| Puppet Masters |
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Eric Zuesse
Washington's Blog 2015-02-01 21:58:00
Unofficially, the Ukrainian Government acknowledges that its war against its Donbass region is an ethnic-cleansing operation. The pro-regime Ukrainian TV station Hromandske TV - which is funded by the U.S. Government, the Dutch Government, and George Soros (via his International Renaissance Foundation or 'Fund') - has reported that the Ukrainian Government is specifically targeting civilians to die in the Donbass region in the former Ukraine's southeast. It's being done in order "to clean the cities." This is open acknowledgement that the operation, which the U.S. is financing (and Ukraine is bankrupt so it can never reimburse its donors), is actually an ethnic-cleansing campaign. Previously, on Hromadske TV, a proponent of doing just that (ethnic cleansing) was interviewed. He said: "If we take, for example, just the Donetsk oblast, there are approximately 4 million inhabitants, at least 1.5 million of which are superfluous. ... Donbass must be exploited as a resource, which it is. ... The most important thing that must be done - no matter how cruel it may sound - is that there is a certain category of people that must be exterminated." Here is how it's done: | |
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action.sumofus.org
2015-02-03 21:08:00
The video shows how big business will be able to call the shots in Brussels, via a new chapter in TTIP misleadingly called "regulatory cooperation". Regulatory Cooperation is bad news for consumers, workers and the environment. It means that corporations can co-write our regulation. The European Commission seems intent to open the doors to massive influence by big business. This dangerous attack on democracy must be stopped now. On Monday, European leaders are meeting with their US counterparts to begin the next round of negotiations on TTIP. As usual, citizens are left in the dark about what is being negotiated. The only thing that can fight corporate power is people power. Let's show European leaders that we will not take this attack on our democracy lying down.
Already shared the video? Then please sign the petition to stop TTIP. | ||
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South Front
2015-02-03 20:53:00
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Alexander Mercouris
Russia Insider 2015-02-03 20:32:00
One of the things I learnt during the fighting last summer is that in assessing the state of the battle it is important not to lose sight of the whole wood by focusing too much on individual trees. A great deal of energy was spent last summer discussing whether this or that village or settlement had been captured by the Ukrainian military or by the rebel militia and what this meant in strategic terms and what it showed about who was supposedly winning or losing. In reality, as became obvious if one looked at a map, from the first week of July until the last half of August, the position of the front lines was essentially stable. In the end what decided the course of the battle was not minor movements backwards and forwards across the battlefield but the sheer scale of the losses the Ukrainian military was suffering. Quite simply, the Ukrainian military bled to death, or at least to the point where when the militia launched its offensive in the second half of August it had no strength left to resist it. | |
Comment: It looks like Putin was right: Everything the U.S. touches turns into Libya.
See also: Zakharchenko warns Poroshenko: Don't expect to gain military superiority | |
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Fort Russ
2015-02-02 20:17:00
Kiev should not expect to gain military superiority over the militias of the people's republics, Aleksandr Zakharchenko said on Monday. "If Poroshenko thinks that his army can compete with ours, let him see how quickly we took Uglegorsk," said Poroshenko, appearing before journalists together with the head of the LPR, Igor Plotnitskiy. "They are throwing into battle untrained reservists who can't even tell the business end of a rifle. We have high morale, we have lived here, we live here now, and will continue to do so, this is our land," added Zakharchenko. He reminded that, in view of another wave of Ukrainian mobilization, DPR and LPR made a decision to start the recruitment of volunteers into the militia, and called on the people of Ukraine to turn against the unnecessary war. | |
Comment: As the Fort Russ editors have pointed out, the NAF has demonstrated some remarkable military prowess in the past month, a far cry from claims that they simply rely on artillery to scare Ukrainian troops into abandoning their positions. The Donetsk Airport, Peski, Popasnaya, Nikishino, Uglegorsk show what the NAF is capable of, and why Poroshenko should probably listen before it's too late. Here's the latest military update from South Front:
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IMEMC
"The brutality Palestine is experiencing must end", main opposition SYRIZA party leader Alexis Tsipras said on Tuesday, during a rally and march to Syntagma Square, held in protest of the Israeli army's military campaign in the Gaza Strip.2015-02-02 20:11:00
The event was organized by leftist and Palestinian groups and immigrant communities, PNN correspondence reports in conjunction with Greek media. "Palestine is in perpetual war - this war must stop at some point; this brutality cannot be tolerated," Tsipras said. "When civilians and children are killed at beaches facing the same sea that borders the European continent, we cannot remain passive, because if this happens on the other side of the Mediterranean today, it can happen on our own side tomorrow. I want to note that the voices of solidarity movements are, for the first time, uniting under a strong movement within Israel," he added. | |
Comment: Hard times seem to have brought Greece to its senses: Syriza is saying all the right things. We'll be interested to see how much they can actually accomplish. See also: Syriza and Russian sanctions: Best option for present, big decisions in future
