The European Union Times |
- ISIS to target Italian, French & Spanish beach resorts
- Russia to Build Plastic Roads
- Big Brother Watching You on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
- Ecuador quake death toll surges to over 400
- Yellowstone Eruption In 2016? Shocking New Video Shows What Is Really Going On
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Posted: 19 Apr 2016 06:17 AM PDT
 Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) is planning terrorist attacks on resorts in southern Europe, including in France, Italy and Spain, a report says, adding that suicide bombers are expected to be disguised as beach vendors. German Federal Intelligence Service was informed by the Italian intelligence about a threat in European resorts by ISIS, Das Bild newspaper said. The information about the coming attacks was reportedly received from Africa. The report speculates the potential attackers could mostly come from Senegal, where the Boko Haram terrorist group, which pledged loyalty to IS in 2015, is active. According to the information, the extremists are expected to be dressed as vendors at the European resorts, selling things like sunglasses, drinks and ice cream. The militants are going to use automatic weapons or explosive devices in their attacks, the report states. Their bombs may be buried under sunbeds at the resorts. “It could be a new dimension of terror from ISIS… The holiday beaches are hard to protect…” the paper cited a German high-ranking official as saying. In June 2015, a gunman allegedly linked to IS opened fire on the beach at the popular Tunisian resort area of Sousse. At least 38 people were killed and dozens injured in the attack. Sousse attracts tourists from Europe as well as neighboring countries. In March this year, an IS-staged attack on the Bardo Museum in Tunisia’s capital, Tunis, claimed at least 22 lives. The attackers had massive bombs strapped to their bodies. Source           |
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Posted: 19 Apr 2016 06:04 AM PDT
 State Duma deputy from the LDPR faction, Alexander Starovoytov, appealed to the Federal Road Agency of the Russian Federation with a proposal to study the experience of the Netherlands in building plastic roads. In the Netherlands, there is a pilot project for the construction of roads from plastic materials. The project saves a lot of money as it stipulates a whole different technology for building road communications. Another big plus of the project is the use of waste plastic. Russia could study the project to see how costly and effective it could be for the country, the MP assumes. Roads from recycled plastic is a project of Dutch company VolkerWessels. The new surface currently undergoes a series of tests. If successful, the Dutch plan to introduce the technology already in 2018. One of the main advantages of new roads is their low cost. The new technology contributes a lot to the problem of garbage disposal. The strength of plastic roads will make them last 30-40 percent longer in comparison with modern asphalt roads. To crown it all, the construction of plastic roads is 2-3 times faster. According to project developers, road plastic can withstand temperatures up to 80 degrees Celsius. Source      |
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Posted: 19 Apr 2016 05:48 AM PDT
 The US Central Intelligence Agency has become increasingly focused on monitoring social media, according to a document obtained by The Intercept; the intelligence agency is pouring money in start-ups mining tweets, Instagram photos and Facebook posts. Every time you post a message on Facebook or share a photo on Instagram, remember this: Big Brother is watching you. No, it’s not a quotation from the famous “1984” by George Orwell. The truth of the matter is that the US Central Intelligence Agency has set its eye on social media platforms. In his latest article US investigative journalist Lee Fang sheds some light of the CIA’s investment programs, referring to a new document obtained by The Intercept. It turns out that In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital firm, is pouring money into companies and start-ups specializing in social media mining and surveillance. “The investments appear to reflect the CIA’s increasing focus on monitoring social media,” Fang stresses. Indeed, social media also offers a wealth of potential intelligence, the journalist notes. The companies, which receive funding from In-Q-Tel, are developing unique tools to mine data from Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. The advanced applications help to collect, sort and visualize data, spotting trends in real time. For instance, “Geofeedia specializes in collecting geotagged social media messages, from platforms such as Twitter and Instagram, to monitor breaking news events in real time. The company, which counts dozens of local law enforcement agencies as clients, markets its ability to track activist protests on behalf of both corporate interests and police departments,” Fang narrates. The company’s website message reads: “Hundreds of customer experience, education, public sector and security teams rely on the Geofeedia platform to listen to and engage with social media content from locations across