Signs of the Times

http://www.sott.net Signs of the Times: The World for People who Think. Featuring independent, unbiased, alternative news and commentary on world events. en-us Original content Copyright 2014 by Signs of the Times/Sott.net. For other content, see our Fair Use Policy at www.sott.net. Fri, 24 Oct 2014 05:04:41 +0200 http://ift.tt/1znbqC3 SOTT.net http://www.sott.net http://ift.tt/ZKAdQ1 A grandfather shot back and is believed to have killed a suspect in a home-invasion and attempted rape of his teen granddaughter on Monday night, Robeson County Sheriff's officials said. The grandfather was also shot - but he also managed to shoot the 2 other suspects in the home-invasion and attempted rape, said Maj. Anthony Thompson with the Robeson County Sheriff's Office. The incident started around 10 pm at a house on Yedda Road in Lumberton on Monday night when someone knocked on the home of the grandfather, his wife and their 19-year-old granddaughter, according to the sheriff's office. Two of three men - all wearing black clothes, ski masks and gloves -- stormed into the house and demanded money, officials said. The grandfather and his wife ended up in the back of the house and were directed at gunpoint to open a safe. The three men were all armed and tried to rape the teen girl, officials said. The 67-year-old grandfather managed to grab a gun and shot all three of the suspects. The suspects fired back and the grandfather was hit several times, deputies said. After that, all three wounded suspects fled in the grandfather's gold Cadillac. http://ift.tt/ZKAdQ1 Fri, 24 Oct 2014 05:01:51 +0200 http://ift.tt/1ozNRSe A very cold winter in Eastern Europe may tilt its political balance in Russia's direction, And why the situation might go from bad to worse. As winter approaches, Putin's hand is even stronger, as the crisis begins to transform from a military confrontation into a confrontation between Ukraine and Europe over the supply of Russian natural gas Reports out of Milan regarding last Friday's much anticipated meeting between Russian president Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko indicate that little progress has been made toward resolving the nearly yearlong Ukraine crisis. This, given the broader political currents at play in Europe, is unsurprising. To begin with, Mr. Poroshenko has, for all intents and purposes, lost the military battle over the Donbas in resounding fashion. While his bloc leads in the polls ahead of next Sunday's parliamentary election, Poroshenko faces a number of other challenges, not least of which is a collapsing economy (some estimates have the Ukrainian economy shrinking by 10 percent this year) and a burgeoning populist backlash over the government's handling of the crisis. So what we saw play out in Milan is more or less a repeat of the last Putin/Poroshenko meeting that took place in Minsk on August 26, because the same logic applies. Mr. Putin, as I wrote then, is always going to be the party - regardless of whether he is facing sanctions or a chorus of international condemnation - who will be playing the stronger hand in negotiations with Ukraine. Yet as we approach November, his hand is even stronger, as the crisis begins to transform from a military confrontation between Russia and Ukraine into a confrontation between Ukraine and Europe over the supply of Russian natural gas. Ukraine serves as the transit point for 50 percent of EU-bound Russian LNG, and Ukraine's siphoning off of LNG bound for southeastern Europe, which led to Russia cutting off the supply in January 2006 and January 2009, is still fresh in the minds of European leaders. The Rada's recent passage of a lustration bill, widely publicized acts of violence against sitting MPs through "trash bucket challenges," a popular revival of Nazi-era symbols and the incorporation of far-right elements into Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk's "People's Front" do not exactly augur well for the chances for a tranquil political environment in either Ukraine or in Eastern Europe, where the memory of Ukrainian collaboration against the Poles and the region's Jews is fresher there than it is here in the United States. http://ift.tt/1ozNRSe Fri, 24 Oct 2014 04:43:40 +0200 http://ift.tt/1ozNUNG Tens of thousands march in Mexico for missing students as Iguala mayor is accused of being 'mastermind' behind disappearances Tens of thousands marched in Mexico City and Iguala, Mexico on Wednesday to protest the disappearance of 43 student-teachers who went missing on September 26. Reflecting growing outrage over the failure of Mexican authorities to resolve the case, a group of masked protesters separated from the peaceful demonstration of several thousand in Iguala, broke into the city hall and smashed computers and windows before setting fire to the building. In Mexico City, students from 29 universities joined 50,000 marchers under the banner: "Alive they took them, alive we want them back!" One man held a sign that read: "Mexico has turned into an immense unmarked grave." A candlelight vigil in the Zócalo, the historic central square, followed the demonstration. http://ift.tt/1ozNUNG Fri, 24 Oct 2014 04:42:51 +0200 http://ift.tt/1xfsvID Prisoners serving time in the state of Pennsylvania can now be sued for speaking up from behind bars after Governor Tom Corbett signed into law this week the Revictimization Relief Act that legislatures rushed to approve only days earlier. The bill, signed on Tuesday by Corbett, a Republican, allows victims of "a personal injury crime" to sue the perpetrator if that offender "perpetuates the continuing effect of the crime on the victim." State Rep. Mike Vereb, a Republican and a co-author of the act, announced earlier this month that he'd be rallying lawmakers to support the bill after former death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal was allowed to