|
Patrick Henningsen
21st Century Wire 2015-07-17 16:41:00
This month marks the one year anniversary of the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 - an incident that took place against a backdrop of a brutal proxy war - pitting Kiev and its supporters in Washington DC, the EU and NATO - against rebel forces in eastern Ukraine and Russia. As with most 21st century conflicts, truth has been the first casualty of war here. On July 17, 2014, flight MH17 traveling east from Amsterdam, Netherlands to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - crashed near the village of Grabovo, and on the outskirts of the town of Torez just outside of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, approximately 40 km from the Ukrainian-Russian border. To call this situation volatile would almost be an understatement. A pivotal event such as this could easily be used as a pretext for escalating not only a New Cold War between the West and Russia, but also a hot war. Only six months previously, the Ukraine found itself in the throes of a western-backedcoup d'état in Kiev which tore the country apart. This was quickly followed by a snap referendum in Crimea, where voters opted for secession from the Ukraine and into the relatively secure arms of the Russian Federation. The west cried foul and so began a new grudge match. Arguably, tensions between the west and Moscow have been at their highest since the apex of the Cold War during the east-west Soviet era. Needless to say, with MH17 the stakes could not be any higher, and regarding the west, it was obvious who would be assigned the blame for this tragedy. | |
 |
|
Hawkkey Davis
YouTube 2015-07-19 16:20:00
Video compilation of extreme weather events (and general environmental chaos) from the past month or so. Record high temperatures in Germany were immediately followed by unusually strong storms and hail. Record rainfall in China was followed by a record heatwave there. In the US, there's been a record heatwave in the West, and record rainfall in the South. There's been record cold in Australia, and record heat in Pakistan. Volcanoes erupted in Indonesia, Japan and Mexico, while there was a strong earthquake in China and an earthquake swarm in Iceland... And in between all that; powerful storms and record rainfall. Things be intensifying!
| ||
|
| Puppet Masters |
|
RT
2015-07-18 18:29:00
Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has warned that the economic reforms from Greece's debt holders are doomed to fail. The assessment comes as PM Alexis Tsipras has reshuffled his cabinet in efforts to secure a third bailout package. The EU is preparing to start talks with Athens on a third bailout which could reach €86 billion ($93 billion), but the reform program laid down by Brussels as a precondition for the bailout will "go down in history as the greatest disaster of macroeconomic management ever," Varoufakis told BBC. "This programme is going to fail whoever undertakes its implementation," he said. Asked when will it fail, he replied, "It has failed already." Varoufakis stressed that in given conditions Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who himself does not believe in the bailout, had little option but to sign the agreement. "We were given a choice between being executed and capitulating. And he decided that capitulation was the ultimate strategy,"Varoufakis said. On Saturday, new cabinet ministers were sworn in after Tsipras replaced hardliners in his government, following the agreement with the EU creditors. | |
Comment: Bottom line: Greece was made an offer it couldn't refuse.
| |
|
|
Alan Mackinnon
Morning Star Online 2015-07-20 16:21:00
In my previous article (Nato is the menace not Russia, M Star June 20) we examined the case study of Ukraine and discussed the rapid expansion of Nato over the past 20 years. In this piece we focus on how the United States exercises its power over Europe — and why. Firstly, it is often asserted that Nato is a purely defensive alliance. Certainly, the original Washington Treaty which established Nato in 1949 was framed as a mutual defence pact with the emphasis on defence, security and protection. Yet the reality of recent practice is different. | |
Comment: NATO has Europe ensnared in an elaborate web of debt, blackmail, corruption, and austerity. The rest of the world, struggling to grow in this corrupting atmosphere, is attempting to build an alternative. Check out:
| |
|
|
Tony Cartalucci
Land Destroyer 2015-07-20 00:00:00
It was recently reported that US policymakers have signed and dated plans drawn up for the US invasion and occupation of Syria. The plan as described by the Fortune 500-funded Brookings Institution - a corporate think-tank that has previously drawn up plans for the invasion, occupation, and "surge" in Iraq - is to occupy border regions of Syria with US special forces to then justify a nationwide "no-fly-zone" if and when Syrian forces attempt to retake these "safe zones." The "safe zones" are to be used by various terrorists fronts Brookings admits are tied to Al Qaeda, to take refuge from Syrian air power and from which to stage and launch attacks deeper into Syrian territory. The end game is the Balkanization of Syria into ineffectual vassal states the US can later stitch together into a larger client regime. It was also reported that this signed and dated conspiracy to invade, occupy, and destroy Syria would be followed by widespread propaganda aimed at selling the policy paper under the guise of "defeating" the so-called "Islamic State" (ISIS/ISIL). In reality, hundreds of trucks a day, originating deep within NATO-member Turkey's territory, cross the Turkish-Syrian border unopposed, destined for ISIS territory, keeping the terrorist front well supplied and armed, along with its ranks full of fresh fighters. It is clear that US, British, and other regional allies conducting airstrikes on ISIS in Syria are doing so with full knowledge that whatever damage they are doing is quickly absorbed by the logistical torrent they themselves allow, even underwrite, to freely flow into ISIS territory. No attempts have been made by the US or any of the NATO nations involved in the Syrian conflict, to first stem ISIS' supply lines - an elementary and obvious strategic goal necessary if the West was truly interested in stopping ISIS. | |
Comment: The psychopathic U.S. political-military-industrial-
| |
|
|
RT
2015-07-20 17:55:00
The Russian market has replaced China to become the most attractive BRICS country for investors in 2015, according to Bloomberg. Pricier oil that has rebounded from a six-year low and easing political risks make it the best BRICS investment bet. Analysts polled by Bloomberg say Russian shares are undervalued, by up to a half compared with other BRICS countries. Russian shares can be more profitable if the political risks continue to reduce. One of the two key Russian indices - a ruble denominated MICEX - trades at 5.9 times the projected earnings of its members. For example, Brazil's Ibovespa, Sao Paulo Stock Exchange Index, shows 12.6 multiples, being the second cheapest in the BRICS. China, India and South Africa are above 15. "Our models are telling us to buy Russia. There is a very strong turnaround potential. It's an increasingly difficult call to get right because of politics. I'd be happy to pull the trigger in the next two to three months," Tim Love, a London-based investment manager at GAM told Bloomberg. GAM's assets are estimated at $130 billion. | |
Comment: This is another clear sign that the sanction levied by the U.S./EU against Russia have ultimately failed to produce what they intended. Russia is not only surviving the economic attack, they are turning it into a beneficial development by finding alternative sources of economic output. They should thank the imperialists!
