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Sott Editors
Sott.net 2015-03-08 16:33:00
The pattern of global deluges continued last month as flooding again hit the Balkans, Greece, Bolivia, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, the U.S. Northwest, Australia, and East Africa. February saw 'orange' snow, 'blue' snow and 'dirty rain' as particulates from ever more erupting volcanoes and incoming meteors continue to build up in the atmosphere. It's not just conditions above ground that are changing: alarming numbers of whales, sea lions and other sea creatures continue to wash up dead or dying on beaches around the world. February saw meteor fireballs ranging from flashes that momentarily turned night into day over New Zealand, Florida and Korea... to a long-duration bolide of comet/asteroid size that broke up over the western half of North America. There were several major train derailments in February, particularly in the U.S., where oil companies are bypassing pipeline networks to transport fracked oil. We suspect that many railway lines are deforming due to the increased seismic activity. More loud booms were heard and felt across the U.S. in February. Although attributed to 'frost quakes', where water seeps into the ground then freezes and cracks the bedrock, these localized booms also happened in ice-free regions, suggesting that some other mechanism is causing them. Besides strong earthquakes off Japan and along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, an unusually strong quake in central Spain sent people running into the streets. Japan saw snow records broken (again), wild weather continued to pummel the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Middle East was again snowed under. THE major weather event in February 2015 was the record snow and cold in the U.S. Northeast. The South and Midwest were also hit hard, but the Northeast appears to have had both its snowiest and coldest month ever, at least since since record-keeping began in the mid-19th century. Meteorologists attributed this to the meandering Polar Jet stream delivering a 'Siberian Express' of non-stop winter storms from the northern Pacific down and across the North American continent, but another factor could be super-cool air coming down from the troposphere. The ice age cometh?
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| Puppet Masters |
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Waqar Rizvi
Press TV 2015-03-07 21:25:00
Suspicions have been growing for years about a growing behind-the-scenes relationship between Israel and members of the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council. The name that has come up a lot over the years is Qatar, with which the Israeli relationship is a lot more open and has spanned trade to even face-to-face meetings and handshakes between high-level officials. The past numbers of years, though, have consistently brought forth two names in the more secretive relationship between Israel and the Persian Gulf Arab monarchies: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The most recent example of a blurring of lines between Israeli and Saudi policies, for example, is Saudi media's 'tacit' support for Netanyahu's much derided speech at the US Congress in opposition to essentially any deal between the West and Iran over a falsely-hyped nuclear issue. In fact, Saudi media attacks on Obama, and in support of Netanyahu, had already begun in the lead-up to the Israeli PM's US Congress address. It may be an understatement for us to say that for the Saudi establishment to quite openly ask, 'Who could believe that Netanyahu has taken a better stand than Obama with regard to the Iranian nuclear file?' is 'tacit' support. This is an especially pertinent sentiment when seen in line with recent reports about the likely Saudi approval of Israeli flyovers over its territory in the hypothetical case of an Israeli attack on Iran. | |
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pressenza
2015-02-14 21:01:00
Katerina Sergidou, secretary of the coordination committee of Syriza in Athens, is currently in Spain to support the launch of the manifesto "For the change in Greece". "If he's a star that says no to the troika, then he's welcome," she says about Yanis Varoufakis. "Unfortunately, the KKE (Greek Communist Party) would be a very good ally but they didn't want to collaborate with Syriza." Interview by Mario Pais Beiro for eldiario.es The new Syriza government in Greece has raised hopes across Europe. Their Finance Minister, Yanis Varoufakis, is in contact with the troika and Greece's creditors to renegotiate the payment of the country's debt. With this as a backdrop, Katrina Sergidou, member of the Syriza Coordination Committee in Athens is in Madrid. Her presence is motivated by the presentation of the manifesto "For the change in Greece", a platform seeking popular support for the new Greek government and its demands. What is the current situation in Greece? Right now in Greece we are going through a moment of history, the following days are crucial. The new government is working to break the isolation and respond to the blackmail of the troika and the lenders who don't want Syriza to apply the measures they have declared. They don't want Greece to become an example in Europe of a people who have won their dignity and say they aren't going to pay the debt, which isn't ours, and that we don't want memoranda. For this we need the support of people from Spain and the whole of Europe, that's why the platform being organised here is very important. What we are thinking about now is to constitute these committees in Greece to support the new Government and that they coordinate with others emerging in other parts of Europe. Because behind the government and Yanis Varoufakis there is great support. What do you hope for from the negotiations with the European Union? If the EU doesn't give in, what is the way out for Alexis Tsipras's government? For now the EU has decided to blackmail the new government. We know it's a difficult fight. We are asking for more time and we won't turn back. We are fighting to bring down the memorandum. We want a bridging programme and we won't step back from this. What I mean is that it isn't our responsibility what will happen if they don't accept what we're saying. They don't have a plan B either when they decided that a country such as Greece should have memoranda and such a big debt. That's why we want the support of everyone in Europe. We are going step by step. If they do something similar to what they did to Cyprus, such strong blackmail, then we will see what to do. But really I believe that they don't want a big crisis in the middle of Europe and if that's what they decide, they will have a big problem. | |
