| Puppet Masters |
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Press TV
2016-01-30 08:43:00
The Russian Defense Ministry has denied any manner of Turkish airspace violation by its jets. "The statements of the Turkish side about the alleged fact of Russian Su-34 jet's violation of (its) airspace are pure propaganda," said Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov on Saturday. He stressed that "There were no violations of Turkish airspace by aircraft of the Russian air group in the Syrian Arab Republic." The Turkish Defense Ministry had claimed that a Russian Su-34 bomber violated the country's air space on Friday, adding that the plane was warned by radar units. "None of these radars are able to establish the type and affiliation of an aircraft — whether it belongs to Russia or to the so-called US-led anti-ISIL [Daesh] coalition," Konashenkov added. The spokesman also said that neither Russian air defenses in Syria nor Syrian radar stations had registered any violations along the Syria-Turkey border. Following the claims, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Russia over "consequences" if airspace violations continue. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which includes Turkey, also called on Russia "fully respect" alliance airspace. The incident follows Turkey's downing of a Russian Su-24 fighter jet over Syria on November 25, 2015. Ankara claims the jet was over Turkish airspace, a claim which Moscow strongly denies. | |
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Rudy Panko
Russia Insider 2016-01-30 18:10:00
What can you do with hundreds of billions of dollars? If you're the wealthiest nation on earth with a 20% child poverty rate, the answer is beyond obvious: Let's spend all that money on a fancy airplane that we don't need and doesn't work. (The money will eventually "trickle down" to America'sevaporating middle class, right? At the very least it will pay for no less than one week of blow and hookers for Lockheed's best and brightest.) Feast your eyes upon this level of wholesale grift and piss-poor engineering:
In layman's terms: "We already know this aircraft has major problems, but we will buy hundreds of them anyway. By the way, we probably can't afford the necessary modifications to make them operational. So it goes." | |
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Sputnik
2016-01-30 17:17:00
Four months and more than 6,000 sorties later, Russia's counterterrorism efforts are bearing fruit - Daesh is retreating, while Damascus-led forces are on a roll. Moscow launched its much lauded aerial campaign on September 30 following a formal request from Damascus. Russian warplanes have been tasked with assisting the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) in its fight against extremists groups, who are trying to overthrow Bashar al-Assad and establish an Islamic state in a once peaceful and prosperous land that was largely oblivious to sectarian violence. This mission has been accomplished. Four months and more than 6,000 sorties later, due to Russia's counterterrorism efforts, Daesh is losing fighters, weapons and territories, while the SAA is on a roll. Damascus-led forces are on the offensive on ten fronts out of 15, Chief of Russia's General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov said earlier this month. What could be even more important, SAA soldiers are now willing to fight and feel confident in their abilities. | |
Comment: Further reading: Takfiri groups in Syria fail to unite, more fractured than ever
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Press TV
2016-01-30 11:24:00
Major Takfiri groups fighting in Syria are fractured more than anytime as they are struggling to close ranks in the face of army advances on various fronts, a report says. Representatives of al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham, a Salafist movement with close ties to Turkey, met with fellow militant groups recently but failed to forge a united front, Reuters reported. According to the report, Abu Mohamad al-Golani, the head of al-Nusra Front, tried to convince other Takfiri groups to join forces with the al-Qaeda wing in Syria but the effort fell flat. The militant leader even said he would change his group's name if Ahrar al-Sham agreed to reunite with them, but stressed that he would not renounce ties with the al-Qaeda terror organization. The two extremist groups had briefly formed an alliance against the Syrian government along with a number of other militants last year, but they later split. During the tense atmosphere of the meeting, which was held around 10 days ago, Golani accused Ahrar of spearheading "the agenda of Ankara in order to be part of a future political deal to rule Syria," the report said. The leaders left without an agreement, with Nusra blaming Ahrar al-Sham for the failure. A few days later, members of the two groups clashed in the towns of Salqin and Harem in Idlib province, near the border with Turkey. Several militants were killed on both sides. | |
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RT
2016-01-30 17:17:00
Turkey has summoned the Russian envoy, claiming a Russian fighter jet has violated its airspace, Dogan news agency reports. According to Ankara, the incident involving a Russian Su-34 took place Friday. Several warnings in Russian and in English were allegedly sent to the jet. "We are making a clear call to the Russian Federation not to violate Turkish airspace, which is also NATO airspace," the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement Saturday. "We are emphasizing once again that the unwanted consequences of such irresponsible behavior will belong fully to the Russian Federation," it added. | |
Comment: What is the game here? There are no details nor proof of a violation, at least at this juncture. The fact Russia and Putin have not responded gives a clear indication that these claims might be bogus or manufactured to vindicate Turkey/Erdogan from the last false and deadly fiasco. For NATO members, respect of sovereignty rights (of others) do not apply.
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RT
2016-01-30 16:14:00
The US Navy has sent a guided missile destroyer within 12 nautical miles of an island in the South China Sea which Beijing considers its sovereign territory. The move is meant as a challenge to the Chinese claim. The USS Curtis Wilbur sailed unopposed near the Triton Island in the Paracel Islands archipelago, Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, told the media. The island is administrated by China, but is also contested by Taiwan and Vietnam. "This operation challenged attempts by the three claimants - China, Taiwan and Vietnam - to restrict navigation rights and freedoms," Davis said. The Chinese Foreign Ministry called the sail-by illegal, saying permission from the Chinese authorities was necessary. | |
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RT
2016-01-30 15:36:00
Libyan ISIS chiefs are fearful of being picked off by a renegade sniper, who is already behind three long-range kills of high-profile figures in the terrorist group, all in the new Libyan "mini-caliphate" in the city of Sirte. The terrorists holed up in Colonel Gaddafi's home town still don't know if the sniper is one person, or several. The killings started on January 13, with the latest kill made 10 days after that. This now has Islamic State (IS, ISIS/formerly ISIL) fearing someone is on a mission to hunt them down. And they appear to be showing it too. The terror group has been carrying out arrests and executions in the town, The Telegraph reports. Black-clad 'religious police' has also been carrying out public floggings to keep the population in a perpetual state of fear. According to The Telegraph, reports indicate the marksman is locally-trained and probably became who he (or she) is today during the uprising against the late President Moammar Gaddafi. | |
Comment: Sirte was said to be the safest jihadist stronghold in the world, when ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi arrived there around December 9th. Terrorists in Sirte initiated a complex operation to make safe passage for their leaders - residents were cleared out, a perimeter was imposed, and a communications black-out was thrown over the city.