| |
|
|
Sputnik News
2015-07-20 15:52:00
Although experts claim that Tehran would need at least a year to restore oil production halted by sanctions, Iran's oil industry is capable of increasing production faster than anyone expects, London-based journalist Javier Blas notes. According to Javier Blas, a London-based journalist and commodities market expert, Iran could restore its oil production faster than analysts and traders predict. "The consensus among analysts and traders is that Tehran needs at least a year after sanctions are lifted to raise output to the level prevailing before restrictions were imposed in 2012," Blas remarked. | |
Comment: Oil is an object of major interest in the "Great Game":
| |
|
|
Andrey Vadzhra
Fort Russ 2015-07-20 16:03:00
Ukraine is tracking Mukachevo-related developments with bated breath. Social media are full of bets on how the unexpected conflict in Transcarpathia will end. The uncertainty over which side will prevail, the Right Sector or the law enforcement, has continued for over a week. Some are betting on Poroshenko, others on Yarosh. Moderate pessimists believe that the conflict will end with a compromise. There are many competing explanations of the causes and nature of Mukachevo events. One of them posits that the Right Sector is controlled by the Kremlin which is trying to destabilize Ukraine. Another holds that Poroshenko is controlled by the Kremlin which is trying to take down Ukraine's patriots. Yet another argues that the Right Sector came to Transcarpathia to interdict smuggling and punish local corrupt officials but fell into a bandit ambush organized by "uniformed werewolves." And, finally, according to the fourth version the Mukachevo incident is the Right Sector's unsuccessful attempt to muscle in on the local smuggling operations. Comment: Russia doesn't control the Right Sector. Right-wing terrorists are a tried and tested NATO strategy: Operation Gladio: State Sponsored Terror [VIDEO] | |
|
|
Sky News
2015-07-20 12:33:00
A ceremony in Washington will see the Cuban flag raised for the first time since diplomatic ties were severed in 1961. The US and Cuba have begun a new era of relations after diplomatic ties were formally restored on Monday more than 50 years after they were severed at the height of the Cold War. The two nations re-established embassies in each other's respective capitals at midnight after a breakthrough announcement by US President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro on 17 December. A symbolic event will see the raising of the Cuban flag for the first time in 54 years over a mansion that will serve as Havana's embassy in Washington later on Monday. That will be followed by a meeting between Secretary of State John Kerry and Bruno Rodriguez - the first Cuban foreign minister to pay an official visit to Washington since the 1959 Cuban Revolution.
| ||
Comment: According to reports, trade ties will continue to be limited until Congress lifts the trade embargo, not likely before 2018, however ties will resume under the auspices of humanitarian assistance and travel. It remains to be seen if the upcoming American acceptance and influence provides a shake-up to "reforming" the current Communist regime and if this resumption of relations provides Obama with the important self-serving "legacy" bullet point for his otherwise dismal administrative record. Time will tell: good thing, bad thing. Also, consider the context of North American Region, the order unfolding.
| ||
|
| Society's Child |
|
RT
2015-07-17 18:40:00
More than 300 people have been injured from the collision of two trains near South Africa's Johannesburg on Friday. One of the trains derailed as result of the collision that took place between Booysens and Crown Mines stations, according to a local paramedic service. "It is believed that two trains collided causing one to derail," ER24 spokesperson Russel Meiring told eNCA.