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Raul Ilargi Meijer
The Market Oracle 2015-03-08 05:34:00
The European Union is busy accomplishing something truly extraordinary: it is fast becoming such a spectacular failure that people don't even recognize it as one. People have no idea, they just think: this can't possibly be true, and they continue with their day. They should think again. Because the Grand European Failure is bound to lead to real life consequences soon, and they'll be devastating. The union that was supposed to put an end to all fighting across the continent, is about to be the fuse that sets off a range of battles. To its east, the EU is involved in a braindead attempt at further expansion - it has only one idea when it comes to size: bigger is always better -, an attempt that is proving to be such a disaster that heads will roll in the Brussels corridors no matter what. Europe has joined the US and NATO very enthusiastically in creating not just a failed state, but a veritable imitation of Hiroshima, in Ukraine, right on its own borders. The consequences of this will haunt the EU (or if it doesn't last, which is highly plausible, its former members) not just for weeks or months or years, but for many decades. The carefully re-crafted relationship with Russia, which took 25 years to build, was destroyed again in hardly over a year, something for which Angela Merkel deserves so much blame it may well end up being her main political legacy. Vladimir Putin, and Russia as a nation, will not easily forget the humiliation the west has thrown at them, the accusations, the innuendo, the attempts to draw them into a war they never wanted and in which they see no advantage for any party involved. Comment: The demonization of Vladimir Putin is on going, yet the vast majority of Russians are aware of the 'information war' being waged by Western psychopathic powers. As the economic hardships take their toll, he leads by example and consequently enjoys an approval rating most Western leaders could only dream of. That US warmongers would try and set this up, is something Moscow has long known and expected; that Merkel would stand side by side with the likes of John McCain and Victoria Nuland is seen as a deep if not ultimate betrayal between neighbors and friends. Russia will present Germany with the bill when it feels the time is right. Obviously, all other EU countries that have behaved in the insane ways they have over the past year will receive that same bill, or worse.
To be sure, this week we've seen the first protest voices from Germany regarding NATO's vacuous attempts to draw Russia into the battlefields of Ukraine. But those voices are years too late. They can't undo the damage already done. They may keep American weapons from reaching Kiev - and even that's a big maybe -, but they can't bring back either the lives of the victims, the Ukrainian economy or the trust lost between east and west. To its south, the EU faces perhaps its most shameful -or should that be 'shameless'? - problem, because it doesn't do anything about it: the thousands of migrants who try to cross the Mediterranean to get to Europe but far too often perish in the process. | ||
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Nick Cohen
The Guardian 2015-03-08 19:21:00
Nobody from John Humphrys in the morning to Evan Davis at night dares mention a scandal at the BBC. It undermines their reporting of every abuse whistleblowers reveal. It reinforces the dirty common sense of British life that you must keep your head down if you want to keep your job. The scandal is simply this: the BBC is forcing out or demoting the journalists who exposed Jimmy Savile as a voracious abuser of girls. As Meirion Jones put it to me: "There is a small group of powerful people at the BBC who think it would have been better if the truth about Savile had never come out. And they aim to punish the reporters who revealed it." Jones was one of the BBC's best investigative producers. He had suspected that Savile was not the "national treasure" the BBC, NHS, monarchy and public adored, ever since he had seen Savile take girls away in his car from an approved school his aunt ran in the 1970s. He broke the story which showed that Savile was one of the most prolific sex abusers in British history, and handed the BBC what would have been one of its biggest scoops. If it had run it. Which, of course, it did not. The editor of Newsnight banned the report. Thus began a cover-up which tore the BBC apart. A week ago, Jones's managers told him that a temporary assignment on Panorama was over. He should have been able to go back to his old job. But there was no old job to go back to. He had been fired. Jones's reporter on the Savile film was Liz MacKean, who documents the sufferings of the powerless - whether it be raped children in Britain or persecuted gay men in Putin's Russia. But she spoke out, so the BBC forced her out too. "When the Savile scandal broke," she told me, "the BBC tried to smear my reputation. They said they had banned the film because Meirion and I had produced shoddy journalism. I stayed to fight them, but I knew they would make me leave in the end. Managers would look through me as if I wasn't there. I went because I knew I was never going to appear on screen again." | |
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Brandon Turbeville
Activist Post 2015-03-05 16:55:00