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Cora Currier, Henrik Moltke
The Intercept 2016-01-28 10:08:00
American and British intelligence secretly tapped into live video feeds from Israeli drones and fighter jets, monitoring military operations in Gaza, watching for a potential strike against Iran, and keeping tabs on the drone technology Israel exports around the world. Under a classified program code-named "Anarchist," the U.K.'s Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ, working with the National Security Agency, systematically targeted Israeli drones from a mountaintop on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. GCHQ files provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden include a series of "Anarchist snapshots" — thumbnail images from videos recorded by drone cameras. The files
also show location data mapping the flight paths of the aircraft. In essence, U.S. and British agencies stole a bird's-eye view from the drones. Several of the snapshots, a subset collected in 2009 and 2010, appear to show drones carrying missiles. Although they are not clear enough to be conclusive, the images offer rare visual evidence to support reports that Israel flies attack drones — an open secret that the Israeli government won't acknowledge. "There's a good chance that we are looking at the first images of an armed Israeli drone in the public domain," said Chris Woods, author of Sudden Justice, a history of drone warfare. "They've gone to extraordinary lengths to suppress information on weaponized drones." | ||
Comment: Israel has been utilizing drone warfare since 1982 in the run up to the Israeli invasion and occupation of Lebanon and has since sold drones to over 50 countries.
Elbit Hermes drones were one of the two main unpiloted aircraft used to attack people in Gaza during Israel's 2009 Operation Cast Lead attack which killed over 1,400 Palestinians, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW). HRW state that "The Hermes can stay aloft for up to 24 hours at altitudes of up to 18,000 feet and has an array of optical, infra-red, and laser sensors that allow the operator to identify and track targets as well as to guide munitions in flight. The Hermes carries two Spike-MR (medium range) missiles." Further, HRW report that the Hermes drone is equipped with a camera system which allows the drone pilot to see if a person is armed or if they are a child or an adult. The drone's missiles are also equipped with cameras and can be diverted up to the last second. This means that Israel's drone pilots and their commanders would have known that they were targeting civilians and are culpable for war crimes carried out by Elbit drones. HRW has also called for the disclosure of camera footage shot by Hermes drones, to assist in the investigation of war crimes. Needless to say, this request has not been granted. See also: | ||
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Free Thought Project
2016-01-29 13:23:00
"With nearly 10,000 air strikes, we're taking out their leadership, their oil, their training camps, their weapons," Obama stated during his farewell State of the Union address earlier this month. Conveniently, in those 10,000 air strikes, he failed to include the bombings of hospitals, weddings, tribal council meetings, and, at least, eight U.S. citizens, with no concern for due process or a constitutionally mandated fair trial. The Obama administration is also responsible for allowing the CIA to deploy drone strikes against aYemeni wedding and a Pakistani tribal council meeting with total impunity. On October 3, 2015, a U.S. airstrike killed at least 20 patients and MSF staff at a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, occupied by the group Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the French charitable organization, "Doctors Without Borders." There is no question that the United States, in its carrying out of drone strikes and bombing campaigns throughout the Middle East, has killed thousands. However, the last thing the warmongers ever do is admit to these killings. On Friday, that changed as the US Central Command admitted that they killed and injured multiple civilians in the 'vicinity' of a drone strike meant for Junaid Hussain, on August 13, 2015. | |
Comment: A generation raised on video games has had its purpose revealed. War and murder are just another game when it's all onscreen. Those with consciences seem to be waking up.
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Sputnik
2016-01-30 05:19:00
Immigrants from the former Soviet Union who are currently residing in Germany support Russia's position with regard to Crimea, a German politician stated. After his visit to Crimea, the head of the German party UNITY (EINHEIT) Dimitri Rempel said that the German media presents the situation on the peninsula in a biased manner. In reality, Crimean residents live their everyday life, in which "there is no place for the military and tanks on the streets," the politician claimed. | |
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Sputnik
2016-01-30 05:09:00
Despite an official policy of neutrality, leaked documents show that Sweden may be preparing for war with Russia. In 2014, Swedish authorities were convinced that a Russian submarine was patrolling the waters around Gotland Island. The ensuing hysteria was based on grainy photographs, and the Swedish government finally admitted the panic had been for nothing. Stockholm's paranoia has, however, not diminished. According to an internal brochure circulated by Swedish Army chief Major General Anders Brannstrom, the military must be prepared for a "qualified opponent." | |
Comment: Further reading: Putin calls out Obama's big lie on missile defense, yet the press is completely silent
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Moon of Alabama
2016-01-29 01:39:00
The U.S. military now plans for a permanent occupation of Afghanistan. A discussion of the historic analogy of the Soviets in Afghanistan shows that this is unlikely to be a successful endeavor. A Pakistani official summed up the Soviet dilemma in Afghanistan as follows: The Soviets can continue to occupy the country, but they can not win over the people. The longer they stay, the more they alienate the people. The more they alienate the people, the longer they must stay. This Russian dilemma is also the Afghan dilemma, and both seem condemned to suffer the consequences. Quoted in Joseph. J.Collins, Afghanistan: The Empire Strikes Out, Perimeters, 1982The above is an apt description of the current situation in Afghanistan, just replace Soviet with American. | |
Comment: The U.S. wouldn't be facing this problem if it didn't illegally invade and occupy Afghanistan in the first place. But the principle of 'garbage in, garbage out' holds true. Wherever U.S. invasion and occupation forces wander, you can be sure that the stench of rot and decay will follow. And meanwhile idiots like the above-quoted "top Pentagon official" will be scratching their heads, oblivious to the reality that the ones really calling the shots just want to watch the world burn while the pen-pushing bureaucrats play catch-up.
