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Sott.net
2016-02-14 11:16:00
Mass whale strandings in India and northwestern Europe - Record 'snowzilla' blizzard thanks to Winter storm Jonas in the US Northeast - Record cold wave in the Far East and South East Asia bringing snow to Vietnam, Taiwan and southern China - The first recorded snowfall in Kuwait - Severe flooding in the central US, UK and many other places - The earliest Pacific cyclone on record, and the earliest Atlantic hurricane since 1938 - Major earthquakes in Russia's Far East and Alaska - Significant volcanic eruptions in central America, Russia's Far East and Antarctica. Here are some of the 'signs of the times' in January 2016...
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Andre Vltchek
Counter Punch 2016-02-05 00:00:00
(Speech given in Rome at the Italian Parliament on January 29, 2016) Friends and Comrades, it is a great honor to be standing here - at the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Parliament. One year ago I was driving through the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, monitoring the situation in the refugee camps there. Winter was approaching and the mountains on the Lebanese - Syrian border were covered by snow. It was cold, very cold. Some 20 minutes, after leaving Baalbek, I spotted an extremely humble makeshift refugee camp, growing literally from the road, in the middle of nowhere. I stopped. Together with my interpreter, I walked inside and engaged several people in conversation. The situation was desperate. Children were hungry and could not register for schools through the UNHCR or through the Lebanese government, which, by that time, had almost collapsed. Many electronic food cards that were issued to the migrants did not function. Work permits were not offered, and without proper paperwork, local social services could not be used. In brief: a total disaster. | |
Comment: Without recognizing psychopathy, pathological mentalities, and the role it plays in imperialism, this cycle of death and destruction will continue on. See more:
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| Puppet Masters |
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RT
2016-02-14 21:42:00
Washington and Paris have called on Turkey to cease its massive artillery bombardment against Kurdish targets near the city of Azaz in northwest Syria, including an air base recently retaken from Islamist rebels, and to de-escalate tensions on all sides. "We are concerned about the situation north of Aleppo and are working to deescalate tensions on all sides," State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement Saturday. "We have also seen reports of artillery fire from the Turkish side of the border and urged Turkey to cease such fire," he said. France also joined the US calls, with the country's Foreign Ministry urging Turkey to halt the bombardment of Kurdish areas in Syria. "France is worried about the deteriorating situation in the region of Aleppo and the north of Syria. We call for the cessation of all bombardments, those of the regime and its allies on the entire territory and those of Turkey in the Kurdish zones," Paris said in a statement. The priority should be the fight against Islamic State and the implementation of agreements reached by the International Syria Support Group (Russia, US and UN) in Munich earlier this week, it added. | |
Comment: Video of the aftermath of Turkey's shelling of northern Syria:
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FARS News Agency
2016-02-14 21:31:00
Senior Iraqi security sources lashed out at the US and its regional allies for supporting Takfiri terrorists in Iraq, and said that Washington is the main cause of ISIL's survival in his country. "We have compelling evidence that a US helicopter landed in Albu Arim palms of Fallujah city to take out the ISIL leaders who were in contact with the Americans," a senior Iraqi security official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told FNA on Saturday. He noted that other US aircraft were flying over the region to protect the airplane which was boarding the ISIL leaders, adding, "The US took out the ISIL leaders in order to rescue them from possible attacks by the Iraqi Army and security forces." | |
Comment: This is just the latest in a series of revelations from the FNA. For previous allegations of U.S.-ISIS collusion, see their previous instalment: Captured ISIL leaders in Iraq confess to receiving US intelligence support - Iraqi military commander. Also, here's the video from which the above screenshot was taken:
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RT
2016-02-12 20:40:00
A Reuters article quoted Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev as "raising the specter of a world war" in an interview to a German newspaper. The problem is - he didn't say any such words. The leading world news agency reported on an interview that Medvedev gave Germany's Handelsblattnewspaper on the eve of talks on Syria in Munich. "All sides must be compelled to sit at the negotiating table, instead of unleashing a new world war," the agency quoted the head of the Russian government as saying. The report referred to a German translation of his words, which is incorrect and implies that Russia is warning that a full-scale war between leading world powers may be ignited from the Syrian conflict. The quote comes from the portion of the interview in which Medvedev argued against starting a foreign ground intervention against Syria, saying it would only prolong the armed conflict for years or decades to come. | |
Comment: This is the standard of the so-called 'non-biased and objective' news in the West. When Russia can't be put in a bad light with facts, top news agencies just make stuff up! Check out The Truth Perspective: Being objective in a subjective world for an in-depth discussion on the topic.
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Karen DeYoung
The Washington Post 2016-02-11 00:00:00
The United States, Russia and other powers agreed to a "cessation of hostilities" in Syria's civil war, to take place within the next week, and immediate humanitarian access to besieged areas, Secretary of State John F. Kerry announced here early Friday. "It was unanimous," Kerry said of a communique issued after hours of meetings among participants in a group of nations that have supported and armed one side or the other in the four-year war. "Everybody today agreed," he said. But the proof of commitment will come only with implementation. "What we have here are words on paper," Kerry said. "What we need to see in the next few days are actions on the ground." Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the projected date for ending at least some of his country's airstrikes in Syria is a week from Friday, but he emphasized that "terrorist" groups would continue to be targeted, including the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra, an al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria that is involved in the fight against President Bashar al-Assad. The group in some instances fights alongside rebel forces supported by the United States and its allies.
