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RT
2015-06-19 18:41:00
Had a black person or a Muslim carried out the Charleston shooting, the media narrative would have been completely different and much of the blame has to do with US public policy, says Solomon Comissiong, host and founder of Your World News Radio Show. On Wednesday 9 African-Americans were killed in a church in South Carolina, allegedly by a white man named Dylann Storm Roof. The attack took place during evening prayers at the city's Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church, one of the oldest in the United States which has one of the largest black congregations in the south. Nevertheless, US officials and the President do not seem to see any hate crime in this story. Is America colorblind only when covering crimes involving whites? For more on this, RT's show "In the Now" talked to Solomon Comissiong, host and founder of Your World News Radio Show. | |
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| Puppet Masters |
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Sean Nevins
MintPress News 2015-06-11 23:20:00
When gas was discovered in Palestine in 1999, Yasser Arafat proclaimed it was a "gift from God." So what's stopping the country from exploiting that gas to the tune of an estimated $2.5 billion to $7 billion, and relieving a host of development problems? Energy consumption in the Mediterranean is estimated to increase by up to 50 percent over the next 25 years. The heightened demand comes at a time when gas in the Levant Basin, estimated to contain 1.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil and an average of 122 trillion cubic feet of gas, is being divvied up among nations with territorial claims to the waters, including Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Egypt, Cyprus, and Turkey. With these claims, of course, comes potential for conflict. Michael Schwartz, Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of Sociology at Stony Brook University in New York and author of War Without End: The Iraq War in Context, told MintPress News that conflict for these resources has already begun. In fact, he explained, energy resources are the root cause of every conflict the Israelis have had with the Palestinians for at least the last 15 years. Schwartz argues that natural gas located off the coast of the Gaza Strip in Palestinian waters is at the heart of the last five major Israeli military actions against Palestine: Former Israeli Prime Minister and Defense Minister Ehud Barak's orders for the Israeli navy to control Gaza's coastal waters in the early 2000s; Then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's blockade of the Gaza Strip on June 15, 2007; Operation Cast Lead in 2008; Operation Returning Echo in 2012; and Operation Protective Edge, which took place last summer. Schwartz says an impending gas deal with Russia's Gazprom, the world's largest extractor of natural gas, was the precipitating factor behind Israel's attack on the Gaza Strip last summer, which led to the deaths of over 2,300 people and the displacement of another 500,000. Schwartz explained: "At the beginning of 2014, they [the Palestinians] had come to a preliminary agreement with Gazprom brokered by the Putin government with implicit promises that the Russian navy would protect their [Palestinian] facilities, and very explicitly saying, 'We're going to cut Israel out of it altogether.'" | |
Comment: Intervention - Deceit - Aggression - Invasion - War - Mass Murder - Destruction...
Sometimes we have to dig deep to find the impetus for senseless and insane acts against fellow humans. Sometimes we just have to scratch the surface to have it seep up into view. We have all heard that phrase, "its all about the oil!" When we truly examine motives for war, and acknowledge the bane-ness, singular mindset and pathology of our leadership, we come to the conclusion this simple phrase is one of the most fundamental of operative platforms. It may come disguised in more publicly-accepted packages, but the prize inside is still the unswerving, myopic power grab for resources regardless the cost, regardless the fallout. For Israel, there are no boundaries nor finesse, no conscience nor consequences. Oil: "My precious." (It may be better to be a "have not.") | |
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Sputnik
2015-06-19 19:52:00
A federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday that a group of immigrants can proceed with a lawsuit accusing top Bush administration officials of widespread abuses and racial profiling after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The plaintiffs are eight men who were arrested for minor immigration violations after 9/11 as a part of the government's aggressive effort to uncover terrorists. The men allege that they were held for months in New York and New Jersey solely because they were or were perceived to be Muslim or Arab. "Detaining individuals as if they were terrorists, in the most restrictive conditions of confinement available, simply because these individuals were, or appeared to be, Arab or Muslim exceeds those limits," US District Judges Rosemary Pooler and Richard Wesley wrote in their 109-page decision. "It might well be that national security concerns motivated the defendants to take action, but that is of little solace to those who felt the brunt of that decision. The suffering endured by those who were imprisoned merely because they were caught up in the hysteria of the days immediately following 9/11 is not without a remedy," the judges said. | |
Comment: Despite the fact that the majority of the Bush-ear officials should be locked up behind bars for war crimes, it's at least a little justice that these innocent victims are gaining some recompense for their victimization.
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RT
2015-06-19 19:05:00
Arguing that there is a peace and war party in almost every capital, Professor Stephen Cohen, scholar of Russian studies at Princeton and New York Universities, told RT he believes the war party in Washington is against the Minsk agreement. US policies in Ukraine have failed to achieve their goals. With violence flaring up once again, and relations fraught with tensions, diplomacy seems to be the best option. But is there a consensus in the US on the acceptable terms of a political settlement, and how are the dynamics of US internal politics likely to affect its policy toward Russia, especially as the 2016 presidential race heats up? To find answers to these questions RT's program "Worlds Apart" talked to Professor Stephen Cohen, Professor of Russian Studies and History Emeritus at NYU, and Professor of Politics Emeritus at Princeton University.