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Tony Cartalucci
New Eastern Outlook 2016-01-24 22:32:00
US policymakers have long conspired to broker what would be meant to appear as a historic deal with the political order in Tehran. It would be a deal almost unreasonably compromising for the United States, in order to enhance the illusion that the West sought every means to integrate Iran peacefully back into the "international community" before resorting to armed and direct military aggression. Knowing that Iran will never exist within Washington, Wall Street, London, and Brussels' "international order" as an obedient client state, a prescription for regime change in Tehran has long been formulated. Best summarized in the 2009 Brookings Institution paper titled, "The Path to Persia: Options for a New American Strategy toward Iran" (.pdf), this regime change formula includes absolutely everything from economic sanctions and US-backed political upheaval, to the use of terrorism and proxy war to undermine and overthrow Iranian sociopolitical stability and eventually the Iranian state itself. In the lengthy 220 page document, Brookings policymakers acknowledge the necessity to first neutralize Syria before moving against Iran itself. It also prescribes the delisting of US State Department foreign terrorist organizations in order for the US to then arm and back them in a proxy war against Tehran. Among the terrorist organizations mentioned was Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), a terrorist organization guilty of years of violence including the kidnapping and murder of American service members and American civilians. MEK has also continued carrying out terrorist attacks against political and civilian targets in Iran up to present day. | |
Comment: Iranian leadership most likely knows this is the plan. It will just be a matter of waiting to see what the U.S. will try, and if Iran can counter it when the stab in the back comes. In light of the above, recent developments should make one curious:
We also wonder if there is more to the U.S. Navy story than meets the eye. There is speculation going around that Iran was testing out some GPS jamming technology to essentially lure the American (spy?) boats into Iranian waters as a demonstration of "what we can do". Either way, Iran would do well to keep all eyes open. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy than your American 'partners'. | |
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RT
2016-01-27 22:31:00
The day has finally come for all UFO lovers and those who still believe 'the truth is out there'. The CIA has released thousands of declassified documents on flying saucers. The agency humorously noted that X-Files' Fox Mulder would certainly love to use them to prove the existence of extraterrestrials. "We've decided to highlight a few documents both skeptics and believers will find interesting. Below you will find five documents we think X-Files character Agent Fox Mulder would love to use to try and persuade others of the existence of extraterrestrial activity," the agency said. All the documents date from the late 1940s and '50s. The CIA picked several documents which may be particularly interesting. They include files from East Germany (1952) where the agents were investigating a story of "a huge flying pan" which had a diameter of about 15 meters. | |
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The Guardian
2016-01-29 21:58:00
Police in Burundi have arrested a British and a French journalist during a sweep for rebels in flashpoint districts of the capital, officials said on Friday, a move likely to further strain tense relations with western donors. Moise Nkurunziza, deputy police spokesman, said the police had picked up Phil Moore, a British photojournalist, and Jean Philippe Remy during raids on Thursday in the Jabe and Nyakabiga neighbourhoods of Bujumbura. "The police arrested five people including a British national who was a journalist," said Nkurunziza, adding that the Frenchman had then come to ask about his British colleague's whereabouts and was also arrested "for interrogation motives". Both men had journalist accreditation in Bujumbura, he said. | |
Comment: Burundi authorities have every reason to suspect these 'journalists' are only there to cause trouble.
There is no 'escalating crisis' in Burundi. The Western media is spinning one in order to make the case for Western intervention to remove Nkurunziza from power. See also: Western NGOs' war propaganda prepares way for R2P 'Humanitarian Intervention' in Burundi | |
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| Society's Child |
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RT
2016-01-30 16:22:00
The recent announcement by the National Football League that the St Louis Rams would be relocating to Los Angeles created much excitement in NFL circles, but the news didn't meet with universal approval. While revenues in the league continue to rise at a staggering rate - the Forbes 2015 list of the most valuable teams in the NFL showed the average team value is $1.97 billion, up 38 percent from the previous year - the question of taxpayer subsidies continues to cause much debate. The Rams' valuation of $1.45 billion might suggest they don't need handouts, yet the stadium they leave behind will continue to cost St Louis and Missouri taxpayers $12 million per year until 2022. Comment: Your tax dollars at work. | |
Comment: Bread and circuses in a dying empire.
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Claire Bernish
Anti Media 2016-01-28 00:00:00
Comment: This story is still developing so it's not yet clear if there's a link, but the connection is interesting. The World Health Organization announced it will convene an Emergency Committee under International Health Regulations on Monday, February 1, concerning the Zika virus 'explosive' spread throughout the Americas. The virus reportedly has the potential to reach pandemic proportions — possibly around the globe. But understanding why this outbreak happened is vital to curbing it. As the WHO statement said: "A causal relationship between Zika virus infection and birth malformations and neurological syndromes ... is strongly suspected. [These links] have rapidly changed the risk profile of Zika, from a mild threat to one of alarming proportions. "WHO is deeply concerned about this rapidly evolving situation for 4 main reasons: the possible association of infection with birth malformations and neurological syndromes; the potential for further international spread given the wide geographical distribution of the mosquito vector; the lack of population immunity in newly affected areas; and the absence of vaccines, specific treatments, and rapid diagnostic tests [...] "The level of concern is high, as is the level of uncertainty." | |
Comment: It's not clear if there's a causal relationship between the release of the GM mosquitoes and this Zika outbreak, nor what the causal method of action would be, however at the very least, releasing these GM mosquitoes into the environment was extremely irresponsible.
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Sara Malm and Gianluca Mezzofiore
Daily Mail, UK 2016-01-30 19:06:00
A mob of black-clad masked men went on a rampage in and around Stockholm's main train station last night beating up refugees and anyone who did not look like they were ethnically Swedish. Before the attack, the group of 200 people handed out xenophobic leaflets with the message 'Enough now'. Swedish media reported that the thugs, allegedly linked to Sweden's football hooligan scene, were targeting unaccompanied minors with a 'foreign' background. The mob, wearing all-black balaclavas and armbands, 'gathered with the purpose of attacking refugee children' Stockholm police spokesman Towe Hagg said. 'Police are now looking into the leaflets that were handed out by masked people before the attack'. Authorities confirmed that at least 40-50 people went on a rampage at 9pm on Friday night attacking migrants. Witnesses told Aftonbladet newspaper that they saw a gang of black-clad thugs attacking refugees at the station. 'I saw maybe three people who were beaten. That was no football brawl or something similar. They targeted migrants. I was quite scared and ran away,' a witness said. The leaflet handed out before the attack refers to the alleged murder of Alexandra Mehzer, a 22-year-old aid worker knifed to death at the child centre where she worked in Molndal, Sweden. A Somali-born 15-year-old migrant has been accused of killing her during a fight between two asylum-seekers.
