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Jon Basil Utiley
The American Conservative 2015-06-12 17:30:00
America doesn't "win" its wars, because winning a war is secondary to other goals in our war making. Winning or losing has little immediate consequence for the United States, because the wars we start, Wars of Choice, are not of vital national interest; losing doesn't mean getting invaded or our cities being destroyed. The following are some of the interests Washington has in not winning, reasons for our unending wars. 1) War sustains the (very) profitable log-rolling contracts for supplies in key congressional districts, grants for university faculties to study strategy, new funding for new weapons. During wartime who dares question almost any Pentagon cost "to defend America?" 2) Continued conflict postpones hard decisions about cutting defense spending such as closing surplus bases, cutting duplicate systems, and focusing on waste. See 16 Ways to Cut Defense.Shakespeare put it well, advising a king to have lots of foreign wars in order to have tranquility at home. 3) Starting wars is the historic way for kings (and presidents) to gain popularity and avoid doing tough domestic reforms for problems that cry out for solutions. War lets them be postponed.Think of George W. Bush winning election on promises to balance the budget, have health care reform, reform our bankrupt social security commitments, tackle the EPA, take on the teachers' unions, rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, and such. Instead, with war, all those issues were swept aside. He won his re-election by having even bigger deficit warfare/welfare spending and increasing the national debt by trillions. | |
Comment: TAC bills itself as an anti-war, 'paleoconservative' alternative to the neoconservatives. It's good to see not all American conservatives have drunk the Neocon Koolaid.
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| Puppet Masters |
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Sputnik
2015-06-15 20:39:00
With one of the largest government data breaches in US history, hackers have potentially gained access to the personal information of every federal employee. That includes the darkest secrets of nearly 14 million people, including drug addictions, psychiatric diagnoses, and even extramarital affairs. | |
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John Wight
RT 2015-06-12 20:12:00
The crisis and chaos engulfing the Middle East and Ukraine is evidence of US imperial decline, as Washington learns the harsh lesson that no empire lasts forever. In the wake of the Vietnam War - the end of which was marked by news footage of US personnel and a select few Vietnamese collaborators being evacuated from the roof of the US Embassy in Saigon in 1975 - the United States entered a prolonged period of decline when it came to its ability to embark on major military operations. For all the massive destructive power in its arsenal, the Vietnamese had exposed US imperialism as a giant with feet of clay. The name given to this period of hard power retreat was the 'Vietnam syndrome' and lasted from 1975 to 1991, when the US and an international coalition embarked on the First Gulf War to force Iraqi troops out of Kuwait. We are witnessing a similar period of US imperial decline now with regard to Washington's inability to stage large-scale military operations. It arrived as a consequence of the failed occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, both of which achieved nothing except the eruption of terrorism and extremism across the region, and by extension the world. | |
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RT
2015-06-15 19:47:00
Comment: Romney isn't the first politician to bring up RT. It really must be frustrating to the Western Powers That Be to have a media organization like RT out there reporting on what's really going on in the world. People like Romney would probably enjoy living in a fascist dictatorship, as long they were part of the controllers. Sorry Romney, in a democracy, which is what politicians like you continually call the U.S. (even though it's not anymore), we have to allow for all sides of discourse to be given the right to be heard. Perhaps you'll be interested in going back to live in Nazi Germany. Former US presidential candidate Republican Mitt Romney has acknowledged RT's reach and influence. He called it part of Russia's "strategy," at the same time as slamming Obama and Clinton's foreign policy mistakes. Romney spoke to an audience of about 200 at the fourth annual E2 (Experts and Enthusiasts) summit in Park City, Utah. He backed his statements up with a PowerPoint presentation, the main focus of which was to slam the foreign policy mistakes of President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State (and now, the Democratic favorite of the presidential race) Hillary Clinton. He had a slide for each of Obama's "most consequential foreign policy mistakes,"including the "Middle East apology tour" and the "reset" effort in relations with Russia. This part of the presentation concluded with Romney asking whether Obama was "the worst foreign-policy president in history." He answered himself in the affirmative, reports the Washington Post. | |
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RT
2015-06-15 19:34:00
Israeli authorities have admitted they blocked a UN human rights envoy from entering the occupied Gaza area for a second year in a row, just as a UN report on last year's Gaza war is about to be made public. "We didn't allow this visit," said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon, as cited by AFP. The visit by the UN special rapporteur on human rights, Makarim Wibisono, was due to take place last week. However, according to Nahshon, the decision doesn't go against Israel's commitments to the UN. "Israel cooperates with all the international commissions and all rapporteurs, except when the mandate handed to them is anti-Israeli and Israel has no chance to make itself heard." Rapporteur Makarim Wibisono is attached to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), which is about to release its findings from an investigation into alleged war crimes Israel may have committed during last year's war in Gaza. | |