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Comment: To find common ground on aiding the civilian victims of a war should be a given, and yet this basic human commonality is heralded as a global accomplishment. Perhaps it is, considering how long this rectification has taken to come to the fore and the 260K casualties and the mass exodus that preceded it. As was pointed out, the proof is in the honoring and implementation of this agreement. Will this be a first step well taken? So far, both sides have emphatically mentioned what it doesn't mean.
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PressTV
2016-02-14 20:07:00
The Damascus government says Turkish forces have entered war-torn northern Syria to help foreign-backed militants fighting against the government of President Bashar al-Assad. The Syrian Foreign Ministry in a protest letter to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) said on Sunday that "around 100 gunmen some of whom are believed to be Turkish forces and Turkish mercenaries" entered Syria through A'zaz area which is located north of Aleppo near the Turkish border. It also noted that the Turkish forces were accompanied by a dozen pick-up trucks mounted with heavy machine guns. "The operation of supplying ammunition and weapons is continuing via the Bab al-Salama crossing to the Syrian area of Azaz," the ministry said. | |
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Doina Chiacu and Lawrence Hurley
Reuters 2016-02-14 19:55:00
Republican lawmakers and presidential candidates hardened their positions on Sunday on blocking a move by President Barack Obama to fill the seat left by the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court, a lifetime appointment that would help decide some of the most divisive issues facing Americans. The next justice could tilt the balance of the nation's highest court, which was left with four conservatives and four liberals. The vacancy quickly became an issue in the 2016 presidential race. "We ought to make the 2016 election a referendum on the Supreme Court," U.S. Senator and Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz said on NBC's "Meet the Press." | |
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RT
2016-02-14 18:27:00
Ukraine's interior minister said he could drop a media bombshell that would force foreign sponsors to stop all support for Kiev. The claim comes as the cabinet hangs in peril over the resignation of a reformist economy minister, who quit citing covert corruption. Aivaras Abromavicius announced his resignation as economy minister last week, saying he doesn't want to be part of the plundering of Ukraine committed by corrupt officials. The move sparked a political crisis in Ukraine and resulted in the International Monetary Fund warning that it may suspend the multibillion dollar credit line to Kiev, unless it starts a genuine crackdown on corruption. Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has information that could hurt Ukraine's standing with its foreign sponsors much more than Abromavicius resignation did, he said in an interview withZerkalo Nedeli newspaper published Friday. "Do you doubt I could drop a media bombshell that would have an effect several times bigger than Abromavicius caused? But I don't want to take steps, which would only result in IMF Managing Director waving her hands sadly, take away the support of the country's foreign partners. Some things must be settled out of the public eye," the minister said. | |
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Paul Craig Roberts
Paul Craig Roberts Org 2016-02-14 17:41:00
Presstitute Media, such as the UK Telegraph, spend a lot of energy debunking exposes of government conspiracies. For example, the thousands of highrise architects, structural engineers, physicists, nano-chemists, demolition experts, first responders, military and civilian pilots, and former government officials who have provided vast evidence that the official story of 9/11 is a made-up fairy tale at odds with all evidence and the laws of physics are dismissed by presstitutes as "conspiracy theorists." Similarly, those, such as James W. Douglass, who have proven beyond all doubt that President John F. Kennedy was not assassinated by Oswald but by his own paranoid anti-communist military-security complex, are dismissed as conspiracy theorists. The 9/11 Commission Report and the Warren Commission Report were cover-ups. VP Dick Cheney and the neoconservatives he sponsored needed a "new Pearl Harbor" in order to begin their military assaults on the Middle Eastern countries that had independent foreign policies instead of being US/Israeli vassals. 9/11 was their orchestrated "new Pearl Harbor," and this fact had to be covered up when 9/11 families persisted in their demands for an investigation and could not be bought off for large sums of money. Similarly, the Warren Commission had no choice but to cover up that a popular American president, John F. Kennedy, had been murdered by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the CIA, and the Secret Service, because he was believed by paranoid anti-communists to be "soft on communism" and thereby a threat to the security of the United States. The cold war was on, and the Warren Commission could not hold those responsible accountable without destroying the public's confidence in the American military and security services. Nevertheless everyone aware of the forged case against Oswald knew what had happened. One of these people was Attorney General Robert Kennedy, JFK's brother. Bobby Kennedy understood the situation. He knew that as a member of a cover-up administration he could do nothing about it. However, he knew that if he won the presidency, he could hold accountable those security elements responsible. His brother had told him that after his reelection he was going to "break the CIA into a thousand pieces." When the Vietnam war destroyed President Lyndon Johnson, Bobby Kennedy emerged as the next president of the US. | |
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RT
2016-02-14 16:50:00