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Sputnik
2015-06-19 17:39:00
Area 51 does exist, NASA Chief Major Charles Bolden tells British schoolkids - but there are "no aliens or alien spacecraft or anything" in there. Speaking to a hand-picked group of British school children, Major Bolden said the US government was not hiding alien life in Area 51 - but said it does exist. "There is an Area 51. It's not what people think. I've been to a place called that but it's a normal research and development place. I never saw any aliens or alien spacecraft or anything when I was there". However when asked by a ten year old child if he believed in aliens. The response by the Major was that: "I do believe that we will someday find other forms of life or a form of life, if not in our solar system then in some of the other solar systems - the billions of solar systems in the universe". | |
Comment: See: Area 51 secrets revealed in unclassified documents
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Sputnik
2015-06-19 17:30:00
"Russia does not claim some sort of hegemony, it does not claim some kind of ephemeral superpower status," Putin said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. According to the president, Moscow has started to protect its interests in a determined way, but is not acting aggressively. "We have begun to more persistently and consistently defend our interests," he stated. "We want relations based on equality with all members of the international community." Moscow's relations with the US, the EU and NATO deteriorated since 2014 amid the Ukrainian crisis and Russia's reunification with Crimea. The West accused Russia of participating in the armed conflict in Ukraine and began boosting its military presence in Europe. Moscow has repeatedly denied the accusations, expressing concern over NATO's expansion and increased military presence in Eastern Europe near Russia's western borders. | |
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RT
2015-06-19 17:26:00
Russia and Greece have signed a deal to create a joint enterprise for construction of the Turkish Stream pipeline across Greek territory, Russian Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak said. The pipeline will have a capacity of 47 billion cubic meters a year. The construction costs are about €2 billion and the parties will sign a roadmap Friday, Novak told RIA at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum. The Greek extension of the Turkish Stream project is called the South European pipeline in the memorandum signed on Friday, Novak said, adding that the construction will start in 2016 and be completed by 2019. The two countries will have equal shares in the company, Novak said.Construction of the pipeline in Greece will be financed by Russia, and Athens will return the money afterward. | |
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Sydney Barakat
AntiMedia 2015-06-16 17:48:00
The High Level International Military Group—a UN-commissioned group made up of 11 former chiefs of staff, generals, senior officers, and political leaders from the U.S., Germany, Spain, Holland, the U.K., Italy, Australia, and Colombia—dismissed all charges and allegations of Israel's war crimes after investigating last summer's attack on Gaza. The report was issued on Saturday following the group's five-day trip to the region in March. It ultimately claims that Israel acted responsibly and with much restraint when the IDF bombarded Gaza last summer during what is known as "Operation Protective Edge." The report even refers to the attack as "legitimate." An excerpt from the report states the following: Nevertheless, the investigators drew the following conclusion: The report appears to be nothing close to the results of a "fact-finding mission," as was claimed, but rather a written defense of the Israeli government. | |
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Alexander Mercouris
Russia Insider 2015-06-19 13:25:00
News about the freezing of Russian assets in France and Belgium will come as no surprise to anyone who has followed the Khodorkovsky case. The asset freezes will almost certainly be relaxed or lifted over the new few weeks because they are legally dubious. To understand why, it is necessary to explain the nature of the case. | |
Comment: The pathological persistence of those 'pulling the strings' in the West is mind-boggling. Check out: Russia may counteract Belgian asset seizure with same
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There is a major spat going on at present around Conflict of Interest. The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) appears to be backtracking on the issue, and they are talking about relaxing their rules. The British Medical Journal (BMJ) is very 'heavy' on Conflict of Interest (COI) and has been somewhat critical of the NEJM approach - to say the least. See 13th June edition of BMJ. To give you a flavour, one article in the BMJ has the title 'Backtracking on conflicts of interest: a very bad idea... A series of articles in the New England Journal of Medicine has questioned whether the conflict of interest movement has gone too far in its campaign to stop the drug industry influencing the medical profession. Here three former NEJM editors respond with dismay.' My sympathies are almost entirely with the three former editors: Robert Steinbrook, Jerome Kassirer and Marcia Angell. I think bias, and resultant distortion of medical research is a massive problem. So massive that it has become difficult to believe most of the research that is published. I am not alone in my concerns. Here is what Richard Horton (Editor of the Lancet), has to say on the matter: A half of medical scientific research may be untrue... think on the implications of that for a moment. However, before you focus all your efforts on trying to expose financial conflicts of interest as the solution to all problems, you need to take several steps back. | |
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| Society's Child |
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YouTube
2015-06-19 20:52:00
Below, a clearly emotional and fed up Jon Stewart talks about the church shooting in Charleston, correctly labeling it "domestic terrorism". Stewart began, "I have one job and it's a pretty simple job. I come in in the morning and we look at the news and we write some jokes about it." Stewart brought up the massacre in South Carolina; the shooting, Stewart said, simply left him unable to do his job. He was all out of jokes. "I honestly have nothing, other than just sadness, once again, that we have to peer into the abyss of the depraved violence that we do to each other, and the nexus of a gaping racial wound that will not heal, yet we pretend does not exist," he said, before launching into a critique of Americans' refusal to acknowledge the problems of racism and gun violence. "This is a terrorist attack. This is a violent attack on a church, that is a symbol for that community," he said. "This wasn't a tornado. This was a racist...And we're going to keep pretending like, 'I don't get it, what happened?'"