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Nil Nikrandov
Strategic Culture Foundation 2015-06-11 18:42:00
The precise date for election in Venezuela is not defined as yet. Probably Venezuelans will go to vote in October - November. President Nicolas Maduro said he wanted an election as soon as possible. The pre-race campaign hits the radar. It could be said without exaggeration that the fate of Venezuelan - style socialism, the goal of Bolivarian movement, is at stake. According to the results of 2010 National Assembly election, the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (Spanish: Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela, PSUV) got 96 seats with three seats going to the Communist Party and 6 to Fatherland for All (Patria Para Todos, PPT) and PODEMOS (literally meaning 'We can', an abbreviation of Por la Democracia Social, Spanish, meaning 'For Social Democracy'). The opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (Spanish: Mesa de la Unidad Democrática, MUD), a catch-all electoral coalition of Venezuelan centrist, centre-left, left-wing and some centre-right political parties, gained 65 seats. The correlation of forces allows President Nicolas Maduro to get the laws approved by parliament without expecting any serious obstruction from the right-wing opposition. Will the United Socialist Party of Venezuela maintain its position in the National Assembly after the 2015 election? It's hard to be optimistic. The election will take place under the conditions of economic downturn, permanent deficit of goods, inflation and the exacerbation of social problems. The Hugo Chavez voters may change allegiance. The experts are trying to define reasons for crisis. There are different versions. Some say the reasons are of emotional character. Voters are tired of ideological struggle affecting their daily routine, as well as overcoming everyday life difficulties and living under the conditions of permanent confrontation. | |
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Ulson Gunnar
New Eastern Outlook 2015-06-14 18:24:00
Recent news has shown China quickly gaining ground against a West which has for centuries maintained hegemony over Asia Pacific. Beyond Asia, China has been steadily expanding its influence throughout Africa and the Middle East. Together with Russia, Iran and other nations of the "East," they are constructing what is commonly referred to as a "multi-polar" world order. This multi-polar world order stands in contrast to the unipolar order the West has sought to impose for decades after the end of the World Wars and is a continuation of Western imperialism carried out by the British and other European empires during the decline of the Ottoman Empire. But is what the East doing truly building an alternative to the West's brand of hegemonic imperialism? Or is it simply more of the same under a different label? More over, is the West's behavior coaxing other nations to unify under a singular, consolidated banner, only to be rolled under the West's vision of an international order ruled from Washington, Wall Street, London and Brussels? | |
Comment: The issue is somewhat deeper than Gunnar might suppose. Yes, it is probably folly to attach oneself to a party or brand uncritically. And yes, every institution is susceptible to the entropy detectable in all human institutions. From the best of intentions, they are eventually steered in directions opposite to their founding principles, if indeed those principles were genuine and not just PR. But the solution isn't just in having the right principles; it is in having the right people, and actively excluding the wrong people, i.e., psychopaths. BRICS leaders should read Political Ponerology. If they do, they may do a better job than their Western predecessors.
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Finian Cunningham
Strategic Culture Foundation 2015-06-14 18:08:00
In a sane world, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond should be forced to quit his post in disgrace as the country's top diplomat, following reckless remarks that Britain may henceforth site American nuclear weapons to counter the «threat from Russia». So here we have an alarming escalation of international tensions and militarism by both Washington and London - and all on the back of unproven, prejudicial words from the close Anglo-American allies, who are clearly working in tandem. Hammond's overt reversal to Cold War mentality comes as Washington is also reportedly considering the deployment of »first-strike» nuclear missiles in various European Union countries. The Americans are claiming that move is «in response»to Russia violating the 1987 Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF). Moscow is accused of testing land-based cruise missiles banned under the INF. Russia has flatly denied this American claim, which - as is becoming the norm in other contentious matters - has not been supported with any evidence from Washington. This slanderous attitude toward Russia is doubly contemptible, because not only is it calumnious, the deception also serves as a political and moral cover that allows the Anglo-American rulers to take outrageous steps toward jeopardising international peace, with the unprecedented deployment of nuclear weapons. | |
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South Front
2015-06-15 18:03:00
A France Presse journalist Alexander Gayuk was wounded in shelling of the Donetsk suburb settlement Oktyabrskiy on Sunday. The journalist was taken to a local hospital. "The shelling was very intensive. I was lucky," he told the Donetsk News Agency over the phone. Apparently, Kiev government has already prepared a statement reporting that AFP journalist has shelled himself.