Greece's coast guard has reportedly arrested two "heavily armed" British men carrying more than a dozen guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition from Turkey, a top security official said. A high-ranking security official told AP that the suspects were both Iraqi-born British subjects in their 20s. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the ongoing investigation. The two were arrested Saturday night by coast guard officers near the port of the Greek city of Alexandroupolis, off the Turkish border. | |
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RT
2016-02-14 11:54:00
The Syrian government has confirmed that its army positions were targeted by Turkish shelling on Saturday, which also hit the positions of the Syrian Kurdish militias in the northern Aleppo province. Turkish shelling reportedly continued Sunday. The Syrian government has condemned the Turkish shelling of Syrian territory and described it as direct support for "terrorist" groups, Syrian state media reported Sunday, citing a letter to the United Nations. "Turkish artillery shelled Syrian territory, targeting Syrian Kurdish positions and the positions of the Syrian Arab Army," SANA news agency reported citing the letter. Damascus sent the letter in response to Saturday's Turkish shelling of areas north of Aleppo recently captured by a Kurdish-backed alliance. In the letter the Syrian government condemned statements by Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu as "blatant interference" in Syrian affairs. Turkish military sources told Anadolu Agency that the shelling was continuing Sunday and several positions of YPG - the military wing of the Kurdish Democratic Union (PYD) - have been destroyed. The militias reportedly suffered a number of casualties, the sources added. The US has called on its NATO ally Turkey to cease artillery fire against Kurdish positions in Syria's territory, referring to Saturday's shelling. The US State Department pointed out the two sides have to join forces to combat Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).
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Comment: Russia, Syria, Iran, Iraq, plus Hezbollah are hard at work to seal the Syria/Turkey borderagainst any manifestation of the Jihadi Highway, which was Erdogan's dream. As soon as the Syria/Turkey border is sealed - with crucial input by the YPG Kurds - the march to Raqqa will be inevitable. No wonder Turkey is absolutely desperate.
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RT
2016-02-12 10:37:00
Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who is serving a 20-year sentence in the US for alleged drug trafficking, has told reporters about numerous violations of his rights and "deliberate attempts to kill him" through cruel conditions and poor medical treatment. "I would like to disclose what is going on, because I am tired of fighting the lawlessness that I experience here. There is no justice here, only lies that I cannot refute in time," Yaroshenko told Russian daily Izvestia. "Everything that the American side is doing is absolute lies. We have repeatedly caught them lying, but it turned out that such things are legal here. Prosecutors are lying right in the court hall and the judge is backing them, says that this is all normal. They don't even bother to refute that they are lying. Earlier they claimed that they had never tortured or beaten me, but now they admit it," the pilot told reporters. "They just say that this is no big deal for them - to beat or torture someone," he added. | |
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Daniel McAdams
Ron Paul Institute 2016-02-11 00:00:00
Reading Dennis Ross and David Ignatius is a good reminder that the neocons live in a different world than the rest of us. They do not conform their analysis to reality, but rather they conform reality to their view of the world. Where most people would be encouraged to read that Aleppo in Syria was about to be liberated from its 3.5 year occupation by al-Qaeda's Syrian franchise, the neocons see a disaster. On the brink of al-Qaeda's defeat in Aleppo, the Washington Post's Ignatius is furious that, "President Obama won't approve military tactics that could actually shift the balance." Yes, he wants to shift the balance toward al-Qaeda because like the other neocons he is so invested in the idea of regime change in Syria that he would even prefer turning the country into another Libya than to see government forces defeat his jihadist insurgents. Failing to "shift the balance" toward al-Qaeda fighters in Aleppo only brings "greater misery for the Syrian people," in the world of Ignatius. Ignatius's Washington Post, which has never seen a potential war it did not want to see turned into an actual war, thinks it a tragedy that the Syrian army's advance on al-Qaeda occupied Aleppo has "cut off all vital routes of supply from Turkey to the rebel-held areas of the city." Those would beTurkish supplies in support of al-Qaeda and ISIS rebels, but the Post is too deceptive to mention that fact. | |
Comment: Perhaps Turkey's most recent attack of Syria is a hint of Ross's threats: Hot for war: Turkey shells Kurdish targets in northern Syria
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Sputnik
2016-02-13 22:22:00
The success of the ongoing Russian airborne campaign in Syria has prompted Washington to launch an information war against Moscow. While Moscow proposed that all warring sides in Syria declare a ceasefire starting on March 1, the US continues to insist on an immediate cessation of hostilities, claiming that Moscow is stalling in order to allow the Syrian army to complete its ongoing offensive. Also, on February 10 US warplanes carried out an airstrike against the Syrian city of Aleppo, with Washington immediately blaming Russia for the deed. | |
Comment: The more blatant the lies become the more the US has to spend in order to get anyone to actually believe any of them.
Further reading: 'We need more lies!' - Obama's new budget calls for massive increase in propaganda spending | |
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Moon of Alabama
This is a look at the larger picture of forces developing around Syria. Several foreign armies are aggregating at the Syrian borders with the intent to invade Syria and to occupy its eastern part. But before we dive into that, a short look at the curious situation developing in the north-west.2016-02-13 18:37:00 Near Azaz the U.S. ally Turkey is currently shelling (video) the U.S. ally YPG which is fighting the CIA-supported FSA.