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Sputnik
2015-06-19 19:58:00
A report from Amnesty International called out US police across the board for showing a "shocking lack of fundamental respect for the sanctity of human life," as every single state fails to comply with international standards on lethal use of force. Amnesty International found that nine states have no laws whatsoever in place to deal with police use of force, and 13 states fall short of the standards set by US constitutional law, which are considerably more lax than international standards. "While law enforcement in the United States is given the authority to use lethal force, there is no equal obligation to respect and preserve human life. It's shocking that while we give law enforcement this extraordinary power, so many states either have no regulation on their books or nothing that complies with international standards," Amnesty USA's executive director, Steven Hawkins, told the Guardian. The United Nations' principles state that lethal force should be limited to use only when less extreme means have failed and there is no other option available to law enforcement. They also state that officers should provide warning of their intent before using lethal force — a standard that is only required by law in eight US states. | |
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RT
2015-06-19 18:58:00
A Virginia man was taken to a mental hospital after he approached a predominantly African-American church on Thursday, shouting racial slurs and threatening to kill congregants. It follows Wednesday's shooting of nine people at a church in Charleston. A video posted by local news outlet WRIC shows the white man outside United Nations Church International in Richmond, rapping on a window and shouting racial slurs. "All I know is he had a weapon in his hand, banging on the glass, and calling us n*****s," the church's senior pastor, Bishop Oren Pullings, told the station. Church member Lydia Jones said the man was shouting "You're taking over!" at those inside. The incident began around 8:45 p.m., when children inside the church first spotted the man. | |
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RT
2015-06-19 17:34:00
Dylann Roof has been charged with nine counts of murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime, according to police. He confessed to killing nine people at a Charleston church on Friday, according to officials cited by CNN. Police made the announcement in a Friday Twitter post, adding that Roof's bond hearing will take place at 2 p.m. local time on Friday. Roof reportedly said he wanted to start a race war. The 21-year-old was arrested by authorities in Shelby, North Carolina, on Thursday, following the tragic shooting which left six women and three men dead. The .45-caliber handgun used in the attack was apparently purchased by Roof in Charleston in April. Previous reports stated that the gun was a birthday gift from his father. However, his grandfather stated that Roof was merely given "birthday money," and that his family didn't know what he used it for. | |
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Sam Matthew
Daily Mail 2015-06-19 15:15:00
A passenger plane was forced to make an emergency landing after suffering a mid-air electrical fault. The easyJet flight returned to Liverpool shortly after take-off, with officials confirming the defect. The aircraft was headed to Paris when the pilot radioed air traffic control and declared an emergency. Fire crews assembled on the runway, before the aircraft landed safely around 20 minutes later. A spokesman for the airline said the decision to return to Liverpool was purely a 'precaution.' Eyewitnesses said the twin-engine Airbus A320 'sounded bad' as it came into land. Others also suggested the planes doors were open, but this was denied by both easyJet and the airport. Passenger Jan Nethercote told how it was around 20 minutes into the flight to the French capital when the announcement was made. 'They told us a minor fault had happened with one of the engines and they were taking us back to Liverpool,' she told the Liverpool Echo. 'It was explained to us later the fault happened at take off but they made the decision to continue. 'However it developed into something more serious and in the end it looks like they lost the use of an engine.' | |
Comment: There have been numerous incidences of airplane mishaps around the world since March of this year, and they seem to be increasing quite dramatically. See:
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Tony Cartalucci
Land Destroyer 2015-06-19 00:00:00
Nine lives were ended in a tragic mass shooting at a historic church in Charleston South Carolina, perpetrated by a deranged, apparently brainwashed 21 year old man whose motivations appear to be centered around extreme racism. In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, a familiar, shameful charade of exploitation unfolded yet again, seeking to reassert the "gun control" agenda amid both national public opinion and across America's legislative bodies. Yet the engineered, concerted, deceitful propaganda campaign launched by the corporate media and America's political circles fails to put into perspective the recent shooting and the greater "gun control" debate. Instead, a mad rush has ensued to exploit anger, sorrow, and fear to once again attempt to snatch from responsible Americans their right to bear arms based on the criminal actions of a single individual. | |
Comment: In the coming days we are likely to hear more about the shootings and how the facts don't quite fit the narrative being presented by the mass media. Its happened before and fits a pattern that serves no one but the groups involved in stripping away the rights of US citizens. Ever wonder why these mass shootings only ever seem to happen in the United States? Where else in the world has the relentless drive towards totalitarianism been so rife? In any case, Obama has wasted no time in responding to the shootings:
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RT
2015-06-15 23:25:00
