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RT
2015-06-09 17:11:00
US journalist Mark Rice has asked the people of San Diego to sign President Barack Obama's "plan" to nuke Russia to "maintain America's superiority." The majority of beachgoers didn't appear to get the joke, and signed the fake petition. The "experiment" was recorded on video, which Mark Ricethen shared on his Twitter, YouTube and Facebook accounts. "We just need a couple more signatures to support President [Barack] Obama's new plan to deal with Russia," Dice tell a random man whom he stops. "We are going to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike." The man, who does not seem to be much familiar with the issue, cuts off Dice in mid-sentence, and says: "I'll sign it for you." | |
Comment: This demonstrates how difficult it is to make any improvements to our slavery. In contrast, RT tried a similar experiment in Russia. The results were reassuringlylackluster:
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Sputnik News
2015-06-11 00:00:00
Americans have come to the point where they fear they can't live without war, US Army Colonel Gregory A. Daddis said, adding that the US' addiction to war is fed by "paranoid patriotism." Since the end of the Second World War Americans have found themselves trapped in a vicious cycle of warmongering, fed by constant fear of an external threat, noted Gregory A. Daddis, a US Army colonel and a professor of history at the United States Military Academy. Throughout the Cold War American policy makers spoke "in apocalyptic terms" about a major threat presented the Soviets and Communism. Remarkably, nothing has changed since the collapse of the USSR, and "the gravest threat looms continuously on the horizon," the colonel pointed out. "The 2015 National Security Strategy, published in February, offers a case in point. While acknowledging America's growing economic strength and the benefits of moving beyond the large ground wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the document stresses the 'risks of an insecure world.' Despite its global power and reach, the United States, we are told, faces a 'persistent risk of attacks,'" Gregory A. Daddis emphasized. | |
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| Puppet Masters |
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Jon Basil Utiley
The American Conservative 2015-06-12 17:30:00
America doesn't "win" its wars, because winning a war is secondary to other goals in our war making. Winning or losing has little immediate consequence for the United States, because the wars we start, Wars of Choice, are not of vital national interest; losing doesn't mean getting invaded or our cities being destroyed. The following are some of the interests Washington has in not winning, reasons for our unending wars. 1) War sustains the (very) profitable log-rolling contracts for supplies in key congressional districts, grants for university faculties to study strategy, new funding for new weapons. During wartime who dares question almost any Pentagon cost "to defend America?" 2) Continued conflict postpones hard decisions about cutting defense spendingsuch as closing surplus bases, cutting duplicate systems, and focusing on waste. See 16 Ways to Cut Defense. Shakespeare put it well, advising a king to have lots of foreign wars in order to have tranquility at home. 3) Starting wars is the historic way for kings (and presidents) to gain popularity and avoid doing tough domestic reforms for problems that cry out for solutions.War lets them be postponed. Think of George W. Bush winning election on promises to balance the budget, have health care reform, reform our bankrupt social security commitments, tackle the EPA, take on the teachers' unions, rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, and such. Instead, with war, all those issues were swept aside. He won his re-election by having even bigger deficit warfare/welfare spending and increasing the national debt by trillions. | |
Comment: TAC bills itself as an anti-war, 'paleoconservative' alternative to the neoconservatives. It's good to see not all American conservatives have drunk the Neocon Koolaid.
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Despite decades of well-documented , its government and officials continue remaining immune from accountability. Expect nothing different this time. Months ahead of Palestine joining the International Criminal Court on April 1, an ICC prosecutor began a "preliminary examination" short of an official investigation into Israeli war crimes. It covered violations "in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem since June 13, 2014" - focusing on Israel's 2014 summer Gaza war, Operation Protective Edge.It was strictly procedural with no commitment for further action. The court so far never held Israel accountable for indisputable crimes of war and against humanity. In April 2012, former chief prosecutor Jose Luis Moreno Ocampo rejected the Palestinian Authority's bid to investigate Israeli war crimes during its December 2008/January 2009 Cast Lead Gaza aggression. His reasoning was spurious - claiming under the Rome Statute "only internationally recognized states can join the court." His official statement said: | |
Comment: It is possible that Israel's crimes have become so heinous and stunningly obvious that something might come of this ICC investigation. As Mr. Lendman points out, Israel has gotten away with wholesale murder for years and years. Too many people in a position to DO something are turning a blind eye to it. This historical blindness is not likely to change, so we aren't holding our breath, but we do hope.
