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Abby Martin, Breaking the Set
Abby Martin takes a look at America's history of government infiltration in news media, from the CIA's 1950s secret cold-war program, dubbed 'Operation Mockingbird', through to paid Pentagon online trolls today.Russia Today, U.S. Edition 2013-01-17 10:23:00
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Robert Fisk
The Independent 2013-01-19 17:36:00
We are outraged not by the massacre of the innocents, but because the hostages killed were largely white, blue-eyed chaps rather than darker, brown-eyed chaps Odd, isn't it, how our "collateral damage" is different from their "collateral damage". Speaking yesterday to an old Algerian friend in the aviation business, I asked him what he thought of his country's raid on the In Amenas gas plant."Brilliant operation, Robert," he shouted down the phone. "We destroyed the terrorists!" But the innocent hostages? What about their deaths, I asked? "Poor guys," he replied. "We had thousands of women and children killed in our war [in the 1990s] - terrible tragedy - but we are fighting terrorism." And there you have it. Our dead men didn't matter in the slightest to him. And he had a point, didn't he? For we are outraged today, not by the massacre of the innocents, but because the hostages killed by the Algerian army - along with some of their captors - were largely white, blue-eyed chaps rather than darker, brown-eyed chaps. Had all the "Western" hostages - I am including the Japanese in this ridiculous, all-purpose definition - been rescued and had the innocent dead all been Algerian, there would have been no talk yesterday of a "botched raid". | |
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| Puppet Masters |
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Assyrian International News Agency
2013-01-21 17:31:00
A top secret memo sent by the Ministry of Interior in Saudi Arabia reveals the Saudi Kingdom sent death-row inmates, sentenced to execution by decapitation, to Syria to fight Jihad against the Syrian government in exchange for commuting their sentences. According to the memo, dated April 17, 2012, the Saudi Kingdom negotiated with a total of 1239 inmates, offering them a full pardon and a monthly salary for their families, who were to remain in the Kingdom, in exchange for "...training for the sake of sending to the Jihad in Syria." The memo was signed by Abdullah bin Ali al-Rmezan, the "Director of follow up in Ministry of Interior." | |
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Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge 2013-01-21 16:59:00
Last week we reported that in the aftermath of the so far disastrous French campaign to eradicate "rebels" in the north of Mali, because of their implied threat fo Europe, that "US Drones, Boots Arrive In Mali." Turns out we were wrong, and as the case virtually always is, for some reason there wasalready a US presence of at least three US commandos in Mali in the summer of 2012. What they were doing there remains a mystery, as it is a mystery if the ever co-present flip flops on the ground were there inciting the perpetual scapegoat Al Qaeda to do this, or that. Or maybe it was not the CIA. Maybe it was the Army's "little-known and secretive" branch known as the Intelligence and Security Command. Regardless, what becomes obvious is that while the US was on the ground and engaged in secret missions, it needed an alibi to avoid "destabilizing" the local situation once its presence became conventional wisdom. It got just that, thank to one Francois Hollande just over a week ago. | |
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Jonathan Schell
Tom Dispatch 2013-01-17 16:11:00
How Did the Gates of Hell Open in Vietnam? A New Book Transforms Our Understanding of What the Vietnam War Actually Was For half a century we have been arguing about "the Vietnam War." Is it possible that we didn't know what we were talking about? After all that has been written (some 30,000 books and counting), it scarcely seems possible, but such, it turns out, has literally been the case. Now, in Kill Anything that Moves, Nick Turse has for the first time put together a comprehensive picture, written with mastery and dignity, of what American forces actually were doing in Vietnam. The findings disclose an almost unspeakable truth. Meticulously piecing together newly released classified information, court-martial records, Pentagon reports, and firsthand interviews in Vietnam and the United States, as well as contemporaneous press accounts and secondary literature, Turse discovers that episodes of devastation, murder, massacre, rape, and torture once considered isolated atrocities were in fact the norm, adding up to a continuous stream of atrocity, unfolding, year after year, throughout that country. | |
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Glen Greenwald
The Guardian 2013-01-21 15:29:00
His vital April 4, 1967 speech is a direct repudiation of the sophistry now used to defend US violence and aggression The civil right achievements of Martin Luther King are quite justly the focus of the annual birthday commemoration of his legacy. But it is remarkable, as I've noted before on this holiday, how completely his vehement anti-war advocacy is ignored when commemorating his life (just as his economic views are). By King's own description, his work against US violence and militarism, not only in Vietnam but generally, was central - indispensable - to his worldview and activism, yet it has been almost completely erased from how he is remembered. | |
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Stephen C. Webster
Raw Story 2013-01-21 15:39:00
If you live in Oklahoma and smoke cigarettes, look out: a local lawmaker is pushing a bill that would let companies fire smokers in order to save on health care costs. State Sen. David Hold (R) authored Senate Bill 327 after discovering that Oklahoma law actually protects smokers from workplace discrimination. "I was just kind of incredulous that there was a protection like this because, as I said, these are the kinds of protections you'd think we have for race and gender, not smokers," he told KFOR-TV in Oklahoma City. | |
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Eric Blair
Activist Post 2013-01-21 14:42:00
"Is everything a conspiracy? No, just the important stuff." - Jeff Wells, Rigorous Intuition. It seems that the establishment media has intensified their attack on "conspiracy theorists". It's long been their feeble attempt to discredit anyone who dares question the "official" narrative of events. But why the sudden deluge of attacks? First, what does conspiracy theory even mean? con·spir·a·cy - An agreement to perform together an illegal, wrongful, or subversive act. the·o·ry - A set of statements or principles devised to explain a group of facts or phenomena. con·spir·a·cy the·o·ry - The belief that the government or a covert organization is responsible for an event that is unusual or unexplained.In short, a conspiracy theorist seeks the full facts about covert subversive acts, and unusual or unexplained events. Put another way, when the story of an event doesn't add up, theories arise to explain what really happened. Given the abominable track record of the establishment media, it's become more common to question everything we hear rather than blindly swallowing their script. As the initial reporting of the Sandy Hook school massacre was so scattered, and policymakers immediately seized the crisis to promote a long desired agenda of strict gun control, it's no wonder that some have questioned the authenticity of the "official" version of events. | |
Comment: For an in-depth disection of Sandy Hook listen to this link of SOTT Talk Radio's recent broadcast. Why and how it happened and what these kinds of mass shootings by alleged 'lone nuts' mean, not just for American citizens, but the people of the world.
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RT.com
2013-01-21 14:41:00
In a series of tweets, WikiLeaks disclosed that deceased Internet activist and Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz may have contributed to the organization and had even been in contact with Julian Assange. WikiLeaks said it was divulging this information "due to the investigation into the Secret Service involvement with #AaronSwartz." Swartz, who committed a suicide on Jan. 11, was arrested two years ago for breaking and entering into an MIT storage closet and accessing an Acer laptop that he programmed to download millions of scholarly articles from the JSTOR database. The Secret Service took charge of the Swartz investigation two days before his arrest and provided the prosecution with information that led to its harsh pursuit of the 26-year-old. While it is unclear why WikiLeaks decided to disclose Swartz's involvement with the document archive organization, some have suggested that the alliance may have prompted the US Attorney's Office and the Secret Service to pursue Swartz more harshly. | |
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Simon Walters
The Mail Online 2013-01-19 14:28:00
Former Army officers will be recruited as police superintendents Changes rip up tradition of only British citizens serving in the police Foreign crimebusters such as US supercop Bill Bratton will be given the chance to take over British police forces under radical new plans to be unveiled by Home Secretary Theresa May. And former Army officers will be recruited as police superintendents in an attempt to end the 'closed shop' police culture blamed for bungled investigations and corruption. The changes, set to be fiercely opposed by police chiefs, rip up the centuries-old tradition of only British citizens serving in the police. They also abolish the rule that senior policemen have to work their way up from being a bobby on the beat. | |
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Miriam Elder
The Guardian 2013-01-20 14:16:00
Gunman reportedly wanted to show politician he was 'not untouchable', while some suggest whole incident was staged It was a shot almost heard around the world as millions watched a man storm a stage in Bulgaria and then point his gun at a prominent opposition politician live on television. But many in Bulgaria are now trying to separate fact from fiction as they try to be clear about what motivated the attack. Police took Oktai Enimehmedov, 25, into custody after he pulled the gun on Ahmed Dogan, the leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), a party supported by Muslim voters including some Turks in Bulgaria. Police now say Enimehmedov was holding a gas pistol that was loaded with pepper spray, with two other "bullets" being simply noisemakers. He pointed the gun at Dogan's head during a party congress in the capital, Sofia, but failed to shoot. He was tackled to the ground and beaten by guards and party members as TV cameras continued to roll.