record a commencement speech that was played for graduates of Goddard College during an October 5 ceremony. http://ift.tt/1xfsvID Fri, 24 Oct 2014 04:31:39 +0200 http://ift.tt/1ozIu5u A hatchet-wielding man attacked a group of patrol officers in a busy commercial district in Queens on Thursday, injuring two before the other officers shot and killed him, New York City police said. A bystander was wounded in the gunfire. At a news conference at a hospital where one officer was being treated for a serious head wound, Police Commissioner William Bratton said that investigators were still trying to confirm the identity of the assailant and determine a motive. Asked if the attack could be related to terrorism, Bratton didn't rule it out. He cited the fatal shooting of a solider in Canada earlier this week - what officials there have called a terror attack - as reason for concern. "This early on, we really cannot say yes or no to that question," Bratton said. The attack occurred in the commercial district in Queens at about 2 p.m., while four rookie New York Police Department officers on foot patrol were posing for a photo, police said. Without a word, the man charged the officers and began swinging the hatchet, first hitting one in the arm and another in the back of the head, they said. After the second officer fell to the ground, the two uninjured officers fired several rounds. The bullets killed the assailant and wounded the bystander, police said. The officer was in critical but stable condition and was expected to undergo surgery. The woman who was struck by a stray bullet also was hospitalized with a gunshot wound to the back. http://ift.tt/1ozIu5u Fri, 24 Oct 2014 03:42:03 +0200 http://ift.tt/12mfqEm A physician with Doctors Without Borders who returned to New York City from West Africa has tested positive for Ebola, the New York Times said on Thursday. Dr. Craig Spencer was working for the humanitarian organization in Guinea, one of three West African nations hardest hit by Ebola. Spencer, 33, developed a fever and gastrointestinal symptoms and notified Doctors Without Borders on Thursday morning, the organization said in a statement. Spencer was transported to Bellevue Hospital from his Manhattan apartment by a specially trained team wearing protective gear, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said in a statement. He tested positive for Ebola, the Times said, making him the city's first diagnosed case. The Times said a further test will be conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to confirm the initial test. Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo planned a news conference at the hospital for 9 p.m. ET (0100 GMT). A spokeswoman for the mayor said she could not confirm or deny the report and declined to comment ahead of the news conference. http://ift.tt/12mfqEm Fri, 24 Oct 2014 03:33:32 +0200 http://ift.tt/1xfhkzS "I don't believe in anything. That's my cardinal rule. I do it for my mental health. If I believe in God, then I start talking to God and God starts talking to me. As soon as I start believing in something, then it talks to me. So, I don't believe in anything." Sara, whose name we changed to protect her identity, was diagnosed with schizophrenia at age 19 during her senior year at New York University. She had not experienced any trauma as a child - no abuse, no bouts of depression, nothing that would raise any red flags. She led a more or less happy life. But in high school she experimented with drugs, and upon travelling abroad around the same time, she experienced intense culture shock. This series of events may have been Sara's personalized recipe for mental illness, cooked up with all the flavors of her unique position in life, her temperament, and her family's history. Her mind became a prison; she felt as though people were constantly laughing at her. She could no longer distinguish fantasy from reality. She assumed she wouldn't go back to school. http://ift.tt/1xfhkzS Fri, 24 Oct 2014 03:30:06 +0200 http://ift.tt/1xfhhUH A 9-month-old Indiana boy was fighting for his life on Thursday after being accidentally shot in the head by his father. WTHR reported that 31-year-old John Hambaugh, III, was in his kitchen cleaning his gun on Wednesday when the weapon discharged. The round traveled through Hambaugh's left thigh and into his 9-month-old son's head, who was thought to be standing next to his father. Neighbor Dawn Crecelius recalled that she felt helpless when the child's mother ran out of the home with the boy. "She was screaming, 'He shot my baby! He shot my baby!' and she was cradling the baby," Crecelius said. "What do you do? What do you do? Cause there's - you can't fix that. You can't help that. If he's choking, you can help that. If he's cut, you can help that. You can't help a baby that's been shot in the head." Hambaugh and his 9-month-old son were transported to Community Howard Regional Hospital in Kokomo. Hambaugh was expected to make a full recovery, but the child was listed in critical condition on Thursday. The Howard County Sheriff's Department was continuing to investigate the case. http://ift.tt/1xfhhUH Fri, 24 Oct 2014 03:20:13 +0200 http://ift.tt/1xfhhUF A video of Israeli Defense Forces degrading detention and mistreatment of a disabled 11-year-old boy has surfaced on Youtube, once again sparking harsh criticism of abuse and indiscriminately violent treatment of Palestinians by the Israeli military. The video, recorded by a member of the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem on Sunday, shows Israeli soldiers abusing a mentally disabled 11-year-old Palestinian boy next to the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba, on the outskirts of Hebron. The footage shows soldiers violently grabbing the boy following the patrol's chase after Palestinians who were reportedly throwing rocks at vehicles on a main road