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RT
2016-01-30 03:45:00
Anything involving over 1,000 body parts is going to be gruesome. Arthur and Elizabeth Rathburn of Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan, were arrested over their alleged involvement in a black market body-selling ring that exposed others to diseased parts. Arthur Rathburn, 62, was once a respected University of Michigan morgue attendant who held patents related to the preparation of cadavers and even gave lectures on anatomy, according to the Detroit Free Press. However, after losing his job at the University of Michigan for possibly selling body parts, he started a business called International Biological and opened up shop in a warehouse in Detroit. | |
Comment: See also: What you lose when you sign that donor card
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Health Impact News/MedicalKidnap.com Staff
Medical Kidnap 2016-01-12 10:09:00
Comment: Followed up from: Foster children in CPS custody are being enrolled in drug experiments without parental consent An Arizona court has ruled that the Diegel sisters are now eligible for adoption, and have terminated all of Melissa Diegel's rights to her children. In a recently released video, this mother displays an incredible act of love for the children that CPS will no longer allow her to parent. She pleads for someone good to step up and adopt her children, so that, if they cannot be with their family, they will at least be with good people who will love and care for them. It is a plea that no loving parent should ever be forced to make. Melissa received the shattering news from the courts that Judge Kristin Hoffman has ruled to sever all of her and her ex-husband's parental rights to Kayla and Hannah. It was the day before Christmas Eve. She was devastated, and could not bring herself to make the bitter announcement to her supporters until recently. | |
Comment: Having to ask for kind-hearted strangers on the internet to adopt one's children, in order to remove them from a terrible situation that they were forced into, is something that no parent shouldever have to do. It's truly a heartbreaking situation and hopefully she'll be able to get her daughters back.
It also appears that the CPS has a history of doing things like this:
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Andrew Emett
The Free Thought Project 2016-01-30 15:46:00
After repeatedly denying knowledge of rampant child abuse, a video recently surfaced depicting the sheriff bragging about abusing and psychologically torturing children with special needs. Instead of confessing to his participation in the mistreatment of vulnerable children, the sheriff blames his sister for releasing the video and is currently running for Congress. While serving as Headmaster and Executive Director at DeSisto Private Boarding School in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, from 1999 to 2001, Pinal County Sheriff and Congressional Candidate Paul Babeu attended a Christmas dinner with his family in 1999. In a video recorded that night, Babeu callously endorsed and bragged about using abusive methods and psychological torture to discipline his special needs students at DeSisto. Referring to his students as "absolutely bonkers," Babeu explained his reasons for placing the children in isolation for days at a time. "Because they are hopeless," Babeu rationalized. "Because they're hopeless. They need to get through, this is why. They need to feel hopeless and feel depression and complete failure." | |
Comment: More eyebrow-raising information on Paul Babeu from a 2012 HuffPost article:
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Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project 2016-01-30 15:34:00
"There's real danger that the injury is going to be permanent and lifelong in them," Dr. Philip Landrigan, Dean of Global Health at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, said of the residents exposed to the water crisis in Flint. "The problem here is, no level of lead is safe," Landrigan says. "Even low levels of lead — especially if exposure to low levels continues over many months — is going to cause some degree of brain damage to at least some of the children who have been exposed — that's a big deal. Exposed children are at risk for a number of problems, including lower IQ scores, developmental delays, and behavioral issues such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Even after lead exposure stops, the effects can last for years or even be permanent." For the rest of their lives, the residents of Flint will watch their health deteriorate over time, and they will know exactly who is responsible — but will have no course of action to right their wrongs. In any other instance in which an individual or group of individuals is harmed by another person or group, those individuals could seek damages. However, thanks to what is called the doctrine of sovereign immunity in the United States, the government cannot be sued unless it has waived its immunity or consented to the suit. | |
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RT
2016-01-30 03:40:00
A passenger on board an Air Canada flight from New Jersey to Vancouver captured the terrifying moment when the plane suddenly dropped in altitude and its oxygen masks were deployed. The emergency was prompted by a loss in pressure. Graphs from online flight monitoring software showed AC549 plummeting from more than 35,000 feet (10,000 meters) to just above 10,000 feet (3,000 meters).
Business advisor and self-described frequent flyer Milun Tesovic did not lose his nerve, however, and snapped a photo of the scene, showing oxygen masks hanging all across the salon. "#AC549 @aircanada that sucked. Lost pressure at 36k feet, rapid descend to 10k with masks on," Tesovic tweeted with a picture. | |
Comment: Last month an Air Canada flight encountered freak turbulence in the skies above Alaska, injuring over 20 people on the Shanghai - Toronto route. Although the cause of the turbulence remains unclear, one Canadian specialist theorized that breaking "gravity waves" were a likely culprit.
Meanwhile, last week an American Airlines plane had to divert to Canada from its Europe-bound flight after encountering severe turbulence over the Atlantic. | |
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Julie Fidler
Natural Society 2016-01-28 00:00:00
In an effort to cut prescription painkiller addiction and overdose deaths, the CDC created prescribing guidelines. But it looks like Big Pharma is delaying those guidelines, likely to protect drug sales. Under the proposed guidelines, doctors would prescribe patients non-opioid painkillers first for chronic pain, and only prescribe opioids, like OxyContin, if the non-opioid drugs don't work. The agency also wants physicians to prescribe the smallest amount of the drugs possible, typically 3 days or less for acute pain. Doctors would only continue prescribing the drugs if patients show significant improvement. [1] Those guidelines were set to go into effect this month, but last month, the agency abandoned its January release date amid harsh criticism from drug-makers, industry-funded organizations, and public health officials. A federal panel - the Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee (IPRCC) - has been one of the guidelines' most vocal opponents. The panel, consisting of federal scientists, outside academics, and patient representatives, has a lot to lose from the release of the directive. | |
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RT
2016-01-29 22:16:00
Critics of a new "settlement" on water rights between the ancient Navajo Nation and Utah's government are calling it a "bad deal" that is "giving away" a precious resource. Activist Ed Becenti has questioned the quick pace of negotiations, the result of which waives any future claim by the Navajo Nation to water rights from the upper Colorado River in Utah. "The deal was rushed through in less than a month with no community education," Becenti said. "If this is a good deal for the Navajo Nation, why are they rushing it through?" Navajo citizens have called on their president Russell Begaye to veto the settlement which was approved by the Navajo Nation Council on Tuesday. | |
Comment: Native Americans have been "given" a bad deal all the way around from the US government.