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Russia Insider
2015-06-15 16:35:00
Folker Hellmeyer predicts that the economic damage for Germany and the EU will be very significant if they continue to follow the US sanctions policy The article originally appeared at German Economic News. Translated for RI by Alexander Samarkin Folker Hellmeyer, chief economist at Bremer Landesbank, has no doubts about the future of the global economic system: The axis Moscow-Beijing-BRICS will prevail against the old hegemon USA. These countries have had enough of the West, because they want to pursue a long-term strategy and not opportunism. The EU is likely to be among the losers, due to its blind sanctions-obedience. German Economic News: The EU-countries report continuing losses because of the sanctions against Russia. What damage have the sanctions already done, in your estimation? Folker Hellmeyer: The damage is much more comprehensive than the statistics show. Let's start with the economy and the hitherto accumulated damage. The view on the decline of German exports of 18% year-over-year in 2014 and 34% in the first two months of 2015 includes only primary losses. There are also secondary effects. Economies of European countries with a strong Russia business, amongst others Finland and Austria, suffer massively. As a result, these countries place less orders in Germany. Moreover, in order to circumvent the sanctions, European conglomerates consider to create production facilities at the highest efficiency level in Russia. Therefore we lose this potential capital stock, which is the basis of our prosperity. Russia wins the capital stock. | |
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Sputnik
2015-06-15 16:31:00
The self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) is an independent state, which will never be part of Ukraine, DPR head Alexander Zakharchenko said Monday. "Whatever happens in Minsk, DPR is an independent state and will never be a part of Ukraine," Zakharchenko said during a meeting with residents of the town of Oktyabrsky, which repeatedly has been subject to shelling by Kiev-led forces. The region proclaimed independence from Ukraine in April 2014 amid a standoff with authorities in Kiev. Following the start of the military operation against southeast's militias the same month, the Donetsk region held a referendum in May and finalized its secession, creating a people's republic with its own government in Donetsk. The vote has not been internationally acknowledged. A series of negotiations, brokered by Russia, Germany, France and the Organization for Security and Co-operation, has led to an agreement in early 2015 that conditioned the republic's reintegration into Ukraine on Kiev overhauling the country's constitution to grant it a special status within the nation's borders. The recent escalation of tensions in the region has so far hindered the progress in talks between the warring parties. | |
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RT
2015-06-15 16:20:00
Saudi Arabia has beheaded a Syrian drug trafficker, rocketing the number of this year's executions in the Kingdom to 100. This figure is already more than the 87 sentenced and put to death in the country during the whole of last year. The execution took place on Monday in the northern region of Jawf. Syrian Ismael al-Tawm smuggled"a large amount of banned amphetamine pills into the kingdom," the Saudi Interior Ministry said in a statement, as cited by AFP. The man was sentenced to death according to the nation's strict version of Sharia law, under which such crimes as murder, rape, armed robbery and drug trafficking are punishable by death. Public executions are mostly conducted by decapitating the accused with a sword. The 100th execution has surpassed the 87 recorded by AFP in 2014, but is still some way below the highest figure of 192, recorded by the human rights group Amnesty International in 1995. The watchdog has been scathing of the Kingdom's human rights record, saying they "fall far short" of global norms. | |
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RT
2015-06-15 16:05:00
Sweden's Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom has hit out at the UN for suspending Anders Kompass, who leaked documents about French peacekeepers in the Central African Republic allegedly being involved in child abuse cases. "It hurts the credibility of the entire UN when something like this happens. You could question the whole treatment of the case in Geneva and the way they have handled Anders Kompass," Wallstrom told the Swedish television channel, SVT, as cited by the Local. The Swedish foreign minister added she had received support for opening an independent investigation into how Kompass's case was handled by the UN. Kompass was initially suspended on April 17, before the ban was lifted on May 6. "It is good that there will be an independent and hopefully speedy investigation of what really happened. I spoke to some of the participants [at the meeting in Johannesburg] who also say they want to make a statement on this issue. Those who take part with troops in peacekeeping efforts and policing efforts need to show that they take these kinds of signals seriously," she added. | |
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Nikolai Starikov
Russian Insider 2015-06-15 15:16:00
As usual, Starikov is very enlightening and incisive. Among other things he says that Ukraine will attack Russia at the behest of the US if they are successful in subduing the rebellious East - so Russia has no choice but to support the rebels. Starikov is a fixture on Russian TV - and is a very popular author and speaker who has started a conservative party called "The great fatherland party". One of his more controversial positions (to westerners) is that Stalin was a great leader, unfairly maligned and misunderstood. Interesting note: the intellectual level of discourse in Russia in politics is head and shoulders above what it is in the US. Starikov is a classic example of this.