After five years of intense fighting and destabilization raging across Syria, Western mainstream press has finally discovered the true cause of the so-called "civil war." It turns out that all of the analysts in the alternative media suggesting that the situation in Syria was the result of a NATO destabilization campaign and foreign-backed invasion of terrorists in the form of al-Nusra, al-Qaeda, and ISIS were wrong. In fact, even those mainstream analysts who have suggested that the foreign invasion was actually a legitimate rebellion were apparently mistaken. Thankfully, the mainstream press has discovered the true cause of the Syrian crisis - global warming. No, this is not a joke. Mainstream outlets are actually suggesting that climate change is responsible, albeit indirectly, for the creation of ISIS and the scores of Western-backed terrorists flooding Syria as well as the now international military involvement in the war. This is merely the latest silly narrative being promoted by the likes of Slate, Wired, The Telegraph,NBC, and The Guardian among many others. | |
Comment: With stories such as this, is it any wonder that the majority of citizens do not trust the mainstream media?
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RT
2015-03-08 17:03:00
The European Commission chief has called for the creation of an "EU joint army" that would "react credibly" to any external threat and defend the bloc's "values." While the UK and France are wary it could undermine NATO, Germany has backed the idea. "An army like this would help us to better coordinate our foreign and defense policies, and to collectively take on Europe's responsibilities in the world," the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said in an interview to Germany's Welt am Sonntag newspaper. He added the EU's image "has suffered dramatically and also in terms of foreign policy, we don't seem to be taken entirely seriously." "A joint EU army would show the world that there would never again be a war between EU countries,"Juncker said. With a joint EU army, the bloc could "react more credibly to the threat to peace in a member state or in a neighboring state." "You would not create a European army to use it immediately," Juncker said. "But a common army among the Europeans would convey to Russia that we are serious about defending the values of the European Union." | |
Comment: The West isn't at risk of losing credibility; it has none! While the creation of an "EU joint army" is couched in the usual propaganda against Russia, there also remains the possibility that the proposal is another sign that the EU is attempting to relieve itself from the destructive grip of the United States using whatever means it has available.
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Josh Cohen
Moscow Times 2015-03-08 13:53:00
As long lines of shell-shocked Ukrainian troops straggled out of Debaltseve last month after a stinging defeat to the Russian-backed separatists there, the focus was on how the separatists had used the support of Russian-supplied weaponry and support troops to inflict a stinging defeat on Kiev's forces in the key railroad junction town. However by focusing on the role played by Russia in eastern Ukraine, many analysts have overlooked the extent to which the incompetence of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and the Ukrainian military high command caused Kiev's Debaltseve debacle. Both before the battle and subsequently, Kiev's political and military leadership seemed completely out touch with the reality of events on the battlefield. The shape of the front lines after the first Minsk agreement left the Ukrainian military holding a little sliver of land stretching into rebel territory that was surrounded by separatists forces on three sides. Toward the bottom of this sliver of land lay Debaltseve. | |
Comment: Poroshenko's incompetence doesn't take place in a vacuum. He dances to the tune of the US State Department:
And he dances to the tune of oligarchs and Right Sector thugs, like 'I always bring a grenade with me to work' Dmitri Yarosh:
For more info check out:
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Paul Craig Roberts
Institute for Political Economics 2015-03-06 13:13:00 Comment: In his legendary speech in 2007 at the Munich Security conference, Putin outlined the principals by which Russia would conduct itself in the world. He outlined a world of fairness, trust between nations, and the goal of working together to benefit all countries in the world community by supporting the sovereignty of each. We have seen how the United States received that vision. The psychopathic elite not only could not comprehend it, but have been actively working against it. As I often emphasize Washington warmongers are driving us to war with Russia, which means also with China. Russian President Vladimir Putin pointed this out at the security conference in Munich in 2007. He put Washington and Washington's European vassal states on notice that the numerous hostile actions taken toward Russia and other countries were undermining international stability. He made it clear that Russia did not accept Washington's idea that Russia should conform to Washington's will. Putin speaks in Russian, but translation is provided across the bottom of the video. It is worth your time:
Part 2 of 4
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RT
2015-03-07 23:22:00
A top NATO European commander's exaggerated comments on the Ukrainian conflict are 'dangerous propaganda,' and put the West at risk of losing credibility, sources in the German Chancellor's Office told Der Spiegel. Comment: That's putting it politely. They've already lost it. General Philip Breedlove made harsh remarks on the situation in Ukraine on Wednesday, saying that the self-defense forces, with the assistance of Russia, have prepared "over a thousand combat vehicles" and "sophisticated air defense, battalions of artillery" in the south-east of the country. Comment: Breedlove seems to be suffering from Dr. Strangelove syndrome. | |
Comment: Don't you see? The U.S. and NATO just want to 'de-escalate' the situation!