Some 17 million elderly Americans are in need of government-funded meal services, but 90 percent of them don't receive it, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office. About 83 percent of those adults in need are food insecure. "An estimated 90 percent of low-income older adults do not receive meals services like those funded by Title III programs, according to our analysis of 2013 CPS data," the GAO wrote in a reportreleased Monday. "About 83 percent do not receive meals among low-income adults who are food insecure, meaning they report three or more conditions such as skipping meals because they did not have enough money for food." The GAO analyzed the most recent data from two national surveys, the 2013 Current Population Survey (CPS) and the 2012 Health and Retirement Study (HRS). The report, requested by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), updated the agency's findings from a 2011 report on what is known about older Americans' need for services that were provided for by the Older Americans Act. | |
Comment: They are insisting on more tax money for social services? They can't take care of the adults they have now:
Another dirty little secret in America: Adult Protective Services often perpetrators of elder abuse The way the U.S. treats and impoverish the elderly, infirm and even children portrays itself, in many different ways, like a death march. How disgusting for a country so 'exceptional'. | |
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| Secret History |
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Dr. Gary G. Kohls
Global Research 2015-06-19 13:50:00
I have in my library dozens of books that were written about the history of fascism and its politics, economics, religious affiliations and psychology that makes it succeed so often. That includes the varieties of fascism that were studied in Italy, Germany, Spain, Japan, Britain and America, among others. To my recollection, none of the lessons I learned from my books had been even mentioned during my high school education or even my college careers. I don't recall hearing any of my teachers talk about American-style fascism. And none of my teachers led me to doubt the validity of the anti-democratic, pro-fascist and very unethical Monroe Doctrine, Manifest Destiny, Laissez Faire capitalism, the Dred Scott decision or any of the wartime atrocities that were so commonly perpetrated by American troops in any of its wars (ex: inventing water-boarding on innocent Filipinos and then massacring them during the Spanish-American War). | |
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| Science & Technology |
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Science Daily
2015-06-18 00:00:00
A dramatic increase in the rate of earthquakes in the central and eastern U.S. since 2009 is associated with fluid injection wells used in oil and gas development, says a new study by the University of Colorado Boulder and the U.S. Geological Survey. The number of earthquakes associated with injection wells has skyrocketed from a handful per year in the 1970s to more than 650 in 2014, according to CU-Boulder doctoral student Matthew Weingarten, who led the study. The increase included several damaging quakes in 2011 and 2012 ranging between magnitudes 4.7 and 5.6 in Prague, Oklahoma; Trinidad, Colorado; Timpson, Texas; and Guy, Arkansas. "This is the first study to look at correlations between injection wells and earthquakes on a broad, nearly national scale," said Weingarten of CU-Boulder's geological sciences department. "We saw an enormous increase in earthquakes associated with these high-rate injection wells, especially since 2009, and we think the evidence is convincing that the earthquakes we are seeing near injection sites are induced by oil and gas activity." | |
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| Earth Changes |
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Laura Geggel
Live Science 2015-06-19 14:10:00
Diverse animals across the globe are slipping away and dying as Earth enters its sixth mass extinction, a new study finds. Over the last century, species of vertebrates are dying out up to 114 times faster than they would have without human activity, said the researchers, who used the most conservative estimates to assess extinction rates. That means the number of species that went extinct in the past 100 years would have taken 11,400 years to go extinct under natural extinction rates, the researchers said. Much of the extinction is due to human activities that lead to pollution, habitat loss, the introduction of invasive species and increased carbon emissions that drive climate change and ocean acidification, the researchers said. "Our activities are causing a massive loss of species that has no precedent in the history of humanity and few precedents in the history of life on Earth," said lead researcher Gerardo Ceballos, a professor of conservation ecology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and a visiting professor at Stanford University. Ceballos said that, ever since he was a child, he struggled to understand why certain animals went extinct. In the new study, he and his colleagues focused on the extinction rates of vertebrates, which include mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fishes. First, they needed to establish how many species go extinct naturally over time. They used data from a 2011 study in the journal Nature showing that typically, the world has two extinctions per 10,000 vertebrate species every 100 years. That study based its estimate on fossil and historical records. Moreover, that background extinction rate, the researchers found, was higher than that found in other studies, which tend to report half that rate, the researchers said. Then, Ceballos and his colleagues calculated the modern extinction rate. They used data from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), an international organization that tracks threatened and endangered species. The 2014 IUCN Red List gave them the number of extinct and possibly extinct vertebrate species since 1500. | |
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Heavy monsoon rain in Mumbai, India, has brought wide areas of the city to a standstill. Roads have been blocked, rail services interrupted and flights delayed. Some power generating plants have been shut down by Mumbai electricity board after flooding was considered to pose a danger. Many schools have also been closed for the day. Many areas have seen over 150 mm of rain fall in the last 24 hours. According to WMO, as much as 310 mm of rain was recorded in the last 24 hours in Santacruz, Mumbai. India Meteorological Department (IMD) report that some Mumbai suburbs received 283.4 mm of rain while south Mumbai recorded 208.8 mm rain between in 24 hours between Thursday and Friday.