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Comment: Starikov's take on the West's intentions has a lot of support:
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RT
2015-06-15 13:40:00
Hillary Clinton is running for US president on promises to protect Americans from "traditional threats" like Russia and a "rising" China, which Russia's FM spokeswoman described as coming directly from populist pamphlets of the last century. "No other country is better equipped to meet traditional threats from countries like Russia, North Korea, and Iran - and to deal with the rise of new powers like China," the candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, Hillary Clinton, said during her first major campaign speech on Saturday. "As your President, I'll do whatever it takes to keep Americans safe." The head of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Press and Information Department, Maria Zakharova, struck back at the ex-US Secretary of State and former first lady, saying that the Democrats were apparently trying to create a "new dragon" in order to gloriously slay it. "In order to defeat a dragon, the Democrats first needed to create it, which they have been doing successfully in recent years," Zakharova wrote on her Facebook page, adding that a proper election campaign required a new and worthy global enemy. | |
Comment: The real threat is Hillary herself: Hillary Clinton's lucrative life of crime
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RT
2015-06-15 13:13:00
The US and China have signed a rare agreement to strengthen ties and develop a more productive military relationship. However, mistrust still remains, with Beijing saying progress can only be made if Washington respects China's South China Sea ambitions. The understanding mainly concerns a deepening of cooperation between the two nations, following a meeting between Fan Changlong, the vice chairman of China's Central Military Commission and US Defense Secretary, Ashton Carter. Fan and US army Chief of Staff Raymond Odierno witnessed the signing of the dialogue understanding at the National Defense University in Washington, DC. | |
Comment: Wonder what US has up its sleeve?
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| Society's Child |
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John W. Whitehead
The Rutherford Institute 2015-06-15 19:07:00
"Free worlders" is prison slang for those who are not incarcerated behind prison walls. Supposedly, those fortunate souls live in the "free world." However, appearances can be deceiving. "As I got closer to retiring from the Federal Bureau of Prisons," writes former prison employee Marlon Brock, "it began to dawn on me that the security practices we used in the prison system were being implemented outside those walls." In fact, if Brock is right, then we "free worlders" do live in a prison—albeit, one without visible walls. In federal prisons, cameras are everywhere in order to maintain "security" and keep track of the prisoners. Likewise, the "free world" is populated with video surveillance and tracking devices. From surveillance cameras in stores and street corners to license plate readers (with the ability to log some 1,800 license plates per hour) on police cars, our movements are being tracked virtually everywhere. With this increasing use of iris scanners and facial recognition software—which drones are equipped with—there would seem to be nowhere to hide. Detection and confiscation of weapons (or whatever the warden deems "dangerous") in prison is routine. The inmates must be disarmed. Pat downs, checkpoints, and random searches are second nature in ferreting out contraband. Sound familiar? Metal detectors are now in virtually all government buildings. There are the TSA scanning devices and metal detectors we all have to go through in airports. Police road blocks and checkpoints are used to perform warrantless searches for contraband. Those searched at road blocks can be searched for contraband regardless of their objections—just like in prison. And there are federal road blocks on American roads in the southwestern United States. Many of them arepermanent and located up to 100 miles from the border. | |
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Steven MacMillan
New Eastern Outlook 2015-06-15 00:00:00
The century of 'big data' will be the century of unprecedented surveillance. The dream of tyrants down through history has been the total monitoring, control and management of the public, with the ability to predict the behaviour of entire populations the most efficient means of achieving this objective. For millennia, this has mainly existed in the realm of fantasy, however with the vast leap in technology in recent decades, this idea is becoming less a dystopian science fiction movie and more the daily business of totalitarian high-tech regimes. Most readers are now familiar with the predatory surveillance practices of agencies such as the NSA and GCHQ, which high-level NSA whistleblower William Binney describes as "totalitarian" in nature, adding that the goal of the NSA is "to set up the way and means to control the population". Yet many people may not be aware of the next phase in 21st century surveillance grid; the 'smarter city'. Promoted by some as a low-cost and efficient way of managing the workings of a city, others see the surveillance implications of such initiatives as chilling to say the least. Smart cities are broadly defined as digitally connected urban areas filled with ubiquitous sensors, monitors and meters, which collect data on every aspect of the city; from energy usage, to transport patterns. This data is then analysed and used by city planners to 'improve decision making'. | |
Comment: If our society was not dominated by psychopaths intent on controlling every facet of human behavior, such smart cities could actually be creative and cooperative rather than venues for technological surveillance.