countries, cities, buildings and everything in between from Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Picasa, Flickr, VK, Sina Weibo and other social channels.” Another firm, PATHAR, designed a tool which is used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to analyze data from Twitter, Facebook and other platforms in order to “determine networks of association, centers of influence and potential signs of radicalization.” Fang reveals that for the last ten years In-Q-Tel has been engaged with companies specializing in scanning large sets of online data. The investigative journalist cites Bruce Lund, a senior member of In-Q-Tel’s technical staff, who wrote in his 2012 report that keeping an eye on social media is increasingly essential for government agencies. “Governments are increasingly finding that monitoring social media is an essential component in keeping track of erupting political movements, crises, epidemics, and disasters, not to mention general global trends,” the report states. The CIA-funded technologies are used not only for collecting intelligence on foreign adversaries and terrorists, but also for keeping track of domestic labor union activists, student groups, minimum wage advocates and political opposition, the journalist notes, adding that privacy advocates are increasingly upset over the methods being used to mine public data. Remarkably, American high-tech companies and even Silicon Valley giants have a long record of cooperation with US government agencies. In his March Op-Ed for Russia Today Neil Clark, a journalist, writer and broadcaster, called attention to the fact that Google experts had a role in managing the Syrian “regime change” project back in 2011-2012. He quoted a series of emails by then president of ‘Google Ideas’ (now called ‘Jigsaw’) Jared Cohen to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, recently exposed by WikiLeaks. “Please keep close hold, but my team is planning to launch a tool on Sunday that will publicly track and map the defections in Syria and which parts of the government they are coming from,” Cohen wrote on July 25, 2012. “Our logic behind this is that while many people are tracking the atrocities, nobody is visually representing and mapping the defections, which we believe are important in encouraging more to defect and giving confidence to the opposition,” the president of ‘Google Ideas’ emphasized. Information technologies play a crucial role in today’s world. However, the question then arises to what extent these technologies, tools and applications can be used. What is at stake are fundamental values — privacy, freedom of speech, nations’ sovereignty and independence. Source      |
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Posted: 19 Apr 2016 05:38 AM PDT
 The death toll from Ecuador’s 7.8-magnitude earthquake rose to 413 on Monday, with many victims still believed to be trapped under the rubble. Rescue efforts are ongoing, with nine countries sending experts to help out. Over 2,000 people were injured in the quake. Most of the victims were from the western city of Portoviejo, which is home to 200,000 residents. “The pain is immense, but the spirit of the Ecuadorian people is greater,” said Ecuador’s president, Rafael Correa. “We will move forward from this.” The quake struck Ecuador’s northwest coast at 6:58 pm local time on Saturday. The initial estimate of those killed was reported to be below 100. Foreign nationals were identified among the dead. The US State Department said that at least one American citizen was killed during the earthquake. Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confirmed that two Canadians were also killed. The quake, which ravaged coastal towns and left thousands of households without power, is being described as the worst in the South American nation in 37 years. The biggest tremor was followed by a series of strong aftershocks. At least 370 buildings were destroyed and 151 more buildings, including 26 schools, were damaged. Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas said that 10,000 military troops and 3,500 police officers have been dispatched to the affected areas and that $600 million in credit has been allotted to dealing with the emergency. Ecuador’s foreign ministry announced earlier that nine countries, including Mexico, Spain, and Colombia, have dispatched their own to help with the rescue efforts. Source      |
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Posted: 19 Apr 2016 05:03 AM PDT
