their survivor's guilt nor their residual guilt from killing others in immoral wars or possibly committing war crimes themselves, virtually always end up scarred for life, burdened with the shame and remorse for what they perceive as their own never forgotten much less forgiven past sins. My own father, a decorated Navy war hero on US submarines during World War II and Korea, was tortured by his post-war "sins" that he carried for over 70 years all the way to his grave. His particular war sins were the result of being forced at gunpoint by US naval command to comply with America's racist war policy to kill every Asian man, woman and child in Pacific waters during World War II, even innocent non-Japanese civilian families peacefully eking out a modest living in their small fishing boats. At one point when my machine gunner father couldn't bear committing any more of his racist nation's sins, after defiantly throwing his .50 caliber bullet belt to the deck and retreating down below deck to his bunk, his submarine captain charged after him with his revolver drawn ready to murder my father until several of my father's shipmates talked the raging Medal of Honor winning skipper out of it. For the next seven decades my father agonized over the haunting images of gunning down little children and their mothers laying lifeless in their slowly sinking boats, turning the Pacific blue red with white man's inhumanity toward yellow race people. But this is what the last "justified," red, white and blue American war did to my father's fragile human psyche. Rather than placing the blame squarely on United States war policy in the Pacific theater, he always blamed himself for murdering those innocent families whose only crime was being born with slanted eyes. His PTSD symptoms persisted the next 70 years, countless times suddenly jarred awake in the middle of the night in cold sweat moaning in agony over his nightmares of those haunting, indelible images from so many years before. Then on weekends he would regularly put on his treasured "Victory At Sea" records, and the lilting music like a trance would morosely place him right back into reliving his war trauma, wrestling with his inner demons hundreds of times over while drowning himself in alcohol, futilely self-medicating numbness amidst his lingering, unshakable pain. This is what war does. From any end of the gun, war is always wrong. | |
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Rotislav Ishchenko
Fort Russ 2015-01-28 18:52:00
The Verkhovna Rada with 271 votes officially recognized Russia as an aggressor. The MPs alsocalled on the international community for the implementation of all measures to stop the military aggression against Ukraine, for strengthening of sanctions against the Russian Federation as a country that supports aggression on the territory of Ukraine, and declare DPR and LPR terrorist organizations. What is the reason of this decision, what it means and what the consequences might be, spoke the President of the Center of System Analysis and Forecasting, Rostislav Ishchenko in an interview to Pravda.Ru. "Rada not only recognized Russia as an aggressor, but also recommended that the President actually declares war on Russia. That is, in this situation, Kiev regime, except for individuals looking for a personal gain, seeks to formalize the state of war with Russia. Ukraine has long said that it is at war with Russia," - said Rostislav Ishchenko. But as the Russian army did not show up on the battlefield, Rada is trying to formalize it, believes the expert. "I understand that during the meeting of the Security and Defense Council, Poroshenko was pressured to declare martial law. When he resisted, they continued to push. Either they will force him, or else without him the Parliament or government of Ukraine will somehow formalize a state of war with Russia." | |
Comment: We live in Bizarro World. Or at least, it looks like the Ukrainian parliament does. The DPR and LPR are not terrorist organizations; they are militias regions being mercilessly shelled and attacked by the real aggressor in this conflict: Kiev. What is terrorism if not the deliberate shelling of civilians? Torture and murder? Despite countless announcements of "Russian troops" entering Ukraine, there has never been any proof. If Russian troops had entered Ukraine, it would be obvious. They haven't.
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Robert Tilford
GroundReport 2015-01-28 18:40:00
Fars news agency in Tehran is reporting that Syrian intelligence and security officials have disclosed that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist group are "using advanced state-of-the-art weapons which are only manufactured by the US", adding that "the largest such cargo has been dispatched to the terrorists just recently." "These weapons were given to the ISIL inside Syria and only kilometers away from the Turkish border," the Arabic-language Al-Waqt news website quoted an informed source as saying on Tuesday. This can't be a coincidence! Remember these weapons are being used in many cases against innocent civilians in Syria and Iraq. You can find numerous execution videos showing ISIL fighters wearing US surplus military camouflage BDU's (Battle Dress Uniforms) and killing people with US made M-16 assault rifles. The source noted that the advanced weapons included "anti-armor missiles as well as light and semi-heavy weaponry. "We are seeing NATO ammunition boxes as well", said one Syrian Army commander via a social media site -who wished to remain anonymous in this report for security reason. The report said the consignment contained the largest cargo of US-made arms aid sent to ISIL so far. | |
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Vanessa Gera
Associated Press 2015-01-22 18:26:00
Russia has accused Poland of engaging in a "mockery of history" after the Polish foreign minister credited Ukrainian soldiers, rather than the Soviet Red Army, with liberating Auschwitz 70 years ago. The exchange underlines the deep tensions between Russia and Poland, which is hugely critical of Russian actions in Ukraine. Those strains are casting a shadow over the 70th anniversary commemorations of the liberation of the Nazi death camp, which will be held Tuesday in Poland. Comment: Since Poland is a U.S. puppet state, it should not be surprising that it is antagonistic towards Russia. Polish politicians like the foreign minister are just doing what they are told by their American masters. It's a rather petty swipe, but that is the nature of the U.S. Empire. Poland has apparently snubbed Russian President Vladimir Putin, who will not attend even though he was at the 60th anniversary event in 2005. The situation is particularly awkward since Auschwitz was liberated by Soviet troops on Jan. 27, 1945, and some of the more than 1.1 million victims were Soviet citizens, including Jews and prisoners of war. In a radio interview Wednesday, Polish Foreign Minister Grzegorz Schetyna was challenged over what the journalist called the "pettiness" of not inviting Putin, given that he is the inheritor of the Soviet Union and that the Red Army freed Auschwitz. Schetyna replied that "maybe it's better to say ... that the First Ukrainian Front and Ukrainians liberated (Auschwitz), because Ukrainian soldiers were there, on that January day, and they opened the gates of the camp and they liberated the camp." | |