Smart cities should be sharing and cooperative rather than solely technology focused | |
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Robert Reich
2015-06-14 00:00:00
How can it be that the largest pending trade deal in history - a deal backed both by a Democratic president and Republican leaders in Congress - is nearly dead? The Trans Pacific Partnership may yet squeak through Congress but its near-death experience offers an important lesson. It's not that labor unions have regained political power (union membership continues to dwindle and large corporations have more clout in Washington than ever) or that the President is especially weak (no president can pull off a major deal like this if the public isn't behind him). The biggest lesson is most Americans no longer support free trade. It used to be an article of faith that trade was good for America. Economic theory told us so: Trade allows nations to specialize in what they do best, thereby fueling growth. And growth, we were told, is good for everyone. | |
Comment: Extrapolate a bit and imagine how most people in the U.S. will respond to having their bank assets frozen, being told that what they do have is worth less than ever, and that the dream of prosperity they've been sold and worked so hard for was a total and complete lie. What will many of them do then? How will they say "no deal" then?
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Sputnik
2015-06-15 15:54:00
Odessa residents rallied on Sunday against the appointment of fugitive Georgian ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili as governor of the region. Around 500 residents of Ukraine's Odessa rallied on Sunday against the newly appointed governor, fugitive Georgian ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili. Saakashvili fled Georgia after the country's new president was elected in November 2013. Saakashvili was appointed as Odessa's governor on May 30, after a brief stint as an advisor to Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko. In Georgia, he is accused of embezzling at least $5 million from the state for personal use.
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RT
2015-06-15 03:00:00
A blaze from a ruptured gas pipeline near Cuero in Texas is being allowed to slowly burn out. A local sheriff said he expects this to happen by Monday morning. A huge column of fire was visible for over 20 miles after the pipeline caught fire. No injuries have been reported so far, according to Raul Diaz, a deputy with the DeWitt County Sheriff's Office, as cited by My San Antonio online news. "If we were going to have a fire from a ruptured pipeline, I don't think we could have picked a better location, as there were so few homes around there," said Joel Zavesky. He added the Sheriff's Office doesn't have any idea what caused the blaze. There was no major damage as a result of the inferno. Some telephone poles were damaged and there were also some grass fires. Sheriff Zavesky says he expects the fire to burn out by Monday morning. The incident took place near Cuero, a town about 75 miles east of San Antonio.
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Comment: One of these 'mixed messages' suggests more information is needed before the cause of this explosion can be determined:
Woman who lives about mile from pipeline explosion in Cuero said she felt the ground shake before ball of fire shot up.— Bianca R. Montes (@reporterbianca) June 15, 2015
What ignited the 'ruptured pipeline' in this remote location? In Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection, Pierre Lescaudron presents the possibility that certain types of buildings or factories can act as attractors for dramatic electrical discharges, whether 'sparked' by incoming comet fragments or atmospheric electrical conditions. So could something similar be responsible for igniting this explosion? See also: Was the West Texas explosion a meteorite impact?, Light beam seen during Michigan power plant explosion and SOTT Exclusive: Solar System 'grounding':Transformer explosions and electrical anomalies | |
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FilmingCops.com
2015-06-15 01:30:00
We have just received a deeply unsettling video of a police officer choking and shooting a child with a taser gun yesterday afternoon, Saturday June 13. More details are coming out, and we do not have the victim's name yet, nor the officer's name, but we do know this happened in Fallbrook, California. A witness at the scene provided us the following information. The child was 13-yrs-old (on the video other witnesses assume he's "15 or 16″ but our sources say he is in fact 13). He was riding on his skateboard with other young boys behind a shopping center, and there happened to be a patrol car parked nearby. At some point an officer inside of the patrol car told the 13-yr-old child to "get in the car." The child replied, "Why?" The officer then warned, "You don't want to get dropped." Witnesses say that at this point the child became scared and continued skating to a safe place away from the officer. That is when the officer got out of his vehicle and began slugging the child on the back, according to witnesses. The cop then "dropped" the child to the ground. At this point several witnesses pulled out their phones and began recording. The cop can be seen in the video tackling and wrestling the child to the concrete. But then the unthinkable happens. The video shows the cop locking the child in what appears to be a rear chokehold. As the child is being choked from behind, the officer uses his free hand to bring his taser gun up to the child's back and shoot it into his spinal area. The child can be heard screaming, flipping around, and his legs can be seen firing up and down in pain. The officer then shouts, "Put your f***ing hands behind your back!" The child can be heard saying "I can't" while screaming. The next tasering is even more horrendous. The cop literally has the child pinned down to the concrete, and begins tasing his back again. The child's body can be seen convulsing uncontrollably, his legs flinging up into the air backwards, suggestion serious cardiac problems at this point or possibly seizures. The other witnesses are heard getting angry and pleading with the cop to stop the attack, saying "He's just a kid!" The cop drags the child up and forces him into the patrol car — the child looks visibly injured or motionless. During the final moments of the scene, the officer still has his taser gun out and begins approaching the witnesses. The witnesses are heard asking a nearby citizen for help. "It was scary," one of them told FilmingCops.com. "We thought he was gonna start tasing us too." | |