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Robert Barnes
Washington Post 2013-01-21 14:23:00
Enjoy the festivities, President Obama, and while you're on the grand stage Monday, it might be wise to make nice with the assembled Supreme Court justices. The next legal challenge to the Affordable Care Act is moving quickly to the high court, and bringing potent questions about religious freedom, gender equality and corporate "personhood." The issue is the health-care law's requirement that employers without a specific exemption must provide workers with insurance plans that cover a full range of birth-control measures and contraceptive drugs. Inclusion of the no-cost contraceptive coverage for female workers has always been a controversial part of the legislation. It has now sparked more than 40 lawsuits around the nation involving more than 110 individuals, colleges, hospitals, church-affiliated nonprofits and private companies. | |
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The Extinction Protocol
2013-01-21 14:15:00
Eritrean army tanks besieged the information ministry in central Asmara on Monday after some 200 mutineers seized the building to call for political reform, diplomatic and diaspora sources said Monday. No shots had been fired and the rest of the city appeared calm, the diplomats added, although very few details were immediately available. "The ministry of information is under siege," a diplomat said. Amanuel Ghirmai, an Eritrean journalist in Paris for independent Radio Erena, said that around a 100 army mutineers stormed the hill-top ministry -- which towers over the capital of the Red Sea state -- early on Monday morning. They reportedly ordered news readers at the government-run television and radio station -- the only source of media for the authoritarian state -- to read a statement that they will implement the country's constitution. The statement also reportedly ordered the release of prisoners of conscience. "We do not know who is leading the situation... everybody has been put into the same room (in the ministry)," Amanuel said, adding that he had spoken to sources in Asmara. Britain's foreign office updated its travel advice Monday to say it had received reports of "unusual military movements in and around Asmara", without giving further details. | |
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Guardian
2013-01-21 14:11:00
Serhiy Vlasenko told reporters that he had been accused of car theft, robbery and failing to obey a court ruling. The senior lawyer acting for jailed former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko says he is under criminal investigation and fears imminent arrest. Serhiy Vlasenko told reporters on Monday that he had been accused of car theft, robbery and failing to obey a court ruling stemming from his divorce several years ago. | |
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Guardian
2013-01-21 14:09:00
The Russian government has said it is sending two planes to Lebanon to evacuate Russians from Syria, the first such effort since the uprising against Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011. The emergency situations ministry said two of its planes would fly to Beirut on Tuesday to bring home more than 100 Russians. The announcement appears to reflect Moscow's increasing doubts about Assad's ability to cling to power and growing concerns about the safety of its citizens. Russia's foreign ministry has said it has contingency plans in place to evacuate thousands of Russians from Syria. | |
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Heather Manes
Opposing Views 2013-01-21 14:05:00
Downtown Washington, D.C. will be the center of attention on Monday for President Obama's second inauguration. The nation's capital has been preparing for the arrival of nearly 800,000 out-of-towners. One side-note to the city's preparations includes a mandate that will require the city's homeless shelters to stay open during the day on Sunday and Monday. Homeless shelters normally open in the afternoons or early evenings to give people a place to sleep, but remain closed during the mornings and early afternoons. Currently, the only time homeless shelters are required to stay open is if the temperature drops below 32 degrees Fahrenheit to avoid hypothermia. Now, for the inauguration, many of the city's homeless population will be indoors. | |
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RT.com
2013-01-21 12:16:00
In the wake of Algeria's In Amenas crisis, the hostage death toll rose to almost 60. The survivors have revealed tales of shocking brutality - captives were used as human shields, forced to wear explosive jackets and witness to horrific executions. On Monday, Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal announced that 37 foreigners of eight nationalities were among those killed. The four-day ordeal at the In Amenas gas plant in the Sahara Desert ended Saturday - several US, British, French, Japanese, Norwegian, Romanian and Algerian workers were reported dead or missing. Many of the survivors have spoken with the press, recounting horrific tales of the abuse and murder of hostages. Philippine survivor Joseph Balmaceda witnessed foreign hostages being used as human shields to protect the militants. He described one Japanese hostage being draped with explosives, while he and others had their hands tied with cables. | |
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| Society's Child |
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David Edwards
Raw Story 2013-01-21 15:42:00
At least five people were shot along the route for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade route, the New Orleans Police Department said on Monday. WVUE reported that the incident happened at around 1:15 p.m. ET, just 30 minutes after the march passed the location of the shooting at the intersection of MLK and Lasalle Street. NOPD Chief Ronal Serpas told reporters that one suspect was spotted fleeing the scene in a late model white sedan. Shots were thought to have been fired from the vehicle. Surveillance video was being reviewed by New Orleans police. | |
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David Edwards
Raw Story 2013-01-21 15:36:00
An Atlanta fan was so distraught after the San Francisco's record comeback to defeat the Falcons on Sunday that he pistol whipped his flat screen television. In an unverified cell phone video that was posted on Sunday, the cameraman announces that the fan "just broke his fucking TV." At that point, the fan pulls a gun out of his pocket and slams the butt into the already-cracked screen. With each blow, the screen flashes a bright white light. The man then throws the television to the ground and repeatedly stomps it. | |
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Arturo Garcia
Raw Story 2013-01-21 15:28:00
The severed head and hands found inside a Georgia man's wall were confirmed as belonging to a man missing since New Year's Eve, the Associated Press reported on Monday. Medical examiners confirmed that the body parts belonged to 35-year-old Charlie Ray, a friend of Chad Moretz, 34, who was killed by a SWAT sniper during a standoff with police on January 11. Moretz was shot dead after coming out of his house carrying an assault rifle. | |
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David Edwards
Raw Story 2013-01-21 15:26:00
A Queens man turned down a plea deal on Friday after being accused of breaking into his neighbors' house and registering an unusual noise complaint by firing a bullet into their guitar. Court documents obtained by DNAinfo.com New York said that 43-year-old Jeffrey Marino kicked in the door of a Rego Park apartment and yelled, "Your music is too loud... I'm going to kill you." Marino is accused of firing a single round from his .38-caliber pistol into a guitar hanging over the head of one of the residents. A second roommate was awakened by the noise and was ordered to get on the ground at gunpoint, according to the court documents. Marino allegedly pointed the gun at all three roommates and directed them not to report the crime. | |
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Huffington Post
2013-01-21 14:32:00
A middle school volleyball coach was arrested for allegedly having an inappropriate relationship with a 13-year-old student in Kentucky, LEX18 reported. Cassandra "Cassie" Elfers, 21, a part-time volleyball coach at Sharp Middle School in Pendleton County, turned herself in to authorities on Friday, Fox 19 reported, and now faces first-degree sexual abuse charges. Elfers' attorney Eric Deters told ABC 9 On Your Side that Elfers did not have sex with the student. He noted that Elfers was also a volunteer basketball coach for the team the 13-year-old boy played on. The coach she assisted was her boyfriend. "I assume this is going to be an allegation of inappropriate touching," Deters said to station LEX18. | |
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David McGrath Schwartz
Las Vegas Sun 2013-01-21 14:18:00
A Democratic assemblyman is in jail, arrested for threatening Democratic Speaker-elect Marilyn Kirkpatrick, according to North Las Vegas Police and Democratic sources familiar with the situation. Assemblyman Steven Brooks, 40, of North Las Vegas made threats to harm a public official Saturday afternoon, police said in a news release Sunday morning. A source said he was arrested with a loaded gun after threatening to shoot Kirkpatrick. Kirkpatrick and witnesses who corroborated the allegation prompted police to begin searching for Brooks. About 5:30 p.m., Brooks was seen driving in the area of Carey Avenue and Mt. Hood Street, where he was taken into custody without incident during a traffic stop. Another Democratic source with knowledge of the situation said Brooks publicly threatened to harm Kirkpatrick because he was unhappy with the committee assignments given to him by Kirkpatrick. The 2013 Legislature begins Feb. 4. | |
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Guardian
2013-01-21 14:16:00
Officers say they feared for their safety while arresting Dale Burns, 27, who died two hours later after suffering a heart attack. A bodybuilder was Tasered four times in under a minute by police as they struggled to arrest him, an inquest has heard. Dale Burns, 27, from Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, died hours after being repeatedly hit "without warning" by the electric shock gun and pepper-sprayed in the face, as officers tried to hold him with handcuffs and leg restraints, the hearing was told. Burns, as father of two, was described as a "gentle giant but with a drug habit" who had taken a "gram of Madcat", an illegal drug, on the day he died, the inquest at the County Hall in Kendal heard. Alan Sharp, the deputy coroner for south and east Cumbria, told the jury of five women and six men they may have to see distressing CCTV footage of a wild-eyed and agitated Burns in the police van after his arrest for criminal damage. Burns died at Furness General hospital two hours after police were first called to his flat on 16 August 2011. | |