— Robert Mulaudzi (@RobertMulaudzi) July 17, 2015
According to Nana Radebe, spokeswoman for Johannesburg Emergency Services, 326 people have been taken to nearby hospitals, AP reports. "For now we have removed people with minor to serious injuries, but none critical," she said. There have been no fatalities confirmed yet. Radebe told AP that the trains were on the same track and one of them was in a stationary condition during the collision. The railway line between Johannesburg's Park station and Booysens was closed after the incident, local media reported.
| |
|
|
RT
2015-07-20 18:23:00
A German reporter investigating the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine has published a new video allegedly shot by local residents in the aftermath of the Boeing's downing last year. The footage shot from a car passing the crash site shows fires on the ground and black smoke plumes rising to the sky. According to the conversation on the clip's audio, the area of the crash site is littered with bodies of dead passengers from the ill-fated airliner. The woman filming the crash site is evidently shocked by the scale of the disaster, as she is heard sobbing. Her male companion is heard cursing as he apparently realizes that what he sees is a civilian flight. The independent reporter, Bill Six, who published the video on his YouTube channel, says local residents had been resentful about speaking to Western journalists after what they took as biased reporting on the MH17 tragedy. It took him weeks to win the trust of the people. The release of the footage comes days after another MH17 video was released by News Corp Australia. It showed eastern Ukrainian rebels at the MH17 crash site minutes after the downing. According to the transcript of their conversations, there may have been a second plane - a Sukhoi fighter jet - that brought down the civilian Malaysian Airlines Boeing over the warzone.
| ||
|
|
RT
2015-05-11 18:00:00
Puberty, a new program on the Norwegian state-funded channel NRK, in which the presenter penetrates a latex vagina with a plastic penis, draws diagrams on naked people, and shows children how to French-kiss, has provoked a mixed reaction. "We would have betrayed our series on puberty if we had not touched on topics such as sex and masturbation," Line Jansrud, the presenter, who is pregnant, and plans to be filmed giving birth as part of the program, told NRK. As the weekly episodes of the educational program, named Newton, chronicle the changes of the human anatomy through the teenage years, the hands-on presented never misses a chance to illustrate her point. The light-hearted, low-budget feel of the show is reminiscent of old-fashioned children's television, and is based on The Body, a Norwegian series broadcast in the early 1980s, which explored similar themes - without quite going this far. In the episode on the penis, Janstrud holds one as she talks about pubic hair and foreskin, before studying a sperm sample. In the one on the vagina, she pulls back the labia of a filmed participant in a close-up shot, to illustrate the location of the clitoris, before describing the pleasurable sensations that can result from stimulating it. | |
|
|
RT
2015-07-20 17:39:00
Anonymous group hacktivists are mounting a campaign to avenge a man "in a Guy Fawkes mask" shot dead by Canadian police in British Columbia on Thursday after being mistaken for a suspect. Cyber-attacks have already hit national police websites. Anonymous said in a video message that they are willing to use "vengeance if necessary" to obtain justice for the shooting of one of their own outside the Fixx restaurant in Dawson Creek, northeastern British Columbia, on Thursday. The statement described the masked man as being "mercilessly shot and killed ... without provocation or cause" while protesting. According to the hacktivists, the man was wearing a Guy Fawkes mask, which is often associated with the group. Anonymous launched operation #AnonDown in their video statement. Its goal is to uncover the name of the police officer who killed the Dawson Creek activist - "because the world has the right to know every detail about killer cops."
| ||
Comment: How long until we see something like the following?
Then, how long before some ill-advised 'revolutionaries' interpret Anonymous' call for revenge as a call for violent uprising? If they do, they'll be playing right into the hands of those who want nothing more than an excuse to kill even more activists and protestors? | ||
|
|
David Ferguson
Rawstory 2015-07-14 15:57:00
San Francisco's city officials have no time for Fox News' latest attempt to gin up anti-immigrant hysteria over the alleged murder of a white American woman by an undocumented immigrant. Bill O'Reilly sent one of his employees to ambush different members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, accusing them of enabling the murder of Kate Steinle by declaring the city a "sanctuary city" where undocumented workers can access health care, police and fire assistance and other public services without fear of deportation or other forms of government reprisal. City Supervisor and human rights attorney Jane Kim told the Fox representative that the issue at play in Kate Steinle's death isn't immigration, but gun control, and how to keep weapons out of the hands of felons and the mentally ill. | |
Comment: Scott Wiener gave the only possible response to the bottom-feeder that is Faux News.
| |
|
|
RT
2015-07-20 17:36:00
The Ashley Madison cheating website has been hacked by "an unauthorized party," the company said. The Impact Team hackers reportedly then posted large amounts of data from the hookup site online, potentially affecting about 37 million unfaithful partners. "We were recently made aware of an attempt by an unauthorized party to gain access to our systems," AVID LIFE media Inc., which owns the site, said in a statement. The company added that they have been able "to secure our sites, and close the unauthorized access points." "We are working with law enforcement agencies, which are investigating this criminal act. Any and all parties responsible for this act of cyber - terrorism will be held responsible." The hack was first announced by KrebsOnSecurity blog, which cited ALM Chief Executive Noel Biderman who said that the company was "working diligently and feverishly" to take down ALM's intellectual property.