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Harry Dent
Economy and Markets Daily 2015-06-12 17:42:00
The U.S. stock market has finally hit a speed bump after more than six years of a Fed- and QE-driven rally. The S&P 500 is up 232% since March of 2009 despite this unprecedented stimulus in the feeblest economic recovery in history. But since late December 2014, U.S. stocks have gone nowhere as investors face some growing realities. GDP, retail sales, production and exports are slowing. The dollar's sharp rise in recent years has crushed global exports. Long term interest rates are rising consistently... what I call the beginning of the end of stimulus policies designed to keep rates low forever. Meanwhile, in just six months Germany saw its key stock market, the DAX, rise nearly 50% from mid-October into early April. Germany's bubble has shot up 245% since March 2009 — greater than the U.S., despite its slower economy. It won't last! | |
Comment: The warning signs continue to flash something big will happen soon.
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Sputnik
Western propaganda of Latin American news coverage is now counterbalanced by RT and teleSUR, Rafael Correa said.2015-06-11 16:38:00
Alternative news outlets help counterbalance the editorial slant of Western media broadcasting in Latin America, Ecuador President Rafael Correa said in an interview with RT en Espanol released Thursday. According to the Ecuadorian leader, the entire region has drawn on information from CNN - a US channel that "defends the capitalist system" - for years before the Latin American television network teleSUR was established. "There was a shocking disproportion in news coverage. And it still exists. But, luckily, we also have alternative sources like teleSUR and RT," Correa said. A survey conducted by ICM Research exclusively for Sputnik and released in May, showed that over half of those people polled in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Greece would like to get global news from sources other than mainstream Western media.
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The lack of faith in central bank trustworthiness is spreading. First Germany, then Holland, and Austria, and now - as we noted was possible previously - Texas has enacted a Bill to repatriate $1 billion of gold from The NY Fed's vaults to a newly established state gold bullion depository. "People have this image of Texas as big and powerful ... so for a lot of people, this is exactly where they would want to go with their gold," and the Bill includes a section to prevent forced seizure from the Federal Government. From 2011: And now, after we noted the possibility previously, as The Epoch Times reports, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a bill into law on Friday, June 12, that will allow Texas to build a gold and silver bullion depository. In addition, Texas will repatriate $1 billion worth of bullion from the Federal Reserve in New York to the new facility once completed. On the surface the bill looks rather innocent, but its implications are far reaching. HB 483, "relating to the establishment and administration of a state bullion depository" to store gold and silver coins, was introduced by state Rep. Giovanni Capriglione. | |
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Sputnik
2015-06-13 16:23:00
Macedonia continues to go through a political crisis, after Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn and the leaders of the four main political parties in Macedonia failed to reach an agreement on settling the crisis earlier this week. Western media claims that Nikola Gruevski, the current Prime Minister of Macedonia, created the crisis that puts his government at risk, EUobserver reported. Recently, Gruevski was accused of mass illegal surveillance, election fraud, as well as abuse of the country's justice system and media. Now the European Commission wants to send the government in Skopje a list of tough rule-of-law reforms. If Gruevski doesn't react and there is no action taken by his government, the Commission will stop backing Macedonia's EU entry talks, EUobserversaid. | |
Comment: Another mess brewing north of Greece.