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Comment: As Roberts notes below, the U.S. is using the nuclear issue as a propaganda measure to demonize Iran to the public. The mainstream media is all too willing to be the mouthpiece of this propaganda campaign, providing no balance or objectivity. The U.S. is only interested in controlling nation-states so as to further enrich themselves and further their goals of a global fascist dictatorship. Iran's best chance to keep sovereign control of their country is to embrace the multi-polar ideology that Russia and China are attempting to spread around the world. From all appearances, the Obama regime's negotiations with Iran, overseen by Russia, were on the verge of ending the contrived nuclear issue. An end to the confrontation is unacceptable to the Zionist Israeli government and to their neocon agents in America. The Republicans, a political party owned lock, stock, and barrel by the Israel Lobby, hastily invited Netanyahu, the crazed ruler of both Israel and America, to quickly come to tell the Republican Congress, which the insouciant American voters put in place, how to prohibit any accommodation with Iran. Observing the Israeli-controlled Republican Congress, a collection of warmongers, taking steps to prevent any peaceful resolution of a fabricated issue, Iran's leader, Seyyed Ali Khamenei sent a letter to Western youth advising the youth of the Western world of the mischaracterization of Islam by Western propagandists. I respect Khamenei's effort to reach out to Western youth in order to help them differentiate the reality of Islam from the demonized portrait painted of Islam by Western politicians and media. The question is: How much impact can Khamenei have? Khamenei's voice is important, but it is small in comparison to the Western liars and propagandists. Even an important representative, such as Khamenei, of a demonized country and a demonized religion can hardly be heard over the din of propaganda against Iran and Islam. Moreover, secret Western black op organizations can conduct terrorist operations in the name of Islam, such as possibly occurred with 9/11, the Boston Marathon Bombing, and Charlie Hebdo. The world is told that Islam is behind these attacks, but experts note that no real evidence is ever supplied. Just official assertions, such as those that proved incorrect about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Assad's use of chemical weapons in Syria, the false accusations against Gaddafi in Libya, and the false accusations against Russia in Ukraine. The makers of this propaganda have many voices, and their trumpets overwhelm the voice of Iran's leader. | |
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RT
2015-01-28 17:13:00
US has put a final signature to a $2 billion loan guarantee deal for Ukraine, adding that it is prepared to step up sanctions against Russia if necessary. Comment: Wow, it's okay for US to provide aid to Ukraine but not Russia. "The United States and Ukraine signed a declaration of cooperation in providing loan guarantees. The US government provides $2 billion in loan guarantees to Ukraine," Ukrainian Finance Minister Natalia Yaresko said Wednesday after meeting US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew in Kiev. That means the US will take over the responsibility for Kiev's debt. The US Treasury agreed to provide loan guarantees to Ukraine two weeks ago when US Vice President Joe Biden and Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk discussed the terms in a phone conversation. Ukraine will get $1 billion during the first half of 2015, provided that Kiev continues to implement reforms, said Lew. He said that additional funds can further be allocated if Ukraine complies with the conditions. | |
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Tom Bawden
UK Independent 2015-01-28 16:56:00
Conspiracy theorists have long insisted that modern wars revolve around oil. Now research suggests hydrocarbons play an even bigger role in conflicts than they had suspected. Comment: Strangely, the author presents the idea of war being fought for oil as being promoted only, or primarily, by "conspiracy theorists". Yet this appears to be directly contradicted by several high level members of the US government, for example, who have candidly and publicly stated that the invasion of Iraq, for example, was indeed about oil. Chuck Hagel, the current United States Secretary of Defense, while speaking at the Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law in 2008 stated: "People say we're not fighting for oil. Of course we are." General John Abizaid, CENTCOM commander from 2003 until 2007, said of the Iraq warduring a round table discussion at Stanford University in 2008, "Of course it's about oil, we can't really deny that." According to academics from the Universities of Portsmouth, Warwick and Essex, foreign intervention in a civil war is 100 times more likely when the afflicted country has high oil reserves than if it has none. The research is the first to confirm the role of oil as a dominant motivating factor in conflict, suggesting hydrocarbons were a major reason for the military intervention in Libya, by a coalition which included the UK, and the current US campaign against Isis in northern Iraq. Comment: What then, are we to make of the official reason for the NATO bombing on Libya: that it was to protect the Libyan people and stop Gaddafi bombing them? It suggests we are set for a period of low intervention because the falling oil price makes it a less valuable asset to protect. "We found clear evidence that countries with potential for oil production are more likely to be targeted by foreign intervention if civil wars erupt," said one of the report authors, Dr Petros Sekeris, of the University of Portsmouth. "Military intervention is expensive and risky. No country joins another country's civil war without balancing the cost against their own strategic interests." | |
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Naveed Miraj
The Express Tribune 2015-01-28 16:09:00
Yousaf al Salafi - allegedly the Pakistan commander of Islamic State (IS) or Daish - has confessed during investigations that he has been receiving funds through the United States. Law enforcing agencies on January 22 claimed that they arrested al Salafi, along with his two companions, during a joint raid in Lahore. However, sources revealed that al Salafi was actually arrested sometimes in December last year and it was only disclosed on January 22. "During the investigations, Yousaf al Salafi revealed that he was getting funding - routed through America - to run the organisation in Pakistan and recruit young people to fight in Syria," a source privy to the investigations revealed to Daily Express on the condition of anonymity. Al Salafi is a Pakistani-Syrian, who entered Pakistan through Turkey five months ago. Earlier, it was reported that he crossed into Turkey from Syria and was caught there. However, he managed to escape from Turkey and reached Pakistan to establish IS in the region. Sources said al Salafi's revelations were shared with the US Secretary of State John Kerry during his recent visit to Islamabad. "The matter was also taken up with CENTCOM chief General Lloyd Austin during his visit to Islamabad earlier this month," a source said. | |
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The Guardian
2015-01-27 01:33:00
Israel's top military electronic surveillance unit expelled dozens of veterans on Monday for refusing to spy on Palestinians living under occupation, Army Radio said. The commander of Unit 8200, named as Brigadier-General "A", barred the 43 reserve soldiers whowrote to prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and top army chiefs in September, saying they could no longer serve in the unit, the radio said. Coming a few weeks after Israel's 50-day war against Islamist militants in the Gaza Strip, the letter was seen as an unprecedented rebuke of Netanyahu's security policies but the military dismissed it as a publicity stunt by a small fringe. By decrying the sweep of eavesdropping on Palestinians, and the role such espionage plays in setting up air strikes that have often inflicted civilian casualties, the move opened a window on clandestine practices. | |
Comment: While it's important to not become over-optimistic, it seems that every day more people are waking up and speaking out against the creeping psychopathy and collective madness embroiling the 'Western hemisphere'.