| |
|
|
John W. Whitehead
The Rutherford Institute 2015-07-16 00:00:00
The Rutherford Institute has filed a lawsuit against the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) over its unregulated use of whole body scanners, which have been likened to virtual strip searches, in the nation's airports. The TSA implemented Whole Body Imagers (WBI) (also referred to as Advanced Imaging Technology) in 2009 as a primary security screening tool in airports. However, the agency did not notify the public of its decision to deploy the scanners, nor did it ask for public comments on use of the use of WBI technology as required by federal law. In a petition for a writ of mandamus filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, The Rutherford Institute, joined by other civil liberties advocates, argues that the TSA has flouted federal law and court orders in order to shield the agency's WBI scanning practices from public input and judicial review. The Rutherford Institute is joined as co-petitioners by the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) and The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) in asking the court to compel the TSA to issue formal rules regulating the use of WBI subject those standards to public examination and judicial review. | |
Comment: So suing governmental organizations, like the TSA, in order to compel them to follow - and enforce - the rule of law (while we still have laws on the books anyway) is what it has come to. Kudos to The Rutherford Institute for taking the long-needed stand against the trauma-inducing,DNA-destroying, ineffective and law-breaking security state boondoggle that is the TSA and all of its friggin' Dr. Evil gadgetry.
| |
|
|
RT
2015-07-18 09:27:00
A newly-published video shows a Colorado Springs police officer going to extremes during a November 2013 arrest, slamming a handcuffed 18-year-old woman face-down into the ground, knocking out her teeth while she was in hospital. The shocking video will be part of a lawsuit that is being prepared on behalf of Alexis Acker against the department. The footage was obtained by the Colorado Springs Independent daily. "This is a very violent attack on someone who is in handcuffs, who is partially restrained and tiny, and there's just no need for it," Acker's criminal attorney Cindy Hyatt told the paper. "You can't have something like this, whether it happens 100 times, 10 times or one time. It's unacceptable. It cannot be tolerated. As a patrol officer in particular, that's part of the job, dealing with that without planting someone's face in the floor," she added. The video shows Colorado Springs officer Tyler Walker, 29 at the time, clearly shoving the handcuffed woman into a chair by hitting her in the stomach. He then grabs Acker out of her seat and slams her on to the hospital floor. Aside from having two teeth knocked out, she suffered "trauma to the face, head, teeth and jaw; migraine headaches, concussion, closed head injuries, memory and cognitive function problems, as well as post-traumatic stress disorder." Meanwhile, conflicting police reports state that Walker either "escorted her to the floor" or that he "rolled her ... to the floor."
| ||
|
| Secret History |
|
Laura Geggel
Live Science 2015-07-20 07:16:00
Weird, "hybridized" animal skeletons, including a cow-horse and a six-legged sheep litter the bottom of storage pits in an Iron Age site in England, archaeologists have found. One pit even holds the bones of a woman with a slit throat laid on top of animal bones, the scientists said. The unusual remains belong to an ancient people who lived in southern England from about 400 B.C. until just before the Roman invasion, in A.D. 43, said dig co-director Paul Cheetham, a senior lecturer in archaeology at Bournemouth University in the United Kingdom. It appears that the people dug the pits to store food such as grain near their dwellings. They had "no decent way of refrigerating stuff" back then, and the chalky earth would have provided a cool storage area, Cheetham told Live Science. [See Photos of "Hybridized" Animal Sacrifices from Ancient England] The people would have used each pit for only a year or two before digging a new one. Just before they abandoned a pit, it appears, the people buried a hybridized animal in it, sometimes with the flesh still attached, possibly as a way to honor the gods, Cheetham and his colleagues said. (When skeletons are well connected, or articulated, it indicates that the individual had ligaments and flesh holding it together when it was buried, the researchers said.) These "hybrids" would have been formed from the body parts of various other animals. "[They were] creating combinations of prized animals as an offering to particular deities," said dig co-director Miles Russell, a senior lecturer of prehistoric and Roman archaeology at Bournemouth University. "What this meant precisely to the tribes we don't know, as nothing sadly was written down from the period and we have no record of the names or nature of the gods being invoked." The archaeologists found all kinds of mix-and-matched animals in the pits. Many contained combinations of horse and cow body parts — such as a cow skull with a horse jaw and a horse skull with a cow horn sticking out, resulting in something that looked like a bizarre unicorn. Some pits contained man-made items, such as combs made from bone and weaving needles. Others held sheep and cow combinations and the entire bodies of sacrificed dogs and pigs. In one pit, the archaeologists found a decapitated sheep's body with a cow skull on its rear. Such animal sacrifices are not to be taken lightly, the archaeologists said. Cows, sheep and horses were likely the basis of the economy and also a food source, "so to dispose of an animal like a pig is quite a big thing to do," Cheetham said. | |
|
|
Sydney Morning Herald
2013-11-18 18:14:00