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Agence France Presse
Tokyo: A 53-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of biting his adult son to death to get rid of a "snake haunting him", Japanese media have reported.2013-01-21 13:37:00 TV Asahi said Katsumi Nagaya seriously injured his son, Takuya, on Friday at the younger man's apartment in Anjo, central Japan, by head-butting and biting him after the 23-year-old began writhing around and claiming to be a serpent. Takuya was taken to hospital but declared dead a short time later, the broadcaster said. The suspect reportedly told police he had attacked his son in order to remove the snake from his mind. |
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ONE News
2013-01-21 13:29:00
Economist Gareth Morgan is championing a campaign to eradicate cats from New Zealand. The "Cats to Go" initiative is encouraging owners not to replace their cat when it dies, in an effort to protect native bird species. "Almost half of Kiwi households have a cat (or two) making New Zealanders the world's biggest cat owners. Cats are incredibly effective hunters and are wiping out our native birds," the campaign website says. It cites research which claims the average cat brings home 13 pieces of prey each year, but this represents only a fifth of the animals it kills. It also offers evidence against claims that cats only kill rodents or do no hunt if they are well fed. "In one study, six cats were presented with a live small rat while eating their preferred food. All six cats stopped eating the food, killed the rat, and then resumed eating the food," the website says. A video on the site goes further and labels cats as "serial killers" who "torture their victims slowly and without mercy". The site says cat owners can support the cause by not getting any new cats, fitting their pets with a bell and keeping them indoors at all times. SPCA chief executive Bob Kerridge says the campaign is a bit radical and over the top, and questioned the validity of Morgan's research. He said their surveys show fewer than half of New Zealand's domestic cats kill other animals. | |
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Greg Newkirk
A television viewer in the UK thought he noticed something odd flash across the screen last evening, and lucky for us, his DVR was running and he was able to post the strange capture to a forum. After a bit of back and forth rewinding, he managed to pause it at just the right second, presenting us with what he believes is a "very weird subliminal message".WhoForted? 2013-01-21 09:09:00 The flash, which was broadcast on Comedy Central during a commercial break for the Mr. Bean episode "Goodnight, Mr. Bean", contains a huge block of text impossible to read unless paused, with several of the words highlighted as though important. Even weirder, is that it seems to be an ode to financially troubled record store HMV. The caps locked text reads about the "shared experience" of visiting the record store with your "tribe", and ends with the question of whether or not one can "fight progress". The highlighted words are VOICE, MEMORIES, COLLECTION, JOY, EXPERIENCE, and PROGRESS. You can view the capture below, or read our transcription further down the page:
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Arturo Garcia
Raw Story 2013-01-21 10:59:00
A 42-year-old North Carolina teacher escaped charges of statutory rape by marrying the teenager she was accused of having sex with. WGN-TV reported on Monday that Leah Gayle Shipman married the 17-year-old boy, identified as Johnny Ray Ison, just six days after being granted a divorce from her previous husband. | |
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David Edwards
Raw Story 2013-01-21 10:56:00
A Texas girl's 16th birthday party ended in tragedy over the weekend after her father killed his estranged wife and then himself. Grapevine police said 43-year-old Kelly Suckla argued with his 44-year-old wife, Kristi, before shooting her at about 10 p.m. during the party on Saturday, according to The Dallas Morning News. Kelly Suckla then turned the gun on himself. Kristi Suckla suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the neck and body. She was pronounced dead about 40 minutes later at Baylor Medical Center. Kelly Suckla died of a single gunshot to the head, which was ruled a suicide by the Tarrant County medical examiner's office. | |
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Samantha Kimmey
Raw Story 2013-01-20 09:53:00
The Department of Veterans Affairs is spending almost three times as much it did in 2006 on erectile dysfunction drugs, reported Bloomberg News. That's apparently due to soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with mental health issues, according to a senior program manager at the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. | |
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Agence France-Presse
2013-01-20 06:27:00
A French solo sailor adrift for days in a life raft in the Southern Ocean after his yacht sank has been rescued by the crew of an Antarctic cruise ship. Alain Delord was attempting to sail solo and without assistance around the world when his yacht, Tchouk Tchouk Nougat, was damaged in rough weather off southern Australia's Tasmania island on Friday. The Frenchman was forced to abandon ship and has been adrift in a life raft on the Southern Ocean for more than three days. An Antarctic cruise ship carrying 100 passengers was diverted about 1,118 miles to his assistance and had battled deteriorating weather conditions to reach him before sunset, with fears he would have to spend a third night at sea. But the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said the Orion ship managed to find Delord and pluck him to safety. | |
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RT.com
2013-01-20 17:32:00
It's the world's most expensive combat aircraft, but don't expect it to fly in bad weather: The $237-million F-35B has been banned from traveling within 25 miles of a thunderstorm, amid fears that lightning could cause its fuel tank to explode. The aircraft, which is ironically known as 'Lightning II,' is not permitted to fly in thunderstorms until an oxygen gauge in the fuel tank is redesigned. The findings were disclosed in the Pentagon's 2012 Annual Operational Test and Evaluation report, which examined 327 defense programs slated for full production. The announcement is a major setback for the combat plane, which is set for use in the US Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force. The planes are also scheduled to fly with Britain's Royal Navy and Royal Air Force by 2018. Other fears besides a lightning-induced explosion have left engineers worried. A design fault in the fuel tank prevents the jet from rapidly descending to low altitudes. The Pentagon report described both flaws as "unacceptable for combat or combat training." The F-35B's problems don't stop there: Attempts to increase the aircraft's fuel efficiency by reducing its weight have made it more vulnerable to enemy attack - even more so than the aircraft it's designed to replace, the Telegraph reported. Examinations by the US Air Force and manufacturer Lockheed Martin also discovered possible widespread cracking on the right wing and right engine of the F-35A, and on an area of the F-35B. "All of these discoveries will require mitigation plans and may include redesigning parts and additional weight," the report said. | |
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| Secret History |
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Owen Jarus
LiveScience 2013-01-21 08:09:00
In a necropolis in Spain, archaeologists have found the remains of a Roman woman who died in her 30s with a calcified tumor in her pelvis, a bone and four deformed teeth embedded within it. Two of the teeth are still attached to the wall of the tumor researchers say. The woman, who died some 1,600 years ago, had a condition known today as an ovarianteratoma which, as its name indicates, occurs in the ovaries . The word Teratoma comes from the Greek words "teras" and "onkoma" which translate to "monster" and "swelling," respectively. The tumor is about 1.7 inches (44 millimeters) in diameter at its largest point. "Ovarian teratomas are bizarre, but benign tumors," writes lead researcher Núria Armentano, of the ANTROPÒLEGS.LAB company and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, in an email to LiveScience. The tumors come from germ cells, which form human eggs and can create hair, teeth and bone, among other structures. This is the first time scientists have found this type of teratoma in the ancient world. "[T]his is an extraordinary case, not only for its antiquity, but also its identification in the archeological record," writes the research team in a paper published recently in theInternational Journal of Paleopathology. The woman lived at a time of decline for the Roman Empire, with new groups (popularly known as the "barbarians") moving into Roman territory, eventually taking over Spain and other areas. | |
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Kristan Harris
SouthMilwaukeeNow 2013-01-20 20:30:00
Here's one for your "Forbidden Archaeology" file.Scientists are remaining stubbornly silent about a lost race of giants found in burial mounds near Lake Delavan, Wisconsin, in May 1912. The dig site at Lake Delavan was overseen by Beloit College and it included more than 200 effigy mounds that proved to be classic examples of 8th century Woodland Culture. But the enormous size of the skeletons and elongated skulls found in May 1912 did not fit very neatly into anyone's concept of a textbook standard. They were enormous. These were not average human beings. Strange Skulls First reported in the 4 May 1912 issue of the New York Times the 18 skeletons found by the Peterson brothers on Lake Lawn Farm in southwest Wisconsin exhibited several strange and freakish features. Their heights ranged between 7.6ft and 10 feet and their skulls "presumably those of men, are much larger than the heads of any race which inhabit America to-day." They tend to have a double row of teeth, 6 fingers, 6 toes and like humans came in differant races. Theteeth in the front of the jaw are regular molars. Heads usually found are elongated believed due to longer than normal life span. " One must wonder how much can they lift if twice the size of a average human today? Are these the Giants the Bible & many other civilizations have in their history and painted on their walls. The Bible in Genisis 6:4 " There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old men of renown. " Now this is faulty logic to any scientist out there because I am using religous/cultural history to fill a hole in science. Over 200 Giant digs have been found in recent years. Giant skeleton finds have not made the local/national news since the 1950's for the most part. It seems in most peoples opinion do to the fear that people would question evolution . If anything a de-evolution. In 2002, National Geographic reported a dozen Cyclops skeletons found in Greece that stood 12-15 1/2 Ft tall. That is 3 humans tall. One eye socket. Giants in history are typically cannibalistic in nature. The reason why I am bringing up giants will all tie into politics, and word happenings. Look at a basketball hoop and add 5 feet. That tall. Greek Mythology talks about war with cyclops learning they had to bring down by taking out their legs rendering them slow and helpless. American Giants (Red Hair Giants) where found with egyptian writing on their tombs have been found in multiple locations. | |