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People walking the beaches of Chorrillos yesterday were disturbed at the sight of dead seagulls and pelicans scattered along the sand, report local media. According to Perú21,this could possibly be due to the strong effects of El Niño this year. The latest study from the National Study of El Niño (ENFEN) released June 9, details that this year will register a strong level of the phenomenon with warmer temperatures enduring longer. The ENFEN of the National Service of Meteorology and Hydrography (Senamhi) says that the effect is expected to peak in mid-July with the arrival of a new Kelvin wave. In other words, the temperatures are expected to stay warmer than usual for Lima winters and into the month of July | |
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Brian Williams
The Courier-Mail 2015-06-19 17:50:00
Something weird is happening to the birds on Fraser Island. Migratory species have not left to breed in the Arctic summer in Siberia, baffling bird watchers and scientists. The fear is that hundreds of common terns have not been able to fatten enough to start their 13,000km migration, during which they burn most of their body fat. Godwits, another migratory species, have also stayed and are now in breeding plumage despite not being at their Arctic breeding grounds. Birds Queensland spokesman Mike West said four-wheel-drive vehicles might have disturbed the beach-roosting birds. Another theory was pilchard numbers might be down, cutting food sources. Perplexingly, other species such as migratory yellow-faced honeyeaters and little wattle birds, which usually fly north from southern states, have not arrived. | |
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Yereth Rosen
Alaska Dispatch News 2015-06-19 17:41:00
At least nine fin whales have been found dead in recent weeks in southern Alaska waters, and researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and University of Alaska Fairbanks are attempting to find out what killed them. "We rarely see more than one fin whale carcass every couple of years," said Kate Wynne, a UAF professor and Alaska Sea Grant marine mammal specialist, and the recent rash of dead whale discoveries is "mysterious." According to a release from UAF, the first of the whales was reportedly spotted on May 23 by crew members aboard the state ferry Kennicott, which travels between Bellingham, Washington, and ports in Southeast and Southcentral Alaska. Over the next two weeks, boaters, fishermen and pilots reported other dead whales in the floating in the area, the UAF release said. Those reports, and the photos submitted with them, led Wynne and her NOAA colleagues to conclude that "at least nine fin whales died in a relatively small area," the release said. | |
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Natasha Joibi
The Star 2015-06-12 12:30:00
KOTA KINABALU: The blue rays seen in the skies over Mount Kinabalu are believed to be aphenomenon usually associated with areas hit by earthquakes. The photo and video of the blue rays over Mount Kinabalu went viral Thursday evening, a week after the earthquake. Geologists describe it as a "blue brush stroke light". They say the generation of lights involved ionization of oxygen in some types of rocks due to high stress before, during and after earthquake and other seismic activities. The villagers in Ranau living at the foothills of Mount Kinabalu said that the blue rays lasted for a short while and they recorded a video the phenomenon for several minutes.
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Comment: In the chapter, Earth 'opening up', in Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection, Pierre Lescaudron discusses various factors pertaining to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, including the Earth's minute slowdown exerting mechanical stress on the crust and electromagnetism.
As seismic and volcanic activity increases across the planet, such 'earthquake lights' and plasma discharges will likely become more common. For a recent probable plasma (not HAARP - see articles below) discharge activity, check out this youtube video (contains some strong language) published on June 12, 2015 which happened in Greenwood, Indiana USA.