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RT
2015-01-28 00:00:00
Israeli jets struck several targets in Syria in response to Hezbollah rocket fire into the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, the IDF said. The exchange came as Iran warned Tel Aviv of crossing a "red line" with the murder of an Iranian general in Syria. The Israeli Air Force (IAF) announced striking Syrian army artillery targets late on Tuesday night in response to an earlier rocket attack on Golan Heights and Mount Hermon. "The IDF views the Syrian regime as responsible for what occurs in its territory, and will act at any time and any way it sees fit to protect the citizens of Israel," the IDF said. Israel's retaliation followed two rocket attacks believed to be perpetrated by Hezbollah in the northern Golan Heights on Tuesday afternoon. While the projectiles exploded in open territory and caused no damage or casualties, some 1,000 visitors to the Mount Hermon ski resort still fled for cover. | |
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YouTube
This video, from November 20, 2013, shows People's Deputy of Ukraine Oleg Tsarov explaining in the Ukrainian parliament U.S. plans for civil unrest and civil war in Ukraine. This was the night beforethe protests began (on November 21).2015-01-28 02:55:00
See below for the transcript. | |
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CBS News
2015-01-27 00:16:00
Russia has accused the United States of having no evidence against three Russian citizens charged with spying, and says the Americans are using the charges for political purposes. U.S. prosecutors said the defendants were directed by Russia to gather sensitive economic intelligence on potential U.S. sanctions against Russian banks and U.S. efforts to develop alternative energy resources. One of the defendants, identified as Yevgeny Buryakov, arrested Monday in New York, is officially employed by the Manhattan branch of Vnesheconombank, a Russian state bank that was hit by U.S. sanctions last year. The other two defendants held diplomatic positions and are believed to have returned to Russia. "No proof to back up the charges has been presented," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said Tuesday, accusing the U.S. of deciding "to launch another round in its anti-Russian campaign." "We insist on a stop to the string of provocations against Russian representatives unleashed by U.S. secret services, and on immediate consular access to Buryakov, on the strict observance of the Russian citizen's rights and on his release," Lukashevich was quoted as saying by Russian state news agency ITAR-TASS | |
Comment: See also:
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Shepard Ambellas
Intellihub 2015-01-28 21:08:00
Apparently the world isn't like it was when I was a kid, no more Kool-Aid stands, no more doing yard work for cash, no more shoveling snow, as the government now has their hands in everything, regulating all aspects of our lives. When I was a kid I remember passing out fliers to do yard work which would earn me in the range of $15-$20 a yard, raking leaves or mowing. I also remember setting up a Kool-Aid stand on the street corner at the age of 8, garnering the attention from neighbors willing to pay a dollar for each glass. However those days are over. During the recent snow storm school was closed and a few high school seniors were eager to make some extra cash by helping out their neighbors. But moments into their venture they were shutdown by local cops. | |
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Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project 2015-01-27 18:00:00
A Pine Lawn cop with nearly a decade of complaints, police reports, warrant filings, and testimonies against him, isn't facing any charges and gets to maintain his license as a police officer. Steven Blakeney was the commander of the entire Pine Lawn department up until November of last year when he was placed on suspension and finally fired in December. It took complaints from a myriad of women, claiming that they had been beaten, drugged and forcibly raped, before the department finally fired him. However, he was only fired, Blakeney is not facing any charges and he could be hired on at another department tomorrow. Blakeney's sordid history dates back to his time as a bar manager in 2006. FOX 2 News obtained copies of police reports which exposed the many allegations of Blakeney drugging and raping women. According to FOX 2, Despite the overwhelming amount of information painting Blakeney as sadist who drugged and raped "many girls," the St. Charles County Prosecutor back then, Jack Banas, did not press charges. | |
Comment: According to Anna Salter, Ph.D., an expert in sexual predation and of author of the best-selling book, Predators: Pedophiles, Rapists, and Other Sex Offenders, Who They Are, How They Operate, and How We Can Protect Ourselves and Our Children, vulturous, exploitive human beings seek positions of power in society where they can operate undetected for years. The positions of authority they seek make it easy for them to find their victims. Listen to the SOTT editors interview with Dr. Salter below. Knowledge protects!
SOTT Talk Radio: Predators Among Us - Interview With Dr. Anna Salter | |
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Eric M. Johnson
Reuters 2015-01-27 17:41:00
The parents of a Utah family found dead in a locked bedroom at their home last year often discussed religiously-held notions of the apocalypse and orchestrated a multi-drug familicide using methadone and over-the-counter cold medication, police said on Tuesday. The bodies of Benjamin and Kristi Strack and three of their children aged 11 to 14 were discovered by the Stracks' lone surviving child and his grandmother on Sept. 27 in Springville, about 45 miles south of Salt Lake City. "It was a fairly common theme for the parents to talk about, the apocalypse, the end of days, final judgment," said Springville Police Department detective Greg Turnbow, the lead officer on the case. "Their surviving son, when he was interviewed, indicated that his mother had made comments that if things got bad enough she would much rather take herself and her family out in a comfortable way, rather than a painful way." | |
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Ali Meyer
One in three, or 35.2 percent, of people getting federal disability insurance benefits have been diagnosed with a mental disorder, according to the latest data from the Social Security Administration (SSA).CNS News 2015-01-27 09:54:00
Washington, D.C., the seat of the federal government, ranked in the top-ten list of states where disabled beneficiaries were diagnosed with mental problems. In 2013, the latest data from SSA show there were 10,228,364 disabled beneficiaries, up 139,625 from 2012 when there were 10,088,739 disabled beneficiaries. Disabled beneficiaries have increased 49.7 percent from a decade ago in 2003 when there were 6,830,714 beneficiaries; and the number is up 14.3 percent from the 8,945,376 beneficiaries in 2009, the year President Obama took office. The largest "diagnostic group" for disabled beneficiaries was a mental disorder. Of the 10,228,364 disabled people receiving federal disability benefits in December 2013, according to the report, 3,599,417, or 35.2 percent, were diagnosed with a mental disorder. "Musculoskeletal system and connective tissue" problems accounted for the second largest group of disabled beneficiaries. Of the 10,228,364 disabled people receiving federal disability benefits in December 2013, 2,829,808, or 27.7 percent, had been diagnosed with a musculoskeletal problem. In Washington, D.C., according to the report, 42.9 percent of disabled beneficiaries as of December 2013 had been diagnosed with a mental disorder. Massachusetts and New Hampshire led the nation in this metric with 49.9 percent of disabled beneficiaries diagnosed with a mental disorder. | |
Comment: Mainstream psychiatry and psychology are guilty of 'pathologizing' normal behavior. These people might just be having a normal reaction to living in our sick society.
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RT
2015-01-27 15:48:00
A man shot himself in the chest outside the News Corporation building in midtown Manhattan. The former employee of the company had been protesting Fox News before he killed himself, according to reports. The man, identified as Phillip Perea, was handing out fliers, saying his former employer had "ended my career" and that the news channel had ruined his life, a police official told the Wall Street Journal. The 41-year-old had previously worked at a Fox News affiliate in Austin, Texas. The Journal, also owned by News Corp., is in the same building. A sad shooting outside my office this am: Former Fox Employee Shoots Himself Outside News Corp Building http://t.co/xnZXiBlhDS via @WSJNYSecurity guards asked the man to leave and when they turned around to walk back inside, they heard a gunshot, a source told the New York Post. Unconfirmed but word is someone handed security guard a note then went outside and shot himself in front of my Fox News office. Unconfirmed.A suicide note was found in Parea's pocket and a small-caliber pistol was next to him, police said.