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Evan McMurry
AlterNet 2015-06-13 00:00:00
Millionaires and billionaires have resumed their ostentatious and tin-eared ways. After the dust cleared from the economic implosion of 2007-2008, being rich became briefly unpopular. Investment firm CEOs, Wall Street bankers and craven house flippers had crashed the economy, and as details of their Gatsby-esqe lifestyle surfaced—Lehman Brothers CEO Dick Fuld, for instance, took a helicopter to work before his century-old firm collapsed—their conspicuous consumption turned insult to injury. That didn't last long. Bank and corporate profits rebounded quickly, and with all but one banker getting off the legal hook, hardly anybody suffered any consequences for ruining the economy. Sure enough, millionaires and billionaires resumed their profligate, ostentatious and tin-eared ways, but whereas before the bubble burst these were badges of a surging economy, now they came off as self-parody. From arguing for a $2 wage to buying $150 million sculptures, here are the worst of the rich from the past seven years. | |
Comment: Noteworthy but unsurprising insights into the minds and values of some of the very rich. Is it any wonder that so much is screwed up? But alas, many of these cretins are in for a rude awakening.
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Bethania Palma Markus
Raw Story 2015-06-13 19:53:00
Had it not been for the help of four young brothers, a 75-year-old Texas woman could have ended up in handcuffs already. Why? Because the grass in her field was overgrown. After seeing a news report that the city of Riesel had issued an arrest warrant for Gerry Suttle because she never received a court summons for her grass, missed her hearing and got a bench warrant, Blaine Reynolds and his brothers leaped into action in an effort to keep her out of jail. "It's a summer day, we don't have season passes yet to Hawaiian Falls," Blaine Reynolds, one of the boys, told local station KWTX on Wednesday. What else could we do but go out and help some people." The station reports that the boys' good deed inspired neighbors to step in and help mow Suttle's lawn. But even the neighborhood effort couldn't keep the city off the elderly woman's back. On Thursday, she received another summons to appear before a judge concerning her lawn, the station reports. "Just leave me alone," Suttle told KWTX. "I've lived here 59 years. I don't know how much longer I've got to live here." She's due in court June 16. "It is very heartbreaking to see that someone that I didn't even know came out and spent two hours in the sun doing what we thought the city wanted done and then them turn around and say 'no,'" Suttle told CBS News. But keeping Suttle out of the grips of city officials has now become a community effort. | |
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| Secret History |
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Khier Casino
Opposing Views 2015-06-14 00:00:00
The Margate Shell Grotto, a winding underground passageway in Kent, England, decorated with nearly 4.6 million seashells, is one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in the world. Legend has it that in 1835, James Newlove and his son, Joshua, were digging a duck pond in Margate, Kent, when they noticed a hole in the ground. Newlove then lowered his kid down there to check it out, according to BuzzFeed. The hole turned out to be caverns connected together by several underground tunnels with walls covered in intricate mosaics made out of millions of seashells (video below). The shells in the grotto include scallops, mussels, limpets, whelks, cockles, and oysters, all of which can be found locally. In all, there are more than 2,000 square feet of shell mosaic in the grotto, according to Viral Nova. | |
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| Science & Technology |
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Science Daily
2015-06-15 00:00:00
With infectious diseases increasing worldwide, the need to understand how and why disease outbreaks occur is becoming increasingly important. Looking for answers, a team of University of South Florida (USF) biologists and colleagues found broad evidence that supports the controversial 'dilution effect hypothesis,' which suggests that biodiversity limits outbreaks of disease among humans and wildlife. The paper describing their research appears in a recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 'The dilution effect hypothesis is important because it warns that human-mediated biodiversity losses can exacerbate disease outbreaks, yet it has been contentiously debated,' said study lead author Dr. David Civitello, postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Integrative Biology at USF. | |
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| Earth Changes |
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Eygló Svala Arnarsdóttir
Iceland Review 2015-06-10 20:37:00