The Syrian-Kurdish YPG troops were heavily supported by the U.S. in their fight against the Islamic State in north-eastern Syria. Under U.S. tutelage they united with Arab anti-IS fighters under the label Syrian Democratic Forces. | |
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| Society's Child |
Still getting bread and circuses: For decadent and immoral, look no further current television shows
Tony Farkas
The Madisonville Meteor 2016-02-10 15:30:00
If you ever want to see the results of a society that has become entirely too permissive — read: decadent and immoral — look no further than the current crop of television. I know, I know, it's been said about the boob tube for years that it's a barometer of social decline. To my mind, though, it's gotten worse in the last few years, and it's missing key elements. Back in the day (don't worry, there won't be snow involved), TV shows rarely showed humanity at its most open or even at its worst, and each television show usually allowed some redemptive arc, that solved all sorts of problems. Heck, the "Brady Bunch" solved pretty much every Standards and Practices-approved teenage problem in less than 30 minutes. Yes, there weren't any pregnancy- or drug-charged episodes. Yes, it could be construed as being less than an accurate portrayal of real life. It really wasn't supposed to be. It was supposed to make you think, and feel good, and realize that all is not wrong in the world. But today's fare is pushing the envelope of tragic."Teenage Mom," "Little Honey Boo Boo," "19 and Counting," "Fear Factor," or any other number of shows of this ilk are making a spectacle of the bottom of the barrel of humanity. Moreover, it's an example of what happens when you glorify the tragic, and the compounding effect of constant exposure to this kind of fare. In order to keep the masses in line, Roman emperors put on entertainment — or contests, if you will — of men and women slashing and hacking and killing each other. Kinda kept peoples' minds off of being hungry and poor and generally miserable. As time went on, things escalated, and eventually, ended up serving no purpose other than distraction. | |
Comment: Bread and Circuses...American style
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Kara Seymour
Levittown Patch 2016-02-11 11:08:00
The Deputy District Attorney told the judge the baby's injuries were "horrific" and the child "could have died." A Levittown woman who authorities say "severely" beat and abused her 11-month-old baby was sentenced Wednesday to six to 12 years in state prison.Ashley Reichard, 27, also lied about having cancer to get sympathy, the Bucks County District Attorney's office said. According to information provided by the District Attorney's office, the abuse Reichard imposed on her daughter in 2014 during what the deputy district attorney called a "week of hell" was "among the worst" witnessed by a pediatric child abuse expert who testified in court. During that week, Reichard admitted to authorities that she had slammed her daughter to the floor six times. She also admitted putting the baby unbuckled into a stroller then "forcefully" tipping her forward so the infant fell face-first onto a cement walkway. She also told authorities she smashed her baby's head into the floor. The baby had burns on her legs, authorities said. Reichard never elaborated on how the burns got there. Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Schorn told the judge the baby's injuries were "horrific" and the child "could have died." As a result of the abuse, the baby suffered multiple skull fractures, an upper leg fractured in two places, fractures on both sides of her jaw, bruising from blows to her face and lower back, a perforated eardrum, a scratched cornea, and second-degree burns on both thighs, the Bucks County District Attorney said. Reichard did not seek medical help for the baby until forced by others to do so, authorities said. Reichard pleaded guilty but mentally ill on Oct. 6 to felony aggravated assault. "What you did to the child is, quite frankly, unspeakable," Judge Wallace H. Bateman Jr. said in court. According to the District Attorney's office, the child, now two and a half, has fully recovered from her injuries and lives with her father. Dr. Carla Parkin-Joseph, a pediatrician and child-abuse expert, described the baby's abuse as "probably one of the worst cases I've seen in my experience." | |
Comment: It's possible this woman is a psychopath. In The Mask of Sanity, Hervey Cleckley writes that the psychopath periodically needs to take vacations into filth and degradation.
From The Psychopath - The Mask Of Sanity - Special Research Project of the Quantum Future School: | |
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Daisy Luther
The Organic Prepper 2016-02-13 18:23:00
Venezuela is out of food. After several years of long lines, rationing, and shortages, the socialist country does not have enough food to feed its population, and the opposition government has declared a "nutritional emergency." This is just the most recent nail in the beleaguered country's slow, painful economic collapse. Many people expect an economic collapse to be shocking, instant, and dramatic, but really, it's far more gradual than that. It looks like empty shelves, long lines, desperate government officials trying to cover their tushes, and hungry people. For the past two years, I've been following the situation in Venezuela as each shocking event has unfolded. Americans who feel that our country would be better served by a socialist government would be wise to take note of this timeline of the collapse. | |
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Ellie Zolfagharifard
Daily Mail 2016-02-12 00:00:00
For more than forty years, mining companies have been destroying entire mountain peaks in West Virginia, Kentucky and other areas of Central Appalachia. The technique, known as mountaintop mining, practice provides much-needed jobs and the steady supply of coal that America relies on for more than half of its electricity needs. But residents say they are paying a high price, with the practice destroying forests, polluting streams and flooding communities - and now a new study has backed up their claims. Scientists have found mountaintop coal mining has made parts of Central Appalachia 40 per cent flatter than they were before excavation. | |
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Jake Anderson
The Anti Media 2016-02-12 21:56:00
In a troubling new development in the domestic consumer surveillance debate, an investigation into Samsung Smart TVs has revealed that user voice commands are recorded, stored, and transmitted to a third party. The company even warns customers not to discuss personal or sensitive information within earshot of the device. This is in stark contrast to previous claims by tech manufacturers, like PlayStation, who vehemently deny their devices record personal information, despite evidence to the contrary, including news thathackers can gain access to unencrypted streams of credit card information. The new Samsung controversy stems from the discovery of a single haunting statement in the company's "privacy policy," which states:
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Comment: Cutting edge technology is not worth losing your privacy.