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Ken Summers
WhoForted? 2013-01-19 12:11:00
By now, it's a well-accepted fact that the Vikings beat Columbus to the New World (i.e. North America) by a couple hundred years. Settlements have been found in Newfoundland along the Eastern Canadian coast. But exactly how far south they traveled in North America is still a mystery. But could a buried warrior and a strange stone hold the key to the mystery, or is it just the tip of an archaeological iceberg? Fall River, Massachusetts, is perhaps best known for the violent double homicide leading to the murder trial of Lizzie Borden, but 50 years before that crime, the town was made famous by another shocking headline. Near the present site of New England Gas Company where 5th Street meets Hartwell, workmen excavating a hill uncovered a skeleton in a shallow grave in 1831. According to a contemporary account published in 1839 for American Monthly Magazine, the skeleton was buried in a sitting position encased in coarse bark with its head one foot below ground level. It appears the young man had possibly been mummified either naturally or intentionally ("The preservation of this body may be the result of some embalming process, and this hypothesis is strengthened by the fact that the skin has the appearance of having been tanned...") and wrapped in a coarse cloth resembling burlap. He wore a large brass breastplate across his chest, and around his waist was There is some historical debate as to the last statement. Brass was not unfamiliar to native tribes who had been known to trade goods for brass kettles which they melted down for arrowheads and adornments in the 1600s. One brass tube was donated to Copenhagen's Peabody Museum in 1887; analysis revealed it was indeed brass. Without modern dating techniques, though, the age of the skeleton couldn't be determined. Some people insisted it was some lost Indian chief. Others suggested it was undoubtedly Phoenician and proved that some forgotten Mediterranean peoples had crossed the Atlantic and formed the mythical Atlantis "beyond the Pillars of Hercules" (or Rock of Gibraltar) as recorded by Plato. Others insisted it was just a hoax. | |
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| Science & Technology |
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Cole Hill
Latinos Post 2013-01-21 16:54:00
Jupiter and the Earth's moon will engage in a rare cosmic close encounter Monday night, appearing just a finger-width apart for stargazers across North America, according to Space.com. And thanks to a free online live stream of the heavenly event, you won't need a professional telescope or perfect weather to catch this unique celestial spectacle. The skywatchers over at the Slooh Space Camera website are providing unobstructed, free views of Jupiter's brush with the moon during a 30-minute webcast beginning at 9 p.m. EST Monday. Slooh president Patrick Paolucci, astronomer Bob Berman of Astronomy Magazine and astro-imager Matt Francis of the Prescott Observatory will present the live views of Jupiter and the moon. According to Sky & Telescope magazine, Jupiter and the moon will appear at their closest at various times, depending on your viewing location. For Eastern North America the planets will appear closest at 11:30 p.m. EST; for further inland, it should occur at 10 p.m. CST; for observers in the Mountain Time Zone, peak viewing should hit at 8:30 p.n. MST; on the West Coast the best time to view the phenomenon should come at 7:00 p.m. PST. | |
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Matt Kauffman
Willamette Week 2013-01-21 15:22:00
John McAfee isn't the only one hiding out in Portland after a long trip from Central America. Another guest from the tropics - this time of the avian variety - has taken up temporary residence in the Pacific Northwest. The Audubon Society of Portland confirmed the sighting of an ovenbird, a species rarely seen outside Central America and the Caribbean during winter months. Longtime-birder Suzanne Hannam, 84, spotted the warbler treading around the backyard of her Laurelhurst home. The sighting was so unusual the Audubon Society initially didn't believe Hannam. It was later verified after an official identified the spotted, orange-crowned bird. | |
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Birders from near and far are able to cross an item off their bucket list after viewing a wee bird that lost its way. A red-flanked bluetail that would normally be in Southeast Asia at this time of year has been causing quite a stir in Queen's Park. Birders armed with binoculars and photographers equipped with fancy cameras descended on the park in recent days to view the visitor. "There were a lot of bird watchers - 35 or 40," New Westminster resident Rob Butler said about the crowd on Wednesday afternoon. "If it hangs around, there would be people coming from across North America - it's so rare." The arrival of the red-flanked bluetail in New Westminster is the first time the bird has been reported in Canada. "It was pretty neat," Butler said about seeing the bird. "I have been over to Asia birding. I didn't see it in Asia." | |
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Raw Story
2013-01-20 09:47:00
A US spacecraft orbiting Mars has provided evidence of an ancient crater lake fed by groundwater, adding further support to theories that the Red Planet may once have hosted life, NASA said Sunday. Spectrometer data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) shows traces of carbonate and clay minerals usually formed in the presence of water at the bottom of the 1.4-mile (2.2-kilometer) deep McLaughlin Crater. "These new observations suggest the formation of the carbonates and clay in a groundwater-fed lake within the closed basin of the crater," NASA said of the findings, which were published in the online edition of Nature Geoscience. "Some researchers propose the crater interior catching the water," the space agency said, adding that "the underground zone contributing the water could have been wet environments and potential habitats." | |
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The Extinction Protocol
2013-01-21 07:45:00
Entire families depend on work from the coffee-growing industry in Central America, which employs more than 1.5 million people to produce one of the world's most renowned Arabica beans. But in September, two months before the annual harvest, the fungus known as roya began to spread due to a lack of preventive measures and the effects of climate change, including high temperatures and drought, according to experts, government officials and industry sources. "The situation is very serious," Jose Buitrago, president of Nicaragua's Coffee Exporters Association, told AFP. "It will get worse if measures are not taken." The fungus, hemileia vastatrix, discolors and dries up coffee leaves, an effect that also gives roya the name of "leaf rust." The parasite has latched on to 35 percent of the 958,000 hectares of sown crops, which will mean a loss of two million coffee bean bags of 46 kilograms (100 pounds) each, industry officials told AFP. This would represent a loss of $300 million at the current price of $150 per bag, the sources said. Central American nations exported 17.5 million bags of coffee during the 2011-2012 cycle, bringing $3.6 billion to the region, and growers had hoped to do even better this season. | |
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Jonathan Amos
BBC News 2013-01-20 01:59:00
Cambridge University scientists say they have seen four-stranded DNA at work in human cells for the first time. The famous "molecule of life", which carries our genetic code, is more familiar to us as a double helix. But researchers tell the journal Nature Chemistry that the "quadruple helix" is also present in our cells, and in ways that might possibly relate to cancer. They suggest that control of the structures could provide novel ways to fight the disease. "The existence of these structures may be loaded when the cell has a certain genotype or a certain dysfunctional state," said Prof Shankar Balasubramanian from Cambridge's department of chemistry. "We need to prove that; but if that is the case, targeting them with synthetic molecules could be an interesting way of selectively targeting those cells that have this dysfunction," he told BBC News. | |
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Rebecca Morelle
BBC News 2013-01-21 01:21:00
A gamma ray burst, the most powerful explosion known in the Universe, may have hit the Earth in the 8th Century. In 2012 researchers found evidence that our planet had been struck by a blast of radiation during the Middle Ages, but there was debate over what kind of cosmic event could have caused this. Now a study suggests it was the result of two black holes or neutron stars merging in our galaxy. This collision would have hurled out vast amounts of energy. The research is published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. | |
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MSNBC
2013-01-20 06:46:00