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Travis Gettys
Raw Story 2015-01-28 15:39:00
A Florida teen was charged with manslaughter after pressing a gun she believed was unloaded against her boyfriend's head and pulling the trigger. Lety Hernandez had pulled the magazine from the handgun and used the weapon to intimidate her boyfriend, Fredi Hernandez, during an argument Dec. 30 over a Xanax pill he had taken. A friend who was at the West Palm Beach home said 19-year-old Fredi Hernandez was laughing when his girlfriend questioned him at gunpoint. The witness said Lety Hernandez seemed surprised when the gun fired because she screamed and immediately dropped the weapon. Investigators said the 17-year-old tried to cover up her role in the shooting by placing the gun in her dying boyfriend's hand and telling police she did not know what happened. The witness later admitted to police that he helped stage the crime scene as a possible suicide because he did not want Lety Hernandez to go to jail because she was pregnant with the victim's child. Lety Hernandez later confessed to the shooting, prosecutors said. Prosecutors charged Lety Hernandez with manslaughter, and she remains held on $25,000 bond. Watch this video report posted online by WPBF-TV:
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Travis Gettys
Raw Story 2015-01-27 15:26:00
Comment: It's a sad state of affairs when the state cannot apply common sense over strictly enforcing laws. It should be pretty simple - the man is not the father so any money he "owes" for child support should be forgiven and the charges dropped. Yet they are unable to apply that common sense in this case, and so we have a man's life on the verge of being ruined because of it. A Michigan man faces jail for failure to pay child support, although DNA tests have proven he is not the father. Carnell Alexander owes more than $30,000 in unpaid child support, and he's scheduled to go back before a judge next month to argue that he shouldn't be held responsible, reported WXYZ-TV. In the late 1980s, a former girlfriend listed Alexander's name as the father of her child when she applied for welfare benefits. Alexander was then obligated under Michigan law to pay child support, and the state claims that a process server notified him immediately about the money he owed. But the Michigan Department of Corrections shows that Alexander was incarcerated when those papers were allegedly served. Alexander said he didn't find out about the state's paternity action until 1991, when he was arrested during a traffic stop for failure to pay child support. | |
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Gary Kohls
Global Research 2015-01-27 00:00:00
A couple of days ago I received a letter from the mother of a post-adolescent daughter, expressing a common concern that millions of parents share. She wrote, in part, "It seems to me that my daughter and her classmates have more depression and mood disorders than in my day (the 60s and 70s). I know at least one other parent who wonders if there's a cause - the water, vaccines, all of the above.Here was my response, which, for the purposes of this column, I have expanded upon: "Yes Peg, your observations are correct. Our children (and us adults as well - but we aren't developing adolescents anymore, are we?) are being forced to grow up in a junk culture, which, thanks to influences such as our powerful, corporate-controlled, profit-driven media, teaches junk values, encourages the swallowing of neurotoxic brain-altering psychiatric drugs, and forces them, during their most brain-vulnerable years, to be injected with multiple doses of highly toxic 'vaccines' that have been proven to damage their immune systems, harm their central nervous systems while simultaneously contributing to the alarming incidences of chronic autoimmune disorders such asasthma; rheumatoid arthritis; autistic spectrum disorders; Gulf War Syndrome; Guillain-Barré syndrome; systemic lupus erythematosus; multiple sclerosis; idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura; Type I and Type II diabetes mellitus; and inflammatory bowel disease; . (see http://www.discoverymedicine. | |
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RT
2015-01-26 01:16:00
Taken aback by the fulsome praise the recently deceased King Abdullah has garnered from world leaders, RT has decided to assess whether his record stands up to scrutiny. READ MORE: Saudi King Abdullah dead - state TV The majority of eulogies went beyond the requirements of diplomatic etiquette, while some epithets used by Western politicians made people believe they had stepped through the looking glass. UK Prime Minister David Cameron said the monarch, who died at 90, "strengthened understanding between faiths," while IMF chief Christine Lagarde called him "a strong advocate of women," albeit a"discreet" one. And almost all political grandees seemed to agree that the scion of the House of Saud, was - in the words of Tony Blair - "a skillful modernizer," who "led his country into the future." | |
Comment: Sounds like the House of Saud is nothing but a den of of psychopaths, no wonder they're such close allies with the US.
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Sonya Dowsett
Reuters 2015-01-27 00:55:00
Ten Spanish priests were charged with child sexual abuse on Tuesday, in a case brought after Pope Francis telephoned the victim to offer the Church's apology, court documents showed. The victim, now 24, wrote to the pope to say he had been molested when he was an altar boy. The pope called the man in August to apologize, Spanish news site Religion Digital reported in November, a report later confirmed by the pope himself. The pope said in November that he had ordered a church investigation. The Archbishop of Granada, Francisco Javier Martinez, removed several priests linked to the case from their duties. The victim said the abuse had happened over a period of years from when he was 14 to the age of 17 in a house rented by the abusers in a suburb of Granada, the court said. Pope Francis has promised a policy of zero tolerance for sexual abuse of children by clerics after church scandals in several countries over many years. Groups representing victims say he has still not done enough. The Vatican said last year it had defrocked about 850 priests between 2004 and 2013 who had been accused of sexually abusing minors. | |
Comment: Just another sad case of predators preying on children. Parents and children expect absolute safety when they engage with the Church, and unfortunately that seems to be the opposite of what they get.
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RT
2015-01-27 00:27:00
A gunman has opened fire during a law enforcement swearing-in ceremony at a city council meeting in a Minnesota town. Two police officers were injured and the gunman was fatally wounded. Authorities had yet to identify the name of the suspect as of Tuesday morning, but acknowledged that the man was killed when the officers returned fire inside New Hope City Hall outside of Minneapolis. The ceremony began at around 7 pm local time Monday, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and the two new officers, Joshua Eernisse and Adam Johnson, were sworn in within the first 15 minutes. At around that time, the paper reported, the officers walked out of the chambers and encountered a man with a "long gun," according to officials, who then opened fire. | |
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Mondoweiss
2015-01-21 00:00:00
The following press release was published today: Lewis Trondheim (creator of the Angoulême mascot), Jacques Tardi, Jaime Hernandez, Alison Bechdel, Warren Ellis, Dylan Horrocks, Kate Beaton, Eleanor Davis, Ben Katchor, Jeet Heer, and Palestine Comics festival expand on 2014 letter to Angoulême Festival More than 80 cartoonists and other workers in the comics industry, including colorists, writers, critics, and editors, from over 20 countries, signed an open letter released today addressed to Franck Bondoux, the head of the International Festival of Comics at Angoulême, which opens in France on January 29th. The letter, a follow up to a 2014 letter, demands that he sever ties between the Festival andSodastream, an Israeli manufacturing company complicit in the occupation of Palestinian land. The authors of the letter include 10 prize winners at Angoulême itself, two winners of the MacArthur "Genius Grant," many Eisner and Ignatz awardees, and a Palestinian cartoonist previously imprisoned for his work by the Israeli military. The organizers of the letter also released an accompanying statement, in the wake of the slaying of cartoonists Wolinski, Cabu, Honoré, Tignous and Charb, among many others in Paris this month."These horrific acts of violence compel artists of the world to act urgently for a world where the dignity, freedom, and equality of all people are respected and promoted," said cartoonist Ethan Heitner and writer Dror Warschawski, organizers of the open letter. "We affirm that the Palestinian boycott movement is one important step towards that vision, and we urge others to join us." | |
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Catey Hill
Market Watch 2015-01-27 23:51:00
If you have to deal with the federal government - be it the seemingly innocuous Social Security Administration or the eternally-despised Treasury Department, home to the IRS - prepare to be even more annoyed than in the past. According to a report released Tuesday by the American Customer Satisfaction Index, our satisfaction with the federal government has hit an all-time low (at least since the company began collecting data for this index in 2007). The federal government now scores a 64.4 out of 100 in terms of satisfaction (the average across all industries is 75 out 100). This is the lowest score across the 40 different industries - including industries like airlines, cable companies and others - that the ACSI measures, with the exception of Internet service providers. "Overall, the services of the federal government continue to deliver a level of customer satisfaction below the private sector," the report - in which ACSI interviewed 1,772 randomly selected people - concludes. When asked what they specifically didn't like about the government, some Americans cited issues with the staff and customer service. Indeed, Americans are more annoyed with the government's customer service (specifically how courteous, helpful and professional the government staff are) than they were in 2013: customer service rankings for the government plummeted 6% from a year ago - from a score of 80 to a score of 75. While this sounds bad, ACSI Director David VanAmburg says that some of it has to do to with the fact that some agencies have fewer staff members now than in the past, which makes consumers more frustrated when trying to get something accomplished in a timely manner.