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Ryhor Astapenia
Belarus Digest 2015-02-03 18:45:00
On 11 January, the Committee for State Security (KGB) made public information about the arrest of 20 Muslim Salafis that took place near Minsk in late November 2014. While Belarus security services have monitored the behaviour of Islamic radicals in the past, the arrest is one of the most important actions taken by the authorities against Muslim extremists. Muslims have lived in Belarus since the 14th century, blending in well. However, in recent years preachers from other states have been changing the nature of Islam in Belarus by infusing radical ideas. By arresting a group of Salafi Muslims, Belarus may be signalling to the West that it is a reliable partner in fighting terrorism. How could Minsk benefit from such efforts? | |
Comment: Russia has tried to do the same thing: unify their interests with the West and their shared efforts in confronting radical Islam. However, that hasn't worked out well for Russia. Violent, radical Islamists in Chechnya are still called "rebels" and "separatists" by Western politicians and media. Could this development have anything to do with the following news from Belarus:
Chechnya, Georgia ... Belarus? | |
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The Globe and Mail
2015-02-01 18:22:00
Prime Minister Stephen Harper never tires of telling Canadians that we are at war with the Islamic State. Under the cloud of fear produced by his repeated hyperbole about the scope and nature of the threat, he now wants to turn our domestic spy agency into something that looks disturbingly like a secret police force. Canadians should not be willing to accept such an obvious threat to their basic liberties. Our existing laws and our society are strong enough to stand up to the threat of terrorism without compromising our values. This week, Mr. Harper released a video in which he recklessly conflates the two recent lone-wolf incidents in Canada with the Islamic State's call for attacks on "non-believing countries." The two attacks - one in Ottawa and the other in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que. - were horrendous. They shocked Canadians and scared them. But there is no evidence that either attacker was connected to ISIS. The more likely theory is that they were troubled young men who self-radicalized. And yet, as the Prime Minister reminds viewers in the video that ISIS has urged its followers to "attack, quote, disbelieving Canadians in any manner, vowing that we should not feel secure even in our own homes," the words are spoken over footage of the aftermath of the shooting at the National War Memorial, as if the Ottawa attack were a direct outcome of ISIS's urgings. | |
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RT
2015-02-03 15:26:00
The head of UN inquiry into the hostilities between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas has pledged to resign due to Israel allegations of pro-Palestinian bias. He described the criticisms as "malicious attacks." William Schabas, a Canadian academic living in the UK, was appointed last August to head the UN Human Rights Council's three-member team to probe the circumstances of the Operation Protective Edge and allegations of war crimes committed during it. Some 2,200 people, most of them Palestinian civilians, were killed in the conflict. His candidacy however met fierce resistance from Israeli officials, who accused Schabas of being anti-Israel. "If any other evidence of this was needed, appointing the committee's chairman, whose biased opinions and positions against Israel are well known, proves beyond all doubt that Israel cannot expect justice and that the committee's report has already been written," the Israeli Foreign Ministry said at the time. | |
Comment: Obviously this report will not reveal anything significant and will not help in ending the violence.
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Tyler Durden
Zerohedge 2015-02-02 02:12:00
Because nothing says "we really do fear social unrest... and please stick with the new king" like Saudi Arabia spewing a massive $29.3 billion spending program that include lavish payments of two months bonus salary to all Saudi state employees and a series of subsidies. As al-Arabiyareports, King Salman bin Abdulaziz has issued a number of decrees because - as he wrote on Twitter (which you may remember is considered "the source of all evil" by the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia) "Dear Citizens, you deserve more," adding "do not forget to include me in your prayers." As Al-Arabiya reports, | |
Comment: Got to tame the populace don't you know. Never fear, the king is here.
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Raúl Ilargi Meijer
The Automatic Earth 2015-02-03 00:44:00
It's all still about Greece, and that makes sense, if nothing else Syriza is a breath if not a tornado of fresh air. But those too pass. The question at the end remains: did anything really change? It's quite possible, don't get me wrong, but Tsipras and Vanoufakis are busy looking out for the people who voted for them, not the rest of the Europe, or the world for that matter. And neither should they. They've already gotten good response from Obama, from France and Britain, and if only for that reason they will get more. But you have to understand what they are trying to do: getting a better life for their own people, and that's hard enough all by itself. The best they can do for now, hopefully, is that. But Greece is merely a symptom of something bigger and deeper that is going wrong. There's an ideological battle happening between money and wellbeing, between people and banks. Western leaders have so far chosen to protect money and banks, instead of people and their wellbeing, and that's why we find ourselves where we do. Choosing money before people can only end in the demise of the system that makes such a choice. That, however, is apparently terribly hard to comprehend. | |
Comment: Hopefully the Greeks have started something that will spread around the world!