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Talal Al-Khatib
Discovery News 2016-02-14 08:45:00
Are time zones obsolete? According to two Johns Hopkins University professors, Steve Hanke and Richard Henry, an economist and an astrophysicist, respectively, the world would be better off if everyone set their watches to the same time, Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Trying to change how the world tells time might seem like a crazy idea at first glance, but in a globally connected world, a single time zone has its benefits. For starters, time zones are political creations, not scientific ones. The world isn't divided into 24 precisely demarcated lines based on sunlight patterns. Instead, there are around 40 different locally observed times created by different nations and regions. Some countries, such as Nepal, Venezuela or North Korea, have 30- or even 45-minute offsets separating their time from their longitudinal neighborhood. Countries also change their time zones regularly. As the Washington Post mentions in an interview recently with Hanke and Henry, five countries changed theirs last year. | |
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Jon Mitchell
Japan Times 2016-02-06 00:00:00
U.S. documents released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that lax safety standards at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa may be to blame for the recent contamination of local drinking water sources. The internal reports expose a spate of accidents at the base during the past 15 years that have involved at least 21,000 liters of fire extinguishing agents — some of them toxic. In one incident last May, described by base officials as "vandalism," a drunk U.S. Marine activated a firefighting system. It filled a hangar with more than 1,500 liters of JET-X 2.75 percent — a foam classified by the U.S. government as hazardous. It contains chemicals known to cause cancer, and neurological and reproductive disorders. Although the agent flowed off the base into nearby waterways and the ocean, military officials decided not to report the accident to Japanese authorities or local residents. Other incidents at Kadena, the largest U.S. air base in the Pacific, included the escape of approximately 17,000 liters of fire extinguishing agents during a three-day period in 2001, attributed by base officials to mechanical and electronic malfunctions. | |
Comment: It's little wonder the Japanese are fed-up with the US military presence:
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Leah Gillis
WhoWhatWhy 2016-02-13 22:47:00
Yes, Madam. Call us crazy, but we do think it's a little strange when a person ends up dead exactly the way they said would never happen. Especially if that person was in possession of documents that could topple the careers of hundreds of powerful people. "D.C. Madam" Deborah Jeane Palfrey said she would never commit suicide. Now, to be sure, we know that some people who make such declarations do go on to kill themselves. And we know that no physical evidence was reported that proved Palfrey was murdered. Still, we find her death worth a closer look. Especially since she said, shortly before her death, thatsomeone had put out a contract on her. Her death was two election cycles ago, but now, her little black book is in the news again. Which is all to the good, in our opinion. Any attention to her rather suspicious death is more than welcome. | |
Comment: See also: Kevin Barrett: Is Obama killing 'kill list' critics?