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Tony Cartalucci
New Eastern Outlook 2015-03-05 00:00:00
Not unlike other US-backed "color revolutions" around the world, Myanmar's "Saffron Revolution" is sold as an ultra-liberal pro-democracy, progressive movement, with one of the West's most successful neo-colonial creations to date, Aung San Suu Kyi, portrayed and revered as a modern day, secular "saint" of neo-liberalism and Western democratic values. Underneath the pageantry and spin, however, is harbored ultra-right racism and unhinged violence that if ever truthfully reported on, would end the "Saffron" wave, and spell the absolute end of both Suu Kyi's political career and her legacy. Most recently Suu Kyi's "Saffron" movement took to the streets, not to call for greater "freedom" or to defend "human rights," but to condemn the government's move toward giving hundreds of thousands of stateless Rohingya refugees citizenship. Australia's ABC News would report in an article titled, "Myanmar scraps temporary ID cards amid protests targeting ethnic minorities without citizenship," that: | |
Comment: "Another U.S.-backed and instigated color revolution?!" you may ask, or exclaim."They're all over the friggin' place!" you might add. And you'd be correct in expressing shock, outrage, and anger over such a realization. But one should no longer be surprised. It seems that the U.S.'s number one export, besides arms, is the instigation and support of racist and fascistic governments that, under the banner of democracy and democratic values, reduce some segment of its citizenry to a 'sub-human' status, and that quite often adopts 'nationalistic' and economic plans that serve the interests of Imperial hegemony only; the 'color revolution' template being adapted to meet the particular country's and its people's worst predilections. Why send soldiers or stormtroopers when you can get the targeted country to act like Nazis themselves -- even if they're Buddhist monks.
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Sputnik
2015-03-08 02:17:00
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo is expected to arrive in Moscow on March 8 to discuss the Ukrainian crisis and anti-Russia sanctions imposed by the West with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry. Garcia-Margallo is also expected to meet with Russian Energy minister Alexander Novak and Spanish entrepreneurs working in Russia during his 2-day visit. The Spanish side has repeatedly insisted on a peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian crisis, and spoke against arms supply to Kiev. "The only solution to the crisis in Ukraine - is a political solution, in no event a military one," Garcia-Margallo said earlier this week. | |
Comment: Spain, like Italy, is worried about Libya and possible influx of IS militants. They both are running to Russia for help.
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Tyler Durden
Zerohedge 2015-03-07 02:01:00
It wasn't even a full 24 hours after Greece raided at least some of the funds of its pension and other public entities in order to make a €310 payment to the IMF, the first of four this month (the balance is 350 million on March 13, 580 million on March 16 and another 350 million on March 20), that the insolvent country resumed doing what it does best: dispensing hollow threats. This time it was its foreign minister and leader of the Independent Greeks party - Syriza's junior coalition partner - Nikos Kotzias, who showed how to bluff like the best of them, when he threatened that "there will be tens of millions of immigrants and thousands of jihadists, if you take out Greece" the minister said before EU foreign ministers meeting in Riga. As quoted by enikos, the foreign minister continued his blustery threats saying that "the Western Balkans is not stabilized. Then you have the Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, North Africa. This is a sickle." | |
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Sputnik
2015-03-07 23:59:00
The Nigerian fundamentalist Islamic Group has pledged their allegiance to the so-called Islamic State according to an audio message. The message was posted on Boko Haram's Twitter account and appeared to be created by the group's leader but remains unconfirmed. The announcement comes on the heels of a devastating series of attacks in Nigeria that left 54 dead and nearly 200 injured. During the 8-minute audio, the narrator says "We announce our allegiance to the Caliph of the Muslims Ibrahim ibn Awad ibn Ibrahim al-Husseini al-Qurashi and will hear and obey in times of difficulty and prosperity." | |
Comment: Very interesting if confirmed. The plot thickens with the fear level ramping up.