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Comment: Maybe if the government spent as much time and money on servicing the people who fund its operation as they did bombing, looting, and pillaging various sovereign nations there wouldn't be so much angst by citizens having to deal with the federal government.
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| Secret History |
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Richard Gray
Daily Mail, UK 2015-01-28 21:19:00
Traditional stories passed down through generations by Australian Aborigines may be among the oldest accurate oral histories in the world, scientists have claimed. The findings have allowed them to map how the continent may have looked around 10,000 years ago. Oral folklore tells how the Great Barrier Reef once formed part of the coastline of north east Queensland, while Port Phillip Bay in Victoria was once a rich place for hunting kangaroo and opossum. Researchers have found other stories from all over the continent that mirror how the landscape dramatically changed towards the end of the last ice age. | |
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Sputnik
2015-01-28 16:46:00
A fossilized lower jaw found by the Taiwanese fishermen working in the Penghu Channel indicates that a previously unknown human species lived in Asia as far back as 200,000, researchers say. According to a study, published in the Nature Communications journal, the fossil, dubbed Penghu 1, is the first such discovery in Taiwan. It was picked up off on the seafloor that was part of the Asian mainland in the Pleistocene Epoch, which lasted from about 1.8 million years ago to approximately 11,700 years ago. Although Homo sapiens are the only surviving human lineage, there were other human species or hominin roaming the earth. These include Homo erectus, believed to be our direct ancestors, Neanderthals and their close relatives Denisovans, as well as hobbit-like Homo floresiensis. The fossil discovered in Taiwan might add another name to the list. | |
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| Science & Technology |
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University of Montreal
Science Daily 2015-01-27 16:00:00
Psychopathic violent offenders have abnormalities in the parts of the brain related to learning from punishment, according to an MRI study led by Sheilagh Hodgins and Nigel Blackwood. "One in five violent offenders is a psychopath. They have higher rates of recidivism and don't benefit from rehabilitation programmes. Our research reveals why this is and can hopefully improve childhood interventions to prevent violence and behavioural therapies to reduce recidivism," explained Professor Hodgins of the University of Montreal and Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Montréal. "Psychopathic offenders are different from regular criminals in many ways. Regular criminals are hyper-responsive to threat, quick-tempered and aggressive, while psychopaths have a very low response to threats, are cold, and their aggressivity is premeditated," added Dr. Nigel Blackwood, who is affiliated with King's College London. "Evidence is now accumulating to show that both types of offenders present abnormal, but distinctive, brain development from a young age." | |
Comment: The vast majority of psychopaths never get in contact with the criminal system, but still leave a trail of psychological and economical destruction behind. The criminal psychopath is a "failed psychopath".
To learn more about this eminently important topic, see: Ponerology 101: The Psychopath's Mask of Sanity | |
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University of Oxford
Science Daily 2015-01-27 15:35:00
A spider commonly found in garden centres in Britain is giving fresh insights into how to spin incredibly long and strong fibres just a few nanometres thick. The majority of spiders spin silk threads several micrometres thick but unusually the 'garden centre spider' or 'feather-legged lace weaver' Uloborus plumipes can spin nano-scale filaments. Now an Oxford University team think they are closer to understanding how this is done. Their findings could lead to technologies that would enable the commercial spinning of nano-scale filaments. The research was carried out by Katrin Kronenberger and Fritz Vollrath of Oxford University's Department of Zoology and is reported in the journal Biology Letters. Instead of using sticky blobs of glue on their threads to capture prey Uloborus uses a more ancient technique -- dry capture threads made of thousands of nano-scale filaments that it is thought to electrically charge to create these fluffed-up catching ropes. To discover the secrets of its nano-fibres the Oxford researchers collected adult femaleUloborus lace weavers from garden centres in Hampshire, UK. They then took photographs and videos of the spiders' spinning action and used three different microscopy techniques to examine the spiders' silk-generating organs. Of particular interest was the cribellum, an ancient spinning organ not found in many spiders and consisting of one or two plates densely covered in tiny silk outlet nozzles (spigots). 'Uloborus has unique cribellar glands, amongst the smallest silk glands of any spider, and it's these that yield the ultra-fine 'catching wool' of its prey capture thread,' said Dr Katrin Kronenberger of Oxford University's Department of Zoology, the report's first author. 'The raw material, silk dope, is funnelled through exceptionally narrow and long ducts into tiny spinning nozzles or spigots. Importantly, the silk seems to form only just before it emerges at the uniquely-shaped spigots of this spider.' | |
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Marcia Dunn
myway 2015-01-27 05:21:00
A newly discovered solar system - with five small rocky planets - makes ours look like a baby. An international team of astronomers announced Tuesday that this extrasolar system is 11.2 billion years old. With the age of the universe pegged at 13.8 billion years, this is the oldest star with close-to-Earth-size planets ever found. By comparison, our solar system is 4.5 billion years old. The five planets are smaller than Earth, with the largest about the size of Venus and the smallest just bigger than Mercury. These planets orbit their star in less than 10 days at less than one-tenth the Earth's distance from the sun, which makes them too close for habitation, said the University of Sydney's Daniel Huber, part of the team. "We've never seen anything like this - it is such an old star and the large number of small planets make it very special," Huber said in a statement. "It is extraordinary that such an ancient system of terrestrial-sized planets formed when the universe was just starting out, at a fifth its current age." | |
Comment: Another knowledge-stretching discovery! Why is "science" always so surprised?