European space officials have their own plan, but they're asking for input from others European space officials are seeking ideas to help develop a mission to knock an asteroid off its course, in case one day humans must pull off such a stunt to save Earth from a catastrophic space-rock collision. The idea behind the joint U.S.-European mission, dubbed AIDA (for Asteroid Impact & Deflection Assessment), is to send two small spacecraft to intercept a binary asteroid Didymos, which is projected to travel past Earth in 2022. This space rock system is actually a pair of asteroids, one smaller, one larger, that orbit each other as they zoom around the sun. One 600-pound (300-kg) spacecraft, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) craft developed by researchers at Johns Hopkins University, would smash into the smaller of the two asteroids. The impact would knock the 500-foot- (150-meter-) wide space rock off its regular orbit. Meanwhile, the European Space Agency's Asteroid Impact Monitor (AIM) craft would survey the collision. The crash would take place about at 6.5 million miles (10.5 million kilometers), meaning scientists on the ground would also be able to measure the deflection using telescopes. | |
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Red Orbit
Researchers for the first time have discovered evidence supporting the theory that the processes that act as catalysts for volcanic activity today are similar to those that occurred nearly four billion years ago. Writing in the journal Geology, Frances Jenner of the Carnegie Institution for Science and colleagues report that 3.8 billion-year-old volcanic rocks recovered from an island in southwestern Greenland support previous geochemical studies that have suggested that subduction-style tectonic activity had been occurring as early as the Eoarchean era.2013-01-19 20:48:00
Those studies had used "similarities between modern subduction zone magmas and those erupted about 3.8 billion years ago," to argue that subduction-related tectonics had been occurring early on in our planet's history, the Institution said in a statement Friday. Previously, scientists had been unable to "locate any suites of volcanic rocks with compositions comparable to modern mid-ocean ridge or oceanic island magmas that were older than 3 billion years and were also free from contamination by continental crust," they added. However, rocks discovered by Jenner's team are the "missing piece of the puzzle" because they are comparable to modern-day samples obtained from oceanic islands. | |
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Susan Young
GenomeWeb caught what must be an interesting Q&A with George Church in Germany'sSpiegel Online (I can't personally attest to the original story as it is behind a paywall). The Harvard Medical School geneticist is quoted as saying that eventually, an "adventurous female human" will be needed to be the surrogate mother for the first Neanderthal baby in some 30,000 years.MIT Technological Review 2013-01-17 20:11:00 This isn't the first time Church has talked publically about cloning a Neanderthal, or at least a near-Neanderthal. In 2009, when the Neanderthal genome was first reported, theNew York Times described a scenario in which a current day human genome could be tweaked into the "Neanderthal equivalent" with tools of molecular biology. Eventually, this could lead to a Neanderthal-like embryo in need of a surrogate mother. While the idea of reviving Neanderthals may sound farfetched, take for example the work of biologists to clone endangered or extinct non-human animals (see "Stem-Cell Engineering Offers a Lifeline to Endangered Species"). In 2009, the extinct bucardo, a subspecies Spanish ibex, was cloned from a frozen skin sample. The newborn died immediately due to respiratory failure, but its birth suggests that resurrecting extinct species may be possible. |
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RT.com
2013-01-19 17:33:00
Belgium plans to build a horseshoe-shaped artificial island off its North Sea coast to store energy generated by its wind farms. The project will also double as attraction for sea birds (and possibly flocks of tourists). The ambitious undertaking was unveiled this week by Belgian North Sea Minister Johan Vande Lanotte, as he reported on the implementation of marine special planning. The island is planned to be built over the course of five years about three to four kilometers off the coast near the village of Wenduine in the province of West Flanders. It will be about three kilometers in diameter, and will have a giant water reservoir occupying most of its territory. Energy will be stored by pumping seawater inside the reservoir. It is then recovered when needed by guiding the water back into the sea through a hydropower plant at the heel of the 'horseshoe.' Storing excess energy is a common problem for electric grid management. Consumption of electricity varies greatly between daytime and nighttime, so balancing the load often requires generating and storing extra energy overnight and releasing those reserves during peak hours. This is a particular issue for many forms of green energy; for example, the output of a wind farm depends on whether there is enough wind to spin its turbines. | |
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Spiegel
2013-01-18 16:28:00
The enormous wels catfish is rapidly expanding in German waters. The fish can grow up to 10 feet long and weigh over 300 pounds, making recreational fishermen excited about the prospects of catching one. While biologists aren't yet calling the fish pests, they are puzzled by the boom. It was 3 o'clock in the morning when the wels catfish bit. Peter Neumann fought with the beast for a full hour before he finally released the hook from the enormous mouth and threw the fish back into the Rhine river. "What would you do with such a huge animal?" asks Neumann, an expert on the wels catfish, a large species found across Europe. They don't taste particularly good, and they generally have very little usable meat. But catching the fish as a sport is becoming more and more popular. Many anglers are discovering the opportunity to snag some of the impressive specimen right in their own backyard. This opportunity is greater than ever before. The population of wels catfish, also known as sheatfish, is rapidly expanding in Germany. The fish can grow up to be three meters (10 feet) long, weigh up to 150 kilograms (330 pounds) and live as long as 80 years. Fishermen say the Wels population has been increasing at a swift pace, and researchers are puzzled by the sudden boom. | |
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Hispanically Speaking News
2013-01-19 16:00:00
It would seem the animapocalypse in Peru has continued into 2013. Throughout January various animals have been washing up along the shores of Peru's northern coast. According to the Sea Institute of Peru 12 dolphins, 35 sea lions, and 13 pelicans have been found dead along the shores of San Jose, Lambayeque. It appears that many of the dolphins found had died several weeks prior to their discovery, but the government says it have confirmed all the animals died from natural causes. | |
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Michal Lev-Ram
Fortune Magazine 2013-01-07 10:46:00
Getting supercomputers like IBM's Watson to understand slang may be the final frontier in machine intelligence. The scientific test to gauge if a computer can "think" is surprisingly simple: Can it engage in small talk? The so-called Turing test says a computer capable of carrying on a natural conversation without giving itself away can be considered intelligent. So far, no machine has made the cut. Eric Brown, a research scientist with IBM (IBM), is charged with changing that. The 45-year-old is the brains behind Watson, the supercomputer that pummeled human opponents on Jeopardy! in 2011. The biggest difficulty for Brown, as tutor to a machine, hasn't been making Watson know more but making it understand subtlety, especially slang. "As humans, we don't realize just how ambiguous our communication is," he says. | |
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| Earth Changes |
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Alexandra Bosanac and Russell Piffer
The Star 2013-01-20 17:01:00
A freak weather system slammed into the GTA overnight. The rare "thundersnow" system brought heavy wind, rain, snow and the occasional flash of lightning. Gusts of 90 km/h toppled trees and traffic lights and a wind warning issued by Environment Canada remained in effect for much of southern Ontario Sunday morning. Fallen trees and hydro wires shut down Rosedale Valley Rd between Bayview Ave. and Park Rd. overnight. | |
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Patrick Cooke
Times of Malta 2013-01-17 16:49:00
Insurance companies were faced with a flood of claims yesterday following Tuesday's freak hail storm that hit the north and east of Malta. Certain crops can be replanted but some will have lost everything Middlesea Insurance said they received a flurry of claims for damage at property located in Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq, St Andrew's, Għargħur, Mosta, Naxxar and San Pawl Tat-Tarġa. These came in the wake of reports of tennis ball-sized hailstones lashing certain localities around midday on Tuesday. | |
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Martin Wainwright
Guardian 2013-01-21 14:36:00
More flights cancelled, trains delayed and roads closed, and AA warns over drivers failing to clear snow from car roof. Heavy snow brought its usual mixture of beauty, fun and serious disruption to most of the country on Monday as the cold front that turned southern England white on Sunday moved east and north. Hundreds of schools were closed, disrupting some GCSE and AS-level exams, and there were cancellations and delays on roads, rail and in the air as bitterly cold winds added drifting to already deep falls and widespread ice. Heathrow airport suffered worse disruption than expected with 175 flights cancelled by midday, well over the figure of 130 predicted earlier. Sunshine brought a rapid thaw but the total later crept close to the 260 cancellations of Sunday. The airport blamed poor visibility. Gatwick and Birmingham airports were also badly disrupted and East Midlands and Robin Hood airports were closed to flights. | |
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Neil Ratley
The Southland Times 2013-01-21 13:48:00
A second rare whale has been euthanised by the Department of Conservation after beaching itself at Sandy Pt yesterday. It was the second time in 24 hours DOC had to put down an Arnoux's beaked whale, which is relatively rare. Acting area manager for Murihiku/Southern Islands, Alan Christie, said the whale stranded at Sandy Pt less than a day after an unsuccessful DOC and community effort to save a whale at Omaui Beach. DOC staff were notified of the second whale's beaching yesterday morning, he said. The 8-metre-long whale was in a highly distressed state and DOC made a difficult decision, in consultation with local iwi, to euthanise the whale and end its suffering. While an attempt to refloat the whale would have been ideal, several factors, including the tides and the whale's condition, made this impractical, Mr Christie said. Among several parallels between the two strandings, he said, were that both whales were females of the same species and yesterday's stranding occurred at the Sandy Pt entrance of Invercargill Estuary, almost immediately opposite the first stranding. | |