outside the illegal Jewish settlement of some 7,600 people. "A developmentally disabled Palestinian boy, who is under the age of criminal responsibility, was briefly detained by the IDF "on suspicion that he had thrown stones," according to B'Tselem. http://ift.tt/1xfhhUF Fri, 24 Oct 2014 03:07:14 +0200 http://ift.tt/12m9OtG European economic denial has reached the point where we are straddling the abyss, facing a code red moment of meltdown. Whether by bloody-minded obstinacy or a clear incapacity to understand the mess it has overseen, the EU now reaches another of those critical junctures where simply papering over the cracks and maintaining a demented agitprop that growth is around the corner won't do. Besides, the green shoots of recovery have once again evaporated for the umpteenth time. As the world grows, Europe stagnates. The EU isn't working - as 12 percent of the continent's population know only too well (including that lost generation under 30 born near the Mediterranean). Meanwhile, former Communist-turned-totalitarian-Europhile Jose Manuel Barroso has been enjoying a typically bombastic pre-retirement tour demonstrating a majestic lack of understanding for the stagnancy which has resulted from his decade-long failure as EU president. Having spent much of the past year blithely mouthing a mantra of recovery, the outgoing commission departs the Berlaymont as even greater political failures than they were in national office before being elevated to Brussels. The demented hubris which preached recovery without coherent reworking of broken economies has been rendered mute by economic reality. Even in Brussels there may be a realization that political fudges won't do - the European empire must be restructured if it is not to face oblivion. As it is, the pathetic political posturing of national interests led by France (bankrupt) and Germany (deeply disingenuously protectionist) at all times have inexorably weakened Europe in a decade of prolonged growth in the emerging markets of the east. Thus we reach an abyss for Europe. Germany (as predicted) is a post-peak economic powerhouse. Ukraine has led the EU to self-defeating sanctions which have further trimmed the economy just as growth has proven a mirage. http://ift.tt/12m9OtG Fri, 24 Oct 2014 02:45:11 +0200 http://ift.tt/1znbqC7 The Obama administration has until early December to detail its reasons for withholding as many as 2,100 graphic photographs depicting US military torture of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, a federal judge ordered on Tuesday. By 12 December, Justice Department attorneys will have to list, photograph by photograph, the government's rationale for keeping redacted versions of the photos unseen by the public, Judge Alvin Hellerstein instructed lawyers. But any actual release of the photographs will come after Hellerstein reviews the government's reasoning and issues another ruling in the protracted transparency case. While Hellerstein left unclear how much of the Justice Department's declaration will itself be public, the government's submission is likely to be its most detailed argument for secrecy over the imagery in a case that has lasted a decade. http://ift.tt/1znbqC7 Fri, 24 Oct 2014 00:49:28 +0200 http://ift.tt/ZKAdQ6 What a roller coaster week it's been. If partial eclipses and giant sunspots aren't your thing, how about a close flyby of an Earth-approaching asteroid? 2014 SC324 was discovered on September 30 this year by the Mt. Lemmon Survey high in the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson, Arizona. Based on brightness, the tumbling rock's size is estimated at around 197 feet (60-m), on the large side compared to the many small asteroids that whip harmlessly by Earth each year. http://ift.tt/ZKAdQ6 Fri, 24 Oct 2014 00:48:04 +0200 http://ift.tt/1seMt1V The oldest-known evidence of humans living at extremely high altitudes has been unearthed in the Peruvian Andes, archaeologists say. The sites - a rock shelter with traces of Ice Age campfires and rock art, and an open-air workshop with stone tools and fragments - are located nearly 14,700 feet (4,500 meters) above sea level and were occupied roughly 12,000 years ago. The discovery, which is detailed today (Oct. 23) in the journal Science, suggests ancient people in South America were living at extremely high altitudes just 2,000 years after humans first reached the continent. The findings also raise questions about how these early settlers physically adapted to sky-high living. "Either they genetically adapted really, really fast - within 2,000 years - to be able to settle this area, or genetic adaptation isn't necessary at all," said lead study author Kurt Rademaker, who was a University of Maine visiting assistant professor in anthropology when he conducted the study. [See Images of the High-Altitude Ancient Settlement] In follow-up work, the team plans to look for more evidence of occupation, such as human remains. http://ift.tt/1seMt1V Fri, 24 Oct 2014 00:39:37 +0200 http://ift.tt/1yrfugj You have heard that Sweden is hunting a "submarine" and that it is "presumed to be Russian". Here is an example Financial Times of October 21 - which incidentally also announces that the Swedish Prime Minister vows to increase defense spending. Not the slightest evidence There are only three problems with this: 1) There is not the slightest evidence of there being anything military, neither that it is a submarine nor that, whatever the object might be, it is Russian. 