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Sputnik
2015-02-02 01:56:00
China is ready to develop economic cooperation with Russia and India as part of the "One Belt and One Road" strategy, the building of a new Silk Road, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi announced on Monday. "We call for mutual benefits over a zero-sum game, over confrontation. China created the 'One Belt and One Road' initiative. We want to continue the tradition of the Silk Road and give it with a new meaning in a new century," he told journalists after the trilateral Russia-China-India Foreign Minister talks. According to Yi, China is ready to cooperate with all countries located along the economic corridors that connect China with Europe. "This is not a Chinese solo, this is a symphony for all our partners," Yi noted, stating that China will cooperate with all interested parties, above all Russia and India to achieve mutual benefits in the 21st century. In 2013 the Chinese government ratified the "One Belt and One Road" strategy, an economic belt that passes through the countries of the Silk Road which once connected China with Europe through East and Central Asia. | |
Comment: It looks like, despite U.S. meddling with Chinese attempts to connect to Europe, China is ready to move forward and help create a multi-polar world.
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As a political psychoanalyst I find the Super-bowl halftime show the best concise index of how psychotic American culture is becoming from year to year, and the 2015 version signaled acomplete break from reality, a nightmare of twerking robots in a hall of mirrors, as if America had utterly surrendered its tattered soul to some rogue motherboard pulsing deep within Dr. Evil's subterranean palace of sin. Hence it is the perfect analog for understanding otherwise incomprehensible happenings such as the USA's role in fomenting further chaos and mayhem in Ukraine. How otherwise to explain things like this morning's New York Times report that the USA "now supports providing defensive weapons and equipment to Kiev's beleaguered forces, and an array of administration and military officials appear to be edging toward that position...." Earth calling New York Times readers: I regret to inform you that this decision was already reached a year ago when we paid for the coup d'état against the elected President, Viktor Yanukovych, after the poor sap decided to not sign up with EU but rather the Russian-backed Eurasian Customs Union. Whoops! You're so out of here, Bub, State Department Under Secretary Victoria Nuland burbled in a clandestinely recorded phone call to the American ambassador. Will somebody please find Yats! Yes Yats! [UKR politician Arseniy Yatsenyuk] and plug the Bluetooth earpiece of power into his skull! | |
Comment: The war hawks are out in force to escalate the war in Ukraine without a peep from the American people.
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| Society's Child |
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John Vibes
Free Thought Project 2015-02-03 21:24:00
Last week, a man was arrested while he was attempting to pay his property taxes in $1 bills. According to the police report, 27-year-old Timothy Andrew Norris attempted to pay $600 worth of property taxes in intricately folded one dollar bills. The tax officials refused the payment because it would make their job more difficult. Norris was then asked to leave by a police officer who was at the office. When Norris refused to leave until they accepted his payment, the officer immediately grabbed him and put him in handcuffs. When he attempted to pull away from the officer, he was thrown to the ground and placed under arrest for criminal trespass and resisting arrest. The arrest report stated, "The deputy was at the Annex, 600 Scott Street, just after 2 p.m. when Wichita County Tax Assessor-Collector Tommy Smyth asked Timothy Andrew Norris, 27, to leave the tax office. Smyth accused Norris of disrupting the operation and efficiency of the tax office by attempting to pay $600-worth of property taxes with $1 bills. The bills were said to be folded so tightly it "required tax office personnel approximately six minutes to unfold each bill." Norris was released on $500 bail over the weekend. Similar tax and fine protests have been staged by activists in the past, but rarely is there ever an arrest. Last year we reported on the case of a blogger named "Bacon Moose", who paid a $137.00 ticket all in ones. | |
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Arturo Garcia
Raw Story 2015-01-30 21:18:00
A 13-year-old Baltimore girl needed 10 stitches in her head after a police officer hit her with a baton in an altercation caught on video, WBAL-TV reported. The video, released today, shows the encounter between the officer and the girl, identified as Diamond. A photograph taken after the incident last October shows a bandage on Diamond's head and bloodstains on her Vanguard Middle School shirt. Two of her relatives, who also attend Vanguard, were also involved. The name of the officer involved in the incident has not been released. Footage shows Diamond's cousin, identified as Starr, talking to the officer after walking down a stairway. The officer then grabs her by the arm and pushes her against a wall and seems to hold her by her hair at one point. "The officer was hollering at her and said, 'Little girl, get down here,'" Starr's grandmother, Vanessa Ward, told WBAL. "And so Starr said, 'My name is not little girl, it's Starr.' Starr came on down the steps, and Starr said that's when the officer grabbed her." Starr's sister is then seen approaching the scene and arguing with the officer after finding out that Starr was involved. Diamond is then seen trying to step between the officer and Starr. The officer lets Starr go and begins chasing Diamond. The officer then draws her baton and hits Diamond, who is backed against a wall with her hands up. Neals said that the school did not tell her that her daughter had been hurt by the officer. Instead, she said, she found out from paramedics. The officer was also seen using pepper spray against the other two girls as they were being restrained by a school official. All three girls had to be hospitalized. "The officer kind of comes from behind and reaches around and sprays them multiple times in the face with pepper spray," the family's attorney, Jared Jaskot, said. "It's disgusting." | |
Comment: It is absolutely jaw-dropping to see how these so-called officers have become complete thugs. They have free license to terrorize these children and aren't held accountable. These violent events are escalating and bear all of the hallmarks of living a police state.
