The Raw Story

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

Friday, 5 December 2014

People power: Nationwide uprising gains strength in Haiti

A nationwide uprising against the regime of business partners President Michel Martelly and Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe continued to gain steam this week with massive demonstrations in several major cities, including Port-au-Prince, Léogane, Petit Goâve, Cap-Haïtien, Fort-Liberté, Ouanaminthe, and Aux Cayes.Feeling the protests' heat, Martelly made a short televised national address on Nov. 28 to announce his formation of an "advisory commission"...

Navy engineer tried to steal schematics for new carrier class

© U.S. NavyThe USS Gerald R. Ford is christened during a ceremony Nov. 9, 2013, at Huntington-Ingalls Industries' Newport News shipyard in Virginia. The Gerald Ford is the 1st of a new class of aircraft carrier intended to replace Nimitz-class carriers. A Navy civilian engineer has been indicted on charges he tried to steal schematics of an aircraft carrier under construction and have them sent to Egypt.Federal prosecutors said Mostafa Ahmed Awwad,...

World's fattest man Keith Martin dies at age 44

© Jenny Goodall/Daily Mail/REXThe world's fattest man Keith Martin A Londoner who was officially the fattest man in the world has died.Keith Martin, 44, died from pneumonia following a lengthy battle with his weight.It happened just eight months after Mr Martin - who weighed 70 stone [980 pounds] at his heaviest - had undergone a successful gastric sleeve which removed three-quarters of his stomach.Now the surgeon who tried to save him with life-changing...

New Physics theory of life formation?

© Katherine Taylor for Quanta Magazine Why does life exist?Popular hypotheses credit a primordial soup, a bolt of lightning and a colossal stroke of luck. But if a provocative new theory is correct, luck may have little to do with it. Instead, according to the physicist proposing the idea, the origin and subsequent evolution of life follow from the fundamental laws of nature and "should be as unsurprising as rocks rolling downhill."From the standpoint...

Detroit restaurant: It's possible to pay $15/hr wages and still make money

© FacebookCEO Brian Parker, center, with employees at Moo Cluck Moo A Detroit eatery is proving that it's possible to turn a profit while paying fast-food workers nearly double the minimum wage.Moo Cluck Moo pays its workers $15 an hour - the same rate fast-food workers demanded at rallies held Thursday across the country.Co-founder Brian Parker told NPR that revenue was up, despite paying employees substantially more than Michigan's $8.15-an-hour...

Obama's defense nominee: Here comes trouble

© Alex Wong/Getty Images .Ashton Carter is the typical Beltway apparatchik - profiting from the revolving door between the military, heavy industry and academia.He advised Goldman Sachs on military technology.He was an actor in the dismantling of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, signed by Bill Clinton, which allowed a collection of Dr. Strangeloves to go rampant on computer simulated lab tests of nuclear weapons coupled with underground tests...

Obama's defense nominee: here comes trouble

© Alex Wong/Getty Images .Ashton Carter is the typical Beltway apparatchik - profiting from the revolving door between the military, heavy industry and academia.He advised Goldman Sachs on military technology.He was an actor in the dismantling of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, signed by Bill Clinton, which allowed a collection of Dr. Strangeloves to go rampant on computer simulated lab tests of nuclear weapons coupled with underground tests...

The World according to Putin

© Sputnik. Alexey Druzhinin For years Putin has made it abundantly clear in his speeches Russia is not happy with the global status quo. His address to the Federation Council this week is evidence of this. As far as Putin is concerned, the entire international system is rigged to Washington's advantage. The very existence of the U.S. dollar ensures Washington and its closest allies will never allow a fair playing field. That said, Putin is not eager...

Woman in Spain charged with killing her babies because they 'were possessed by spirits'

© Reuters/Esam Omran Al-Fetori A 27-year-old Moroccan woman has been accused of asphyxiating two of her young daughters and attempting to kill a third baby because she was convinced the children were "possessed by evil spirits."The woman, identified only as Ikram B., has lived in Spain for six years. On Wednesday she pleaded not guilty to charges including two counts of murder, and one of attempted murder.In a police statement written with the help...