2) Even with CNN, BBC and AlJazeera this is nothing but speculative low-grade yellow press journalism. http://ift.tt/1yrfugj Fri, 24 Oct 2014 00:29:14 +0200 http://ift.tt/1znbqCa Microchips embedded in the arms of citizens to track their activities, the total destruction of the middle classes and a cashless economy where an authoritarian state can freeze the accounts of dissenting citizens excluding them from all economic activity..... These are all part of the cheery scenario painted by the highly respected author and IMF-insider with connections to the Pentagon, Jim Rickards in his most recent article for Agora Financial. "In the year 2024″ as the article is called, capitalism and markets will have been abolished in favor of a Marxist dystopia managed by the "New World Order." The savings and assets of the middle classes will have been annihilated. This unfolds through a series of panics and shocks to the markets and hyper-inflation. As the hyperinflation takes hold there is a mass exodus out of paper currency and into gold. The G-20 arrange for the mass confiscation of gold, to be stored in an enormous vault in the Swiss Alps, in order to force the public back onto newly created digital currency. To ensure that the public cannot protect themselves from the profligacy of governments gold is taken out of circulation forever. http://ift.tt/1znbqCa Thu, 23 Oct 2014 23:47:30 +0200 http://ift.tt/1tmTzqk America's neoconservatives, by stirring up trouble in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, are creating risks for the world's economy that are surfacing now in the turbulent stock markets, threatening another global recession, writes Robert Parry. If you're nervously watching the stock market gyrations and worrying about your declining portfolio or pension fund, part of the blame should go to America's neocons who continue to be masters of chaos, endangering the world's economy by instigating geopolitical confrontations in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Of course, there are other factors pushing Europe's economy to the brink of a triple-dip recession and threatening to stop America's fragile recovery, too. But the neocons' "regime change" strategies, which have unleashed violence and confrontations across Iraq, Syria, Libya, Iran and most recently Ukraine, have added to the economic uncertainty. http://ift.tt/1tmTzqk Thu, 23 Oct 2014 23:34:55 +0200 http://ift.tt/1roBS5d Foreign tourists with any travel history are now not welcome in North Korea - concerns about Ebola made Pyongyang bar any tours from entering the country. At least this is what North Korean specialized travel agencies tell media. "We have just received official news from our partners in the DPRK that, as of tomorrow, tourists from any country, regardless of where they have recently visited, will not be permitted to enter," Gareth Johnson of the China-based Young Pioneer Tours told Reuters. North Korean state media released a statement on Thursday notifying its readers that checks on travelers were becoming more stringent. "Travelers and materials are undergoing more thorough checks and quarantine at airfields, trading ports and border railway stations than ever before," the state KCNA agency wrote. Further agencies reported similar instructions. "We have just received news from our partners in Pyongyang that the country is not accepting any international tourists from tomorrow, effectively closing its borders due to the threat of the spread of the Ebola virus," said a spokesperson for Beijing-based Koryo Tours. "It is unknown how long this closure will be in effect, and due to the very changeable nature of DPRK policy, we are still hopeful we will be able to run the three tours we have scheduled for the remainder of 2014," Nick Bonner stated. International travel to the notoriously insular North Korea is a rarity anyway. Tourist travel is only possible with a guide. This is not the first time the country has imposed entry limits over a health scare. "In 2003, the country closed its borders due to the threat of SARS, despite not a single case being reported there," said Bonner. On Wednesday, the World Health Organization announced that 9,936 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone - all of which have suffered the worst outbreaks - have contracted the disease. Some 4,877 people have died in total. http://ift.tt/1roBS5d Thu, 23 Oct 2014 22:57:15 +0200 http://ift.tt/1FKCcVN Thanks to the Federal Reserve, the middle class is slowly being suffocated by rising food prices. Every single dollar in your wallet is constantly becoming less valuable because of the inflation the Fed systematically creates. And if you try to build wealth by saving money and earning interest on it, you still lose because thanks to the Federal Reserve's near zero interest rate policies banks pay next to nothing on savings accounts. The Federal Reserve wants you to either spend your money or to put it in the giant casino that we call the stock market. But when Americans spend their paychecks they are finding that they don't stretch as far as they once did. The cost of living continues to rise at a much faster pace than wages are rising, and this is especially true when it comes to the price of food. Someone that I know wrote to me today and let me know that she had to shut down the food pantry that she had been running for the poor for so many years. It isn't that she didn't want to help the poor anymore. It was that she just couldn't deal with the rising food prices any longer. Now she is just doing the best that she can to survive herself. http://ift.tt/1FKCcVN Thu, 23 Oct 2014 22:29:09 +0200 http://ift.tt/1wgYSdk Authorities in southwestern Colombia have raised alert levels on Tuesday after a 5.6M earthquake hit the border region, raising concerns that two nearby volcanoes might erupt in a matter of days. Colombia's Geological Service have changed the alert level of two volcanoes from yellow to orange. The two volcanoes are Cerro Negro and Chiles, both active on Colombia's southern border with Ecuador. The orange alert level is defined by the Geological Service as "probable eruption in term of days to weeks." The earthquake that hit the border region caused a scare on both side of the border. Officials in the Colombian town