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Science Daily
2016-01-29 00:00:00
People hospitalized due to an encounter with a law enforcement officer are more likely to have a mental illness, have longer hospitalizations, more injuries to the back and spine, and greater need for extended care than those hospitalized due to altercations with other civilians. The findings, based on 10 years of Illinois hospitalization data, are published in the journal Injury Epidemiology. Lee Friedman, associate professor of environmental and occupational health sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health and senior author on the paper, and his colleagues wanted to find out how many and what kinds of encounters with police led to hospital admissions for civilians in Illinois. They identified 836 people injured by contact with law enforcement officers after reviewing the medical records of all patients admitted to Illinois hospitals or treated in emergency rooms between 2000 and 2009. They compared those patients to 836 civilians of the same age and sex who were were treated in hospitals over the same period for injuries due to physical altercations with other civilians. | |
Comment: It's gratifying to read a scientific study that proves what we have been witnessing for years, despite official denial and protection of these sadists. Police have become ruthless thugs and are now far more dangerous to people than ordinary criminals.
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| Secret History |
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| Science & Technology |
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Seneca
The Watchers 2016-01-28 17:22:00
An increased activity of cosmic rays has been observed around the Arctic Circle by the neutron monitors during the last year. The same trend was also noted in an independent measurement project carried out by the Spaceweather.com and the students of Earth to Sky Calculus over California. The experts think these changes are closely related to a drop in solar activity, as we enter another Solar Minimum. Cosmic rays are a significant form of space weather. They get accelerated toward the Earth by distant supernova explosions and other violent events and are capable of seeding clouds, triggering lightning and penetrating commercial airplanes. According to the measurements conducted by the Spaceweather.com team, flying back and forth across the continental USA only once, can absorb an amount of ionizing cosmic radiation equivalent to 2 or 5 dental X-rays. More to the point, the cosmic rays can affect mountain climbers, high-altitude drones and astronauts onboard the International Space Station in the same manner.
To measure the radiation, the students have been launching helium balloons into the stratosphere, as a part of the monitoring project. The obtained results showed an excellent match with measurements conducted in polar latitudes. In general, the polar latitudes are highly suitable for performing such measurements, because the cosmic radiation is concentrated there due to Earth's magnetic field configuration. However, it turns out that cosmic rays are not intensifying only over the poles of our planet, but also over lower latitudes, where the magnetic field is stronger and shields against deep space radiation more efficiently, as well. An example for this is the measurement project carried over California. | ||
Comment: There is plenty of evidence that an increase in cosmic radiation not only affects the planet in the form of major earth changes, but the also affects the humans residing on it. See:
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Mike "Mish" Shedlock
Global Economic Analysis 2016-01-30 16:54:00
Future of Farming The future of farming has arrived. It's vertical, soilless, and run by robots. Tech Insider reports World's First Robot-run farm will harvest 30,000 heads of lettuce daily. | |
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Sputnik
2016-01-30 04:49:00
An invisible gas cloud of spectacular proportions, moving at some 700,000 mph, is believed to be heading for a collision with our galaxy, releasing enough energy to form over two million new stars.
But nobody alive on Earth today should worry, as it is expected to occur some 30 million years in the future, according to research published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. The cloud was discovered in 1963 by American astronomer Gail P. Smith, and later named after him. Since then, the "Smith Cloud" has been thoroughly examined by various astronomers using the Green Bank Observatory and the Hubble Telescope. According to estimates, the cloud formed on the outskirts of the Milky Way during the period when dinosaurs walked the Earth, approximately 70 million years ago. The Smith Cloud trajectory has been poetically described by astronomers as: "what goes up must come down." After forming, cosmologists note that the cloud was blown away from the Milky Way and then, reaching its farthest point, turned back. "It's [the path of the cloud] telling us that the Milky Way is a bubbling, very active place where gas can be thrown out of one part of the disk and then return back down into another," Andrew Fox, of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, leader of the research team said, outlining that movement of gas reflects changes constantly occurring within our galaxy. | |
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| Earth Changes |
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9news.com.au
2016-01-30 07:48:00
Thousands of Sydneysiders are without power after a fierce thunderstorm lashed the city, complete with torrential downpours and dangerous wind gusts of more than 100km/h. It's the second day of wild weather for Sydney, with a dangerous storm cell battering much of NSW this afternoon. Sydney's west copped it first, complete with damaging winds, heavy rain and even hail. The Bureau of Meteorology, which labelled the storm cell "very dangerous" said Toongabbie recorded 30mm of rain in just 10 minutes about 4.50pm. Strathfield was also drenched, with about 36mm of rain in 15 minutes, as wild winds battered the west. Wind gusts of up to 98km/h were recorded at Badgerys Creek, before the wild weather shifted toward the inner city. Sydney Airport recorded winds of up to 107km/h this evening as winds and rain lashed the CBD, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Sydney Airport Sydney Olympic Park and Ryde. The eastern suburbs and inner west were also lashed by the heavy rains, with the BoM warning of possible flash flooding.
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John Metcalfe
CityLab 2016-01-26 16:43:00
The three-inch wonders fell Saturday during a severe thunderstorm north of San Francisco. Most serious hailstones threaten to crack your skull like jumbo-sized jawbreakers shot out of a howitzer. The ones that fell Saturday during a severe thunderstorm in Tehama County, California, about 150 miles north of San Francisco, are a bit different. With their intimidating armor of spikes, they look like they'd stick right into your head like lawn darts, and then release fountains of blood when you pulled them out. That wasn't the only remarkable thing about this hail, though. The starfish-stones, which almost seem composed of grafted icicles, tied the record for largest hail in California set in 1960 in San Diego County. Their diameter was a whopping three inches from spike tip to spike tip, as shown in a photo by Jeff Boyce recently shared by the National Weather Service. | |
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Gulf Digital News
2016-01-26 16:07:00
Low temperatures and strong snow storms are expected in Tabuk region and other parts of the country. According to the Met department, heavy snowfall has been reported in mountainous regions of Tabuk. Meteorologists also forecast low temperatures, plunging below zero in Tarif and Qurayat (-3°c ), Tabuk (-2°c), Ara'ar, Skaka and Tabarjal (-1°c). This video published by Arabic daily Sabq shows snowfall in mountainous areas of Farwa and Ras Tanir in the Governorate of Haql.