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Deutsche Welle
2015-06-14 12:55:00
The "New York Times" has reported that the Pentagon is "poised" to station heavy weapons for up to 5,000 US troops in several Eastern European countries. The move would escalate tension with Russia. Citing US and allied officials, the newspaper said that if accepted, the proposal would mark the first time since the Cold War that Washington has stationed heavy military equipment in the NATO member states in Eastern Europe that were once part of the Soviet sphere of influence. "The proposed 'prepositioned' stocks - to be stored on allied bases and enough to equip a brigade of 3,000 to 5,000 soldiers - also would be similar to what the United States maintained in Kuwait for more than a decade after Iraq invaded in 1990 and was expelled by American and allied forces early the next year," the "New York Times" said. | |
Comment: Also see: Failing at the Great Game: Washington's continuous blunders
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Sputnik
2015-06-12 16:57:00
Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded Crimea's Prosecutor General Natalia Poklonskaya with the rank of Judicial Counsellor 3 Class, according to a document. This military rank is similar to that of Major General. Previously, Poklonskaya served as a Senior Counsellor of Justice, which is equivalent to the rank of colonel. During the Euromaidan, Poklonskaya handed in her resignation from the Ukrainian General Directorate of Internal Affairs in Kiev on February 25, 2014. In the document, she wrote that she was "ashamed to live in a country where neo-fascists freely walk about the streets." | |
Comment: Here are more articles on Crimea's Prosecutor General Natalia Poklonskaya:
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Timothy Stanley
Forbes 2015-06-11 04:14:00
To the Kremlin, recent events in its backyard have proved once and for all that the amorphous body known as 'the West' - its politicians, institutions, media, diplomats, armies, financial architecture and governance bodies - are not to be trusted. The charge sheet is long and contested: it starts with NATO's 'out of theater' bombing campaign in Yugoslavia in 1999, includes broken promises over eastern European integration into the EU and NATO in the early 1990s, color revolutions in neighboring states, botched interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq, destabilization in Libya and Syria, repeated attempts to find common security architecture rebuffed, and leads to the revolution/coup that took place in Kiev in March 2014, breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine, subsequent political and economic sanctions against Russia and, most recently, threats to remove Russia's FIFA World Cup hosting rights in 2018. Whether all of this is part of some long-term, Machiavellian plan to destabilize Russia - an entirely uncontroversial view at all levels of society here - is questionable, but calls to mind the famous quote from Catch-22: 'Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they're not out to get you.' | |
Comment: The most interesting thing about this article is not all the factual data presented, or its objective view of U.S. aggression towards Russia which we have seen from many independent sources already - but that it was printed in an on line version ofForbes Magazine and known by its moniker "The Capitalist Tool" - a huge proponent of the "free market" as it is known in Western circles. Are some of these editor jackasses starting to get a clue and waking up from the slumber and illusion that has been foisted upon many in America and Europe? Whatever the case is, it will be interesting to see how many more of these types of articles the mainstream media is able to eke out before all is said and done.
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Fort Russ
2015-06-12 21:10:00
The Russian Foreign Ministry about the decision of US Congress on the "Azov" battalion: the National Guard of Ukraine is no better. Moscow wants to remind Washington that other formations of the National guard of Ukraine are no better than the "Azov" battalion. This was stated by the official representative of Russian Foreign Ministry, Alexander Lukashevich, in connection with the ban on allocation of funds for training of "Azov", which was supported by the House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress. "It took more then a year for the US Congress to realize that this unit is a bunch of outright Nazis, flaunting the emblems of Nazi SS troops and behaving like the Nazis on the occupied territory. But better late than never", — said the diplomat. The next logical step - is to recognize, finally, that last year's coup in Kiev, strongly supported by Washington, was done by the hands of those same Nazi thugs. | |
Comment: Yep, it took over a year for the U.S. to admit the obvious. But it's not as if they just found out. They've known all along who they've been supporting. The U.S. has no moral qualms with funding and supporting Nazis or Islamic extremists. They've been doing it for years, and they'll keep on doing it. But when the pressure gets a little too hot, and the obvious becomes so obvious as to be undeniable, they'll throw the dog a bone. Thus, Conyers's amendments. Don't expect Kiev to become any less fascist, however...