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The Extinction Protocol
Hundreds of flights were cancelled and road and rail traffic was severely disrupted across much of Europe on Monday, as heavy snow and freezing weather gripped the continent. Frankfurt airport, Germany's main air hub, cancelled around 500 departing and arriving flights, representing 40 percent of its daily schedule. The busiest airport in Europe, London Heathrow, scrapped nearly 200 flights. Heathrow said a decision was taken 24 hours in advance to cancel 130 flights because visibility was expected to deteriorate as the day wore on, but problems elsewhere in Europe were having an impact too. "The additional cancellations are because a number of airports elsewhere in Europe are experiencing problems so that has a knock-on effect for us," an airport spokesman said.2013-01-21 13:44:00
Heathrow has spent 36 million pounds ($57 million) on upgrading its snow-clearing equipment since 2010, when freezing temperatures and snow almost brought the airport to a halt in the approach to Christmas. Europe's number three airport, Paris's Charles de Gaulle, was also hit. France's civil aviation authority DGAC said it expected to scrap 40 percent of flights to and from Charles de Gaulle and Paris's other main airport, Orly, in a precautionary measure following heavy snowfall on Sunday. Even Munich, a city usually accustomed to taking snow in its stride, cancelled 161 flights at its airport as it grappled with the exceptional conditions. | |
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"The Sun is god!" cried JMW Turner as he died, and plenty of other people have thought there was much in his analysis. The Aztecs agreed, and so did the pharaohs of Egypt. We are an arrogant lot these days, and we tend to underestimate the importance of our governor and creator. We forget that we were once just a clod of cooled-down solar dust; we forget that without the Sun there would have been no photosynthesis, no hydrocarbons - and that it was the great celestial orb that effectively called life into being on Earth. In so far as we are able to heat our homes or turn on our computers or drive to work it is thanks to the unlocking of energy from the Sun.
As a species, we human beings have become so blind with conceit and self-love that we genuinely believe that the fate of the planet is in our hands - when the reality is that everything, or almost everything, depends on the behaviour and caprice of the gigantic thermonuclear fireball around which we revolve. I say all this because I am sitting here staring through the window at the flowerpot and the bashed-up barbecue, and I am starting to think this series of winters is not a coincidence. The snow on the flowerpot, since I have been staring, has got about an inch thicker. The barbecue is all but invisible. By my calculations, this is now the fifth year in a row that we have had an unusual amount of snow; and by unusual I mean snow of a kind that I don't remember from my childhood: snow that comes one day, and then sticks around for a couple of days, followed by more. | |
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RT.com
2013-01-21 12:11:00
Cold weather in Europe has caused this season's record-high spot prices for gas, crossing the $400 mark. But even this does not make stable but higher long-term contract prices more attractive to European customers. Over the weekend extreme weather has swept across Europe from the UK to Spain, claiming lives and causing flight cancelations and power outages. The freezing temperatures have forced Europe to consume more gas prompting the spot price to reach $406 per 1000 cubic meter. Gas at Britain's National Balancing Point traded at $398.7 last week which was 8.5% higher than in first week of January. However, Russia's Gazprom, which in 2011 provided 32% of total gas supplies to Europe, will not benefit much from the rise. Only 20% of Gazprom's gas exports to the EU were spot deals, Sergey Vakhrameev, analyst at Metropol told Vedomosti daily. Long-term contracts make up the majority of Gazprom deliveries, while spot supplies are only 7% of total exports, Vakhrameev added. | |
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WBIR.com
2013-01-21 10:44:00
Park officials now believe they know what caused the massive landslide, which took out a football field-sized portion of Newfound Gap Road (US 441) on the North Carolina side. Officials said they found a subsurface spring underneath the landslide site and they aren't quite sure how long its been there. They said the spring, along with last week's massive amounts of rainfall, contributed to the landslide Wednesday morning, near mile marker 22 between Collins Creek and Webb Overlook. "We were unaware of this subsurface spring which causes embankment failure," said Acting Deputy Superintendent Alan Sumeriski. | |
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The Extinction Protocol
2013-01-21 07:41:00
Terrestrial and satellite observations confirm that for about 2 weeks weak explosive activity deep within the summit crater has resumed and indicates that magma might have begun to rise again within the volcano. This ends a period of more than six months of remarkable inactivity. It is expected that in the coming weeks or months incandescence will be visible again at the crater during the nights. The activity levels are so low, that without the help of satellites it would not have been possible to detect the increase in heat from the crater. In addition, about 2 weeks ago, the seasonal melting of ice and snow on the volcano began and produced large volumes of melt-water that drained within and at the base of glaciers. A critical mass of water might have entered the volcano's hydrothermal system. The internal heat evaporates the water in the immediate area of the volcanic conduit and forms condensation on the inner walls above. The condensation phenomenon has been observed in good weather, notably on 16 and 17 January after noon. The detailed analysis of more than 12,000 daily sequential images indicates that no ash emissions have occurred nor landslides in recent months. - Volcano Discovery | |
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The Extinction Protocol
2013-01-21 07:39:00
Scientists are warning Mount Tongariro may erupt again as the Department of Conservation looks at re-opening the remainder of the iconic Tongariro Crossing next month. GNS Science say emissions of steam and a gas plume have been a continuous feature of the mountain since the August 2012 eruption. Scientist Tony Hurst said the volcano is still in an "active" state. "Therefore we have to be prepared there will be other events like that without any warning," said GNS Scientist Tony Hurst. The risk of another eruption is causing concern for the Department of Conservation as it prepares to reopen the northern section of the Tongariro Crossing which was damaged in the August eruption. GNS Scientists are also concerned neighboring Mt. Ruapehu may be due to erupt. Gas samples show there could be a blockage underneath the volcano's surface. The blockage could burst and erupt without warning. Tourism operator Stewart Barclay from Adrift Outdoors said tourism on Mt. Ruaphu and Mt. Tongariro is reliant on the findings of GNS scientists. "We can't do anything until the scientists scratch their heads and reckon it's all safe to go up," said Barclay. DOC has closed the area within 2km of the centre of crater lake at the summit of Mt Ruapehu. -TVNZ | |
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Richard Cockle
The Oregonian 2013-01-20 10:20:00
Pendleton, Oregon -- Baby foxes or Bigfoot? The eerie late-night serenades began in November and emanate from a brushy swamp on the Umatilla Indian Reservation east of Pendleton. The cries range from high-pitched screams to basso profundo roars. "It's causing an uproar around here," said Sylvia Minthorn, who lives in a tribal housing unit near the swamp, where she used to play as a child. She's seen grown men's hair stand on end when the shrieks commence. Colleen Chance, a tribal housing authority employee, keeps a recording of the howls on her iPhone. "It's kind of spooky," she said. "Some say it's foxes, some say it's a female coyote and some say it's Sasquatch. I don't know what it is." So far no one's pinpointed the source of the noise on this rugged 178,000-acre reservation that extends into northeastern Oregon's Blue Mountains and is home to about 1,500 people. The swamp in question borders the old reservation community of Mission, in a canyon north of the Wildhorse Resort and Casino. Phone calls about the wails started coming in last month to the housing authority, and the office has had a half dozen so far. More could come in because the cries are continuing from time to time. | |
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WildLife Extra
2013-01-20 19:44:00
First record of orb weaver spider in London A large, rare spider has been recorded for the first time in London - deep in tombs at Highgate Cemetery. As part of the Wild London Inclusive London project, staff at London Wildlife Trust have been working with the staff and local community of Highgate Cemetery since last summer. During a bat survey in December, Trust staff came across a population of large spiders in the vaults of the Egyptian Avenue at the Cemetery. Britain's largest orb weavers Interestingly, these orb weavers are the species Meta bourneti, the rarer of two species ofMeta (Britain's largest orb weavers). The identity of the spider was confirmed by Edward Milner, Spider Recorder at the London Natural History Society - and it is the very first record of the species in London! Meta bourneti is particularly fascinating because, due to its origins as a cave-dweller (also known as a cave spider), it requires total darkness. Even an outdoor night time environment is too bright for it, so the spiders never leave the tombs. | |
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meteo morris
Wepowder 2013-01-16 20:39:00
The Pyrenees are experiencing historic, but also terrifying moments right now. Around 200 centimeters of freshies came down in the ski resorts on the French side of the Pyrenees since Sunday. All the lifts in the resorts are closed since Tuesday morning as a precaution. The combination of a stormy wind (100 km/h), the huge and intense snowfall and the fact that warmer air is coming in this afternoon is causing a very critical situation. Around 200 centimeters came down since Sunday and you can expect another 40-70 centimeters today.