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Leonor Sierra
University of Rochester 2015-01-26 02:42:00
Astronomers at the Leiden Observatory, The Netherlands, and the University of Rochester, USA, have discovered that the ring system that they see eclipse the very young Sun-like star J1407 is of enormous proportions, much larger and heavier than the ring system of Saturn. The ring system - the first of its kind to be found outside our solar system - was discovered in 2012 by a team led by Rochester's Eric Mamajek. A new analysis of the data, led by Leiden's Matthew Kenworthy, shows that the ring system consists of over 30 rings, each of them tens of millions of kilometers in diameter. Furthermore, they found gaps in the rings, which indicate that satellites ("exomoons") may have formed. The result has been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. | |
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| Earth Changes |
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Business Standard
2015-01-21 20:44:00
An elephant killed a girl at Ballamguri in Chirang district today. The elephant, which came from the nearby Manas National Park, attacked the teenaged girl injuring her seriously, police officials said. The girl, identified as Ramisa Khatun, succumbed to her injuries later at the Barpeta Medical College Hospital. Source: Press Trust of India | |
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Mia De Graaf
Daily Mail, UK 2015-01-24 18:32:00
A seven-year-old boy has been mauled to death by his family's two dogs. Malaki Mildward died after two six-month-old canines attacked him on Thursday afternoon in College Springs, Iowa. He was pronounced dead 50 minutes later. Police were notified shortly before 5pm. By the time they arrived within minutes, Malaki was not breathing, a report said. | |
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Ernest Scheyder
Reuters 2015-01-28 17:29:00
North Dakota's oil industry is pushing to change the state's radioactive waste disposal laws as part of a broad effort to conserve cash as oil prices tumble. The waste, which becomes slightly radioactive as part of the hydraulic fracturing process that churns up isotopes locked underground, must be trucked out of state. That's because rules prohibit North Dakota landfills from accepting anything but miniscule amounts of radiation. The most common form of radioactive waste is a filter sock, a mesh tube resembling a sandbag through which fracking water is pumped before it's injected back into the earth. Tank and pipeline sludge are also radioactive. It's not clear how much of this waste is generated, as North Dakota officials only began requiring tracking last year; final 2014 reports aren't due until next month. Some put the number at 70 tons per day; others say 27 tons. | |
Comment: The oil industry in North Dakota has been having trouble finding adequate methods of disposing of radioactive waste. The industry has also been plagued by numerous oil spills that industry and state executives attempted to hide from the public. It has been reported that the industry in North Dakota is running wild with little regulatory oversight, and as oil prices plummet and profits dwindle, things don't look promising where safety and health issues are concerned.
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A Lapeer County Sheriff's Mounted Division Horse was attacked and killed Sunday, Jan. 25, by a pack of coyotes, not far from a home, a lieutenant said. The attack took place around 3 p.m. on a farm near the area of East Oakwood and Hosner roads along the Lapeer-Oakland County border, said Lt. Bruce Osmon, head of the mounted unit. Osmon said the horse was feeding around 20 feet from a barn and 70 feet from a home. "All of a sudden (the owners) heard a commotion," he said.
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Mark Stevenson
myway 2015-01-27 11:58:00
The number of Monarch butterflies that reached wintering grounds in Mexico has rebounded 69 percent from last year's lowest-on-record levels, but their numbers remain very low, according to the World Wildlife Fund. Last year, the Monarchs covered only 1.65 acres (0.67 hectares), the smallest area since record-keeping began in 1993. This year, the butterflies rebounded, to cover 2.79 acres (1.13 hectares), according to a formal census by Mexican environmental authorities and scientists released Tuesday. The orange-and-black butterflies are suffering from loss of milkweed habitat in the United States, illegal logging in Mexico and climate change. Each year, the butterflies make a migration from Canada to Mexico and find the same pine and fir forests to spend the winter, even though no butterfly lives to make the round trip. "Of course it is good news that the forest area occupied by Monarchs this season increased," said Omar Vidal, head of the World Wildlife Fund in Mexico. "But let's be crystal clear, 1.13 hectares is very, very low, and it is still the second-smallest forest surface occupied by this butterfly in 22 years of monitoring." At their peak in 1996, the Monarchs covered more than 44.5 acres (18 hectares) in the mountains west of Mexico City. | |
Comment: Agricultural fields used to be an important source of milkweed for monarch caterpillars. Milkweed has historically grown alongside crop plants, and provided abundant food for monarch caterpillars. With the introduction of herbicide tolerant crops, management shifted from a till-based approach to the widespread use of herbicides. This practice has diminished much of the milkweed growing in agricultural areas, since milkweed can survive some tilling, but cannot survive herbicides. In addition, chemicals kill monarch larvae so the avoidance of pesticides and herbicides may help restore the monarch populations. What are the chances we can accomplish this "butterfly effect?"
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Winter storm Juno hit the eastern US states of Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine with 75 mph winds and 30 inches of snow. Snowfall amounts, travel bans and power outages and have all been well reported in US media. The storm also brought flooding to some coastal areas, with the coastal areas of Massachusetts worst hit. Areas along the eastern Massachusetts coast,south of Boston, including north and northeast facing shorelines of Cape Cod and Nantucket faced some of the highest waves and storm surges. NWS warned that floods could reach 3 feet high in places.
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BBC News
2015-01-27 23:38:00
An earthquake with a magnitude of 2.9 has been recorded in Hampshire, the British Geological Survey has confirmed. Postings on social media reported buildings in the Winchester area shaking following a tremor shortly after 18:30 GMT. A police spokeswoman said no injuries or serious damage had been reported. Matthew Emery, from South Wonston, near Winchester described the experience as "almost as if Concorde had flown over". The British Geological Survey (Bgs) reported a tremor at a depth of 3km (1.9miles) at Headbourne Worthy, just north east of Winchester. BGS Seismologist David Galloway said the UK experienced about 10 quakes of such a size each year which were "usually quite widely felt around the area". | |
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Two bottlenose dolphins were found dead at the Tondaligan Beach here and on the shores of neighboring Binmaley town in Pangasinan province, in what has turned out to be a series of beaching in Lingayen Gulf since Monday. Westly Rosario, chief of the National Integrated Fisheries Technology Development Center (NIFTDC) here, said one more dolphin was found dying at about 6 a.m. at the Lingayen beach in Lingayen town. At 5:30 p.m. on Monday, Rosario said another dolphin beached just at the shoreline at the back of the NIFTDC. Two more dolphins were found on the shores of the island village of Pugaro here at about 8 p.m. on the same day. | |
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Veronica Rocha
Los Angeles Times 2015-01-26 23:14:00
A recent report says there were six unprovoked shark attacks along the U.S. Pacific Coast in 2014. All of them were in California, and all the sharks were great whites. Four of the attacks occurred in October, one in July and another in December, according to the Shark Research Committee's recently released 2014 report. Remarkably, in all attacks, only two surfers were injured. "I am surprised we don't have more of them," said Ralph Collier, the shark expert and researcher who wrote the report, which specifically looks at attacks that were deemed not to be provoked by humans. Last July's shark attack in Manhattan Beach, for example, was not included. In that attack, long-distance swimmer Steve Robles was bitten by a 7-foot juvenile shark. | |
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| Fire in the Sky |
Saturday night many residents in Rankin and Hinds counties heard what they're describing as "an explosion". We contacted officials and were told by the Richland Police Department that they received a lot of calls Saturday night inquiring about the loud explosion type noise. We were told officers searched several areas of the city and did not find what caused the loud sound. A resident on Lowe Circle in Richland said she heard the noise between 9-9:30 p.m. Saturday night. The resident said the noise sounded like thunder. We received several Facebook messages asking if we knew what the 'explosion' was. Some viewers said it shook their homes and from comments the noise, whatever it was, was heard from Richland, Brandon, Pearl, Florence, Jackson, and Star. A viewer, who called into our newsroom, said her sister heard the sound and she lives in the Crossgates area of Brandon. The caller said her sister told her the noise sounded as loud as five or six transformers blowing. Our news crew searched several locations in the city of Richland, but was unable to locate evidence of an explosion. | |
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Huffington Post UK
2015-01-28 17:39:00
A bystander has caught video of a mysterious floating fireball that appears to hang over the sky in Argentina. With no explanation available many are claiming it to be a UFO. The video was actually taken at the beginning of January but has only just been uploaded onto the internet. According to UFO Sightings Daily, local residents in Frías spotted the fireball and at first believed it was nothing more than a meteor. Of course meteors move at very high speeds when entering the Earth's atmosphere and so tend to appear and disappear in seconds.