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| Society's Child |
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RT
2015-03-08 19:04:00
The instances of torture of Palestinian prisoners by Israeli services soared sharply in the second half of 2014, after the killings of three Jewish teenagers in June, says data from military courts and anti-torture bodies, collected by Haaretz. All in all, 51 cases of torture were reported in the second half of last year, according to an attorney representing those accused of security offences. The data was obtained by Haaretz from military courts, and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel. "In years past there were a few rare cases. But something has changed," the attorney said. Twenty-three Palestinians sent a number of complaints of torture they had suffered in 2014 by Shin Bet, Israel's internal security service. Each of the plaintiffs said they experienced several methods of torture. | |
Comment: Israel just keeps doing what Israel does best. This is what happens in a ponerized country. And anyone who justifies actions like this is just as much a part of that system as the ones doing the torturing.
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RT
2015-03-08 18:40:00
Moscow's Basmanny district court has arrested five people in connection with the murder of Boris Nemtsov, a prominent opposition figure, who was gunned down last week. Two judges are reviewing the charges against the five people brought before the court by the prosecutors on Sunday. Two of them are Zaur Dadaev and Anzor Gubashev, who were identified as key suspects in the killing of Nemtsov after their detention on Saturday. The prosecutors asked the court to arrest the duo by April 28, the current deadline for the investigation, saying that otherwise they may flee or interfere with the investigation. According to the judge, who ordered Dadaev's arrest as requested by the prosecution, he confessed his involvement to the police. The accused didn't comment on this during the court session. Gubashev pleaded not guilty to the crimes he is charged with. The other individuals, who may have had a hand in the crime, are Gubashev's brother Shagit and two identified as Ramzat Bakhaev and Tamerlan Eskerkhanov. The request for their arrest has been reviewed separately by another judge. Comment: From Fort Russ: | |
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Dan Connell
Foreign Policy in Focus 2015-02-19 00:00:00
Over 35,000 Eritrean refugees live in Israel today. Dubbed a "cancer" by right-wing politicians, just four have been granted asylum. Kifle was in the fourth grade at Bet Soira — the "Revolution School" run by the Eritrean People's Liberation Front at their rear base in Harareb — when the final battle of the 30-year struggle for independence from Ethiopia was fought in 1991 outside Asmara. His father, a fighter, had been killed in the war, and his mother and a younger brother were based elsewhere then. But Kifle was not alone. His family was the liberation front. Today, Kifle languishes in a minimum-security prison, euphemistically termed a "detention center," in Israel's sweltering Negev Desert, unsure where his life is headed. His brother is a refugee in South Africa. His mother remains in Eritrea. Like most Eritrean refugees I've interviewed on four continents over the past six months, he asked that his real name be withheld to protect relatives from retribution at home and himself from repercussions in Israel. Whether he or the others are right to be afraid at this point — many tell stories of family members punished in Eritrea after their flight — fear and uncertainty are their constant companions. Their experience teaches them this. | |
Comment: Victims at home, victims in the hands of "rescuers." Eritreans have fled because of lack of human rights, lack of freedom of speech, religion and movement, suffering torture, sexual abuse, human trafficking, organ harvesting and inhumane treatment in underground prisons. Eritreans are defined by the UNHCR as a "temporary humanitarian protection group." Instead of finding a safe haven, they are treated as cattle in Israeli concentration camps. The Palestinian atrocities are only one example of Israel's appalling behavior to "others." Incarceration of inconvenient people seems to be the popular policy and Israel is one of several countries that exemplifies this action.