The Icelandic Marine Research Institute's annual spring expedition from May 18 to 30 concluded that the ocean temperature off Iceland has not been lower in 18 years, or since 1997. The number of krill is below average and not a single mackerel was caught. "In the past years we have always caught some mackerel, and especially last year. But now we didn't see any," Guðmundur J. Óskarsson, one of the institution's specialists, who took part in the expedition, told Fréttablaðið. Guðmundur stated that the ocean temperature from Southeast Iceland to the West Fjords has dropped by one to one-and-a-half degree Celsius. However, it can quickly increase if the air temperature increases substantially, he added. Last month was the coldest May in Iceland in decades. The expedition is part of the institute's long-term study of the condition of the ocean around Iceland, the vegetation, krill and fish which exist there. Samples were taken in 110 locations. | |
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wxii12.com
2015-06-15 17:52:00
Two Triad children lost at least part of one limb following apparent shark attacks about an hour apart at the same North Carolina beach Sunday afternoon. A 12-year-old girl from Asheboro and a 16-year-old boy from Winston-Salem were injured off different parts of Oak Island, about 30 miles south of Wilmington. Both were flown to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, though both were in good condition as of Monday morning. No names have been released. The girl's left arm was amputated below the elbow, and one of the boy's arms was amputated below the shoulder, officials from New Hanover Regional Medical Center told NBC affiliate WECT. The girl also had tissue damage to her left leg. Oak Island officials said both incidents happened when the victims were in waist-deep water about 20 yards offshore. Officials weren't able to confirm by Monday morning whether the same animal attacked both victims.
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Shanti Das
Daily Mirror, UK 2015-06-15 17:36:00
A massive swordfish was found washed up on a British tidal riverbank - an extremely rare sight in the UK. Beachcombers saw the majestic fish - which measured 6ft in length including its bill - struggling in shallow waters but could not save it. Experts believe the fish travelled more than 1,500 miles to Severn Beach on the mouth of the River Severn in South Gloucestershire - all the way from the Mediterranean. Nicola Hills, 39, from Severn Beach, found the swordfish with her husband Gary. She said: "We were walking the dog and we saw this thing thrashing about in the water. "The first thing I thought was 'what the hell is that?' I thought it was a shark or a dolphin or something." | |
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Homes were being evacuated and fire crews from the lower 48 states were racing to a wildfire north of Anchorage, Alaska, that grew to 6,500 acres in just hours, authorities said early Monday. The so-called Sockeye Fire, in the town of Willow, about 80 miles north of Anchorage, forced firefighters on the defensive as aircraft continually drop water and fire retardant Sunday night, the state Forestry Department said. Residents began fleeing from a voluntary evacuation area covering both sides of a 15-mile stretch of the George Parks Highway. As of Sunday evening, more than 200 people had signed into one evacuation center near Talkeetna. But the total number of evacuations wasn't immediately available. The fire was first reported at 1:15 p.m. (5:15 p.m. ET) as covering 2 acres and quickly grew. By 3 p.m. it had reached 80 acres, and by 6 p.m. it covered 1,077 acres along the western shore of Kashwitna Lake, the Forestry Division said. By 10:30 p.m., the fire had grown to 4,183 acres. Two hours later, it was estimated at 6,500 acres.
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grapevine.is
2015-06-10 08:56:00
Hundreds of sheep in Iceland have died off, and no one seems to know the exact cause. Research is currently underway to find the culprit. RÚV reports that the deaths have hit especially hard in Borgarfjörður in west Iceland, Eyjafjörður in the north, and across east Iceland. The wide area over which the deaths are occurring - as well as the alarming rate at which sheep are dying off - has many farmers worried. In some cases, half of entire flocks have been lost. Svavar Halldórsson, chairperson of the National Association of Sheep Farmers, told reporters that he believes disease may be to blame. As such, he and other farmers have begun taking blood samples from ill sheep to be analyzed by the National Veterinary Authority. More specifically, MBL reports that bad hay may be killing the sheep. Svavar has no exact figures on how many sheep have fallen so far, but told reporters that the deaths have "been a heavy weight on our farmers, to miss so many animals." | |
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Ryan Robinson
Lancaster Online 2015-06-14 23:12:00
The Veterans Memorial Bridge over the Susquehanna River between Columbia and Wrightsville reopened Sunday after mayflies forced its closure Saturday night, police said. Thousands and thousands of mayflies swarmed the lights on the Route 462 bridge, died and fell to the road, causing three motorcycle crashes, a fire official said. The coating of dead mayflies (also called shadflies) was about an inch thick. At 10:30 p.m., a motorist stopped at the Wrightsville Fire Department station and reported an eastbound motorcycle had crashed on the Wrightsville side of the bridge, Wrightsville Fire Chief Chad Livelsberger said. Firefighters encountered a surreal scene. "It was like a blizzard in June, but instead of snow, it was mayflies," Livelsberger said. Dead mayflies about an inch thick covered a large section of the bridge. "It was very slick, almost like ice," the chief said. "It was hard to stop, in the engine and the vehicles." Livelsberger's pickup truck skidded to a stop. "When you go to pull out, all your tires would do was spin." The black mayflies are close to 2 inches long and a quarter-inch wide, Livelsberger said. "It looks like a meal worm with wings." | |
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| Fire in the Sky |
No new articles.
