The Raw Story

A non-profit news blog, focused on providing independent journalism.

Friday, 31 October 2014

Modern day America: One step away from the Third Reich

Unbeknownst to most Americans the United States is presently under thirty presidential declared states of emergency. They confer vast powers on the Executive Branch including the ability to financially incapacitate any person or organization in the United States, seize control of the nation's communications infrastructure, mobilize military forces, expand the permissible size of the military without congressional authorization, and extend tours of...

Genes could influence who survives Ebola

© iStockphoto/nopparitThe Ebola virus rendered into 3D. The Ebola virus is not always deadly and genetics may play a role in the severity of the illness, according to a new study on mice.Researchers at the University of Washington infected mice with a mouse form of the same species of the Ebola virus that is sweeping West Africa.Seventy per cent of the mice got sick, and more than half of this group died, some due to liver inflammation and others...

NATO: Rebellion in the junior ranks?

© Mike Faille/National Post Vladimir Putin, the wily strategist of Russian revanchism, is well on his way to reconstructing the Warsaw Pact. That, at least, is what the pundits of are making it out to seem. Last week, Jackson Diehl penned a column on how Putin has driven a wedge between NATO and its easternmost members. Anne Applebaum, meanwhile, pins the failure to maintain quiet on the eastern front on NATO itself and its decision not to establish...

The human microbiome: Gut Bacteria quickly being cast as culprits or saviors for a diverse array of ailments

© Kharlamova/Thinkstock In 2001, Joshua Lederberg, a Nobel Prize-winning biologist, coined the term "microbiome," naming the trillions of microorganisms that reside in and on our bodies. Today, if you type that word into Google, you'll turn up thousands of hits linking gut bacteria to a laundry list of health problems, from food allergies to Ebola. Between 2007 and 2012, the number of journal articles published on the microbiome increased by nearly...

Riots against police brutality break out across France

Protesters stand off against police in southern France Another anti-police brutality protest turned violent in the French city of Rennes, with masked youths and police engaging in running street battles. The unrest follows the death of a young environmental activist earlier this week.Overnight Thursday, protesters in the northwestern city lobbed flairs at police and flipped over cars, some of which they set ablaze. Police responded by firing tear...

Sense of disgust is '95 percent accurate' predictor of whether you're liberal or conservative

© Shutterstock.comWoman disgusted by something Scientists say they can predict "with 95 percent accuracy where you'll fall on the liberal-conservative spectrum by showing you just one picture" and then studying how your brain responds to the image. Furthermore, studies show that political orientation may be as inheritance-based as height.According to , increasing evidence indicates that the sense of disgust is closely aligned with a person's political...

#Droughtshaming: residents play water cop while Big Agra gets away with sucking California dry

Amid California's record drought, towns up and down the state are rolling out smartphone apps that enable people to snap pictures of neighbors and businesses who are violating water restriction rules and "play water cop":The apps put more boots on the ground to spot waste and leaks that might go unnoticed, officials say. They say the high-tech citizen reporting programs are intended to encourage water conservation, and not to be used as evidence...

Texas plans to fingerprint everyone of driving age within the next 12 years

The Texas Department of Public Safety might as well be called the Texas Department of Public Invasiveness.They've launched a plan to fingerprint every single person of driving age in the state, after which they will add the person's prints to the criminal database.Is it just me or is that a rather Dystopian plan?Jon Cassidy of Watchdog.org writes:The credit for breaking the news on those two items goes to consumer affairs columnist Dave Lieber...

Weekend storm to bring first snowfall to New England, Great Lakes, Appalachians

© Weather.com Winter storm warnings and winter weather advisories are posted for parts of the Appalachians and snow advisories are in effect in the Great Lakes as the season's first snow targets those areas from Halloween into the weekend.As of Friday morning up to 8 inches of snow fell in Winchester, Wisconsin and near Three Lakes, Michigan. Wind gusts up to 60 mph have also been reported in parts of Michigan.Snow Timing Given the expected intensity...

Three spooky spy tactics of Big Brother

© hanna horwarth/Flickr It's that time of year when people don sinister masks, spray themselves with fake blood, and generally go all out for a good fright. But here at EFF, we think there are plenty of real-world ghouls to last all year-round. Fortunately, we won't let them hide under your bed. Sometimes our work sounds like science fiction, but the surveillance techniques and technology we fight are all too real. Here are some of the beasts hiding...

Tropical Storm Vance threatens Mexico's Pacific coast, could strengthen to hurricane by Sunday

Tropical Storm Vance continues to churn over the waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean after developing on Thursday afternoon.The AccuWeather.com Hurricane Center is keeping a close eye on the system, located several hundred miles south-southeast of Acapulco.Further strengthening will occur through this weekend as the tropical cyclone remains over the warm waters of the eastern Pacific and in an environment that lacks disruptive wind shear, which...

US: Cold temperatures rush into East, shock parts of South

The coldest air since April will blast into the Eastern states and will shock parts of the South this weekend.In many areas, the cold air will be pushed along and enhanced by gusty winds.The winds will be generated by a winterlike storm swinging off the mid-Atlantic coast and possibly taking a curved path back toward New England.Gusts ranging between 35 and 50 mph will sweep from the southern Appalachians to the Carolina, Georgia and northeastern...

What happens when you take a psycho's advice - 'Europe to pay for the whole mess in Ukraine'

© Agence France-PresseRussian Energy Minister Alexander Novak (L), Ukraine's Energy and Coal Industry Minister Yuri Prodan (R), European Commission President Jose Manuel Barosso (C) address a press conference as EU Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger (2nd L) and European Commission vice-president Miros Sefkovic look on, after an agreement was signed between Ukraine, Russia and the EU at the European Union Commission headquarters in Brussels on...

Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo destroyed after 'in-flight anomaly'

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo fired its engine for the first time over the Mojave Desert in California Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo has been destroyed after "an in-flight anomaly" during a rocket powered test flight over the Mojave Desert, Calif. Friday morning."#SpaceShipTwo has experienced an in-flight anomaly. Additional info and statement forthcoming," the official Virgin Galactic feed tweeted at 10:13 a.m. PDT (1:13 p.m. EDT). This announcement...

Travesty of US 'healthcare' system where 225,000 people die yearly from prescription drugs

From time to time, I reprint my interview with Dr. Barbara Starfield. Each time I try to write a new introduction.In this case, I'll highlight the arbitrary nature of scare-propaganda. And by arbitrary, I mean "has a covert agenda." For instance, suppose you learned that a single source in the US, every year, like clockwork, kills 225,000 people. That would be 2.25 million killings per decade. Wouldn't you think we'd hear about it? Wouldn't public...

Woman killed by wild boar in rare attack, Vietnam

© Getty A woman died after being trampled and bitten by a wild boar in a mountainous area of central Vietnam, a local official said Thursday.The 39-year-old woman was working in a rice field in Pho Hoa commune in Quang Ngai province when the animal attacked her, said Nguyen Van Nho, chairman of the commune's People's Committee.The woman died several hours later.The boar was being pursued by hunters when it attacked the woman, and the animal was...
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