Read the following articles to learn more about HAARP: HAARP and The Canary in the Mine Mind Control and HAARP | ||
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Woman escaped with broken arm, boyfriend was not hurt, when they surprised bear while hiking in remote area A woman who surprised a grizzly while hiking up remote mountains in British Columbia's Interior had no time to protect herself or prevent the bear attack, a conservation officer said. The bear lunged at the woman and bit her, breaking her arm in a "chance encounter" on Friday, said Len Butler of B.C.'s Conservation Officer Service. The bear was just trying to protect itself as it happened upon the woman and her boyfriend, he added. "They hiked along a trail, they were in some of the open meadows and there was a small little pass to go up through," said Butler. "It was so quick. They did nothing wrong." | |
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phys.org
2015-06-19 14:47:00
An international team of researchers, including leading scientists from the University of St Andrews, the Hawk Conservancy Trust and the University of York, say African vultures are likely to qualify as 'Critically Endangered' under the International Union for Conservation of Nature's global threat criteria. In a report published today (18 June 2015) in the scientific journal Conservation Letters, scientists from across Europe, Africa and North America have published the first continent-wide estimates of decline rates in African vultures: and find that many national parks and game reserves appear to offer vulture species in Africa little effective protection. Scavengers such as vultures are essential to a healthy ecosystem; without them carcasses are largely consumed by mammalian scavengers such as dogs and jackals and this can increase levels of disease transmission, with possibly dire consequences for human health. Being long-lived, slow breeders, vultures take several years to reach maturity, and typically fledge only a single offspring every 1-2 years. Yet the study indicates that Africa's vultures are declining at rates of between 70% and 97% over three generations; a time interval used by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) when assessing a species' threat status. Since six of the eight species are largely or wholly confined to Africa, and are projected to decline by at least 80% over three generations, the study suggests that they are likely to qualify as 'Critically Endangered' under the IUCN's global threat criteria. | |
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A 10-year-old boy suffered minor injuries when he was bitten by a shark Wednesday in Daytona Beach Shores, Florida. He is the second 10-year-old to be attacked in Florida in a week and at least the fourth person to have been attacked in Volusia County this year, authorities said. The boy, who wasn't identified, was bitten on the calf as he swam in chest-deep waters just after 1 p.m. ET, said Tamra Marris, a spokeswoman for Volusia County Beach Safety/Ocean Rescue. A lifeguard responded, and the boy was treated at the scene for lacerations on his leg without having to go to a hospital. The beach safety agency told NBC station WESH of Orlando that beaches would remain open. Another 10-year-old boy is recovering from what authorities called "significant injuries" after he was attacked last week off Cocoa Beach, about 60 miles south. | |
Comment: See also: 2 children attacked by shark near Oak Island, North Carolina
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Cleanup following last Thursday's hail storm in Farmington is still going on now a week later. They are still tabulating what it will cost to fix the damage on campus at San Juan College, too. Officials say the storm was really bad. Videos sent to KOB show the hail pounding the campus—starting around pea sized, later growing to golf ball sized. Maintenance workers at San Juan College said the phones started ringing not long after the hail, each call alerting them to a leaking roof in another building. Many of the buildings have a white Thermal Plastic Overlay, or TPO, roof. A drop in temperature left the roofing brittle and each piece of hail that hit the roof left a crack. Those cracks let rain leak in and to the classrooms below. The next hours and days involved a lot of fans and buckets to catch all that water. Pallets of buckets, in fact, more than 500 are deployed to catch any water still leaking. | |
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euronews.com
2015-06-18 08:56:00
Torrential rains made a surprise visit to most parts of China on Wednesday, causing severe damage to infrastructures and disrupting road traffic in many cities and regions. In Yingshan County, in the central Hubei Province, downpours led to severe flooding in crop fields and some neighbourhoods. A home near a swollen river was washed away by a flood.
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novinite.com
2015-06-18 08:47:00
Hundreds of houses have been affected and many hectares of crops have been destroyed by torrential rains and hailstorms in Bulgaria's south. Belozem, a village near Bulgaria's second-biggest city Plovdiv, has been left almost completely sumberged in water, private national NOVA TV channel says. In the nearby region of Haskovo, to the east, the hail took by surprise residents who seldom see any rain falling. In Plovdiv itself, many streets and boulevards were left under water for some time. The nearby Tundzha, Arda and Maritsa rivers are swelling. Authorities are trying to prevent any incidents related to a potential overflowing of dams located in the immediate vicinity (Kardzhali, Studen Kladenets, and Ivaylovgrad). Last year's floods and torrential rains caused the death of more than 13 people across Bulgaria and destroyed property worth hundreds of millions. | |
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John Birks
The Monitor Daily 2015-06-19 08:21:00
Bald eagles, the symbol of the United States, have a lifespan between 15 and 25 years out in their natural wild habitat. However, the bald eagle that was recently found dead on a roadside in Henrietta is believed to have been 38 years old, based on the metal band that was wrapped around the majestic bird. This means that the unfortunate bird was the oldest bald eagle in the United States, some bird experts believe. According to an official statement released by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, the bird found dead in Henrietta was apparently hit and killed by a moving car. | |
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Large areas of Norway still covered in snow - in June ! There is an extreme amount of snow in the mountains, both in the north and south. Satellite measurements show that 23 percent of land area in southern Norway is still covered in snow, nearly five times more than normal in June, says senior forecaster Eirik Malnes.. In Northern Norway, the corresponding figure is 35 percent, more than double a normal year. Daily satellite measurements from the research institute NORUT in Tromsø show that nearly a quarter of the land area in the south and one third in the north are still snowy. | |
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Desdesmona Dispair
2015-06-17 03:39:00
"These stranded animals are just the tip of the iceberg in terms off animals affected by the unusually warm water temperatures we've been seeing off the coast" California sea lions aren't the only pinnipeds in crisis this year. Guadalupe fur seals, a threatened species, seem to be struggling with the same food availability issues and have stranded along our coast at five times the record yearly rate. With their diminutive snouts, extra-long front flippers and outstretched ear flaps, Guadalupe fur seal pups can appear almost alien-like, especially when wet. But this year, the appearance of these furry "Yodas" is more than just a little unusual—it's downright alarming. So far in 2015, The Marine Mammal Center has rescued 27 Guadalupe fur seals—more than five times the record high we've seen in our 40 years. These numbers pale in comparison to the more than 1,100 California sea lions we've rescuedduring this same time period, but relatively speaking, the influx of Guadalupe fur seals is just as distressing, if not more so. | |
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| Fire in the Sky |
No new articles.