See also: America's Children: The trials of growing up in a police state | |
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Sean Carlin
ABC News 2015-02-02 18:39:00
An assistant director at a child advocacy organization followed and shot his supervisor as she waited at a bus stop so she couldn't report him for stealing about $40,000 from the organization, police said Monday. After the slaying last month, Randolph Sanders told a television station that he was "stunned" by the death of 56-year-old Kim Jones, a mother of two. "She was incredibly happy," Sanders said in the interview with WPVI-TV in Philadelphia. "So this is - this is just disturbing." But over the weekend, authorities say, he confessed to shooting Jones once in the back of the head in what homicide Capt. James Clark described as "a premeditated assassination-style" killing. Jones suspected Sanders was stealing from Turning Points for Children, and Sanders was worried he might lose his job. Fearing Jones would report him, Sanders stalked her for more than an hour before shooting her at the bus stop Jan. 13, Clark said. Police don't know why Sanders might have stolen, and he didn't say why in his confession, Clark said. | |
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Travis Gettys
Raw Story 2015-02-02 18:30:00
Two Florida police officers are accused of forcing an 11-year-old girl to the ground at gunpoint after responding to a burglary call at her home. The child was watching television in bed when the officers let themselves into her family's Groveland home with their weapons drawn after the burglary alarm was accidentally activated, reported WFTV-TV. She said one of the officers pushed her to the ground and held here there with his knee while the other officer pointed his gun at her. "I was very scared and didn't know what to do," she said. The officers asked if she was the homeowner and then went to her father's room down the hall. "Someone should get fired for doing something like this," said the girl's father, Jean Guirand. Groveland police launched an internal investigation after the TV station called seeking comment. The two officers, James Festa and John Rigdon, are three-year veterans with previous disciplinary actions in their personnel files. Festa was reprimanded in December for botching a child abuse investigation and was suspended in 2013 for sleeping on the job. Rigdon was suspended in May, demoted from corporal in 2013, and reprimanded in 2011 - each time for filing false police reports. The police chief said the department takes the allegations seriously, and officers were scheduled to speak with the girl Monday. Watch an interview with the girl posted online by WFTV-TV:
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Comment: What is wrong with police that they feel the need to violate a harmless child in her own home? Is there any common sense left in the police force, or has it all been replaced by senseless, violent behaviors?
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RT
2015-02-03 20:05:00
At least two soldiers guarding a Jewish community center have been wounded by a knife-wielding attacker in Nice, in southern France, police say. The country has suffered a spate of hate crimes in recent months. AP reported that the attacked pulled out a 20 cm blade, and struck one of the guards on the chin. As two others tried to interfere, he swiped at them, hitting one on the forearm, and another on the cheek. None of the injuries are thought to be life-threatening. The suspected attacked then attempted to flee by foot, but was quickly stopped and detained. Mayor Christian Estrosi told local television that an ID card with the name Moussa Coulibaly, a common West African surname, had been found on him, and said that a search has been started for potential accomplices. | |
Comment: Things are really heating up in France.