of Cumbal, near the quake's epicenter, were quoted as saying by The Associated Press that they formed an emergency committee to survey possible damage. But so far, there were no reports of injuries in the town of 36,000 residents, the majority of them members of an indigenous tribe. "It was really strong, every house" felt it, Jose Diomedes Juezpesan, the town's top official, told AP. If the volcanoes are to erupt, it will mostly affect the state Nariño. Local state government have started to take security measures in order prevent tragedies. http://ift.tt/1wgYSdk Thu, 23 Oct 2014 22:19:06 +0200 http://ift.tt/1roiVQm Authorities in southwest Colombia ordered the evacuation of around 12,000 people living near the Chiles and Cerro Negro volcanoes on the border with Ecuador, amid fears that recent volcanic activity may result in an eruption. On Tuesday, Colombia's Geological Service have changed the alert level of two volcanoes from yellow to orange. 48 hours later, it was followed up by the National Disaster Risk Management Unit's (UNGRD) decision to evacuate more than 3,500 families belonging to indigenous reserves of Chiles , Panam and Mayasquer. According to Carlos Ivan Marquez, the director of the UNGRD, the authorities set up an incident command post in the town of Cumbal where they have delivered 3,000 tents for the people in temporary shelters. "In accord with the forecast given to us by the Geological Service, the change of alert level from yellow to orange means anticipated eruptions in the coming days or weeks," Marquez told the media. If the volcanoes are to erupt, it will mostly affect the state Nariño. Local state government have started to take security measures in order prevent tragedies. http://ift.tt/1roiVQm Thu, 23 Oct 2014 22:17:15 +0200 http://ift.tt/1wgIJoa One major volcanic eruption could make Japan "extinct," a study by experts at Kobe University warns, although the chances of that happening are relatively slim. The study, by Prof. Yoshiyuki Tatsumi and Associate Prof. Keiko Suzuki, concludes that the chance of a big eruption that would disrupt the lives of everyone in Japan are about 1% over the next 100 years. The researchers based their findings on the cycles and impacts of major eruptions in Japan on the study of the Aira Caldera near what is now the city of Kagoshima on southern Kyushu island. The caldera was created 28,000 years ago and has a diameter of 20 kilometers. If a similar eruption were to take place in the area today, within about two hours the flow of molten rock, lava and ash would cover an area in which seven million now live. A large amount of ash would be carried across the country, shutting down transportation and other key systems, disrupting the lives of nearly 120 million people, or almost everyone in Japan. "We should be aware," the researchers warn in their report to be published in November. "It wouldn't be a surprise if such gigantic eruption were to take place at any moment." http://ift.tt/1wgIJoa Thu, 23 Oct 2014 22:17:12 +0200 http://ift.tt/1roiYvt Ap­prox­i­mately 70 earth­quakes oc­curred on the Bárðar­bunga caldera rim in the last 24 hours re­ports the Ice­land Met Of­fice this morn­ing. The strongest quakes were of the mag­ni­tude of 4.8 yes­ter­day at 13:21 and at 4.6 at 01:36. Seven earth­quakes al­to­gether ex­ceeded the mag­ni­tude of 4, and 15 earth­quakes were in the mag­ni­tude range of 3-3.9. Sub­si­dence of the caldera is con­tin­u­ous. Ac­cord­ing to the Ice­land Met Of­fice, no sig­nif­i­cant changes are ob­served in the seis­mic ac­tiv­ity around the Bárðar­bunga vol­canic sys­tem. Around 30 events have been de­tected in the north­ern part of the dyke in­tru­sion, be­tween north­ern Dyn­gju­jökull and the erup­tion site in Holuhraun. The strongest ones were both of the mag­ni­tude 1.4 yes­ter­day at 10:07 and 13:33. http://ift.tt/1roiYvt Thu, 23 Oct 2014 22:17:06 +0200 http://ift.tt/1wgILwj A New York City hospital is running Ebola tests on a healthcare worker who returned to the United States from West Africa with a fever and gastrointestinal symptoms, the city's Health Department said on Thursday. Preliminary test results were expected in the next 12 hours, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said in a statement. The patient being treated at Bellevue Hospital is a healthcare worker who returned to the United States within the past 21 days from one of the three African countries facing the Ebola outbreak, it said. The Health Department said it was tracing all of the patient's contacts to identify anyone who may be at potential risk. It also said the patient had been transported by a specially trained unit wearing protective gear. http://ift.tt/1wgILwj Thu, 23 Oct 2014 22:11:44 +0200 http://ift.tt/ZKAbYp With just four days to go until Brazilians vote in a bitterly contested presidential election, an opinion poll published Wednesday suggests that the challenger, Aécio Neves, remains the underdog but still has a fighting chance of defeating President Dilma Rousseff. If he is going to unseat Brazil's first female president, however, Mr. Neves will have to do so without the endorsement of the American actress Lindsay Lohan. A spokeswoman for the actress clarified on Wednesday that "a tweet declaring Ms. Lohan's support for a Brazilian presidential candidate," which had attracted wide attention in Brazil one day earlier, was posted on her Twitter account in error. "While Ms. Lohan doesn't support any of the candidates," her publicist, Leslie Sloane, wrote in an email, "she encourages Brazilians to vote on Oct. 26." http://ift.tt/ZKAbYp Thu, 23 Oct 2014 21:26:00 +0200 http://ift.tt/1ro2zqF New data reveals there has been a rise of almost 300 per cent rise in the number of dogs attacks in Stevenage since January. A total of 31 offences were reported to police in the last 10 months, compared with just 11 in the equivalent period last year. Now