Palfrey's story is not the first of its kind. Henry Vinson went through the same thing (though Vinson went to prison and thankfully wasn't murdered!) back in the 80s, in a scandal that overlapped with the Franklin pedophile-ring scandal. | |
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John Vibes
The Free Thought Project 2016-02-13 21:28:00
Reporters with the Local 24 news crew inadvertently caught a brutal arrest on camera while working on an unrelated story at the Country Squire Apartments in Cordova. While the crew was filming for their other story, they heard sirens and noticed a man running away from police. While he was in front of the cameras, the man dropped to the ground where he was repeatedly bludgeoned with the officer's baton and kicked several times. After assaulting the man, the officer ordered him to put his hands behind his back. The man obeyed and the officer lifted him up from the ground by his handcuffs while having his other hand around the man's throat. He then kicked the suspect into the back of squad car. The film has sparked an investigation into the officer's actions and has even drawn comments from state lawmakers. "There's obviously some abuse going on here, excessive force. When I'm looking at a young man that's on the ground and supporting himself with one arm laying down, that is not a position where he's a threat to anybody standing," State Representative G.A. Hardaway said after watching the video. Steve Mulroy, a former federal prosecutor and civil rights lawyer for the Department of Justice, also expressed his disgust with the incident, saying, "When the suspect was already down on the ground with his arms indicating that he was going to comply, offering no resistance and not failing to obey any commands from the officer, it was not justified for the officer to strike him with the nightstick or to kick him." "That's unacceptable, completely unacceptable. It unravels every bit of goodwill that has been rolled out. Any child that sees that is going to be imprinted with it for lifetime. Any adult is going to be imprinted with it. They're going to teach their children that this is what the police do," he added. Comment: That is exactly the point of allowing police brutality. It's state-sanctioned terror passed down through generations; a tactic the 'powers that be' use to control and terrorize populations. See: Does fear lead to fascism? A culture of fear and the epigenetics of terror
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Comment: See also: Authoritarianism and Psychopathy
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| Secret History |
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Irwin Ozborne
Waking Times 2016-02-13 17:32:00
For every finger to receive a ring, another finger must pull a trigger." We all know the story. The man gets down on one knee, grabs hold of the girl's hand and she covers her mouth as she is overtaken by emotions. The man pulls out a tiny box and opens it up to show off the sparkling diamond engagement ring before asking the question, "Will You Marry Me?" The classic love story which peaks when the man asks for the woman's hand in marriage. They are officially engaged once he props a diamond ring on her finger. However, there is another side to this story that never gets covered in the media. It is the dark side of the diamond, where if the public knew about the horrors and atrocities that take place to produce this mineral - perhaps we would re-think the way we celebrate "love." | |
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Richard Gray
Daily Mail, UK 2016-02-10 15:15:00
It is a contentious issue in many modern cities as they struggle to accommodate new arrivals, but it seems even Ancient Rome was a magnet for foreigners seeking their fortune. A new study has suggested Rome was attracting immigrants from the furthest reaches of its empire and beyond 2,000 years ago. Analysis of skeletons found buried in two ancient cemeteries of the city dating from the first to the third centuries AD showed eight of them were from as far away as North Africa and the Alps. The migrants, who were mostly children and men, were buried in simple graves and appear to have been poor, suggesting they could have come to the city hoping to find success. However, it is also possible they were slaves who had been brought to the city by their Imperial masters. | |
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| Science & Technology |
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Stacy Liberatore
Daily Mail 2016-02-12 19:16:00
Some 53 million years ago, a six-foot, flightless bird roamed a swampy land that is now the frozen Arctic. Researchers confirmed the prehistoric birds presences in the wintry land after re-examining a toe bone found on Ellesmere Island.
Discovered in the 1970s, this is the first evidence suggesting this species exists above the Arctic Circle. The fossil is a match with the toe bones discovered in Wyoming along side other remnants belonging to the prehistoric bird, Gastornis, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and the University of Colorado Boulder. The exotic bird is believed to have weighed several hundred pounds with a head the size of a horse's. 'The Gastornis material reported from Ellesmere Island is the northernmost record of that taxon in North America,' reads the study published in journal Nature. 'Some galloanserine birds today (such as Ruffed Grouse, Spruce Grouse, Sharp-tailed Grouse, Willow Ptarmigan, and Rock Ptarmigan) are Arctic residents, and even some waterfowl winter above the Arctic Circle.' | ||
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John Vibes
Activist Post 2016-02-14 17:55:00
The federal government spent $1 million to create an online database that will collect "suspicious" memes and track "misinformation." The project, which is known as the "Truthy Database" is being funded by The National Science Foundation, but it seems as if the operation has some powerful political motivations. Ironically enough, the project takes its name from a term that was popularized by television personality, Stephen Colbert. The project will seek to understand how misinformation is spread online, but it will be up to a team of government-funded researchers at Indiana University to decide what type of political speech is true and which is false. According to the grant for the project, the operation will be open source and the database will be open to the public. | |
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| Earth Changes |
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Daily Mail, UK
2016-02-14 21:18:00
With temperatures plummeting below freezing in parts of the country, you may be temped to escape to some winter sun in Florida. But if you do hit the sunny beaches, you may want to avoid going for a swim. That's because tens of thousands of sharks are migrating in huge swarms, and it's happening just off the coast. Florida Atlantic University biological sciences professor Stephen Kajiura took video from the air of blacktip sharks invading the waters of Palm Beach, on Florida's Atlantic coast
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Comment: See also: Around 500 manatees crowd into a Florida spring to stay warm
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Michael Janitch
Dutchsinse 2016-02-12 18:54:00
A magnitude 4.1 (+/- 0.1) earthquake has struck on the Southern flank of Pu'u O'o Volcano in Hawaii, part of the greater Kilauea volcanic complex located on the "Big Island". The earthquake struck in the middle of the Southern lava fields off the Pu'u O'o caldera which reaches all the way from the peak of the Volcano into the ocean (several miles away). The earthquake may be a byproduct of large volumes of moving lava (magma) from the large flow which was observed coming from Pu'u O'o a several weeks ago.