The Israeli High Court struck down the anti-infiltration law and ordered the state to close Holot and limit the detention of migrants, citing conditions were an "unbearable violation of basic rights, right to freedom and right to dignity." Right-wing MKs are attempting to limit the court and reinstate the abusive protocol, justifying that African immigrants may be "operatives of hostile states or terrorist organizations," contribute to "congestion," and are a "demographic threat to the Jewish majority." The Israeli government currently employs a policy that includes neglect, vilification, detention and repatriation in order to create a Jewish state with maximum land and minimum Arabs/non-Jews, the homeland agenda. | |
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Dave Hodges
The Common Sense Show 2015-03-07 18:11:00
Not a day goes by that I do not receive an email from one of my readers advising me to get out of America while I still can. As the level of tyranny in this country increases, there is a proportionate increase in Americans wondering out loud as to whether they should stay or go. Americans Have Three Options When It Comes to Expatriation As I see it, Americans have three choices when it comes to expatriation: 1. We can leave the country for a less volatile place to live. 2. There are places we could emigrate to which would buy us a little time against the full rollout of tyranny. 3. We could simply lay down and take our beating as so many victims of genocide have in the past. Or, we can resist the final stages of tyranny and pay for our disobedience with our lives. The Reasons to Leave America Are Compelling There can be no question that we are headed for hyperinflation and economic collapse. Because America has notions of freedom and entrepreneurship, the globalists must make an example out of such undesirable attributes. | |
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| Secret History |
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Sharon O' Reilly-Coates
Irish Examiner 2015-03-02 00:00:00
Sharon O' Reilly-Coates says a feather sculpture in Cork is a thank you to Native American Indians FIRM, bronzed bodies above and below a loincloth. Long, silky black hair, colourful feathers, a tepee and perhaps a fishing spear? Enviable, shiny-haired girls. Mention Choctaw Indians and that's the image I have. I think of chocolate, also, but only because it sounds like Choctaw. But because of one noble act of kindness, the Native American Choctaws will be forever etched in Irish minds. When these gentle folk were at their most downtrodden, they raised $710 and sent it across the Atlantic to Ireland, to ease our famine woes. It's one Corkman's job to make sure the Irish people never forget this extraordinary gift. | |
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| Science & Technology |
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Chuck Bednar
RedOrbit 2015-03-07 19:59:00
Thanks to a rare cosmic phenomenon, astronomers were able to witness an ancient, distant star explode as a supernova not once or twice, but on four separate occasions, according to a research published online Friday in the journal Science. According to Space Daily, the supernova occurred directly behind a cluster of large galaxies that had enough combined mass to warp space-time. This forms a cosmic magnifying glass similar to the phenomenon of gravitational lensing, but which creates multiple images of the star. This effect is known as an Einstein Cross, and the Washington Post explained that it was first predicted by Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity roughly a century ago. Because the cluster was located between the supernova (which was nine billion light years away) and the instrument imaging it, the same explosion showed up around the galaxy four times. | |
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James Devitt
Phys.org 2015-03-06 12:25:00
A developing form of computer memory has the potential to store information more quickly and more cheaply, while using less energy, than what's used today by the semiconductor industry, NYU Physics Professor Andrew Kent concludes. In an analysis that appears in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, Kent and his colleague Daniel Worledge of the IBM Watson Research Center discuss a new type of memory, spin-transfer-torque magnetic random access memory (STT-MRAM). STT-MRAM relies on magnetism to store information, like that used in existing hard drives. However, in contrast to hard drives, STT-MRAM is written and read electrically—that is, by applying only electric currents. It does not have moving parts like a magnetic hard drive and therefore can operate much faster than a hard drive. More significantly, STT-MRAM can operate as fast as the fastest semiconductor based random access memories, and thus be used as a computer and portable device's (e.g. smartphone) working memory—a memory that is accessed frequently. As a result, these magnetic devices can used to improve the performance of such devices, adding speed while, at the same time, greatly reducing the amount of energy needed. | |
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University of the West of England
Science Daily 2015-03-06 03:25:00