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Comment: Not necessarily. Some fireballs move uncharacteristically slowly. Apparently thousands of people observed this fireball ('genuine' UFOs are rarely observed by so many people simultaneously). See also:
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stuff.co.nz
2015-01-27 15:01:00
Was it a meteor? A gas cylinder? Or perhaps a bomb? Nobody seems to know. But the one thing that is certain about the loud bang that shook the Wellington suburb of Strathmore last night is that it was not Superman. What is widely being treated as an explosion in the eastern suburb about 9.30pm, is being put down by police as an unexplained mystery. Ahuriri St resident Kevin Cree said a lot of police cars cordoned off the end of his road last night. Armed Offenders Squad members and police dogs were also called but, by this morning, there was no clue about what caused the blast. | |
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Travis Gettys
Raw Story 2015-01-27 00:11:00
Radar images revealed an asteroid that passed by Earth this week has its own small moon. Asteroid 2004 BL86 made its closest approach Monday morning at about 745,000 miles - more than three times the distance from Earth to the moon. Scientists working with NASA's Deep Space Network antenna released the first radar images of the 1,100-foot-wide asteroid - which is orbited by a 230-foot-wide moon. | |
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| Health & Wellness |
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Eliot Marshall
In perhaps the most famous study of childhood neglect, researchers have closely tracked the progress, or lack of it, in children who lived as infants in Romania's bleak orphanages and are now teenagers. A new analysis now shows that these children, who display a variety of behavioral and cognitive problems, have less white matter in their brains than do a group of comparable children in local families. The affected brain regions include nerve bundles that support attention, general cognition, and emotion processing. The work suggests that sensory deprivation early in life can have dramatic anatomical impacts on the brain and may help explain the previously documented long-term negative affects on behavior. But there's some potential good news: A small group of children who were taken out of orphanages and moved into foster homes at age 2 appeared to bounce back, at least in brain structure.AAAS Science magazine 2015-01-26 18:06:00 "This is an exciting and important study," says Harvard Medical School psychiatric researcher Martin Teicher, who directs the developmental biopsychiatry research program at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. The "crucial question" of whether children can recover from the setbacks of early adversity had not been answered before, he adds. |
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Abayomi Azikiwe
Global Research 2015-01-27 15:35:00
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan has reported that the numbers of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) cases are in rapid decline. Nevertheless, the United Nations affiliated agency says that this is no reason for the world community to become complacent in the efforts to contain and eliminate the disease. This claim and others published over the last month has given hope that the worse outbreak of the dreaded disease may be coming under control. The overwhelming majority of cases have occurred in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Other countries in the West Africa region, Nigeria, Mali and Senegal were able to rapidly respond to the limited number of cases halting the outbreaks within their national boundaries. Recently Senegal reopened its border with neighboring Guinea, where the latest outbreak of EVD cases first took place over a year ago. | |
Comment: See also: A historical analysis of the Ebola Virus yields the question: 'Is it real?'
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BBC News
2015-01-27 20:42:00
The world is "dangerously unprepared" for future deadly pandemics like the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the president of the World Bank has warned. Jim Yong Kim, speaking in Washington, said it was vital that governments, corporations, aid agencies and insurance companies worked together to prepare for future outbreaks. He said they needed to learn lessons from the Ebola crisis. More than 8,500 people have died, most in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. "The Ebola outbreak has been devastating in terms of lives lost and the loss of economic growth," Mr Kim told an audience at Georgetown University. "We need to make sure that we get to zero cases in this Ebola outbreak. At the same time, we need to prepare for future pandemics that could become far more deadly and infectious than what we have seen so far with Ebola. We must learn the lessons from the Ebola outbreak because there is no doubt we will be faced with other pandemics in the years to come." 'Insurance policy' Mr Kim said the World Bank Group had been working with the World Health Organisation (WHO), other UN agencies, academics, insurance company officials and others to work on a concept of developing a financial "pandemic facility". He said he expected a proposal for this to be presented to leaders of developed and developing countries in the coming months. Mr Kim said the proposal would probably involve a combination of bonds and insurance plans but that, in some ways, the facility could be similar to a homeowner's insurance policy. "This could work like insurance policies that people understand, like fire insurance," he said. "The more that you are prepared for a fire, such as having several smoke detectors in your house, the lower thepremium you pay. Comment: Are we catching a whiff of personal medical policies in the very near future where provider companies/ACA charge us, in advance, on a yearly basis, to insure each person against a pandemic? Is this where they are ultimately going? Or, are they trying to make mandatory vaccines "such a deal?" What a scheme! | |
Comment: Interestingly enough, Liberia has just reported there are currently only five confirmed cases of Ebola in the entire country - a dramatic turnaround if this is in fact true. Sierra Leone and Guinea have also seen a dramatic reduction but are still reporting new infections. Statistics from WHO state more than 21,000 people have been sickened by Ebola and 8,600 deaths occurred. Is the disease actually fading or should we assume nothing is ever as stated?