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Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project 2015-02-02 05:24:00
A common meme amongst those in the police accountability movement is that it is only a matter of time before an entirely innocent person crosses paths with the wrong cop and gets a hefty dose ofpolice state USA. All too often we hear the ridiculous statement from the apologist crowd saying, "If you don't break the law, you have nothing to worry about." However, that statement couldn't be further from the truth. Former NSA official William Binney sums this myth up quite accurately, "The problem is, if they think they're not doing anything that's wrong, they don't get to define that. The central government does." Attorney Harvey Silverglate argues that the average American commits three felonies a day without even knowing it. In reality, there are too many cases to count of innocent people, some who've been recognized as pillars of society, being attacked and imprisoned by a system which claims to protect them. When people assert that not breaking the law protects them from police abuse, those of us with our finger on the pulse of this corrupt police state, answer back by stating, "it's only a matter of time before they are proven wrong." As a point of clarification, it is important to state the difference between hating cops and holding police accountable. | |
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Serena Dai
More than 70 firefighters were still working to extinguish a blaze on the Williamsburg waterfront Monday after a storage facility caught on fire over the weekend, potentially burning sensitive documents ranging from court records to financial information, officials said.DNAinfo 2015-02-02 20:14:00
The CitiStorage facility at 5 N. 11th Street was still smoldering Monday, more than two full days after the fire broke at the building, which was filled with paper documents, FDNY officials said. The firefighters were there to monitor the blaze and minimize "hot spots," an FDNY spokesman said. Officials had no estimate on how long it would take for the fire to die down. The smell of smoke still hung in the air and even in some L train cars Monday. | |
Comment: What an interesting coincidence, that almost at the same time another fire that burned millions of unique documents happened in Moscow.
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James Rush
The Independent 2015-02-02 23:46:00
Comment: In this article, a number "authorities" mention this women's life being in danger as being a reason to force sterilization, a horrendously intrusive procedure, on her. But, that should be her choice. Whether she has the mental capacity to make that decision should be decided by a psychiatrist, not "health authorities" and social services. Imagine the precedent this sets, to force someone to undergo a procedure robbing them of the right to give life. This is a decision that health and social services should stay out of, not be intimately involved in. A mother-of-six with learning disabilities could be sterilised after health authority and social services bosses asked a judge for permission to force entry into her home, restrain her and take her to hospital. The woman, who is in her 30s, has had her children removed from her care and authorities say she has physical health problems which could put her life in danger if she became pregnant again. A judge at the Court of Protection in London examined the case last week at a two-day public hearing. Mr Justice Cobb, who told lawyers he was dealing with a case of "enormous gravity", is due to deliver a ruling soon. Authorities have said the moves are in the woman's best interests. Barrister John McKendrick, who represented a health authority, hospital trust and council involved in the case, said the rulings sought were "extraordinary" and would involve serious interference with the woman's basic human rights, but he said they were necessary. They say the woman could be at "grave" risk if action is not taken, while specialists say she lacks the mental capacity to make decisions about treatment. Lawyers appointed by the court to represent the woman's interests have backed the plan put forward by health and social services officials. They have agreed the woman "lacks capacity" because her mind is impaired. Mr Justice Cobb, who has ruled that no-one involved can be identified, received details of the issues in written legal submissioms. The judge has given permission for a reporter who attended the court hearing to be given access to documents. | |
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| Secret History |
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Owen Jarus
Live Science 2015-02-03 08:58:00
A 1,500-year-old book that contains a previously unknown gospel has been deciphered. The ancient manuscript may have been used to provide guidance or encouragement to people seeking help for their problems, according to a researcher who has studied the text. Written in Coptic, an Egyptian language, the opening reads (in translation): "The Gospel of the lots of Mary, the mother of the Lord Jesus Christ, she to whom Gabriel the Archangel brought the good news. He who will go forward with his whole heart will obtain what he seeks. Only do not be of two minds." Anne Marie Luijendijk, a professor of religion at Princeton University, discovered that this newfound gospel is like no other. "When I began deciphering the manuscript and encountered the word 'gospel' in the opening line, I expected to read a narrative about the life and death of Jesus as the canonical gospels present, or a collection of sayings similar to the Gospel of Thomas (a non-canonical text)," she wrote in her book Forbidden Oracles? The Gospel of the Lots of Mary (Mohr Siebeck, 2014). What she found instead was a series of 37 oracles, written vaguely, and with only a few that mention Jesus. | |
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Stuart Gary
ABC Science, Australia 2015-02-03 04:37:00
Sir Isaac Newton's interest in botany extended well beyond the fabled apple falling from a tree - he also appears to have understood how water moves from roots to leaves over 200 years before botanists did. Newton, who lived from 1643-1727, is known for his observations on the properties of light, the invention of calculus, and for his time as head of the Royal Mint, and president of the Royal Society, the leading scientific body of the day. But buried in a notebook Newton used during his undergraduate days, is half a page of text on plant function, which has been reviewed in the journal Nature Plants by Professor David Beerling of theUniversity of Sheffield. In his notes, Newton describes how water is drawn up through a plant's roots and out through its pores. Newton wrote:
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| Science & Technology |
No new articles.