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| Society's Child |
You can already get a ticket if you smoke in Burnside Park or any other city park in Providence. That ordinance was passed six months ago. Next up -- if it passes -- all downtown public spaces. Businessman and former Mayor Joe Paolino walks the street that rings the south end of Kennedy Plaza, pointing out the discarded cigarette butts that litter the area. In fairness, the ashtrays were removed he says to discourage smoking. But more importantly, it's the secondhand smoke. "I don't think that the secondhand smoke is healthy for anybody that has to breathe that smoke. And I think we can clean up our city at the same time," Paolino said. Some agree. Even some smokers. Mark Brier was smoking in Kennedy Plaza when I asked where he would go to smoke if he couldn't smoke outside downtown. "I'd go to another city. They're getting too expensive anyway," he said. Frank LaTorre of Riverside would like to see the ordinance passed by saying, "Does someone have a right to put that kind of carcinogen into the air?" I asked him, "What about car exhaust?" He said, "It's a problem too. We're trying to deal with that as well. But you can't do everything. But I think in terms of secondhand smoke, that it's an incredible health hazard." Some do not agree, like Kelly Masterson of North Providence. "Just because it's Kennedy Plaza that's where people (smoke)," said said. | |
Comment: More anti-smoking measures reminiscent of Hitler's vision of the perfect race:
Adolph Hitler: Vegetarian, teetotaler, anti-smoking campaigner Worth reading: Anti-tobacco movement in Nazi Germany And if you really think that the government implements these anti-smoking measures for your health, read: | |
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Dylan Hock
Addicting News 2015-06-13 16:24:00
Since the advent of smartphones, America has become a laundromat - all its unmentionables are showing and people are beginning to talk now that all the cotton and lace is visible. Much the way smartphones have allowed the common practice of police brutality to be witnessed nationally and thereby condemned, so we are able to do the same with racism. Though thankfully no one was killed in the video below now circulating social media, it is nonetheless disturbing and repulsive to witness thanks to those very same smartphones, not to mention the foresight of the fella to begin filming the incident in the first place. Somehow, coupled with the climate of endless murders of unarmed black folks by (typically) white cops, this video of a group of four black men being kicked out of a Pensacola, Florida, Walmart for "walking too slow" rounds out the reality and broader picture of systemic racism in the United States.
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J. B. Smith
Waco Tribune 2015-06-13 17:50:00
A comprehensive ban on smoking inside bars, restaurants and other public spaces and workplaces goes before the Waco City Council for a vote Tuesday. The "smoke-free" ordinance proposed by the Waco-McLennan County Public Health District board would erase exemptions that the current smoking ordinance has for bars and for businesses that have separately ventilated smoking sections. It would also prohibit smoking in public parks or within 25 feet of the door of a nonsmoking establishment. It would preserve exemptions for smoke shops and cigar bars, as well as outdoor workplaces and some designated hotel rooms. The council Tuesday will take the first of two votes required to pass the ordinance. The business meeting starts at 6 p.m. at the Waco Convention Center's Bosque Theatre, following a 3 p.m. work session. Mayor Malcolm Duncan Jr., who sits on the health district board, said the proposed smoke-free ordinance would protect employees from secondhand smoke and mark a step forward for public health. He said he has been hearing more support than opposition to the ordinance from constituents. "I think everybody believes not smoking leads to a healthier community," he said. "If you look around the country, there has been a pretty consistent increase in the trend of cities to go no-smoking." | |
Comment: Here's the rub: Smoking is not bad for everyone. When have governments truly done anything that was in the best interest of the people? All of this legislation and effort to stamp out something that stimulates the immune system, helps you think better, protects against lung cancer and sparks creativity creates a nation of zombies.