Leading Pandemic Expert: President of the World Bank??? WHO knew! | |
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Melissa Melton
The Daily Sheeple 2015-01-26 15:09:00
Cue the pro-vaccine crowd's b.s. arguments as to why this is doesn't matter and we should all keeptaking the risk shooting up our children in the hopes this won't happen to us. Via Daily Mail: A five-year-old girl has died in hospital three days after developing a strain of the flu that she was vaccinated against - as a deadly outbreak of the virus continues to sweep across the country.The vaccine... didn't magically save her. Why? Because vaccines are not magical saviors (despite what Big Pharma and its biggest customer, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, would have people believe). The CDC just got done admitting last week that more than 3/4ths of the people who take the shot this year are going to get the flu anyway but the agency stupidly continues to tell people to get the shot they admit probably won't protect them from diddly squat! Why? Someone has money to make, obviously. | |
Comment: If anyone is considering getting the flu shot, either for themselves or their children, we would recommend reading the following articles:
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Heather Callaghan
Activist Post 2015-01-27 15:53:00
The average person realizes that shots hurt. There's a reason children scream and cry in anguish when they receive vaccinations. Apparently, this tidbit hasn't registered much among the medical community or else why would there be a need to widely publish EEG results of infants at the moment they get jabs? People tend to think babies will move on quickly and forget sooner.... Not only does the following study demonstrate the painful results of babies getting jabs, but is said to be the first time that recordings of brain activity have been conducted in response to real-life needle pain in infants. It would seem like a study of this nature would have been performed eons ago, and on that note it is morbid that such a study is needed at all. Perhaps it is a growing distaste for vaccines that prompts a study like this with the aim of supporting future painless vaccines or some type of pain relief at the time of inoculation. | |
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Marie Hartwell-Walker, Ed.D.
Psych Central 2015-01-28 01:41:00
I hate to admit it but it's true: I'm terrible at keeping a journal. I probably have half a dozen notebooks lying around, each one with no more than 20 entries before I got caught up in other things, made excuses, didn't have the time, or just plain forgot. Reading them when I stumble upon them is always interesting and sometimes helpful. Memories are seldom totally accurate. Time has a way of changing perspective. But, nonetheless, I've never found a way to manage my time and my life so that I could make a daily entry into a diary or blog. But new research is making me think about trying again. It seems that keeping a journal has benefits besides preserving baby's first word, recording my pleasure during a vacation or providing a place to put my strong feelings about what so and so did and what I wish I'd said. Writing about my feelings can actually improve my health. | |
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Ben Rossington
Mirror 2015-01-26 00:44:00
The findings have "public health implications" about "potential safety risks" of many over-the-counter remedies, according to scientists Over-the-counter hay fever pills and sleeping tablets can increase the risk of Alzheimer's, a study warned today. The findings have "public health implications" about "potential safety risks", according to scientists. Other drugs for depression and bladder control were also linked to dementia. The drugs have an "anticholinergic" effect, which blocks a chemical transmitter that people with Alzheimer's lack. Experts tracked the health of 3,434 over-65 and their use of anticholinergic drugs, like antihistamine diphenhydramine, for seven years. During the study, 637 developed Alzheimer's and 160 got other forms of dementia. For people on high doses the risk of dementia was 54% higher compared to no use. The report said: "These findings have public health implications for the health of older adults about potential safety risks because some anticholinergics are available as over-the-counter products." The findings, in journal Jama Internal Medicine, showed people were at higher risk if they took at least 10mg a day of antidepressant doxepin, 4mg a day of antihistamine diphenhydramine, or 5mg a day of oxybutynin for more than three years. Dr Simon Ridley of Alzheimer's Research UK, said: "This large study adds to some existing evidence linking anticholinergic drugs to a small increased risk of dementia, but the results don't tell us that these drugs cause the condition." | |
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| Science of the Spirit |
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Traci Pedersen
Psych Central 2015-01-28 00:00:00
A new social and emotional program with mindfulness techniques, called MindUp, has been shown to successfully help children become more caring and optimistic, improve their math scores and lower their stress levels. The program, founded by Oscar-winning actress Goldie Hawn, was recently analyzed by researchers at the University of British Columbia. During the program, children were given lessons on mindfulness techniques, in which they were instructed to intentionally focus on the present - while avoiding making judgments - through a series of breathing, tasting, and movement exercises. Experts from across multiple disciplines - a neuroscientist, developmental pediatrician, developmental psychologists, and education experts - came together to examine the program's effectiveness. They discovered that the fourth and fifth graders who participated in MindUp became better at regulating stress, were more optimistic and helpful, and improved their math scores. They were even better liked by their peers than children in another program that taught caring for others but without a mindfulness component. | |
Comment: Mindfulness meditation has been shown to produce changes in the brain structure. Researchers have found that participants in mindfulness meditation exercises had increased grey-matter density in the hippocampus, known to be important for learning and memory, and in structures associated with self-awareness, compassion and introspection. Participant-reportedreductions in stress also were correlated with decreased grey-matter density in the amygdala, which is known to play an important role in anxiety and stress.
One of the best breathing and meditation techniques, which can easily be taught to children is theÉiriú Eolas Stress Control, Healing and Rejuvenation Program. | |
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Science Daily
2015-01-27 23:07:00
Want to ace that test tomorrow? Here's a tip: Put down the coffee and hit the sack. Scientists have long known that sleep, memory and learning are deeply connected. Most animals, from flies to humans, have trouble remembering when sleep deprived, and studies have shown that sleep is critical in converting short-term into long-term memory, a process known as memory consolidation. But just how that process works has remained a mystery. The question is, does the mechanism that promotes sleep also consolidate memory, or do two distinct processes work together? In other words, is memory consolidated during sleep because the brain is quiet, allowing memory neurons to go to work, or are memory neurons actually putting us to sleep? In a recent paper in the journal eLife, graduate students Paula Haynes and Bethany Christmann in the Griffith Lab make a case for the latter. Haynes and Christmann focused their research on dorsal paired medial (DPM) neurons, well-known memory consolidators in Drosophila. They observed, for the first time, that when DPM neurons are activated, the flies slept more; when deactivated, the flies kept buzzing. These memory consolidators inhibit wakefulness as they start converting short-term to long-term memory. All this takes place in a section of the Drosophila brain called the mushroom body, similar to the hippocampus, where our memories are stored. As it turns out, the parts of the mushroom body responsible for memory and learning also help keep the Drosophila awake. "It's almost as if that section of the mushroom body were saying 'hey, stay awake and learn this,'" says Christmann. "Then, after a while, the DPM neurons start signaling to suppress that section, as if to say 'you're going to need sleep if you want to remember this later.'" Understanding how sleep and memory are connected in a simple system, likeDrosophila, can help scientists unravel the secrets of the human brain. | |
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| High Strangeness |
No new articles.
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| Don't Panic! Lighten Up! |
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Ray Massey
Daily Mail 2015-01-28 11:39:00
A driver has claimed squirrels 'ate' his new Toyota Aygo after the firm began using eco-friendly plastics to boost its green credentials. Tony Steeles said his car was repeatedly attacked by the rodents only days after it was delivered. 'The aerial's been chewed off twice, the oxygen sensor's been damaged and various rubber-like trim parts have been chewed and damaged,' he told motoring magazine Auto Express. 'The car's been back for repairs four or five times.' As no other vehicles parked nearby have been attacked, Mr Steeles, from Croydon, south London, questioned whether Toyota's use of plant-based plastics might be attracting the hungry squirrels. |