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New Zealand Herald
2016-01-30 09:31:00
If you looked to the sky on Friday, you might have glimpsed a "fire rainbow". Rachel Purcell sent this picture to the Herald after being lucky enough to see it while in the Viaduct on Auckland's waterfront. "I was so pleased my camera captured the moment," she said. MetService meteorologist Ciaran Doolin said the phenomenon was known as a circumhorizontal arc, or "ice halo". He could not say how statistically frequent they were, but said the weather service occasionally got calls from the public about them. Website IFL Science says the arc occurs when the sun has risen higher than 58 degrees in the sky, which is most common over summer. "Aside from the position of the sun, the other ingredient to forming circumhorizontal arcs is cirrus clouds. Cirrus clouds are the thin, wispy clouds that occur at higher altitudes. Because the temperature is so low where these clouds exist, they are made of ice crystals." The plate-like crystals then act like prisms and refract light to create the rainbow and so are sometimes called "fire rainbows". | |
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CBC News
2016-01-30 08:00:00
Heavy snowfall has left thousands of people without electricity and Nova Scotia power estimates it could take until midnight before crews are able to restore electricity to many homes in the northern part of the province, many of which have been in the dark since Friday evening. About 51,800 customers were without power at 7:30 a.m. Saturday. The outages affect about two dozen communities and range from Yarmouth to Dartmouth, Tatamagouche to Sydney. While some areas such as Bridgewater are expected to see power back on around noon Saturday, service to parts of Guysborough isn't expected to return until 5:45 a.m. on Sunday. The Department of Transportation says crews are working to clear and salt roads, some of which received as much as 30 centimetres of snow. It is advising that the main roads in Cape Breton are still covered in snow and visibility is poor. Friday night Nova Scotia Power said the nor'easter's impact was interfering with crews' ability to repair power lines as the heavy snow pushed trees onto them. | |
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Patrick Knox
Daily Star (UK) 2016-01-27 10:20:00
A cloud that took the form of a 'hand of God' holding a fireball dominated the skyline above the north coast the Portuguese island of Madeira. And weather blogger Rogerio Pacheco, 32, could not believe his luck when he looked up at the clouds while commuters made their way to work in the morning rush hour. The awe-inspiring snaps have since been shared online after Rogerio opted to post them on his blog. Amazed onlookers have compared the bright orange cloud to everything from a flaming fist of fury to the iconic comet featured in the classic video game Final Fantasy VII. Rogerio said: "As soon as I saw the sky, I was immediately intrigued and I just had to grab my camera to take photo. "For me, the cloud looks like an outstretched hand with a fireball. "I was not the only one who seemed to notice it and I could see other people also looking up at the sky. "A lot of people seemed pleasantly surprised when they looked up at the sky and saw the cloud." | |
Comment: Increasingly unstable weather patterns may be assisting the formation of bizarre cloud patterns observed around the world recently. Factors which may contribute to these 'strange skies' are possible comet dust loading and changes in the layers of the atmosphere.
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RT
2016-01-29 17:35:00
Muscovites have been taken aback as knee-deep snow has been replaced virtually overnight with torrents of dirty water and icy swamps. Add in some biting winds, and the Russian capital has turned into one massive skating rink. A heavy rainfall hit Moscow overnight, coinciding with a sudden warming and temperatures rising to plus two degrees Celsius - normally it would be around 10 below zero. Meteorologists say the "abnormal" warming combined with rain will persist. Meanwhile, the rain washed away the piles of white snow from Moscow streets, replacing it with slush and mud. A lot of people found it quite difficult to get to work Friday morning, as the streets were blocked with "rivers," with dozens of complaints streaming in to the city authorities. Muscovites took to social media to show images of cars trapped in water in the middle of the street, and people hanging on to fences in an attempt not to fall into the deep puddles. Some of them blamed the disastrous situation on the roads on the poor work of public utility services.
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Kyle Spurr
The Daily Astorian 2016-01-27 04:48:00
When the men and women of U.S. Coast Guard Sector Columbia River came to work Monday morning, they were told they had 20 minutes to reach Fort Clatsop. In a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake, 20 minutes is about all the time residents would get to find higher ground. For the evacuation drill, about 100 members left their posts near the Astoria Regional Airport and ran 1.4 miles to the fort in Lewis and Clark National Historical Park, where the Coast Guard would set up an incident command center in an actual emergency. Anthony Kenne, chief of planning and force readiness with the Coast Guard, said the guard was searching for a location that was relatively close, was out of the tsunami zone and had existing infrastructure. The evacuation drill was staged the day before the 316th anniversary of what scientists believe was the last large Cascadia earthquake and tsunami on Jan. 26, 1700. | |
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RT
2016-01-30 03:50:00
A strong, deep 7.0-magnitude earthquake rocked Russia's far eastern Kamchatka peninsula on Saturday, the US Geological Survey reported. The quake hit 106 kilometers north of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, the capital city of Russia's Kamchatka Region. The depth of the earthquake was reported at 153 kilometers. There have been no immediate reports of serious damage or casualties. Meanwhile on social media, frightened witnesses posted descriptions of the strong tremors felt in the region. | |
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| Fire in the Sky |
No new articles.
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| Health & Wellness |
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Jennifer Lea Reynolds
Natural News 2016-01-30 21:20:00
Most people take measures to ensure that the items they use in their homes on a daily basis are not on par with things that are considered unsafe for their bodies or the environment. However, researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder have discovered that the toxic substances in fracking fluid, which are going down wells, are essentially the same as what's going down the drain in people's households. Their findings, which are published in the journal Analytical Chemistry, show that the same toxic substances exist in fracking fluid samples that are also in many of the everyday items that individuals use, from toothpaste and detergent to ice cream and laxatives. The findings reinforce what many people have thought all along: that contamination of ground and surface water supplies may be traceable to the chemicals used in the fracking (hydraulic fracturing) process. | |
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Chris Kresser
Chris Kresser 2016-01-28 00:00:00
Recent research suggests that kids may be more sensitive to mercury than adults and that toxic effects may occur at blood levels that are significantly lower than the conventional upper limit. But does that mean kids shouldn't eat fish at all? I pay special attention to any research that concerns health risks to children. As a parent and a clinician, there are few things more important to me than protecting the well-being of our future generations. There's no shortage of studies indicating that mercury is toxic to both adults and children. Thus far, however, virtually all environmental policy in the US regarding exposure to mercury (and other toxins) has been based on risk to the "average adult." Policy makers have paid little attention to the unique risks that toxins pose to infants, children, and other vulnerable populations. | |
Comment: Mercury is extremely toxic and should be avoided as much as possible. Unfortunately the planet has been highly polluted, so it's nearly impossible to avoid entirely, especially if one's never done any heavy metal detoxing. As well, dental amalgams ("silver" fillings, which are actually mercury fillings) are a significant contributor to mercury toxicity.