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| Health & Wellness |
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Sputnik
2015-06-19 20:03:00
Even as US environmental regulators are reluctant to declare fracking a widespread water pollutant, a new study of water in Texas' Barnett Shale area reveals "incredibly alarming" levels of contamination, with fracking the prime suspect. The University of Texas at Arlington's study of the groundwater near the Barnett Shale — which underlies about 5,000 square miles of North Texas, including Fort Worth — is being called one of the most comprehensive of its kind. While the study does not claim to definitively establish fracking as the source of groundwater contamination, it does document a strong association, and says the findings should "be an impetus for further monitoring and analysis of groundwater quality." The results of two years of tests, published Wednesday in the trade journal Environmental Science and Technology, show groundwater contamination with "multiple volatile organic carbon compounds throughout the region, including various alcohols, the BTEX family of compounds and several chlorinated compounds." | |
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RT
2015-06-19 19:24:00
Blood samples taken from pregnant mothers showed that exposure to high levels of the pesticide DDT resulted in daughters with nearly four times the rate of breast cancer, according to a new study. Researchers followed 9,300 women born between 1959 to 1967, when the insecticide DDT was widely sprayed on lands and agriculture. When taking into account the history of these women's mothers, the study found that they had a 3.7 times higher risk of breast cancer if they had been exposed to the insecticide in utero. "It has long been suspected that environmental chemicals that interfere with hormone systems could be connected to risk of breast cancer. Here we found the first direct connection for measured levels of DDT in mothers' pregnancy blood," the study's lead author, Barbara Cohn, director of child health and development studies at the Public Health Institute in Berkeley, California, told Reuters. DDT behaves like a synthetic estrogen hormone, and when in contact with insects it cause seizures, leading to death. In humans, the estrogen hormone is involved in signaling breast cells to grow and divide. The current study reviewed blood tests for DDT levels in 20,754 women who had given birth in Oakland, California during the 50s and 60s. | |
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Lecia Bushak
Medical Daily 2015-06-19 00:00:00
We already know that sitting is bad for pretty much every aspect of your health: It weakens your muscles, impairs blood circulation, and increases your risk of chronic diseases like heart disease, cancer, and obesity. But it turns out that sitting all day at work, then sitting all night at home in front of the TV, are detrimental to your mental health, too. A new study examines how a sedentary lifestyle can increase your anxiety. Researchers out of Deakin University's Centre for Physical Activity and Nutrition Research in Australia found that low-energy activities and sitting down likely makes your anxiety worse. Working at a computer all day, watching TV, playing video games, or simply crouching over your phone or laptop in bed are all considered low-energy activities that are eating away at your mental acuity. Megan Teychenne, the lead researcher of the study, notes that modern society has seen a huge surge of anxiety disorders in recent years. In the U.S., anxiety affects some 40 million adults, or 18 percent of the population, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. While this increase in anxiety might result from several factors, such as more frequent use of distracting technology and social media or increased urban sprawl and air pollution, the researchers wanted to investigate the link between anxiety and sedentary living. "[W]e are seeing an increase in anxiety symptoms in our modern society, which seems to parallel the increase in sedentary behavior," Teychenne said in a press release. "Thus, we were interested to see whether these two factors were in fact linked." | |
Comment: Most people now understand that sedentary lifestyles are unhealthy for the body, but more evidence is showing that it also negatively impacts our mental health as well. We need to take frequent breaks throughout the day to engage in low level activity as well as intermittent bursts of intense exercise, rather than just set aside a few days a week for exercise.