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M. David and Jackson Marciana
Counter Current News 2015-06-13 15:29:00
The Missouri Highway Patrol trooper who questioned the cops who killed Brandon Ellingson has just been slapped with a demotion. Sgt. Randy Henry refused to remain silent in the aftermath of Ellingson's death. He spoke out against the agency of the young Iowa man and has been disciplined for doing what everyone says "good cops" are supposed to do. Now, Sgt. Randy Henry has been demoted to the status of corporal. He has further been moved from Lake of the Ozarks where he has been on patrol for almost thirty years. His superiors have transferred him away from the crime scene, to Truman Lake. Henry's attorney, Chet Pleban of St. Louis, referred to his client as a whistleblower. In the days after Brandon Ellingson's death, Henry told investigators what Trooper Anthony Piercy told him the night a handcuffed Ellingson died. The college student was in Piercy's custody. But Piercy's account later, as well as his testimony to a coroner's inquest, was different.Henry also testified in front of a legislative committee about minimal trooper training after the Water Patrol merged into the Highway Patrol in 2011. "Randy Henry doesn't have a horse in the race," Pleban told The Star. "He's not on one side or the other. He has testimony to give that's material. The truth is the truth. He went to his superiors to say, 'This is wrong. This is what happened.' And they blew him off. So now here we are." Comment: More details surrounding Brandon's death are available here. | |
Comment: Another soul lost needlessly to careless and corrupt policing practices. When asked to be accountable for their actions, the department attacks anyone who doesn't toe their line of lies. If you're upset about it, sign the petition and share the article.
RIP Brandon, you were lost to us too soon
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CBS News - San Francisco
2015-06-13 23:00:00
Police are warning for businesses and residents to start locking up their taps. California's drought has gotten so bad, people are stealing water. Thieves busted the locks on the spigots at a popular Asian shopping center on Barber Lane in Milpitas, just to get their hands on what has become liquid gold. Palo Alto resident Jason Zhur said he's shocked it has come this far. "But water's becoming more expensive than gas," he said. Police say the thieves waited until the businesses were closed and returned in the middle of the night to steal their water — and lots of it. Witnesses saw 3 or 4 water bandits prying open the small boxes that house the spigots. Then they filled up large containers with hundreds of gallons of water. The businesses discovered the theft after the property owner noticed a much higher water bill and told them. "It's an easy target," said shopper Sara Tang, "because no one is here at night after they're closed." Many businesses here have surveillance cameras, but apparently they weren't a deterrent. "I imagine it's come to that point because water rates are going up, everything is going up, now," said Zhur. On June 1, water districts across the state began enforcing mandatory cutbacks on water consumption. Residents who don't comply risk steep fines. | |
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Tom Hall and Andre Damon
World Socialist Website 2015-06-12 00:00:00
The number of people killed by police so far this year topped 500 this week as the nationwide epidemic of police violence continued, with cops killing 20 people over the past seven days alone. The US media largely has ignored the 500-victim milestone, with headlines this week dominated by the attempt to whip up law-and-order hysteria around the massive manhunt to recapture two inmates who recently escaped from Clinton Correctional Facility in New York. The 500th fatality of the year, according to one database of police killings, occurred Monday night when members of the Maricopa County SWAT team gunned down 69-year-old Richard Warolf, a suicidal man, during a courtesy call requested by his family in Sun City, a suburb of Phoenix. The following night, a police officer in Des Moines, Iowa shot and killed unarmed 28-year-old Ryan Bollinger through the window of her squad car after a two-minute low-speed chase. | |
Comment: It has become abundantly clear that the entire system is corrupt and the message being sent is that police have been given a license to do everything necessary to instill fear and cow the populace into submission to the state.