The good news is that it's possible to detox from mercury and other heavy metals:
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Frances Moore Lappé
YES Magazine 2016-01-16 17:57:00
Soon after I wrote Diet for a Small Planet, my sound bite became: "Hunger is not caused by a scarcity of food but by a scarcity of democracy." I argued that democracy means everyone has a voice that is heard. In our just-released book, World Hunger: 10 Myths, Joseph Collins and I share stories of citizens, including the world's poorest, stepping up to create such democracies. Writing the book shook me up a lot. It called me to commit with new urgency and hope to focus on hunger's root solution—what I call "living democracy"—and to help to strengthen the citizens' movements necessary to bring it about. When I wrote Diet for a Small Planet 45 years ago, scary headlines told us that "too little food and too many people" make famine inevitable. I discovered that there was more than enough food for all of us—but we've created food systems that actively turn plenty into the experience of scarcity. | |
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Stacy Malkan
The Ecologist 2016-01-22 16:26:00
Cornell, one of the world's leading academic institutions, has abandoned scientific objectivity, writes Stacy Malkan - and instead made itself a global hub for the promotion of GM crops and food. Working with selected journalists and industry-supported academics, Cornell's so-called 'Alliance for Science' is an aggressive propaganda tool for corporate biotech and agribusiness. The founders of Cornell University, Andrew D. White and Ezra Cornell, dreamed of creating a great university that took a radical approach to learning. Their revolutionary spirit, and the promise to pursue knowledge for the greater good, is said to be at the heart of the Ivy League school their dream became. It is difficult to understand how these ideals are served by a unit of Cornell operating as a public relations arm for the agrichemical industry. | |
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Barbara Grijalva
Tucson News Now 2016-01-28 00:00:00
A common food coloring ingredient is showing promise as a cancer fighter. University of Arizona researchers are studying the ingredient, called annatto, which can easily be found in the average person's kitchen. Annatto is a natural food additive that gives cheese its yellow color. It comes from the seeds of the achiote fruit. The plant is from the Americas and has been eaten since pre-Columbian times. UA College of Pharmacy Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology Dr. Georg Wondrak and Dr. Donna Zhang are members of the University of Arizona Cancer Center. They're looking at a compound in annatto, called bixin, that can prevent skin cancer by preventing sunburn. | |
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Michael Eades, M.D.
ProteinPower.com 2009-09-21 00:00:00
Meat eating made us human. The anthropological evidence strongly supports the idea that the addition of increasingly larger amounts of meat in the diet of our predecessors was essential in the evolution of the large human brain. Our large brains came at the metabolic expense of our guts, which shrank as our brains grew. In April 1995 an article appeared in the journal Current Anthropology that was an intellectual tour de force and, in my view, an example of a perfect theoretical paper. "The Expensive-Tissue Hypothesis" (ETH) by Leslie Aiello and Peter Wheeler demonstrated by a brilliant thought experiment that our species didn't evolve to eat meat but evolved because it ate meat. | |
Comment: It's been said a number of times, but bears repeating: we became human BECAUSE we ate meat. It's the fuel that created our brains and our proper holistic integration into the natural order depends upon us eating meat. When looked at in an ecological sense, monocrop agriculture has been one of the most devastating forces on the planet. When looked at in a political sense, due to meat's role in brain function and proper health, the psychopaths that rule the world want to push the vegetarian agenda to keep people sick and dumbed down, to keep them as passive slaves. When looked at in a spiritual sense, eating meat is a sacrament that enables humanity to express the infinite creativity of divine nature though higher cognition and greater depths of empathy.
The biggest complicating factor in eating meat today is the existence of factory farms (CAFOs). Factory farms are, without a doubt, evil creations that profit off the needless suffering of animals. Many vegetarians and vegans, rightfully so, look at this suffering and are appalled. The propaganda machine then provides a reactionary solution: stop eating meat. Yet factory farms have also been created through the influence of psychopaths and their conscienceless thinking on society and so, through the "problem reaction solution" manipulation and control tactic, the psychopaths entrap people with the horrifying factory farm system that they've created, then misdirect normal people into a thinking pattern and way of life that results in their eventual incapacitation and destruction. But there's another way. The Paleo diet provides some of the best nutrition available for the body today, both in terms of necessary health-promoting nutrients and lack of toxins; people can then be healthy and think clearly, which could help get us as a species to get out of the mess we're in. Through better health, we could stop funding the corporations that are poisoning us with junk food, junk media, and junk medicine, and waging war on the world; we could recognize them for the parasites that they are. We could buy from local farmers rather than mega corporations and improve local economies rather than the psychopath-driven corporatocracy. The local farmers depend on the well-being of their animals and the land they live on, so they treat them with care and respect, unlike factory farms; the animals live well and holistically integrate into the natural system by doing the things that happy and healthy animals do (including building the soil on which all life depends) as do we. Forests could stop being destroyed for monocrop agriculture that doesn't serve our health and well-being, but only serves the psychopath's insatiable greed, need for destruction, and lust for power. So economically, politically, nutritionally, and even spiritually, a more just, balanced, and holistic system can be created. And maybe, just maybe, such changes could help humanity begin to understand and recognize psychopaths as the intraspecies predators that they are, and DO something about it. For more information:
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Brandon Turbeville
Natural Blaze 2016-01-29 00:38:00
If close association with one seedy Bill were not enough, Hillary has locked arms with another. This time, Bill's last name is Gates and his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation comes with him. While most uninformed Americans see Gates as a technology genius and successful entrepreneur, Gates' Foundation has been hard at work all across the world promoting dumbed-down education policies,coercive vaccination, GM food, abortion, and sterilization.[1] [2] [3] The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is also one of the seven largest donors to the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation.[4] The two foundations have also partnered together on a number of initiatives such as the No Ceilings Full Participation Report.[5] | |
Comment: Bill Gates Calls for "Decade of Vaccines"
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Science Daily
2016-01-28 00:00:00
Exercise by itself isn't always enough to take off the weight. Now, evidence reported in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on January 28 helps to explain why that is: our bodies adapt to higher activity levels, so that people don't necessarily burn extra calories even if they exercise more. The results suggest it's time to rethink the effect of physical activity on daily energy expenditure, the researchers say. They are also a reminder of the importance of diet and exercise in supporting weight loss goals. "Exercise is really important for your health," says Herman Pontzer of City University of New York. "That's the first thing I mention to anyone asking about the implications of this work for exercise. There is tons of evidence that exercise is important for keeping our bodies and minds healthy, and this work does nothing to change that message. What our work adds is that we also need to focus on diet, particularly when it comes to managing our weight and preventing or reversing unhealthy weight gain." People who start exercise programs to lose weight often see a decline in weight loss (or even a reversal) after a few months. Large comparative studies have also shown that people with very active lifestyles have similar daily energy expenditure to people in more sedentary populations. | |
Comment: Moderate exercise combined with a healthy diet is the most efficient way to lose weight. And, despite claims made by many mainstream health advocates, research has found that high-carb, low-fat diets can actually slow your metabolism. In contrast, a high-fat, low-carb diet, such as the ketogenic diet, while assisting in weight loss will also make a significant difference in your overall health and prevent a host of diseases.