 Over the past week, our planet has been hit by large earthquake after large earthquake, and according to Volcano Discovery there are 38 volcanoes around the world that are erupting right now. We have seen a dramatic spike in global seismic activity that is unlike anything that we have seen in ages, and that is why what is going on at Yellowstone is so incredibly alarming. Geologists tell us that a full-blown eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano would have up to 2,000 times the power of the Mount St. Helens volcanic eruption of 1980, and approximately two-thirds of the country would immediately become uninhabitable. As you will see below, there are signs that something big is getting ready to happen at Yellowstone, and if it does erupt all of our lives will be permanently changed forever. I want to share with you some footage from Yellowstone that was recorded on Thursday night. In this video, it appears to be as bright as day even though it is the middle of the night, you can see a whole host of geysers steaming violently, and Old Faithful just keeps going off over and over… This stunning footage was posted by a YouTube user known as Kat Martin 2016, and the following is what she had to say about the video that you just saw… There are places s(t)eaming I have never seen steam before… and also note that the bright ground is back. There are no shadows, so it is not from above! As you know the cameras were froze up last night, so we could not see what was going ….or so we thought LOL…I found a way. Somehow (don’t ask me how), the Geyser Observation Study site was able to capture the ENTIRE night with NO freeze ups and cutting in and out….how is THAT? Anyway, I got it and slowed it down so you can see better. Old Faithful had weird seismos last night, and was going off constantly. But it wasn’t just that one night. The weird activity at Yellowstone has continued, and you can watch even more recent footage that Kat Martin has posted right here and right here. So what does this mean? I don’t know, but watching that footage definitely got my attention. And it is interesting to note that just a few weeks ago the Shoshone River changed color and started boilingwithout any warning whatsoever… The Shoshone River, near Yellowstone National Park, suddenly and without warning started boiling, changed color and began to emit a sulfuric odor on March 25. Nearby witnesses wondered if they were “all going to die.” The current consensus among geologists and other experts is that a portion of the Shoshone River began to boil, located near Cody, Wyoming, and a new Yellowstone vent has opened up. As Mysterious Universe reports, the boiling river near Yellowstone runs just east of Yellowstone National Park. It is close enough to the park and super volcano to be a “canary in a coal mine” as it relates to unusual geothermic events. The event was initially recorded by Dewey Vanderhoff, a photographer who spotted the Shoshone River near Yellowstone boiling and noted other bizarre features in the river. When a river located above a supervolcano that could wipe out most of the country starts boiling, you would think that would make headline news all over the nation. But it didn’t. It would be exceedingly difficult to overstate the potential danger that Yellowstone poses to the United States. Other than an extremely large asteroid or meteor, it is hard to imagine any natural disaster that would pose a greater threat. The following comes from an excellent article by Steve Elwart… The Yellowstone Caldera, or cauldron, sits on top of North America’s largest volcanic field. Four hundred miles under the Earth’s surface is a magma ‘hotspot’ that reaches up to just 30 miles below ground level before spreading out over an area of 300 miles across three states. Over all this sits the volcano. While most scientists believe the probability of a major eruption is very small, there are signs that have some analysts worried, and most agree the volcano holds catastrophic potential. It could blast 240 cubic miles of ash, rocks and lava into the atmosphere,rendering about two-thirds of the nation immediately uninhabitable, according to some estimates, and plunge the world into a “nuclear winter.” That certainly does not sound good. And as I mentioned above, volcanic activity all over the planet is rising. 38 volcanoes are erupting at the moment, and it seems like we hear about another new eruption almost every day now. But let us hope that Yellowstone does not erupt any time soon. There are approximately 3,000 earthquakes in the area around Yellowstone every single year, so it is a very seismically active region. In the event of a full-scale eruption of Yellowstone, virtually the entire northwest United States will be completely destroyed. Basically everything within a 100 mile radius would be immediately killed, Salt Lake City would literally be toast, and almost everyone and everything in Denver would be dead in short order. Further away, volcanic ash would rain down continually for weeks. Those foolish enough to step outside would quickly discover that the ash turns into a substance similar to cement in the lungs, and many would die from suffocation. The amount of volcanic ash released by Yellowstone would be almost unimaginable. In fact, it has been estimated that a full-blown eruption would dump a layer of volcanic ash that is at least 10 feet deep up to 1,000 miles away. Food production in America would be almost totally wiped out, and the “volcanic winter” that would result from a Yellowstone eruption would dramatically cool the planet. Some have projected that global temperatures would decline by up to 20 degrees. In the end, the death, famine and destruction that we would experience would be vastly greater than anything that we have ever seen in the history of western civilization. So yes, there is reason to be concerned that weird stuff is going on at Yellowstone right now. Let us just hope and pray that we do not see an eruption in 2016 or any time soon. Source     |