Now that's 'progress! 'Only' 6000 sexual assaults on military employees in last year

© Reuters / Omar Sobhani Nearly 6,000 military employees reported sexual assaults this year, marking an eight percent increase compared to 2013. The Pentagon called the increase in reporting "progress" for its handling of sexual assault, but critics call the numbers "appalling."Specifically, the Pentagon said 5,983 military personal reported to law enforcement and commanders they were sexually assaulted in 2014. Just 359 of those reports resulted...

Out of the mouths of babes: Extensive research indicates that reincarnation is real

Multiple researchers have thoroughly investigated cases of children who report past-life memories. In many cases, the details given by a child have been verified to correspond (sometimes with startling accuracy) to a deceased person. In other cases, the details have been more difficult to verify.Even in the most convincing cases, some will find a grain of doubt. Could the parents have influenced their suggestible children with a certain line of...

Bothersome intrusive thoughts won't go away? Get more sleep!

© Shifteye Going to bed too late and sleeping too little is associated with experiencing persistent negative thoughts, according to new research.Even amongst 'evening types' who prefer to sleep later anyway, the study found they had had more repetitive anxious thoughts than those who kept regular hours.The research, published in the journal asked 100 adults about their sleeping patterns and gave them tests of persistent negative thoughts (Nota &...

Archeologists discover first century farm and artifacts in center of Rome during subway construction

© AP Photo/Cooperativa ArcheologiaLined up amphoras were discovered during a subway construction in Rome. Archaeologists have unearthed an ancient commercial farm in the heart of modern Rome. Archaeologists have unearthed an ancient commercial farm in the heart of modern Rome, taking advantage of subway construction to explore deeply in urban settings.They worked some 20 meters down (some six stories deep) near St. John in Lateran Basilica. Today's...

Paul Craig Roberts: Goon thug cops murder at will - and get away with it

Another goon thug gratuitous murderer has been let off by a grand jury and a prosecutor. Read the condolences offered by NY mayor Bill de Blasio, officer Pantaleo and the Obama Puppet. They are so sorry about the collateral damage of protecting the public from criminals and terrorists. But our society would collapse if people are allowed to sell on the street untaxed individual cigarettes out of a pack. Without the death of innocents, none of us...

SOTT EXCLUSIVE: U.S. Congress votes overwhelmingly in favor of hysterical anti-Russia bill

House Resolution 758 passed yesterday by an overwhelming 411-10 votes. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, the resolution's sponsor, said:"The US, Europe and our allies must aggressively keep the pressure on Mr. Putin to encourage him to change his behavior."Right. Putin did change his behavior - much to the glee of the US: he tore up trade deals with the US/NATO/EU and sought out other countries willing to trade. But the shock of Russia closing the Southstream...

Oldest engravings to date discovered on 500,000-year-old shells

living in Java, Indonesia, half a million years ago used freshwater shellfish for the production of tools and what appears to be art. These newly discovered engravings, described in this week, are the oldest ever found. © Henk Caspers, Naturalis, Leiden, The NetherlandsInside of the fossil Pseudodon shell (DUB7923-bL) showing that the hole made by Homo erectus is exactly at the spot where the adductor muscle is attached to the shell We used to think...

Engineer reimagines solar energy with stick-on panels

The catalyst for Xiaolin Zheng's groundbreaking work in solar energy began with an offhand comment her father made years ago at her parents' apartment, a 13-story complex in the northeast China city of Anshan."In China, the rooftops of many buildings are packed with solar energy devices," says Zheng. "One day my father mentioned how great it would be if a building's entire surface could be used for solar power, not just the roof, but also walls and windows."An invention from Zheng's research team at Stanford University might someday make that possible....

Nature bites back: Study shows lethal control of wolf populations increase livestock depredations

© WikipediaMollies Pack Wolves Baiting a Bison. Washington State University researchers have found that it is counter-productive to kill wolves to keep them from preying on livestock. Shooting and trapping lead to more dead sheep and cattle the following year, not fewer.Writing in the journal , WSU wildlife biologist Rob Wielgus and data analyst Kaylie Peebles say that, for each wolf killed, the odds of more livestock depredations increase significantly....
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