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Lizzie Parry
Daily Mail, UK 2015-06-16 08:31:00
Air pollution kills more people every year than Aids and malaria combined, warns new research. Scientists say meeting global air quality guidelines could prevent 2.1 million deaths per year. They developed a global model of how changes in outdoor air pollution could reduce health problems, including heart attack, stroke and lung cancer. And their findings reveal outdoor particulate air pollution results in 3.2 million premature deaths each year - more than the combined impact of HIV-Aids and malaria. By meeting the World Health Organisation's (WHO) particulate air quality guidelines, the team of environmental engineering and public health researchers estimate 2.1 million early deaths could be prevented. | |
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Tamara Eriksen, ND
Naturopathic Currents 2014-04-03 00:00:00
Introduction Sleeping can be complicated business! Those individuals with no difficulty achieving healthy, regular sleep would think it the simplest of physiologic phenomena. Roughly 30% of the population suffers from insomnia, however,[1] which has real and important health consequences, in addition to affecting quality of life. Even short-term sleep disruption is associated with metabolic problems, insulin insensitivity, poor bloodsugar control, increased body mass index (BMI), increased pain and inflammation levels, and even increased mortality.[2] And pathogenic sleep disruption may be a hallmark of or contribute to both psychiatric [3] and neurodegenerative disorders.[4] If you're among the thousands of individuals who suffer from sleep difficulties, you might be aware that modern science still has a relatively tenuous grasp on the complicated relationships between diet, hydration, emotional/spiritual health, environmental contributors, and brain chemistry related to sleep. This is an area that is receiving considerable attention in scientific study at present, and the findings are having far-reaching implications. Glycine's role in sleep regulation is an excellent example. | |
Comment: See also: Why Broth is Beautiful: Essential Roles for Proline, Glycine and Gelatin
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Olga Khazan
The Atlantic 2015-06-16 00:03:00
A new study finds that vegetation around schools cuts down on air pollution and boosts memory and attention. When I lived in L.A., I reported on a school near Long Beach in which nearly a fifth of the students had asthma. One culprit seemed to be the school's unfortunate geography: About 500 trucks passed by its grounds every hour, and according to a study released at the time, at least 9 percent of childhood-asthma cases in the area were attributable to road traffic. The air near the school, which sometimes smelled rotten or rubbery, contained nearly twice the normal level of elemental carbon, a marker of diesel particles. Asthma is just one of the health problems linked to air pollution exposure. Sniffing exhaust all day also contributes to everything from stroke to premature death. | |
Comment: Green space is an important factor in childhood and an excellent way to relieve stress for both parents and kids!
"Nature stimulates that sense of wonder," says UW Health psychologist Katie Watermolen. "When kids are outside, they are less anxious, more creative, more relaxed. All that leads to improved mental health." | |
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Dr. Mercola
Mercola.com 2015-06-18 00:00:00
If you struggle with excess weight, insulin resistance, and/or diabetes, getting more sleep may be of significant importance. According to recent research,1,2 poor sleep and/or lack of sleep can have a significant bearing on metabolic disorders such as these, and addressing your sleeping habits may be key for both the prevention and treatment of them. The answer as to why sleep is so important for normalizing your metabolism has to do with its effects on your body's circadian clocks—and yes; you have a number of circadian clocks, not just one. As noted in the featured report by NPR:3
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Comment: The importance of obtaining adequate quality sleep cannot be overemphasized. Your brain's ability to function, your overall health as well as your emotional well-being depends on it.
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| Science of the Spirit |
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Dani Cooper
ABC Science, Australia 2015-06-19 20:28:00
Children as young as three show a natural inclination towards restorative justice fed by a strong concern over the welfare of victims, say researchers. A new study, published today in Current Biology, reveals three and five-year-olds are sensitive to harm to others and given a choice would rather restore things to help the victim than punish the perpetrator. The researchers say the findings, based on experiments with 112 three-year-olds and 79 five-year-olds in Germany, provide insights into the roots of justice in human society. Previous studies have shown children are more likely to share with a puppet that helps another individual than with one who behaves badly. They also prefer to see punishment delivered to a doll that deserves it than one that doesn't. By the age of six, children will pay a price to punish fictional and real peers. Preschoolers can also be encouraged with threats of punishment to behave more generously. | |
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Polly Campbell
World of Psychology 2015-06-19 00:00:00
When I was growing up, family dinners were often interrupted by a mad search through the encyclopedia. During our discussion some question would invariably arise and my dad or one of us would get up from the table and come back with a World Book volume containing the answer. The practice fueled my curiosity and more than a few Trivia Crack victories. I'm still in the habit today. Something will come up during our dinnertime conversation and I or my daughter or husband will seek out the answer. But, this time, it doesn't come from a book. It comes from Google. And that may not be the best way to learn. New research by Gordon Pennycook and Nathaniel Barr indicates that Google is giving us the answers even before we think through the questions or problems ourselves. Instead of actually analyzing a problem or tapping into our own intelligence to answer questions or come up with new solutions, we are using the smartphone as an "extended mind," Barr says. And that reliance on technology is creating a culture of lazy thinkers. In fact, the best way to learn new material doesn't come from Google at all. Learning is best done through distributed practice, according to a paper published in Psychological Science in the Public Interest reviewing different learning styles and the research into them. | |
Comment: For more tips on ways to improve learning, see:
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Science Daily
2015-06-18 00:00:00
Researchers at Monash University have found physical differences in the brains of people who respond emotionally to others' feelings, compared to those who respond more rationally, in a study published in the journal NeuroImage. The work, led by Robert Eres from the University's School of Psychological Sciences, pinpointed correlations between grey matter density and cognitive and affective empathy. The study looked at whether people who have more brain cells in certain areas of the brain are better at different types of empathy. "People who are high on affective empathy are often those who get quite fearful when watching a scary movie, or start crying during a sad scene. Those who have high cognitive empathy are those who are more rational, for example a clinical psychologist counselling a client," Mr Eres said. |