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RT
2015-06-14 00:18:00
Left wing party coalition leaders have been sworn in as mayors of Madrid and Barcelona, assuming control of the Spain's two largest cities. This is yet another case of parts of Spain showing their opposition to the country's conservative rule. In the Spanish capital, a 71-year-old former judge, Manuela Carmena has put an end to the 24 years of conservative mayorship. She defeated her rival, 63-year-old Esperanza Aguirre from the People's Party, in what proved to be a very close race.
The new mayor managed to claim 20 seats in the city chamber during the May 24 vote against Aguirre's 21. However, Carmena managed to forge an alliance with the main opposition Socialist Party to secure victory. She was officially elected mayor by 29 of the 57 council representatives on Saturday morning. Carmena, a former communist and rights activist, promised to improve the living conditions for the poor, who have been struggling since the 2008 financial crisis.She also echoed the calls of the massive Indignados (Outraged) protest movement that was formed in 2011 to fight corruption, government spending cuts and evictions. "We are at the service of the citizens of Madrid. We want to govern by listening. We want them to call us by our first names," Carmena said after being voted in. Among her chief promises to the electorate are the development of public transport and increased support for poor families. She has promised to slash her salary by more than half to €45,000 ($51,000). | ||
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Tim Wetzel, Alice Barr
KHOU.com 2015-06-12 14:33:00
After a day of clean up after a train derailed along Old Katy Road, officials said the road should be reopened by Friday morning. The incident happened around 8:30 a.m. near Washington Avenue, just north of the Katy Freeway. According to a spokesman Jeff Degraff with Union Pacific, which runs the tracks, the Kansas City Southern train traveling from Beaumont was heading west on its way to Kendleton when the derailment happened at the Eureka Junction. A total of nine cars and a locomotive came off the tracks. Two of the cars fell off the overpass. The spokesman said that the cars that fell contained soy bean and plastic pellets. No hazardous materials were present. | |
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Karen Pauls, Jill Coubrough
CBC 2015-06-13 21:33:00
RCMP in Winnipeg have raided the rental home of an ISIS supporter known by the alias Harun Abdurahman and seized what's believed to be computer equipment. Neighbours say undercover officers have been watching the home in the city's southwestern neighbourhood of Charleswood for months. RCMP took out garbage bags containing what appeared to be computer towers. It's unknown if Abdurahman has been arrested. RCMP would only confirm officers executed a search warrant as part of an investigation. "The large police presence, initially, was to ensure the safety of the officers involved, and the public," Sgt. Bert Paquet wrote in an email. "At this point, any further details could undermine the ongoing investigation." | |
Comment: From Yahoo News:
It should, but it won't. | |
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| Secret History |
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Peter Dale Scott
Voltaire Network 2015-05-15 00:00:00 Peter Dale Scott is considered the father of "Deep Politics"— the study of hidden permanent institutions and interests whose influence on the political realm transcends the elected, appointed and career officials who come and go. A Professor of English at Berkeley and a former Canadian diplomat, he is the author of several critically acclaimed books on the pivotal events of our country's recent past. Daniel Ellsberg said of his book Drugs, Oil and War, "It makes most academic and journalistic explanations of our past and current interventions read like government propaganda written for children." What follows is based on a recent Scott lecture entitled "The JFK Assassination and Other Deep Events".
For some time now, I have been analyzing American history in the light of what I have called structural deep events: events, like the JFK assassination, the Watergate break-in, Iran-Contra, or 9/11, which repeatedly involve law-breaking or violence, are mysterious to begin with, are embedded in ongoing covert processes, have political consequences that enlarge covert government, and are subsequently covered up by systematic falsifications in the mainstream media and internal government records. [1] The more I study these deep events, the more I see suggestive similarities between them, increasing the possibility that they are not unrelated external intrusions on American history, but parts of an endemic process, sharing to some degree or other a common source. [2] | |
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| Science & Technology |
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RT
2015-06-14 16:05:00
Six scientists, who took part in the NASA-funded HI-SEAS Mars simulation project by living in secluded space modules on a Hawaii volcano for eight months, have finally emerged from their isolation. Saturday was the first time since the project started that they stepped outside without space suits. "When we first walked out the door, it was scary not to have a suit on," crew member Jocelyn Dunn, 27, told the media. "We've been pretending for so long." | |
Comment: An interesting look into how people can live in a close community.