Herts police have launched Is You Dog Fully Under Control? - a campaign that aims to educate people about responsible dog ownership along with the recent changes in the law. The Stevenage Safer Neighbourhood team were in the town centre on Saturday to spread the word. Officers, Stevenage Borough Council staff and representatives of dog charities were on hand to talk about the changes in the law and give advice on training, identification and other issues. Sgt Manjit Khela from the team said: "A dog can be dangerously out of control even if it is on a lead. "The correct level of control needs to be exerted to ensure it does not go on to injure another dog or person. "If a dog bites a person, it will be seen as being dangerously out of control - but even if the dog does not bite, but gives the person grounds to feel that the dog may injure them, the law still applies." http://ift.tt/1ro2zqF Thu, 23 Oct 2014 21:24:54 +0200 http://ift.tt/1wgwdoT Supplements of the fatty acids omega 3 and 6 can help children and adolescents who have a certain kind of ADHD. These are the findings of a dissertation at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, which also indicates that a special cognitive training program can improve problem behavior in children with ADHD. Between three to six percent of all school age children are estimated to have ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). ADHD is a disorder that entails a difficulty controlling impulses and temper, sitting still, waiting, or being attentive for more than short periods at a time. There are various kinds of ADHD where disturbances in attention, hyperactivity and impulsivity have varying degrees of prominence. ADHD is often treated with stimulant medications, which are effective for most, but do not work for everyone. Relevant improvement In this study, 75 children and adolescents with ADHD were given either the fatty acids omega 3 and 6 or a placebo over three months, and then they were all given omega 3/6 over three months. The study was conducted double-blind, which means that neither the researchers nor the participants were allowed to know whether they received the active capsules until afterwards. "For the group as a whole, we did not see any major improvement, but in 35 percent of the children and adolescents who have the inattentive subtype of ADHD called ADD, the symptoms improved so much that we can talk about a clinically relevant improvement," says Mats Johnson, doctoral student at the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg. http://ift.tt/1wgwdoT Thu, 23 Oct 2014 21:22:02 +0200 http://ift.tt/1ro2zaf As warned, after multiple staged incidents used to ratchet up fear and paranoia in the build-up to US and its allies' military intervention in Syria and Iraq, at least two live attacks have now been carried out in Canada - precisely as they were predicted. The first attack involved a deadly hit-and-run that left one Canadian soldier dead. AP would report in its article, "Terrorist ideology blamed in Canada car attack," that: A young convert to Islam who killed a Canadian soldier in a hit-and-run had been on the radar of federal investigators, who feared he had jihadist ambitions and seized his passport when he tried to travel to Turkey, authorities said Tuesday. The second, most recent attack, involved a shooting in Ottawa injuring several and killing another Canadian soldier. RT in its article, "Ottawa gunman 'identified' as recent Muslim convert, high-risk traveler," would report that: While the name of the Ottawa gunman is yet to be announced, a number of officials told numerous media that the shooter is believed to be Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, a recent Muslim convert, allegedly designated as a high-risk traveler. Michael Zehaf-Bibeau was born in Quebec as Michael Joseph Hall north of Montreal, two US officials told Reuters, claiming that American law enforcement agencies have been advised that the attacker recently converted to Islam. AP sources also identified the man to be Zehaf-Bibeau. A Twitter account associated with Islamic State militants tweeted a photo they identified as the Ottawa shooter. The Globe and Mail reports that the shooter was designated a "high-risk traveler" by the Canadian authorities with his passport seized. Clearly, both suspects were under the watch of not only Canadian authorities, but also US investigators, before the attacks. http://ift.tt/1ro2zaf Thu, 23 Oct 2014 21:11:52 +0200 http://ift.tt/1ro2Biw John Boekamp, Ph.D., clinical director of the Pediatric Partial Hospital Program (PPHP) at Bradley Hospital recently led a study that found sleep difficulties -- particularly problems with falling asleep -- were very common among toddlers and preschool-aged children who were receiving clinical treatment for a wide range of psychiatric disorders. The study, titled "Sleep Onset and Night Waking Insomnias in Preschoolers with Psychiatric Disorders," is now published online in the journal Child Psychiatry & Human Development. "The most common sleep difficulties reported nationally for toddlers and preschoolers are problems of going to bed, falling asleep and frequent night awakenings -- collectively, these problems are referred to as behavioral insomnias of childhood," said Boekamp. "Sleep problems in young children frequently co-occur with other behavioral problems, with evidence that inadequate sleep is associated with daytime sleepiness, less optimal preschool adjustment, and problems of irritability, hyperactivity and attention." Boekamp's team was interested in learning more about sleep and sleep problems in young children with behavior problems, as early sleep problems may be both a cause and consequence of children's difficulties with behavioral and emotional self-regulation. "Essentially, these young children might be caught in a cycle, with sleep disruption affecting