A bizarre instrument combining a piano and cello has finally been played to an audience more than 500 years after it was dreamt up Leonardo da Vinci. Da Vinci, the Italian Renaissance genius who painted the Mona Lisa, invented the ''viola organista'' - which looks like a baby grand piano - but never built it, experts say. The viola organista has now come to life, thanks to a Polish concert pianist with a flair for instrument-making and the patience and passion to interpret da Vinci's plans. Full of steel strings and spinning wheels, Slawomir Zubrzycki's creation is a musical and mechanical work of art. ''This instrument has the characteristics of three we know: the harpsichord, the organ and the viola da gamba,'' Zubrzycki said as he debuted the instrument at the Academy of Music in the southern Polish city of Krakow. The instrument's exterior is painted in a rich midnight blue, adorned with golden swirls painted on the side. The inside of its lid is a deep raspberry inscribed with a Latin quote in gold leaf by 12th-century German nun, mystic and philosopher, Saint Hildegard. ''Holy prophets and scholars immersed in the sea of arts both human and divine, dreamt up a multitude of instruments to delight the soul,'' it says. | |
|
| Science & Technology |
|
RT
2015-07-19 20:15:00
An asteroid believed to be carrying up to 90 million tons of platinum in its core, as well as other rare and precious materials, is about to swoosh past our planet. The news has left developers of asteroid-mining technologies intrigued. The platinum-rich asteroid officially named 2011 UW158, is 452 meters by 1,011 meters in size andwill pass Earth at a distance of an estimated 2.4 million kilometers, according to the Goldstone Radar Observatory. It will be 30 times closer to Earth than the closest planet of the Solar system. However, when the asteroid does pass, it will still be six times further away than the moon's orbit, so it will be impossible to see 2011 UW158 with the naked eye. | |
|
|
RT
2015-07-20 19:54:00
Women often live longer than men. However, this is not down to males working or drinking too much, rather it's due to DNA inherited from their mothers. Genetic experts call this the "mother's curse" as the defective genes can cause health problems in men. Scientists say this shows that men are in fact the weaker sex and this could explain why women often outlive men. Statistically, the researchers may have a point, as statistics fromEurostat, which is the statistical office of the European Union, found that women outlive men in the bloc by 5.5 years on average. The research was undertaken by the University of Otago in New Zealand. They conducted studies of fruit flies and fish for over a decade, with the research showing that mutations in DNA only were harmful when passed from mothers to their sons. | |
|
| Earth Changes |
|
Phys.org
2015-07-20 00:00:00
For a long time jackals have been known to most Europeans only through documentaries on African wildlife. But one species - the golden jackal (canis aureus) - is now advancing northward and westward across Europe from its traditional range along the Mediterranean and Black Sea coasts as far as Switzerland and Estonia. This has resulted in considerable confusion - should jackals be protected as a native species everywhere in Europe? Yes, says legal scholar Arie Trouwborst of Tilburg University. Trouwborst studied the expansion of jackals with biologists of the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia) and the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (Trondheim). The results have recently been published in Biodiversity and Conservation (open access). The golden jackal, also known as 'European coyote', has so far been spotted in thirty European countries including ones without historic records of the species (see distribution map below).The drivers of this expansion are not yet fully understood. Other large carnivores such as the wolf are also spreading, but they can be characterized as comebacks (recoveries). | |
|
|
dunyanews.tv
2015-07-20 18:04:00
The floods in Indus River and Chitral River have caused several villages and towns to inundate, Dunya News reported. According to details, at least fifty villages have been disconnected from Ghotki while over a hundred villages have been inundated in Layyah. Dozens of towns in Rahim Yar Khan and Dera Ghazi Khan have also been struck by the inundation while dozens of houses have also been affected in various areas including Kalash Valley. According to details, the embankment at Rasulpur area of Rahim Yar Khan could not bear the pressure of the flood wave and broke down, causing several areas including Rasulpur, Kacha Mahazi, Kacha Chohan to inundate. At least eight villages have also been flooded in Muzaffargarh area and the local administration has established as many as eighteen relief camps to deal with the emergency. | |
|
|
RT
2015-07-20 20:55:00
A 30-foot-by-50-foot (9-by-15-meter) section of Interstate 10 over a desert wash ‒ or dry riverbed ‒ in southeastern California west of Arizona has collapsed amid heavy rain, causing indefinite closure of a route used by 27,000 vehicles per day. The eastbound section of the bridge over the normally dry Tex Wash in Desert Center, just east of the Coachella Valley and about 50 miles (80km) west of the Arizona border, collapsed on Sunday afternoon during the second day of record rainfall in Southern California. Though the westbound section of the interstate remained intact, it was also closed because it was compromised by flooding waters and will also need extensive repairs, the California Department of Transportation said. | |
|
|
ucanews.com
2015-07-20 16:24:00
Four people were killed and more than 5,000 displaced July 19 following heavy rains in India's Madhya Pradesh state, authorities and Church sources said. "Many people are marooned, waiting to be saved," said Bishop Sebastian Vadakel of Ujjain, the area worst hit in the state. The July 19 rains brought floodwater more than a meter-deep in many places, making roads impassable, cutting off villages and sparking power outages. More than 2,000 people are stranded in railway stations, the bishop said while thousands of others are taking temporary shelter in relief camps. Authorities did not reveal how the four flood victims died.