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| Earth Changes |
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The Daily Star (Bangladesh)
2015-02-03 21:42:00
A five-year-old body was trampled to death by a wild elephant in Tonkaboti area under Sadar upazila on Monday night. The deceased was identified as Md Tareque, 5, son of Nurul Islam of the area. Witnesses said, a herd of wild elephants stormed into the area at around 7:30pm. At one stage, one of the elephants swooped on Nurul's farmhouse of the area and killed his son. Nurul and his wife sustained injuries while they were fleeing the house. Some of the houses in the area were also damaged by the elephants. | |
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Manatees invaded a natural spring in Florida, prompting scores of volunteers to rush to protect the massive mammals. A total of 300 manatees converged upon Three Sisters Spring, with 65 of the mammals gathering at one time on average. The manatees began arrive around noon at the Three Sisters Spring central pool. Volunteers blocked off the public walkways in an effort to protect the mammals that were gravitating to the shallow natural spring so they could warm themselves. The Citrus County wildlife park was forced to shut down so the massive influx of manatees could be dealt with properly. | |
Comment: See also these related reports: Manatees moving out of Florida waters west along Gulf coast
Manatee from Florida makes rare visit to Texas waters | |
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The Irish Times
2015-02-02 20:16:00
Scientists have expressed alarm at a recent spike in dolphin strandings which has seen almost 20 of the animals recovered on Irish shores in the last month. The number of common dolphins stranded throughout the country since October is close to the amount that should be expected for an entire year, according to marine biologist Dr Simon Berrow. "The number of dolphins we've had washed up in the last few weeks is shocking in terms of conservation and management," said Dr Berrow, a member of the Marine Biodiversity Research Group at Galway Mayo IT (GMIT). | |
Comment: See also: Spate of deep sea beaked whale deaths puzzle experts in Scotland
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Jonathan O'Callaghan
Daily Mail, UK 2015-02-03 17:46:00
Last night many observers in the UK reported seeing an odd halo of light around the moon. The remarkable phenomenon was captured in stunning images, showing the moon surrounded by a bright ring of light. The spectacle is caused by ice crystals in the atmosphere, specifically when thin cirrus or cirrostratus clouds are present at an altitude of about 20,000 feet (6,100 metres). | |
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John Hall
Daily Mail, UK 2015-02-03 17:37:00
A renowned Ukrainian animal expert had to have his arm amputated after being crushed by an angry elephant. Oleg Grishchenko, 39, has worked with elephants all his life and is considered one of the most knowledgeable handlers in eastern Europe. But he was caught unaware when the animal, called Tandy, became extremely and unexpectedly agitated, charging at him at a zoo in the city of Kharkov, in eastern Ukraine. | |
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Wallowa County Chieftain
2015-02-03 16:45:00
A Cape May Warbler wintering in Enterprise is only the second member of its species ever found wintering in Oregon. Dozens of birders who journeyed to Enterprise in recent weeks spent a chunk of their time trying to glimpse something that all agree is rather rare: a Cape May Warbler wintering in Oregon. Among the visitors was Eugene resident Alan Contreras, co-editor of the 2003 guide, "Birds of Oregon: A General Reference." According to Contreras, Wallowa County normally attracts birders during January from various locales - because "several kinds of birds are found there in winter that are hard to find elsewhere in Oregon," he says - and this year's sighting of the Cape May Warbler, early in January, added to the allure. The warbler has been located generally near the southern end of Enterprise City Park. This is only the second time a Cape May Warbler has been spotted wintering in Oregon. Contreras said the first time was in 2001 in relatively balmy Brookings. He said the species, which breeds in central to eastern Canada, normally winters in the Caribbean or in Central America. | |
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Cape Breton Post
2015-02-03 16:31:00
Kathleen Spicer has seen a lot of different birds in her yard over the years, but very few in North America have been visited by a Fieldfare. The robin-like European bird was first spotted by Spicer's husband Blaine in an apple tree in their yard during a snowstorm on Jan. 31, and was still being observed there as of Monday. "Blaine saw it out the window and said, 'I don't know what this is,' so I grabbed my camera and stood on a chair to get a picture of it," aid Mrs. Spicer. "I thought maybe it was a Varied Thrush, because it had a robin shape. But when I looked at the picture, I knew it was something else." Although she had never seen a Fieldfare before, there was something familiar about the bird. She grabbed a guidebook she had for European birds, and there one was right on the cover. | |