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HispanicallySpeakingnews.com
2013-01-10 20:33:00
The Mexican government declared a emergency in 21 municipalities in the northern state of Chihuahua due to heavy snow and a cold wave blamed for six deaths there. Federal officials said that the measure, which was requested by the Chihuahua government, will allow authorities to access resources within the national emergency fund to cover food, clothing and health care needs among the affected population. Salvador Echavarria Campos, a meteorologist with Chihuahua's UEPC civil defense agency, said that the lowest temperature registered Thursday morning was minus 11 C (12 F) in the municipality of Bocoyna, in the state's mountainous region. On Tuesday, UEPC director Luis Lujan Peña confirmed that the snow had cut off some 150 communities in the Sierra Tarahumara mountains. So far, official figures are that six people have died in Chihuahua and two others in the western state of Michoacan from causes linked to the low temperatures. | |
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Tyler Durden
Almost two years after the awful nuclear disaster occurred, a fish caught near Fukushima on Friday January 18th had a record-breaking level of radioactive contamination over2500x the legal limit. TEPCO measured 'Mike the Murasoi' at 254,000 becquerels per kilogram (with the limit for edible seafood at 100 becquerels).ZeroHedge.com 2013-01-19 20:23:00 As Le Monde reports, the previous record (caught on August 21st 2012) was a mere 25,800 becquerels/kg. As further precautions, TEPCO is installing new nets 20km around the Fukushima Daichi site to avoid highly contaminated fish gettig too far and being consumed by other species. While Mike's family are no doubt distraught (at him being caught and being so radioactive), it appears (somewhat disappointingly) that there is no apparent third eye, lazer fins, legs, or other 'expected' 'blinky' malformations. Mike - the slightly crispy looking Marusoi...
Doesn't look anything like Blinky...
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| Fire in the Sky |
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Takashi Sugimoto
The Asahi Shimbun 2013-01-21 01:13:00
A shooting star accompanied by a loud boom was observed before dawn Jan. 20 across broad areas of the Kanto region, igniting intense interest on the Internet with the posting of video footage and eyewitness accounts. Fumiaki Goto, 28, an office worker in Tokigawa, Saitama Prefecture, captured footage of the fireball by chance while taking photos of the night sky just after 2:40 a.m. The plume was enhanced suddenly after its color turned to bluish white from light green and fell toward Ibaraki Prefecture, finally with a reddish hue, said Goto. The fireball was likely a meteorite, experts said. Video footage taken from a car had more than 200,000 hits. Chikara Shimoda of the Japan Fireball Network, a group of amateur astronomers, said the fireball disappeared at an altitude of about 30 kilometers. "It may have burnt up, or perhaps it hit the sea," said Shimoda, 55. | |
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Robert Lunsford
American Meteor Society 2013-01-19 17:06:00
The American Meteor Society has received 40 reports of a bright meteor that occurred near 06:30 PST on Friday morning January 11, 2013. Brightness estimates of this fireball vary considerably, but the average lies near magnitude -18, which lies between the light produced by the full moon and the sun. Every color of the rainbow has been reported with blue and white being most mentioned. A great majority of the reports have come from Washington, but sightings of the same event have also been received from Oregon, Idaho, and British Columbia. Individual reports may be viewed in the 2013 AMS Fireball Table Refer to event #63 for 2013. For those not familiar with meteors and fireballs, a fireball is a meteor that is larger than normal. Most meteors are only the size of small pebbles. A meteor the size of a softball can produce light equivalent to the full moon for a short instant. The reason for this is the extreme velocity at which these objects strike the atmosphere. Even the slowest meteors are still traveling at 10 miles per SECOND, which is much faster than a speeding bullet. Fireballs occur every day over all parts of the Earth. It is rare though for an individual to see more than one or two per lifetime as they also occur during the day, on a cloudy night, or over a remote area where no one sees it. Observing during one of the major annual meteor showers can increase your chance of seeing another one of these bright meteors. | |
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| Health & Wellness |
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Julia Whitty
Mother Jones 2013-01-21 14:26:00
Some plastics are worse than others for the marine life that accidentally or intentionally eat them. That's because not only are the plastics themselves toxic but some also act as sponges for other toxins. Unfortunately the most commonly produced plastics also absorb the most chemicals. This according to a new study in early view in Environmental Science & Technology. The researchers measured the absorption of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) - specifically polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) - to the five most common types of mass-produced plastics: | |
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wifiaustralia
Around the world an increasing number of governments and authorities have banned or warned against the use of wifi in schools. Many experts, scientists and doctors are warning the public to take a precautionary approach.Youtube 2012-12-11 13:12:00 In this video we examine the facts...
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Comment: For more information on how to protect yourself and those you care about, read our forum discussion on EMF.
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Alex Breitler
Recordnet.com 2013-01-14 12:46:00
The 1-year-old girl was playing "makeup" with her mother. Every day, mom brushed a fine black powder, known as surma, around the little girl's eyes - a practice common in Pakistani and Indian cultures, to both enhance a child's beauty and to ward off the "evil eye." But public health nurse Gail Heinrich knew it wasn't the evil eye this girl had to worry about. Surma is rich in toxic lead. A child who touches her face with her hands, then sticks her hands in her mouth, could be ingesting enough lead to damage her rapidly developing brain. Indeed, tests showed this little girl was suffering from lead poisoning. She endured five days of treatment at Children's Hospital Oakland, but too much damage had been done. "(The girl's mother) called me about a year and one-half later, and the child was on special education," said Heinrich, who coordinates a child lead poisoning program for San Joaquin County Public Health Services. "It's really sad," she said. | |
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Beth Daley
Boston.com 2013-01-16 12:40:00
Researchers have discovered a new human disease in the Northeast transmitted by the same common deer tick that can infect people with Lyme disease. The bacterial illness causes flu-like symptoms, the researchers from Tufts, Yale, and other institutions reported Wednesday, but they also described the case of an 80-year-old woman who became confused and withdrawn, lost weight, and developed hearing difficulty and a wobbly gait. The woman, from New Jersey, recovered after receiving antibiotics. Researchers estimate that 1 percent of the population in areas where Lyme disease is widespread -- such as western Massachusetts and Cape Cod and the Islands -- may be infected by the new bacteria, which can be transmitted by the tick when it is as small as a poppy seed. Lyme disease is thought to be 7 to 10 times more prevalent in these areas. The discovery, disclosed in a paper and letter in the New England Journal of Medicine, marks the fifth human illness spread by deer ticks in the region, highlighting growing concerns about the threat posed by ticks and the burgeoning population of their hosts -- deer. The disease is so new it remains unnamed and there is no readily-available test for doctors to screen for it, although some are being developed. "It was right under our nose the whole time,'' said Sam Telford, a professor at Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine who studies tick-borne diseases, and one of the authors on the paper about the elderly woman. He said the bacterium, known as Borrelia miyamotoi, has been known to exist in deer ticks for about decade. But it was not believed to cause human illness until researchers last year linked it to 46 sick people in Russia, some with relapsing fevers. | |
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Dr. Mark Sircus
Greenmedinfo.com 2013-01-16 13:37:00
As soon as flu vaccinations start next month, some people getting them will drop dead of heart attacks or strokes, some children will have seizures and some pregnant women will miscarry. - New York Times, 2009With flu cases in this city up tenfold from last year, the mayor of Boston declared apublic health emergency on the 9th of January. Right behind them the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared that influenza has reached epidemic proportionsin the United States, with 7.3% of deaths last week caused by pneumonia and the flu. U.S. health authorities say the flu arrived about a month earlier than usual this year, and the flu strain making most people sick - H3N2 - has a reputation for causing fairly severe illness, especially in the elderly and increasingly in the young. Nothing is said, of course, about the year-by-year weakening of the population (through numerous and ingenious ways like poisoning of the public water supplies with fluoride, the immune depression from yearly flu vaccines, increasing exposures to toxins in the environment, toxicity from pharmaceuticals prescribed by doctors, as well as accumulating nutritional deficiencies), all of which make unsuspecting individuals increasingly vulnerable to complications from the flu and from the flu vaccines that deliver a yearly toxic blow. Dr. Charlotte Ingle is telling her cancer patients, "We would advise that all cancer and hematology patients receive the vaccine unless they have contraindicated allergies regardless of whether or not they are receiving chemotherapy. We have advised the patient that they should have a flu vaccine as well as the pneumonia vaccine." This is not bad advice - this is medical insanity that will lead people closer to death's door. But that is what most pharmaceuticals do, so we should not be surprised. | |
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Science Daily
2013-01-19 00:00:00
New research links loneliness to a number of dysfunctional immune responses, suggesting that being lonely has the potential to harm overall health. Researchers found that people who were more lonely showed signs of elevated latent herpes virus reactivation and produced more inflammation-related proteins in response to acute stress than did people who felt more socially connected. These proteins signal the presence of inflammation, and chronic inflammation is linked to numerous conditions, including coronary heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, arthritis and Alzheimer's disease, as well as the frailty and functional decline that can accompany aging. Reactivation of a latent herpes virus is known to be associated with stress, suggesting that loneliness functions as a chronic stressor that triggers a poorly controlled immune response. | |
Comment: Stimulation of the vagus nerve can help people communicate better and relate better to others. To learn more about Vagus Nerve Stimulation, through breathing exercises, and naturally producing the stress reducing hormone Oxytocin in the brain, visit the Éiriú Eolas Stress Control, Healing and Rejuvenation Program here.