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cbc.ca
2016-02-13 17:14:00
Bitter cold is gripping parts of Central and Eastern Canada as temperatures dipped to -45 C with the wind chill in some areas. Environment Canada issued cold or winter storm warnings on Saturday for provinces from Manitoba to Newfoundland and Labrador. The national weather forecaster said temperatures could fall to -45 C in Ottawa on Saturday with the wind chill, warming up to -35 C overnight. In New Brunswick, temperatures were expected to hover between -35 C and -40 C with the wind chill until Sunday. Quebec and Manitoba can expect much of the same, with temperatures warming up early next week. Meanwhile, Newfoundland was bracing for a winter storm that could bring up to 20 cm of snow to eastern parts of the island.
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Volcano Discovery
2016-02-13 16:35:00
A stronger eruption occurred in the evening of 12 Feb, producing an ash plume that rose to estimated 34,000 ft (10 km) altitude and drifted more than 300 km east over the Pacific. VAAC Tokyo maintains Aviation Color ORANGE.
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News Ghana
2016-02-13 16:23:00
Lightning struck a tree under which members of the Shembe Nazareth Baptist Church were worshiping, KwaZulu-Natal's Emergency Medical Services said. Three women, aged between 50 and 65, were killed instantly and 38 others survived the strike but sustained injuries, spokesperson Robert Mckenzie said. Those injured were taken to nearby hospitals and were currently in a stable condition, Mckenzie said. Authorities cautioned people against using trees as a cover in cloudy conditions, particularly in the middle of summer when lightning takes place frequently. Thunderstorms, generating big electrical discharges, are common in South Africa's eastern and northern provinces between October and March. South Africa has one of the highest lightning ground strike densities in the world. Particularly in recent years, deaths from lightning are growing in rural areas. The annual average number of lightning-related deaths is 6.3 per million of the population, more than 15 times the global average, according to the South African weather service. Enditem Source: Xinhua | |
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Bonnie Malkin
The Guardian, UK 2016-02-14 02:09:00
Paramedics responding to calls for help after 5.9 magnitude earthquake hits New Zealand's South Island, which is still recovering from a fatal quake in 2011 Several people have been injured and a cliff has collapsed into the sea on New Zealand's South Island after a "severe" magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck close to Christchurch, which is still rebuilding following a devastating tremor in 2011. The earthquake hit shortly after 1pm (11am AEDT) on Sunday, according to GeoNet, which monitors seismic activity in New Zealand. It was centred 15km east of Christchurch and was 31km deep. Paramedics were responding to a number of calls from people who fell over during the tremor. One building in the city was evacuated after items tumbled down and computer monitors smashed.
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| Fire in the Sky |
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Plymouth Herald
2016-02-11 21:38:00
Could their be alien activity in Plymouth? Reports of mysterious flashing lights have been seen across Plymouth's skyline recently, and no explanation can be found for it. Two days ago, a band of Plymouth residents said they saw a bright orange flash in the sky, with many puzzled by the momentary light. Yesterday, a Plymouth retiree came forward to say she had also witnessed a white flash a few weeks ago, which radiated from the same area as the orange illumination had appeared on February 9. Jenni Robertson was driving home from Bristol when she was dazzled by a white light which lasted for a few seconds. The 66-year-old retiree was making her way back from Flyball training with her collie, Tilli, when she saw the fleeting flash just past Lee Mill on the way into Yealmpton on January 31. The Staddiscombe resident opted to take a different route home through Lee Mill that evening to avoid roadworks on the A38 by Deep Lane, and as she was driving through a back lane, she spotted the flash to her right of her windscreen. "It was a clear night and quite cold, so I figured it couldn't have been lighting," Jenni said. "At around 9:30pm, I saw a huge flash in the sky on my drivers side of the van towards Ivybridge- it wasn't too high as I could see if from the window. "It was just like a speed camera going off- it lasted a couple of seconds and then it was gone again." Jenni didn't think much of the glow until witnesses came forward with claims about a similar orange flash which came from a similar direction. Ground worker Sam Ho says he was coming out of his house in Yealmpstone Drive at 7am two days ago when he witnessed the dazzling light, as he looked in the direction of Ivybridge. Sam said the massive flash was "quite impressive" and suspects it could have been a meteorite. | |
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My Toba
2016-02-10 21:32:00
Astronomers believe a meteor caused a bright green flash above southeast Winnipeg. It happened early Wednesday morning around 5:30am. The Planetarium's Scott Young tells MyToba.ca it was probably a smaller space rock. "I didn't see it, but based on reports it could've been caused by an object from the size of a quarter up to a basketball." They're what cause so-called 'shooting stars.' Space is full of them. Triangulating meteors Young says the Manitoba Museum collects information about reported sightings. When the object is large and many reports are collected, astronomers can use the information to triangulate the position. "We've only had two or three objects in the last twenty years where we've gone out to do a search." In those cases, they're referred to as fireballs or bolides. Good luck finding one Young says the object is usually only visible when it's still kilometres above the planet. "It actually falls the last dozen or so kilometres without any visible trail. So the odds are, if you saw it in the sky, it didn't land near you." | |
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| Health & Wellness |
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Gulf Digital News
2016-02-11 18:41:00