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WCVB
2015-02-02 23:33:00
If it's any consolation, we're part of a history-making period in Boston weather. As of 1 p.m. Monday, Boston set a new record for snowiest seven-day period in the city's history with 34.2 inches. The old record of 31.2 inches was set 19 years ago in January, 1996. Snowfall totals to the north of the Massachusetts Turnpike may reach 15 to 18 inches, with up to 20 inches in some areas. Schools in Boston were closed for Tuesday. "The safety of our children and families in Boston is always our top priority. Our crews will be working hard to clear all streets and schools tonight and tomorrow as we recover from this ongoing winter storm," Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said. Tony Troc, of Whitman, Mass., was among those looking on the bright side of shoveling snow, and sees it as a pretty good workout. "It doesn't bother me at all," said Troc, of Whitman, who works in a supermarket warehouse and spoke Monday after clearing about eight inches of snow from his driveway. "If I didn't like it, I'd be in Florida." Just a week after a blockbuster blizzard dropped up to three feet of snow in some part of Massachusetts, another winter storm is expected to bring another foot of snow or more. | |
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Yahoo
2015-02-01 23:13:00
For the first time in recorded weather history, San Francisco received no measurable rain in January. The city's streets stayed dry, and the month ended on Saturday with sunshine and the temperature hitting 70 degrees. The rest of the Bay Area was also dry. Meteorology consultant Jan Null tells the San Francisco Chronicle that other cities, including San Jose, saw at most two one-hundredths of an inch of rain. The Bay Area is still above normal rainfall totals for this time of year after a wet December. But rain will have to start falling soon to maintain a normal pace. The state, meanwhile, remains in the grips of a drought. San Francisco's recorded weather history dates back to the Gold Rush era of the mid-19th century. | |
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A homeowner came face to face with a mountain lion early Sunday morning in a remote, wooded area of Placerville after it attacked her 45-pound dog. Susan McPherson knew something was wrong after her dog, Mate, ran into the backyard at 3:30 a.m., and she did not hear his usual barking. So she followed him - and spotted a mountain lion. "I saw a large cat walking away," McPherson said. "I yelled at it. And he turned his head, and there was this gray dog (in the mountain lion's mouth) ... like a rag doll. So, I'm like, 'This can't be my dog.'"
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| Fire in the Sky |
No new articles.
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| Health & Wellness |
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James McIntosh
Medical News Today 2015-02-02 18:18:00
A new report published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings advises people to replace processed foods containing high levels of added sugars and fructose with whole foods such as fruit and vegetables. Present guidelines from the Institute of Medicine allow for up to 25% of total daily calories to come from added sugars. However, added sugars such as sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup have been associated with the development of diabetes and other metabolic disorders that can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. In the US, 1 in 11 people has type 2 diabetes - a total of around 29 million adults. Worldwide, the number of individuals diagnosed with the condition has more than doubled in recent times, from 153 million people in 1980 to 347 million in 2008. Another 86 million Americans have prediabetes - also referred to as "borderline" diabetes - whereby their blood sugar levels are higher than they should be. "Approximately 40% of US adults already have some degree of insulin resistance with projections that nearly the same percentage will eventually develop frank diabetes," says lead author James DiNicolantonio of Saint Luke's Mid America Heart Institute, Kansas City, MO. | |
Comment: There is no biological need for carbohydrates in the diet. So if governmental dietary recommendations do not call for any restriction of carbohydrates, especially for those who are extremely sensitive such as diabetics, it tells us that those recommendations are not based on healthy science but on corporate greed. Take a stand against corruption, put down the apple a day and pass the bacon!