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| Health & Wellness |
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Christina Sarich
Natural Society 2015-06-14 00:00:00
In the same way Big Food makers tried to rename sugar in their products so that consumers wouldn't know that their favorite brands contained almost 75 percent empty calories, the mainstream media is trying to re-brand GMOs so that the public thinks the food creations are completely safe. That's right. Just like Hilary Clinton advised biotech at a recent symposium, she thinks if customers just 'thought of GMOs differently' we would like them more. Like putting a new coat of paint on a dilapidated shed and calling it a mansion, or prettying up our fall wardrobe with some new shoes - we just need a new 'name' for GMOs, and then we'd like eating something that could make us infertile while causing cancer and kidney failure. In a recent article posted by the NY Times, the author goes on about how to give 'altering the DNA of plants' a new name. They don't call this genetic engineering at the University of Copenhagen.They're calling it re-wilding. | |
Comment: The industry has seen the writing on the wall - more and more people are now aware of the serious negative consequences of genetic engineering and want to avoid these products. Biotech firms will no doubt try anything and everything to prolong their revenue streams.
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| Science of the Spirit |
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Lauren Suval
World of Psychology 2015-06-15 00:00:00
For me, one of the hardest facets of stress is relinquishing control. And though there is control in how I personally react and choose to respond to circumstances, there's also a feeling of helplessness; a feeling that control is not completely present. I don't have complete control over genuine and natural shifts in relationships — the progression of people growing apart. New perceptions affect awareness; they affect how connections are conceived. I don't have complete control of the past, and all the baggage that comprises such chapters. I don't have complete control over nodules in my thyroid that may or may not get bigger; that may or may not require a biopsy or further treatment. I don't have complete control over a competitive job market or a profession that may not lend itself to a stable, sufficient income. From an evolutionary standpoint, the desire for a sense of control is a profound psychological need. "If we are in control of our environment, then we have a far better chance of survival," an article onchangingminds.org stated. "Our deep subconscious mind thus gives us strong biochemical prods when we face some kind of danger (such as the fight-or-flight reaction)." Interesting. Though life is renowned for unpredictability, individuals crave a sense of control. Some factors, though, are simply uncontrollable. | |
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| High Strangeness |
Forget the fabled Loch Ness Monster. Now we've got something else just as strange at Scotland's famous lake where, according to legend, a prehistoric beast makes its home. Move over, Nessie, UFOs seem to take a liking to your backyard. A tourist unexpectedly photographed what looks like a pair of disc-shaped objects flying above the water of the 22-mile-long freshwater lake (pictured below).
Back on April 29, Alan Betts was vacationing in the Scottish Highlands with his wife, Anna, and her parents. They were at a holiday cottage near Urquhart Castle -- a longtime monster hunting location. In fact, you can spend your day in front of a computer screen, from anywhere in the world, looking for Nessie via a live Loch Ness web cam. But on this day in April, it wasn't Nessie that had its picture taken -- it was something else. | ||
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| Don't Panic! Lighten Up! |
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WFTV
2015-06-14 11:54:00
Ocala, Florida —A Palatka man said he snapped a picture of a raccoon on top of an alligator in the Ocala National Forest Sunday morning. Richard Jones said he and his family were walking along the Oaklawaha River watching alligators when his son walked through some palm fronds to get a good picture. Jones said his son must have startled the raccoon, which stumbled toward the water and hopped on top of the gator that was nearby. Jones was able to quickly take the unique photo before the raccoon scurried back on land. "I snapped a lucky picture right when the gator slipped into the water and before the raccoon jumped off and scurried away. Without the context you'd think the raccoon was hitching a ride across the river. Pretty amazing," Jones said in an email. "Definitely the photo of a lifetime." | |
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