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Anne Angelone, L.Ac
Primal Docs 2013-01-18 09:26:00
Anti-aging skin products and treatments comprise a $10 billion market globally. Rosacea, psoriasis, and eczema affect millions of Americans, sending them in search of topical skin care solutions. While the effectiveness of anti-aging and skin care treatments range in their success, they overlook the most vital aspect of skin care: addressing skin health from the inside out. The skin is an immune barrier. Another large immune barrier is the digestive tract. Both the skin and the gut protect the sterile bloodstream from potentially harmful substances from the outside world. Other immune barriers are the respiratory tract and the blood-brain barrier. Skin that ages too fast These barriers can break down when health is suboptimal. In this way, the skin is a window into the health of the gut and the rest of the body. While aging skin is normal, especially with more exposure to sunlight, accelerated skin aging can indicate poor digestive and immune function. In women it may also indicate a hormonal imbalance as healthy, elastic skin depends on sufficient estrogen and progesterone levels. Good skin care includes addressing the health of the body. | |
Comment: For more information, check out Life Without Bread.
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| Science of the Spirit |
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Lawrence LeBlond
RedOrbit 2013-01-21 13:23:00
Everyone knows lying is wrong. And most parents try to instill in their children that this behavior is unacceptable. But new research has shown a vast majority of parents will actually lie to their children in order to get them to behave. Lead researcher Gail Heyman, of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), has found certain variations in the way parents from the US and China use untruths and white lies when dealing with their kids. The research is published in the International Journal of Psychology. Heyman and colleagues found the percentage of parents who reported lying to their children for the purpose of getting them to behave was higher in China (98 percent) than in the US (84 percent). The researchers believe the reason parents in China lie more in this manner is due to the fact that demand for compliance is greater in China than in the US, and parents will do whatever is necessary to make their kids conform. Other types of lying, however, were similar between China and US parents. In both countries, parents seem to be comfortable lying to their kids to promote positive feelings and to support belief in the existence of fantasy characters, such as the Tooth Fairy. | |
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| High Strangeness |
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Kieran Banks
The Queensland Times 2013-01-21 01:38:00
Two men who walked away from a car crash on the back roads around Wivenhoe Dam claimed to be chasing an alien space craft when found by police. Police and the driver's insurance company received several sketchy phone calls from the men, who appeared to be convinced paranormal activity caused the crash. Police received the first call from the men at 2.25am Friday, saying they had been in an accident at Split Yard Creek and asked for the RAAF to attend. It later became apparent the car had gone off the road and down an embankment near the Split Yard Creek bridge. As the evening progressed, the men became increasingly agitated and scared of the situation. The phone call dropped out, and after 30 minutes of trying to contact the men, police received a call from RACQ Insurance. Police said the conversations with the men were vague and at times barely understandable. | |
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Steve Yablonski
Update from OPDOswego County Today 2013-01-17 11:24:00 At approximately 7:30 p.m. the Oswego City Police Department began receiving numerous phone calls regarding strange light sources and/or balls of fire over Lake Ontario directly north of the city. Oswego City Police Department personnel made contact with the US Coast Guard- Oswego Station and were informed of the following: At about 5:30 p.m. the US Coast Guard received a report of an unknown object in the waters of Lake Ontario just outside of the breakwall. Coast Guard personnel were dispatched and as a result of their operation several flares were deployed into the sky. Residents of the area are in no immediate danger from the flares. The Oswego City Police Department has no further information regarding this incident. |
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Yulia Zamanskaya
Voice of Russia 2013-01-19 20:55:00
Lighting the fire during a cold winter evening a resident of Vladivostok found a rail-shaped metal detail which was pressed in one of the pieces of coal that the man used to heat his home. Mesmerized by his discovery, the responsible citizen decided to seek help from the scientists of Primorye region. After the metal object was studied by the leading experts the man was shocked to learn about the assumed age of his discovery. The metal detail was supposedly 300 million years old and yet the scientists suggest that it was not created by nature but was rather manufactured by someone. The question of who might have made an aluminum gear in the dawn of time remains unanswered. Nowadays, finding a strange artifact in coal is a relatively frequent occurrence. The first discovery of this sort was made in 1851 when the workers in one of the Massachusetts mines extracted a zinc silver-incrusted vase from a block of unmined coal which dated all the way back to the Cambrian era which was approximately 500 million years ago. Sixty one years later, American scientists from Oklahoma discovered an iron pot which was pressed into a piece of coal aged 312 million years old. Then, in 1974, an aluminum assembly part of unknown origin was found in a sandstone quarry in Romania. Reminiscent of a hammer or a support leg of a spacecraft Apollo, the piece dated back to the Jurassic era and could not have been manufactured by a human. All of these discoveries not only puzzled the experts but also undermined the most fundamental doctrines of modern science. | |
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BBC
An object accidentally fell from a military aircraft in US city of San Diego, causing damage to a business and embarrassing the US Marine Corps.2013-01-19 17:59:00
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Comment: It would be interesting to see the actual object that was recovered. It certainly seems like a possibility that, rather than a bucket, maybe some kind of space object fell down into the building and now the military is stepping in to cover it up and call it a "bucket".
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Greg Newkirk
WhoForted? 2013-01-19 12:03:00
As the Australian brush fires raged in the first part of this month, firefighters may have gotten a little extra hand from out of town. Way out of town. As one eagle-eyed news hound watched a clip of the wildfires filmed by the International Business Times, his gaze caught an odd, disc shaped object moving through the haze of smoke hanging in the air. After contacting YouTube user HawkkeyDavisChannel about the find, he isolated the clip in question, enhanced it, and came to the conclusion the the object had to be a UFO. "This is from a news feed on the wildfires in Australia on January 7th, 2013. A viewer watching my videos brought this to my attention and I feel it should be looked at. They seem to always be around extreme weather events. As always you be the judge and please leave your thoughts," he wrote in the video description. The oval craft can be seen moving from left to right through the haze of smoke, eventually disappearing behind the tree line. If you look closely, it almost looks like it's leaving a trail behind it as it hovers though the sky | |
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| Don't Panic! Lighten Up! |
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Stephen C. Webster
Raw Story 2013-01-21 15:32:00
In a bit of satire published Monday, faux news website The Onion cleared up all the confusion about what was supposed to be the end of the world round about December 12, 2012. Turns out, the Mayans never predicted the end of the world. They actually predicted the rise of "pale obese gun monsters."
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