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Jonathan Benson
Natural News 2015-01-28 18:12:00
An Italian court has unearthed a formerly classified document that proves vaccines cause death, and that vaccine companies don't want you to know this. As published on the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) website, a 1,271-page report by British drug firm GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) reveals that certain combination vaccines administered to children are known to cause sudden death, but the company chose to obscure and conceal this in official safety reports. The document deals specifically with the Infanrix Hexa vaccine (combined diphtheria, tetanus, acellular pertussis, hepatitis B, inactivated poliomyelitis and haemophilus influenza type B) made by GSK, as well as the Prevenar 13 vaccine by Pfizer and several other vaccines. It explains that, contrary to the skewed data presented by GSK suggesting that dozens of sudden death cases following vaccination were not linked to Infanrix Hexa, the same data broken down by time of occurrence reveals that the vaccine was, in fact, directly linked to the deaths. | |
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Science Daily
2015-01-30 01:51:00
Scientists have identified a biological clock that provides vital clues about how long a person is likely to live. Researchers studied chemical changes to DNA that take place over a lifetime, and can help them predict an individual's age. By comparing individuals' actual ages with their predicted biological clock age, scientists saw a pattern emerging. People whose biological age was greater than their true age were more likely to die sooner than those whose biological and actual ages were the same. Four independent studies tracked the lives of almost 5,000 older people for up to 14 years. Each person's biological age was measured from a blood sample at the outset, and participants were followed up throughout the study. Researchers found that the link between having a faster-running biological clock and early death held true even after accounting for other factors such as smoking, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. | |
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Phys Org
2015-02-02 23:22:00
Mercury concentrations in Hawaiian yellowfin tuna are increasing at a rate of 3.8 percent or more per year, according to a new University of Michigan-led study that suggests rising atmospheric levels of the toxin are to blame. Mercury is a potent toxin that can accumulate to high concentrations in fish, posing a health risk to people who eat large, predatory marine fish such as swordfish and tuna. In the open ocean, the principal source of mercury is atmospheric deposition from human activities, especially emissions from coal-fired power plants and artisanal gold mining. For decades, scientists have expected to see mercury levels in open-ocean fish increase in response to rising atmospheric concentrations, but evidence for that hypothesis has been hard to find. In fact, some studies have suggested that there has been no change in mercury concentration in ocean fish. By compiling and re-analyzing three previously published reports on yellowfin tuna caught near Hawaii, U-M's Paul Drevnick and two colleagues found that the concentration of mercury in that species increased at least 3.8 percent per year from 1998 to 2008. A paper about the study is scheduled for online publication in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry on Feb. 2. The other authors are Carl Lamborg of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, now at the University of California at Santa Cruz, and Martin Horgan. | |
Comment: This information, on top of concerns related to the Fukushima meltdown, should cause any person considering eating ocean fish to think twice.
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| Science of the Spirit |
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Sigmund Fraud
Waking Times 2015-02-02 15:42:00
For a magician to fool his audience his deceit must go unseen, and to this end he crafts an illusion to avert attention from reality. While the audience is entranced, the deceptive act is committed, and for the fool, reality then becomes inexplicably built upon on a lie. That is, until the fool wakes up and recognizes the truth in the fact that he has been duped. Maintaining the suspension of disbelief in the illusion, however, is often more comforting than acknowledging the magician's secrets. We live in a world of illusion. So many of the concerns that occupy the mind and the tasks that fill the calendar arise from planted impulses to become someone or something that we are not. This is no accident. As we are indoctrinated into this authoritarian-corporate- | |
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J. D. Heyes
Natural News 2015-02-01 01:47:00
Is it possible that you could one day be convinced to confess to a crime you never committed - because you don't remember you didn't commit it? How could you not know that you didn't commit a crime? Perhaps because your mind was altered to prohibit you from remembering that you're innocent. If that sounds confusing or bizarre, this will only add to the bizarre, confusing nature of such an event: New research suggests that this very thing may have already happened, and the implications are profound. A press release from the Association for Psychological Science said that new research published in the organization's journal, Psychological Science, discovered evidence from some cases of wrongful conviction that suspects can be questioned by authorities in a way that could lead them to falsely believe in, and confess to, crimes they didn't really commit. The organization said the new research is providing "lab-based evidence for this phenomenon, showing that innocent adult participants can be convinced, over the course of a few hours, that they had perpetrated crimes as serious as assault with a weapon in their teenage years." Researchers said data suggests that participants in such cases had come to internalize stories they were told, then provided illustrative detail about them even though they were contrived. | |
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| High Strangeness |
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Kathleen Marden
AP Magazine 2015-01-01 21:38:00
A recent article in the November 11 issue of Scientific American claims that alien abductions might be nothing more than "accidental awareness" caused by psychological damage inflicted upon a patient who awakens too soon while undergoing surgery. This hypothesis is presented by Anne Skomorowsky, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University and Psychosomatic Medicine Specialist at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital. I received Dr. Skomorowsky's article from a colleague who questioned if it was a joke of some kind. I did as well, until I discovered that it has been printed in a prestigious journal. The article was loosely based upon the largest collection of data on "accidental awareness" ever assembled. It had been released by the Royal College of Anaesthetists. No mention was made of alien abduction. However, Dr. Skomorowsky's article was linked to one written in 2008 by David V. Forrest, M.D., a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia. Dr. Forrest noted that frequently reported narratives of alien abduction, altered state of consciousness, uniformly colored figures with large eyes, nakedness, a high tech room, etc. resemble medical-surgical procedures. He cautioned that if surgeons and anesthesiologists are creating false memories of alien abduction, the medical community should take note of it. Dr. Skomorowsky carried this conjecture to fruition in her article for Scientific American. | |
Comment: This is what happens when educated professionals try to discuss things that they have not even bothered to research in depth. They may not realize it, but their 'explanations' end up looking even more ridiculous than the idea of 'alien abduction' must seem to them.
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