| ||
|
|
au.news.yahoo.com
2015-07-20 15:47:00
Four people were killed and thousands forced to flee their homes as floods inundated large parts of the northern Philippines, the government said Sunday. Heavy monsoon rains lashed the largely agricultural provinces for days, bringing floods that left roads impassable and led about 3,000 people to be evacuated, government civil defence officers said. At least four people died as a result of the rains, including a six-month old boy who was buried by a landslide in the northern province of Pangasinan, the officers said. Social welfare and relief agencies are delivering aid to affected areas while the public works department is preparing to repair damaged infrastructure, said President Benigno Aquino's spokesman Herminio Coloma. | |
|
|
Western Morning News
2015-07-20 15:03:00
Eleven people have been killed in flash floods triggered by heavy rain in a mountainous area of northern Iran. State TV said authorities fear more casualties from the floods in the provinces of Tehran, Alborz and Qazvin. A Chinese national was reported to be among those killed. The official IRNA news agency quoted local officials as saying that two women were among those killed and said at least 20 cars were swept away by the water, many with people inside them, including one with a just-married couple. The area has been without electricity and rescue workers are still working, despite heavy rains overnight. Authorities attribute the rising number of deadly flash floods in this part of the country to improper construction near river beds and deforestation. | |
|
The rapid melting of snow and glaciers due to higher temperatures between 01 and 15 July 2015 have triggered mudflows in the Shugnan District in the eastern region of Gorno-Badakhshan, Tajikistan. The mudflows have caused damage to buildings and infrastructure in local villages. The debris has also blocked the flow of the Gund river, creating an artificial lake which has flooded areas along the river. As of 18 July 2015, the UN's Rapid Emergency Assessment and Coordination Team (REACT) in Tajikistan reports that at least 56 houses have been destroyed and 10,000 people forced to evacuate to safer sites. Schools, stores, roads and electricity lines have also been damaged and 80% of the communities in the region have been without electricity. No casualties have been reported. There is a risk of the lake overflowing or breaking through its temporary blockage. REACT say that this could cause devastating floods in Khorog and nearby communities, including three districts of Khatlon Oblast.
| ||
|
|
RT
2015-07-19 12:51:00
Australian professional surfer and triple world champion Mick Fanning was attacked by a shark during a competition in South Africa on Sunday. The dangerous incursion, said to be "the first in professional surfing history," was broadcast live on TV. The shark - described as a "big tiger shark" by the event's live commentators, approached Fanning from behind as he was sitting on his board in the waters of Jeffreys Bay (also known as J-Bay) getting ready to compete. In the broadcast, the shark could be seen launching itself at the surfer, known by the nickname "White Lightning," who then disappeared from his board. After that, only huge splashes of water were visible to viewers. Assisting jet skis rushed to the spot where the struggle was taking place. "There were two sharks apparently... the horn blasted," World Surf League (WSL) Deputy Commissioner Renato Hickel said, adding that "this is the first time in professional surfing history, no one has experienced a situation like that." "That's one of the dangers of professional surfing," the event's commentators could be heard saying, adding that they were happy to see the champion come out of the ordeal "in one piece."
| ||
|
|
Veronica Miracle and Reuben Contreras
ABC 2015-07-19 03:55:00
Thunder rolled from the North Valley to the South Valley as lightning lit up the sky. Action News cameras caught a bolt near Ashlan Avenue and Fresno Street. Heavy rain pounded many parts of the Valley. Video from Blackstone and Dakota avenues in Central Fresno showed the rain coming down hard earlier Saturday. The storm caused several power outages throughout the Valley, with the largest in Fresno. Nearly 72,000 PG&E customers in West, Central and North Fresno, and Kerman were still without electricity Saturday night, including the area at Ashlan Avenue and Fresno Street. The outages started at about 5:15 p.m. and turned off several traffic lights throughout town, causing congestion at major intersections. PG&E did not have an estimated time when power would be restored. The storm also forced the Fresno Grizzlies to postpone Saturday's game against the El Paso Chihuahuas. The lightning started right after the players took the field at Chukchansi Park. The teams are now planning a doubleheader for Sunday afternoon. It's still too early say for certain, but firefighters say lightning is likely the reason why dozens of fires started in the area. Lightning rippled across the sky as the heavy storm moved through the Fresno area. Fires sparked by lightning were the first to impact first responders. | |
|
| Fire in the Sky |
No new articles.