A toilet, conveniently situated near the Student Union Bar at the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol), is proving that urine can generate electricity. The prototype urinal is the result of a partnership between researchers at UWE Bristol and Oxfam. It is hoped the pee-power technology will light cubicles in refugee camps, which are often dark and dangerous places particularly for women. Students and staff are being asked to use the urinal to donate pee to fuel microbial fuel cell (MFC) stacks that generate electricity to power indoor lighting. The research team is led by Professor Ioannis Ieropoulos, Director of the Bristol BioEnergy Centre located in the Bristol Robotics Laboratory at UWE Bristol. Professor Ieropoulos says, "We have already proved that this way of generating electricity works. Work by the Bristol BioEnergy Centre hit the headlines in 2013 when the team demonstrated that electricity generated by microbial fuel cell stacks could power a mobile phone. This exciting project with Oxfam could have a huge impact in refugee camps. | |
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| Earth Changes |
A dog fell into a sinkhole that opened up right under its tiny feet in Rockwell Park on Wednesday, according to a witness. The park, which sits at the intersection of N. Cleveland, Edgewood and 1st Streets, is popular for dog walking in the Lyon Park neighborhood. Resident Elsie Frasier told ARLnow.com that two days ago she and her husband "heard someone screaming" at the park from their adjacent house. Someone walking their dog said it had fallen into the hole. "We initially thought she was talking about the storm sewer openings, and only later, when we went out to the park, did we find out that a sinkhole had opened up right under her dog while they were out for a walk," Frasier told ARLnow.com in an email. "The dog was on a leash so she was able to haul it out herself." The dog was unhurt from the fall, Frasier said. | |
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The Express Tribune
2015-03-07 14:19:00
One of the smallest whales species, pygmy sperm, was found around 120 nautical miles southwest of Karachi. The fishermen caught the whale on Wednesday while they were fishing in the deep sea but the whale was already dead. This is one of the smallest whales found in the outer continental shelf and considered to be very rare. Known to exist in the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic oceans, this species is usually found dead on the shores. The captain of the boat alFahim, Saeed Zaman, caught the pygmy sperm in gillnet used for catching tuna while they were fishing off the shelf area. The whale was enmeshed in the net and died when it was hauled onto the boat. | |
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Italian website says "yes," but official measurements are needed. "The latest updates of the dramatic situation that occurred in Abruzzo and Molise are clear," says this Italian website. "But official measurements are needed!" In Capracotta, Isernia, more than 2 meters of snow fell in 24 hours, compared to the historical 193 cm in 24 hours measured in 1921 in Silver Lake, Colorado. The Capracotta phenomenon occurred between yesterday afternoon and tonight, so with a duration of just 16-17 hours, it could set a real world record of intensity! | |
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A new government-funded study attributes the high rate of marine mammal deaths in part to the BP oil spill. Dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico continue to die at high rates five years after the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, according to a new government-funded study. The report, published in the journal PLOS One, could have a significant impact on how money the petroleum giant must pay to restore the Gulf will be used to save imperiled dolphins. The study "indicates that the current multi-year marine mammal unusual mortality event (UME) in the Northern Gulf of Mexico has multiple groupings of high bottlenose dolphin mortalities and may be due to different contributing factors, including the Deepwater Horizon oil spill," National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials said in a statement. | |
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The Times of India
2015-03-05 12:39:00
The wild elephant, which trampled six persons to death and seriously injured four others in Sitamarhi and Madhubani districts of Bihar over the last two days, returned to its natural habitat in Nepal during the wee hours today. Additional Chief Conservator of Forest and Chief Wildlife Warden (CWW) S S Chaudhari said, "We successfully managed to send the wild tusker back to Nepal. It crossed the Royal Canal at the international border near Jainagar in Madhubani district at around 2.30 AM. We verified this with its footprints." The elephant had strayed from its herd based at Parsa Wildlife Sanctuary in the neighbouring country during the ongoing mating season, after perhaps losing in a fight with some other tusker and entered Sitamarhi district on Tuesday last. | |
Comment: See also earlier report: Rampaging tusker kills four villagers in India
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| Fire in the Sky |
No new articles.
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| Health & Wellness |
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Lucy Johnston
Plans for the mass prescription of statins should be shelved after a study linked the drug to Parkinson's disease, an expert last night warned.Sunday Express 2015-03-08 12:07:00
Dr Kailash Chand, deputy chairman of the British Medical Association, was speaking following research which found those who take the cholesterol-lowering drugs are more than twice as likely to develop Parkinson's disease in later life than those who do not. A study last week showed statin use increases the risk of diabetes by 46 per cent. It has led to calls to end to the widespread use of the drugs. | |
Comment: As experts conclude: The statin industry is the utmost medical tragedy of all times.