At least 12 indigenous children in Peru have died from rabies after being bitten by blood-sucking bats, which locals at first blamed on witchcraft, health officials said. The children aged between eight and 15 died between September and February in two indigenous communities in the Amazon region of Loreto, regional health official Hermann Silva said. "From the symptoms and medical reports it was determined that the 12 children from the Achuar ethnic group died from an outbreak of wild rabies," Silva told AFP. "The victims were bitten by blood-sucking bats, animals that drink blood, in the Yankuntich and Uncun communities in the jungle" 1,100km north of the capital Lima. | |
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Science Daily
2016-02-11 00:00:00
Concentrations of iron similar to those delivered through standard treatments can trigger DNA damage within 10 minutes, when given to cells in the laboratory. This is the finding of scientists from Imperial College London, who suggest that researchers need to look carefully at the amount of iron given in standard treatments, such as tablets and infusions, and the effects this could be having on the body. Iron is essential for the body to function and has a crucial role in transporting oxygen -- low levels cause anemia which leads to tiredness and lethargy. Iron tablets, which are available over the counter or on prescription, are taken by millions of people in the UK -- with six million prescriptions issued each year for iron tablets in England and Wales alone. In the study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, the team used human endothelial cells, which line blood vessels, and added a placebo or an iron solution of 10 micromolar (a similar concentration to that seen in the blood after taking an iron tablet). | |
Comment: While iron is essential for life, iron is a very toxic element. Excess iron accumulated in the body can increase pathogenic infections, and can become a primary cause of oxidative stress and free radical activity. Studies have linked iron intake and stored iron to diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, insulin resistance, inflammation, Alzheimer's disease, hypertension, fatty liver, hypothyroidism, arthritis, and cancer. In addition, as much as 20% of the population has a genetic condition called hemochromatosis, which causes the body to overload with iron from a normal dietary intake.
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UK Independent
2016-02-14 10:50:00
Poverty has a way of rearing its ugly head, slipping into the cracks in people's lives when they're young and then re-emerging later in life. Sometimes it happens in ways that are easily observable — what poor babies are fed, for instance, has been shown to alter what they crave as adults, creating life-long affinities for foods that might be better left uneaten. But sometimes the influences are hidden, and all the more insidious as a result. A team of researchers, led by Sarah Hill, who teaches psychology at Texas Christian University, believe they have uncovered evidence of one such lingering effect. Specifically, Hill and her colleagues found that people who grow up poor seem to have a significantly harder time regulating their food intake, even when they aren't hungry. "We found that they eat comparably high amounts regardless of their need," said Hill. | |
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| Science of the Spirit |
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Waking Times
2016-02-13 17:20:00
Waking Times Editor's Note: This list was gathered and collated by Brendan D. Murphy with kudos to Mark Passio, Tim McClew for the distillation, and Juliet J. Carter. "Real compassion kicks butt and takes names and is not pleasant on certain days. If you are not ready for this FIRE, then find a new-age, sweetness and light, perpetually smiling teacher and learn to relabel your ego with spiritual sounding terms. But, stay away from those who practice REAL COMPASSION, because they will fry your ass, my friend." - Ken Wilber Mark Passio's 10 Basic New Age Deceptions 1. Ignore the "Negative" The notion that you make things worse by focusing on negative issues is false. Ignoring negative issues, like ignoring symptoms of an illness, only serves to make the issues worse. Refusing to look at critical information, just because it makes you uncomfortable, is willfully choosing a state of ignorance—to remain un-conscious. Correction: Seeing the negativity for what it is creates an ability to steel oneself against its harmful effects and perhaps avoid them entirely. | |
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| High Strangeness |
No new articles.
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| Don't Panic! Lighten Up! |
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Kathryn Schroeder
Opposing Views 2016-02-12 22:29:00
A group of Islamic State (ISIS) militants were apprehended after trying to flee the city of Ramadi while dressed as women, according to Iraqi security officials. "The terrorists had shaved their beards and dressed as women in a bid to fool our forces and escape the liberated city of Ramadi. However, they were all arrested before escaping the city," the Iraqi security command said in a statement obtained by ARA News. The men's capture occurred after the Iraqi army announced Feb. 9 the "full liberation" of Ramadi from ISIS militants. "Our forces have pushed Daesh (ISIS) militants out of the city's outskirts. Ramadi is now under the full control of the army," Iraqi central command announced. There are reportedly dozens of members of the terrorist group stranded inside Ramadi. "The militants who remained in the city are now trying to escape at any cost in order to avoid falling in the hands of the government forces," local media activist Fouad Al-Saddi told ARA News.
"At least nine ISIS jihadis were detained on Wednesday while trying to flee the security checkpoints of the Iraqi forces in Ramadi suburb. They were all dressed as women," Al-Saddi added. Photos of two of the ISIS militants dressed as women were obtained by The Daily Mail, but the outlet has not been able to independently verify the images. A similar occurrence happened in March 2015 when the Iraqi army captured 20 ISIS militants dressed as women in Baquba, The Jerusalem Post reported. The men, wearing robes and veils, had makeup on, wore dresses, and some women's bras. Not all of them shaved their facial hair, but they still applied eyeliner, eyeshadow and blush. |