|
| Health & Wellness |
|
Emily Sohn
DNews 2015-07-20 15:02:00
It's getting hot out there. As the mercury soars, so too do heat-related deaths -- whether it's a child left too long in a hot car or an elderly person stuck at home with no air conditioning -- heat proves to be a deadly agent every summer. So, why can heat be so deadly? Hot weather alone is not dangerous, said Chris Minson, an environmental physiologist at the University of Oregon, Eugene. Instead, it's a combination of hot temperatures, high humidity, and often preexisting health conditions that can push a person's core body temperature to reach the danger zone of 104 F. At that point, the nervous system goes haywire, the heart experiences excessive stress, and organ systems begin to fail. | |
|
|
Henry Kamens
New Eastern Outlook 2015-07-19 00:00:00
On May 6 New Eastern Outlook published an article about the new Hepatitis C drugs being introduced to Georgia. It stated that this is another US-imposed programme in which patients will be given experimental drugs which they cannot give their informed consent to taking because not enough information is known about them to give that consent. Georgians will be used as guinea pigs, in other words. These suggestions produced howls of protest from people working in Georgia's healthcare sector. They insisted that the drugs were safe and the point of the programme was to see if Hep C could be totally eradicated in one go, using Georgians as a sample population. Even Georgia's Health Minister, Dr. David Sergeenko, weighed in by announcing that the new drugs have been approved and "Georgia is not a testing country". The trouble is, Georgia's Health Minister and the others involved with this programme are not telling the truth. If they don't know this, they should resign. If they do, they should be in jail. | |
|
|
Kristen Anderson
Natural Blaze 2015-07-20 00:00:00
In September of 2014, the FDA began a coordinated attack on companies that market essential oils. The top brands are dōTERRA and Young Living. Both companies offer essential oils to help manage a variety of symptoms ranging from headaches to anxiety to hyperactivity. Many essential oil users claim to have eliminated the need for over-the-counter medications due to using specific combinations of essential oils to target common maladies. Back in 2014, Young Living received a warning that you can see on the FDA's website. It seems they had conducted a thorough search of the Internet, including websites, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, and cited instances that Young Living essential oils were mentioned in conjunction with a medical diagnosis. For example, "Eucalyptus Blue essential oil has antiviral and anti-inflammatory properties." And, "Since I have become an avid Young Living essential oil user I have learned all about the anti-microbial properties of so many oils, including ANTI-VIRAL constituents in many of our essential oils." | |
Comment: It's highly interesting that the FDA has been caught basically rubber-stamping approvals for pharma drugs that have later been found to cause severe side effects and deaths, yet they are now targeting the manufacturers of plant oils that have been in use for centuries. It's not difficult to see the hand of BigPharma in directing this.
FDA uses mafia tactics for the benefit of Big Pharma | |
|
|
Traci Pederssen
PsychCentral 2015-07-19 00:00:00
A new study has found that taking antidepressants with a common class of painkillers, known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), increases the user's risk of intracranial haemorrhage (bleeding inside the skull) soon after starting treatment. Commonly used NSAIDs include ibuprofen and aspirin. Based on the ongoing concern of a drug interaction, a team of researchers based in Korea compared the risk of bleeding among patients treated with antidepressants with and without NSAIDs. Using the Korean nationwide health insurance database, their study involved over four million people who were prescribed antidepressants for the first time between 2009 and 2013. The researchers analyzed the timing of both NSAID prescriptions and hospital records to identify any patients with a first admission of intracranial haemorrhage within 30 days of a new prescription. Factors that could affect the results, such as age, sex, and use of other medications, were taken into account. Compared with the use of antidepressants alone, the findings showed that a combined use of antidepressants and NSAIDs was linked to a significantly increased risk of bleeding. | |
Comment: NSAIDs such as aspirin and ibuprofen are associated with stomach bleeding and also cause the body to retain fluids, which may lead to kidney damage. They also increase the risk of heart attack and stroke. Ibuprofen has been linked to dozens of adverse health effects, including anemia, DNA damage, hearing loss, hypertension, and miscarriage.
| |
|
|
Amy Bryant
Telegraph, UK 2015-07-19 22:22:00
Fat, if the past year's headlines are anything to go by, is no longer the enemy. It's back on the menu (the trend for butter-laden Bulletproof coffee, anyone?), back in our kitchens (low-carb "fat bomb" recipes abound), and even back in the good books of US government dietary advisers. Their report, released in May, declared eating cholesterol-rich foods has very little bearing on the amount of cholesterol in your body. If the US government adopts its advice, it could mean a reversal of the dietary information given to Americans since the 1960s. Big news if you've been itching for a fry-up. Now a new book by three South Africans, the scientist and ultra-marathon-runner Professor Tim Noakes, the nutritionist Sally-Ann Creed, and the chef Jonno Proudfoot, is about to be published in the UK. It explains how we can load up on butter, cheese and cream, while staying healthy and - miraculously - losing weight. | |
Comment: It's good that LCHF diets are getting more and more well known. But all the mainstream versions still seem to have something wrong with them: either too many carbs, too many processed foods and additives, or the inclusion of dairy, like this one. At the very least, people trying a diet like this for the first time should stop eating dairy for several weeks before reintroducing it, to see if they experience any negative reactions.