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Katie Levans
Eco Watch 2015-03-03 04:52:00
Emulsifiers approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are commonly added to processed foods to improve texture, increase shelf life and prevent oils and fats from separating. You'll see them listed on ingredient labels as polysorbate 80, lecithin, carrageenan, polyglycerols, xanthan and other gums in everything from bread and cookies to salad dressings, ice cream, non-dairy milks and more. Emulsifiers are also utilized to reduce or remove trans fats and gluten from low-fat, dairy-free and gluten-free items marketed as "health" foods and can appear in organic andnon-GMO labeled foods as well. As pervasive as they are in packaged foods, could emulsifiers be causing health concerns? A recent study concludes that dietary emulsifiers promote inflammatory diseases in mice by interfering with beneficial microbiota in the gut. According to researchers, dietary emulsifiers disrupt the mucus layer separating beneficial microbiota from epithelial cells of the intestinal wall, resulting in increased bacterial translocation and inflammation of the gut. | |
Comment: More information on food additives:
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Radha McLean
Eco Watch 2015-03-02 23:35:00
A new government report shows that 1 in 9 children in the U.S. (11.6 percent) are using complimentary therapy to stay healthy, an amount that has not changed in five years. What has changed since the report was last conducted in 2007: kids are doing a lot more yoga and taking more melatonin, a plant-based sleep aid. Many of the other types of natural healing included in the National Institutes of Health survey -chiropractic care, and use of herbal remedies and supplements - are being used in similar amounts by kids as they were five years ago. "One of beauties of this survey is that it allows us to make estimates of actual use," said Richard L. Nahin, PhD, MPH, in a media presentation. Dr. Nahin, one of the authors of the report, is the Senior Advisor for Scientific Coordination and Outreach at the National Institutes of Health. | |
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| Science of the Spirit |
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Laura Starecheski
NPR 2015-03-02 19:27:00
In the 1980s, Dr. Vincent Felitti, now director of the California Institute of Preventive Medicine in San Diego, discovered something potentially revolutionary about the ripple effects of child sexual abuse. He discovered it while trying to solve a very different health problem: helping severely obese people lose weight. Felitti, a specialist in preventive medicine, was trying out a new liquid diet treatment among patients at a Kaiser Permanente clinic. And it worked really well. The severely obese patients who stuck to it lost as much as 300 pounds in a year. "Oh yeah, this was really quite extraordinary," recalls Felitti. But then, some of the patients who'd lost the most weight quit the treatment and gained back all the weight — faster than they'd lost it. Felitti couldn't figure out why. So he started asking questions. First, one person told him she'd been sexually abused as a kid. Then another. | |
Comment: For more information, these three books are must-reads:
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Benjamin Peters
RedOrbit 2015-03-07 20:08:00
The human brain can select relevant objects from a flood of information and edit out what is irrelevant. It also knows which parts belong to a whole. If, for example, we direct our attention to the doors of a house, the brain will preferentially process its windows, but not the neighboring houses. Psychologists from Goethe University Frankfurt have now discovered that this also happens when parts of the objects are merely maintained in our memory. "Perception and memory have mainly been investigated separately until now", explains Benjamin Peters, doctoral researcher at the Institute for Medical Psychology in the working group of Prof. Jochen Kaiser. There are close parallels, for in the same way as we can preferentially process external stimuli, we are also able to concentrate on the memory content that is currently the most important. These are essential skills of our brain, which are closely connected to intelligence and which are impaired in various psychiatric illnesses. In their study, Peters and colleagues examined "object-based attention", a well-known phenomenon in perception research. This refers to the fact that we automatically extend our attention to the whole object when we attend only part of an object - like the front door and the windows. In the experiment the subjects were asked to direct their attention alternately to one of four screen positions, which formed the ends of each of two artificial objects. In accordance with the principle of object-based attention the subjects were able to shift their attention more quickly between two positions that belonged to the same object than between those that were part of different objects. It was discovered that this effect also occurred when the subjects envisaged these positions only in short-term memory. | |
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Lisa Egan
Ready Nutrition 2015-03-05 15:01:00
Smartphones have made our lives easier and more efficient. They allow us to call people, find directions, and look up virtually anything we want to know within seconds - with a mere touch of the screen. But are we too reliant on these devices to do things for us? New research indicates that there is a downside to all of this convenience: we are becoming lazier thinkers. The study, from researchers at the University of Waterloo and published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior, suggests that smartphone users who are intuitive thinkers — more prone to relying on gut feelings and instincts when making decisions — frequently use our device's search engine rather than our own brainpower. In other words, smartphones allow some of us to be even lazier than we would otherwise be. |