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The very first thing I did with my brand new Christmas knives was to cut the tip of my finger off... not enough to maim me permanently but enough to slightly change the shape of said finger. I watched in horrified fascination while copious amounts of blood ran down my hand and family members rushed up with towels and silently worried about whether there would still be corn bread stuffing. Eventually, the bleeding stopped and I soldiered on, using my old, just sharp-enough knives. Over the next few days, the finger began to mend itself: First, there was just a thin slick of a protective coating, fragile and prone to reopening, then gradually the layers of skin began to re-form from the bottom up, each one building upon the one beneath. I marveled as I watched the transformation, as even my fingerprints rebuilt themselves, until just a few days ago I realized I wasn't completely sure which finger had been injured. It was a vivid reminder of the old adage that, left to itself, the body will gravitate toward healing and health. | |
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Howard Glickman
Evolution Voices and News 2016-01-29 21:52:00
Life must not only obey the physical and chemical laws of nature, but must also protect itself from many of the other organisms that exist in the environment. Nature contains a multitude of different microbes that, though our senses cannot detect them, are always trying to enter our body so they can multiply. The first line of defense against infection by these microorganisms is the skin and the epithelial tissues that line the respiratory, gastrointestinal, and genitourinary tracts. Deprived of any one of those, our earliest ancestors could not have survived long enough to reproduce. However, if by injury or functional ability, microbes penetrate to the tissues below, then they come up against the second line of defense: the immune system. In previous articles I've shown that the immune system can be divided into two categories: the innate immune system that each of us is born with and the adaptive immune system which develops over time as we are exposed to the environment. Each of these systems has its unique cells and proteins that are needed for the body to defend against microbial invasion. In my last article I looked at the first responders of the innate immune system and how they act like sentries defending a walled town. Now let's look at the main immune cells in the blood that respond to the call to arms by the sentries and how they do their job to help keep the body alive. | |
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| Science of the Spirit |
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Stephen McKinney
The Conversation 2016-01-25 00:00:00
The future of chess in Saudi Arabia is in doubt after the country's most senior cleric, the grand mufti Sheikh Abdul-Aziz al-Sheikh, said it was forbidden under Islam. Al-Sheikh told a television interviewer that chess is "included under gambling" and a "waste of time and money and a cause for hatred and enmity between players". The Saudi Chess Association has since appeared to question this view, admitting the grand mufti's charge but noting that "all sports can fall into being religiously illegal once they involve gambling, directing players away from religious practice ... (or) creating hatred between players". While we wait to see how this plays out, there are several points worth making. First, there is of course no necessary connection between chess and gambling. Chess is valued as a game and an enjoyable way to spend time in many parts of the world. There are competing claims for its roots in India, China and Persia; but the game is usually agreed to be at least 1,300 years old and the modern version can be traced back to 15th-century southern Europe. Chess is recognised by the International Olympic Committee as a sport - not to mention the Saudi Olympic Committee, as the country's chess association also points out. There is a campaign to have it included in the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. A decision is due in August. Far from being a waste of time, chess can be of great benefit to children's minds. Several academics have looked into this extensively. Chess has been persuasively linked with improving children's concentration, problem-solving, critical, original and creative thinking - and even mathematical abilities. It is also said to help with memory storage and how young brains manage information - and should not only be perceived as a game for gifted children. Children with special educational needs can improve their abilities to learn and interact with other children if they become involved in school chess programmes and chess clubs. | |
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Rachel Nuwer
Brain Decoder 2016-01-28 00:19:00
Our minds are not entirely under our control. Fyodor Dostoevsky noted as much in 1863, when he penned his famous white bear observation. "Try to pose for yourself this task: not to think of a polar bear, and you will see that the cursed thing will come to mind every minute." Over a century later, social psychologist Daniel Wegner scientifically verified Dostoevsky's claim. Volunteers asked to suppress thoughts of a white bear utterly failed at that task. In a second step, Wegner asked the volunteers to actively think of the bear. He found that original thought suppression group was now able to spend significantly more time picturing the animal than subjects who were asked to think about it from the beginning. Thought suppression, Wegner hypothesized, seems to produce "the very obsession or preoccupation that it is directed against." While bears on the brain may be a somewhat innocuous preoccupation, Wegner noted that the same backfiring effect often plays out when trying not to ruminate on painful or distressing topics. He explained this phenomenon through the lens of "ironic processes": when trying to suppress a thought, our mind repeatedly checks back in on the thought to make sure we are indeed suppressing it, thus making us think of it more. | |
Comment: Soothe your mind, body and spirit with the breath focused meditation of the Eiriu Eolas program.
Éiriú Eolas - Irish Gaelic for "Growth of Knowledge" Éiriú Eolas Stress Control, Healing and Rejuvenation Program is the modern revival of an ancient breathing and meditation program which is being acclaimed around the world as THE TOOL that will help you to:
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Johns Hopkins Medicine
2016-01-28 00:00:00
When practicing and learning a new skill, making slight changes during repeat practice sessions may help people master the skill faster than practicing the task in precisely the same way, Johns Hopkins researchers report. In a study of 86 healthy volunteers asked to learn a computer-based motor skill, those who quickly adjusted to a modified practice session the second time around performed better than when repeating their original task, the researchers found. The results support the idea that a process calledreconsolidation, in which existing memories are recalled and modified with new knowledge, plays a key role in the strengthening of motor skills, says senior study author Pablo A. Celnik, M.D., professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "What we found is if you practice a slightly modified version of a task you want to master, you actually learn more and faster than if you just keep practicing the exact same thing multiple times in a row," says Celnik. The work, described in the Jan. 28 edition of the journalCurrent Biology, has implications not only for leisure skills, like learning to play a musical instrument or a sport, but also for helping patients with stroke and other neurological conditions regain lost motor function, he says. | |