| |
|
|
Karen Graham
Digital Journal 2015-07-19 20:14:00
People who love kale, cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower often eat these vegetables on a regular basis. But over-indulgence may be dangerous. It may sound strange, but healthy-eating food addicts may be doing themselves harm. A small study has found that if consumed in prodigious amounts, kale, and other members of the cruciferous family of vegetables to which it belongs, can be dangerous, and it doesn't matter if the kale is organic or not. Biologist Ernie Hubbard is an alternative medicine researcher, living in Marin County, California. In 2010, he had the opportunity to conduct a study for a Cleveland-based company on a detoxification formula, called ZNatural. Hubbard is a molecular biologist with a background in biochemistry and genetics. With his background, he was able to develop some tests not usually found in traditional laboratories, including "bio-impedence" analyzers that measure cellular energy and "chelating" formulas like ZNatural. While chelating formulas are controversial, ZNatural proved to be safe. But it was during the testing phase of the product that Hubbard discovered something quite by accident, and that is the real story. Twenty volunteers were involved in the study conducted by Hubbard, and they happily peed into cups before, during and after the consumption of the ZNatural product. Hubbard noticed an odd pattern in the testing of the urine samples. Several people had high levels of thallium and cesium in their urine, two heavy metals. "At first, I just thought 'Oh, another one of those.' By the third or fourth, I started scratching my head," Hubbard said. | |
|
|
Science Daily
2015-07-16 00:00:00
A mysterious outbreak of child paralysis cases previously linked to enterovirus D68 may instead have another cause, doctors at the University of Virginia Children's Hospital are cautioning after determining that a stricken child appeared to be suffering from a different virus. A 6-year-old girl arrived at UVA Children's Hospital in October after her parents noticed that her right shoulder was drooping and that she was having difficulty using her right hand. She had previously exhibited cold-like symptoms, including a cough, a slight fever and headache. The child's paralysis symptoms were similar to those seen in more than 100 other children during an outbreak of acute flaccid myelitis that began in the summer of 2014. While enterovirus D68 has been the primary suspect in the paralysis cases, the girl's test results identified a different potential culprit, enterovirus C105. "Surprisingly, it came back with this enterovirus C105, which I'll admit, when it came back, I'd never heard of," said UVA's Ronald B. Turner, MD. "It was just described in the last eight or nine years and it hasn't been seen much around the world. Now, I think you have to be careful with that, because we don't look for it. And you don't see what you don't look for. So it's possible it's out there and it's not being detected because nobody's sending specimens to be tested in this way." | |
Comment: One thing not being mentioned is the link between the epidemic of child paralysis and vaccinations. It has been reported that all of the afflicted children have been vaccinated with the MMR vaccines, influenza vaccines, and polio vaccines, yet the illness has not been occurring in un-vaccinated children. Paralysis is associated with polio infection and Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) is a class of paralyses that is indistinguishable from the paralysis occurring in thousands within the vaccinated population.
| |
|
|
Traci Pedersen
Psych Central 2015-07-09 21:50:00
A new study in which researchers observed people making moral decisions while taking prescription drugs sheds light on how the neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine are deeply connected to a variety of human behaviors. When healthy people were given citalopram, a serotonin-boosting antidepressant, they became significantly harm aversive. In fact, they were willing to pay twice as much to prevent harm to themselves or others compared to people given placebo drugs. In contrast, when healthy people were given levodopa, a dopamine-boosting Parkinson's drug, they became more selfish, virtually eliminating altruistic behaviors. The findings provide insight into the neural basis of clinical disorders characterized by a lack of concern for others, such as psychopathy. | |
Comment: Additional examples of how 'commonly prescribed psychiatric drugs influence moral decisions in healthy people'
| |
|
| Science of the Spirit |
|
whitewolfpack.com
2015-07-20 17:46:00
Native American, John Trudell, explains how people today are going along with society, cut off from a spiritual, tribal past in a unified realm of Being. "Protect your spirit, because you are in the place where spirits get eaten." It's not surprising that zombie movies and thrillers are so popular to the modern human. The zombie has become an adequate metaphor for the modern man. We live in a time where our most esteemed institutions have no spiritual connection to reality. One solution for paving the way out of "Zombie Land" is for human beings to re-establish a spiritual connection to the Earth. | |
Comment: Check out the John Trudell Documentary for some more enlightening and practical wisdom about the importance of protecting you spirit. Also check out this telling video from 2013'Nazi America', The Spaceman: Chaos featuring John Trudell
| |
|
|
medicalexpress.com
2015-06-02 21:05:00
Children as young as 4 years old may reap better health from altruistic giving, a behavior that tends to be less common among kids from high-income families, according to new research on the nature and nurture of altruism published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. "The findings provide us with a new understanding of how children's altruistic behaviors, family wealth, and physiological health are intertwined," says psychological scientist and lead researcher Jonas Miller of the University of California Davis. Previous research has shown that altruism, or giving that is personally costly, can promote both physical and psychological well-being in adults. This new study extends this research to young children, investigating how their nervous systems respond during altruistic acts and how altruism is related to family wealth. In the study, the research team recruited 74 pre-schoolers (average age 4 years old) from the local community. In the lab, the researchers played with the children one by one and explained that they would earn tokens that they could trade for prizes at the end of their visit. As part of the visit, researchers attached (with parental consent) electrodes to each child's torso to collect physiological data, including information about heart rate and vagal tone. Vagal tone indicates the influence of the vagus nerve, which connects the brain with other key organs and provides a useful measure of the body's ability to regulate physiological stress responses. High vagal tone is related to feeling safe and calm, says Miller, and has been associated with better physical health, behavior, and social skills among young children. | |