their psychiatric symptoms and psychiatric symptoms affecting their sleep-wake organization," said Boekamp. http://ift.tt/1ro2Biw Thu, 23 Oct 2014 21:07:22 +0200 http://ift.tt/1xe7Epc It is a place unlike any other and is, arguably, one of the greatest art galleries anywhere in the world. Yet you won't find masterpieces in the traditional sense here, with no Rembrandts, Monets, or Da Vinci's anywhere in sight. Instead, this is the Russian Altai mountain range, where art exists in its most natural sense, carved into the rocks by ancient civilisations 5,000 years ago. Located in Siberia, at its borders with China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan, it is home to literally thousands of petroglyphs and drawings that continue to fascinate archaeologists today. Experts have been studying the area for more than a century, with each expedition deep into the heart of the valleys and gorges uncovering more fingerprints of the past. http://ift.tt/1xe7Epc Thu, 23 Oct 2014 20:40:20 +0200 http://ift.tt/1rnLv4c David Bronner, CEO of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps, presides over a company with famously wacky product labels. Sample sentence, from the 18-in-1 Hemp PEPPERMINT soap bottle: "Each swallow works hard to be perfect pilot-provider-teacher-lover-mate, no half-true hate!" But Bronner himself, grandson of the founder (the one with the elaborate prose style), has emerged as a serious, though fun-loving, activist, particularly around pesticides and genetically modified crops, as Josh Harkinson's recent Mother Jones profile shows. But apparently, Bronner's writing on GMOs is too hot for the advertising pages of the English-speaking world's two most renowned science journals, Science and Nature -even though a slew of magazines, including Scientific American, The New Yorker, Harper's, The Nation, Harvard, and, yes, Mother Jones, accepted the Bronner ad. It consists of a short essay, known in publishing as an advertorial, that's nothing like the wild-eyed rants on his company's soap bottles. Bronner's ad (PDF) focuses on how GMO crops have led to a net increase in pesticide use in the United States, citing an analysis by Ramon Seidler, a retired senior staff scientist at the Environmental Protection Agency. Bronner wrote his essay in response to Michael Specter's recent New Yorker takedown of anti-GMO crusader Vandana Shiva. He first published his critique on Huffington Post, and then decided to publish it as an ad in a variety of high-profile magazines, because he felt that The New Yorker is highly influential among liberal elites, and he wanted to get his dissenting view out, he told me. Comment: Gunning for Vandana Shiva: The New Yorker, GMOs and chemical farming http://ift.tt/1rnLv4c Thu, 23 Oct 2014 20:17:38 +0200 http://ift.tt/1rnLv4b China's largest freshwater lake, Poyang, has shrunk by one third in the past three days due to reduced water supply from the Yangtze River and little rainfall. At 8 a.m. Wednesday, the lake's surface area was 1,490 sq km, a reduction of 679 sq km compared with 2,169 sq km on Monday, said the Jiangxi Provincial Hydrological Bureau. The water level at Xingzi hydrological station was 11.99 meters at 4 p.m. Wednesday, 2.13 meters lower than the levels in normal years. The water level is falling by 30 cm per day. http://ift.tt/1rnLv4b Thu, 23 Oct 2014 20:04:14 +0200 http://ift.tt/1znbrpC Polynesians from Easter Island and natives of South America met and mingled long before Europeans voyaged the Pacific, according to a new genetic study of living Easter Islanders. In this week's issue of Current Biology, researchers argue that the genes point to contact between Native Americans and Easter Islanders before 1500 C.E., 3 centuries after Polynesians settled the island also known as Rapa Nui, famous for its massive stone statues. Although circumstantial evidence had hinted at such contact, this is the first direct human genetic evidence for it. In the genomes of 27 living Rapa Nui islanders, the team found dashes of European and Native American genetic patterns. The European genetic material made up 16% of the genomes; it was relatively intact and was unevenly spread among the Rapa Nui population, suggesting that genetic recombination, which breaks up segments of DNA, has not been at work for long. Europeans may have introduced their genes in the 19th century, when they settled on the island. Native American DNA accounted for about 8% of the genomes. Islanders enslaved by Europeans in the 19th century and sent to work in South America could have carried some Native American genes back home, but this genetic legacy appeared much older. The segments were more broken and widely scattered, suggesting a much earlier encounter - between 1300 C.E. and 1500 C.E. http://ift.tt/1znbrpC Thu, 23 Oct 2014 19:56:23 +0200 http://ift.tt/ZKAe6l Nestled in the mountains of California, is the infamous tourist destination of Bodie. Once a thriving gold mining town, it is now an empty shell of its former self. As soon as the gold depleted in the early 20th century, the town faced decades of decline that it would never recover from. By the early 1960′s, the last handful of residents left the town. They leaving behind an eerie scene, filled with crumbling homes and businesses amidst a desolate landscape. However, gold isn't essential to living. If the Western drought continues on its current course, then we have dozens of ghost towns to look forward to in the near future. So far the drought in California has been relentless. Where I live in the Bay Area, we've had our first rain of the year today, if you could call it that. More like a fine mist. Normally we've gotten at least one rainy day by this time of year, but it's looking like this winter is going to be just as bad as last year. http://ift.tt/ZKAe6l Thu, 23 Oct 2014 19:54:55 +0200 http://ift.tt/1znbrpF Tucson - Riot police brutally