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RT
2015-06-14 15:51:00
The lander Philae, dropped onto the surface of Comet 67P by the Rosetta spacecraft, has reawakened and reported back, the European Space Agency says. Philae has been out of contact for the past 7 months. First contact with Philae lasted 85 seconds. It turns out the lander had woken up earlier, but this is the first time since November it has managed to "speak" to Earth. "We have also received historical data - so far, however, the lander had not been able to contact us earlier," the ESA blog states. "Philae is doing very well: it has an operating temperature of -35ºC and has 24 Watts available," Philae Project Manager Dr. Stephan Ulamec says in the blog. "The lander is ready for operations." | |
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Sputnik
2015-06-13 04:17:00
Fresh off successfully retrieving samples from an asteroid in 2011, Japan's space agency, JAXA, has just unveiled an even loftier goal: to land a probe on one of Mars' two moons. It would be a major milestone in prolonged spaceflight, and may even help us understand what became of the ancient, Martian oceans. Our sister planet with perhaps the greatest potential for extraterrestrial life in the solar system, the Martian surface is already littered with signs of our extra-planetary reach. In 2008, the Phoenix lander went dark after being overwhelmed by a dust storm, and is just one of several defunct robots abandoned on the Martian surface. In addition to these expired machines, the red planet still hosts seven workable spacecraft. Five float in orbit, while the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers still roam the desert examining rocks and sand and soil. | |
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Radboud University
Science Daily 2015-06-12 06:19:00
The activity of the emotion centres in the brain -- the amygdalae -- is influenced by motivation rather than by the emotions themselves. This can be concluded from research carried out at Radboud University into the hormone testosterone. Testosterone increases amygdala activity in a person who is approaching a socially threatening situation and decreases the activity when such a situation is avoided. It was already known that the amygdala response to images of angry faces was stronger in a person who had received testosterone. This new study shows that this only happens when people approach angry faces and not when they avoid them. | |
Comment: The amygdala is a part of the reward circuit in the brain that records emotional memories. It acts as an "inner sentry" - and protects from repeating painful experiences by ascribing to outside stimuli a sense of "pleasure" or "pain". It is a very fast and subconsciously acting system that bypasses the much slower input from the rational brain. If humans enter a social situation and want to bond, they have to silence their amygdala to turn off the sentry. Also testosterone increases dopamine levels in the reward circuitry.
Given that the effect of testosterone can be modified by motivation, the above study seems to indicate that there are further factors involved in this feedback loop, which currently are not very clear. | |
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| Earth Changes |
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Space Weather
For the past month, solar activity has been low. The last big burst of solar activity happened on May 5th when an X2-class solar flare erupted from the sun's eastern limb. Since then ... quiet. To investigate the effect of low solar activity on the atmosphere, Spaceweather.com and the students of Earth to Sky Calculus have been launching helium balloons at ~weekly intervals. Equipped with X-ray and gamma-ray sensors, the balloons measure ionizing radiation all the way from ground level to the stratosphere. Here are the results:2015-06-14 19:55:00
During the past month of low solar activity, ionizing radiation in the stratosphere has increased by 10%. This may seem counterintuitive, but there is a simple explanation: The radiation we measure is dominated by cosmic rays--a mix of subatomic particles, X-rays and gamma-rays that come from outside the solar system. Explosions on the sun (especially CMEs) tend to push these cosmic rays away from Earth. During the past month, however, there have been relatively few CMEs. Fewer CMEs means more cosmic rays. Yin-yang. Cosmic rays are an important form of space weather. They matter to anyone who steps foot on an airplane. According to NASA, a 100,000 mile frequent flier will absorb a dose of radiation equivalent to 10 chest X-rays--all from cosmic rays. Cosmic rays have also been linked to cloud cover, lightning, and they may play some role in climate change. If the sun remains quiet, cosmic rays could increase even more. Stay tuned for updates from the stratosphere. | |
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The DDT manufactured back in Rachel Carson's day, recent reports indicate, is still killing robins and other birds. The Velsicol Corporation that produced it is the company that threatened Rachel Carson with a lawsuit if she dared to publish her environmental health classic, Silent Spring, in 1962. Carson ignored the threats and helped spark the modern environmental movement. Velsicol continued to manufacture DDT, dieldrin, and other nasty pesticides now banned until they closed and were later taken over by the EPA in 1981. The Velsicol legacy today is a series of toxic Superfund sites, in and around St. Louis, Michigan, north of Lansing, that are still killing robins over fifty years afterSilent Spring. Recent findings from the EPA covered in a new report from Environmental Health News show that a nearby elementary school and neighborhood homes have levels of DDT harmful to birds. And they may also pose health risks to children. Although EPA sampling to date has not found levels in playing fields that are considered harmful to kids, some neighbors' yards have shown amounts of DDT that are hazardous to humans. Erring on the side of caution, the EPA is digging up the fields at St. Louis' TS Nurnberger Middle School and removing its DDT-contaminated dirt. | |
Comment: See also: Birds in central Michigan are dying due to decades-old DDT pollution
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Jay Reeves
Yahoo! News 2015-06-14 16:59:00
Jim Sterling didn't know what had hit his 156-year-old antebellum home when an earthquake struck Alabama's old plantation region early one morning last November. Startled, he grabbed a gun and ran outdoors. In the pre-dawn chill, Sterling said, he found an odd scene: horses were galloping, cows mooing and dogs barking. "I heard a boom and felt the shaking," Sterling said. "It really upset me." More than a dozen weak earthquakes have followed in the seven months since in west Alabama's rural Greene County, and geologists are trying to figure out what is causing the seismic swarm in an area of the South more prone to tornadoes than earthquakes. "It is interesting that recently there has been more activity there than in the last four decades," said Sandy Ebersole, an earthquake expert with the Geological Survey of Alabama. Records from the U.S. Geological Survey show the first of 14 earthquakes occurred on Nov. 20, when a magnitude 3.8 earthquake was recorded about 10 miles northwest of the community of Eutaw. The second occurred in mid-December, followed by another in January and three within a few hours of each other on Feb. 19. The tremors have continued ever since, with the most recent occurring June 6, when a magnitude 3.0 quake rattled the area. All the tremors have been weaker than the initial jolt in November, and Ebersole said some have been too slight for residents to detect. | |
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Several viewers have posted photos on our Facebook wall of what looks like a circular rainbow surrounding the sun. It's called a "halo" and is caused by cirrus clouds, which are the thin, wispy looking ones around 20,000 feet or higher in the atmosphere. They typically occur ahead of a storm, like the one approaching us from over the central plains. Millions of ice crystals within the cloud both reflect and refract sunlight at a specific angle to your eye, which causes the cool looking circular rainbow.
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Neelima M
The Times of India 2015-06-14 15:19:00
As many as 23 cases of dog bites were reported in the district on Saturday, fuelling concerns over the increasing instances of canine attacks that stood at 273 in June.District animal health officer, Dr Razia Konthalam allayed fears and said that all dog bites won't cause rabies. "It is not true that dogs bite only when they are rabid. Stray dogs that feed on meat waste tend to be ferocious and are likely to attack people," she said, adding that rabid dogs die within 10 days. Veterinary surgeon for Kochi corporation, Dr Kishore Kumar KJ - who is one of the principal inve |
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