handled a crowd following a NCAA basketball game, leading to multiple state-sanctioned assaults caught on video. On March 29th, 2014, Tucson officers held a heavy presence on University Boulevard, which was the site of some unruliness amongst the young people gathered in the street. One officer - clad in a gas mask and riot gear - was caught on film on that evening performing multiple acts of unprovoked aggression on students in the area. It was Tucson PD Sergeant Joel Mann, an 18-year-veteran of the force. Sgt. Mann shoved a female pedestrian so hard that she flew into a metal bench on the sidewalk. The woman, Christina Gardilcic, had been doing nothing other than walking along the sidewalk toward a group of students congregating up ahead. "We were just walking behind on the sidewalk and next thing I know I was just on a bench," Ms. Gardilcic told ABC News. "My feet were... up in the air and I just got hit. It really happened very fast. I got up fast 'cause I was kind of in shock." "What happened to me, I consider excessive force," Gardilcic added in the ABC interview. "I had no idea I was doing anything wrong. If I was, and he physically shoved me and I fell, I could have been really hurt." View a bystander's recording of Sgt. Mann's the assault on Christina Gardilcic below. A helmet-cam video shot from Mann's perspective is also available. http://ift.tt/1znbrpF Thu, 23 Oct 2014 19:48:35 +0200 http://ift.tt/ZKAbYs The invisible force that pulls in the Millennium Falcon spacecraft to the Death Star in Star Wars movies is still far from becoming a reality, but physicists have developed a miniature version of sorts: a tractor beam that can reel in tiny particles. The laser-based retractor beam pulled the particles a distance of about 8 inches (20 centimeters), which is 100 times farther than any previous experiments with tractor beams. "Because lasers retain their beam quality for such long distances, this could work over meters," study researcher Vladlen Shvedov, research fellow at the Australian National University, said in a statement. "Our lab just was not big enough to show it." During the experiment, the researchers used a laser that projected a doughnut-shaped beam of light with a hot outer ring and cool center. They used the light beam to suck in tiny glass spheres, each of which measured about 0.2 millimeters (0.008 inches) wide. Not only did the researchers move the glass spheres farther than had been demonstrated in previous experiments, but they used a different technique altogether. Other retractor beams rely on the momentum of light particles in the laser beam to reel in mass. In those experiments, the momentum from the light particles shooting out of the laser is transferred to the target that the laser is hauling in. However, that technique works well only in a vacuum that is shielded from other free-floating particles that can interfere with the momentum transfer. http://ift.tt/ZKAbYs Thu, 23 Oct 2014 19:36:57 +0200 http://ift.tt/1oygkI2 A classified US Senate probe into the CIA's post-9/11 detention and interrogation program does not evaluate the role of former President George W. Bush or top administration officials in approving abuses including torture, according to a new report. The Senate Intelligence Committee's $40 million investigation into the Central Intelligence Agency's detention and interrogation program - active from September 11, 2001 to 2006 - has found that the spy agency purposely deceived the US Justice Department to attain legal justification for the use of torture techniques, among other findings that resulted in a 6,000-page report, completed from March 2009 to December 2012. Of that investigative report, the public will only see a 500-page, partially-redacted executive summary that is in the process of declassification. What the report does not include, according to sources for McClatchy news service, is any accounting of responsibility that top members of the Bush administration have for the shadowy capture-and-detain regime at Guantanamo Bay and secret "black site" prisons, often fueled by suspect bounties, or for crafting the legal framework that allowed the CIA to interrogate detainees with waterboarding and other methods deemed to be torturous by international standards. http://ift.tt/1oygkI2 Thu, 23 Oct 2014 19:19:27 +0200 http://ift.tt/1oygizM The only thing spreading faster than the global pandemic outbreak right now is the mental illness it seems to invoke across the establishment media. The principle of isolation, a fundamental tool for halting any outbreak, is now being widely and repeatedly described in the leftist media as "racist." (See video below.) What we are being told by the media now is essentially that people with dark skin like Thomas Duncan should never be kept in medical isolation because that would be racist. Similarly, flights from countries with dark-skinned people can never be restricted because that, too, would be "racist." http://ift.tt/1oygizM Thu, 23 Oct 2014 19:16:01 +0200 http://ift.tt/1oygkHS Officials with a Saskatchewan wildlife center said workers and residents of a home invaded by snakes have captured 102 snakes in the house. Megan Lawrence, director of rehabilitation at the Salthaven West Wildlife Rehabilitation, said the family first discovered garter snakes in the basement of their home near Regina. "We got a call from a family that found some garter snakes in their basement, and as they investigated further they found a lot more. And then they started finding them in other areas of the house, like kitchens and bedrooms. So they decided then it wasn't a good idea to have them there anymore," Lawrence told CBC News. http://ift.tt/1oygkHS Thu, 23 Oct 2014 19:08:02 +0200 http://ift.tt/1oygkrx Home Secretary Theresa May has ordered an inquiry into police use of Taser stun guns, after it emerge

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