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Friday 19 December 2014

Big brother watch: Police pre-crime algorithm uses social media posts against you in real-ime

We have finally reached the moment where Orwell's nightmare in 1984 meets the movie . We're living there right now.

[embedded content]




Did you know that any time a police officer pulls you over or responds to your 9-1-1 call, he or she is using a pre-crime algorithm which assigns you a color-coded threat score based not just on your criminal background but on everything including "flagged" purchases and all your social media posts which may include any comments that may be construed as "offensive?"

The officer will receive your color coding - red, yellow or green - before he or she ever even sees you based on factors you are not allowed to see or question. Guilty until proven innocent just got thrown completely out the window. Welcome to the modern era of big data and thought crime in Police State, U.S.A.


And still, astoundingly, we have people saying "Well, I haven't done anything wrong, so I don't have anything to worry about."





Comment: In today's Orwellian world the PTB try to monitor every aspects of our lives and now they even have a pre-crime color code, it's surprising that the cops don't use the color black in their color code system to warrant the highest threat.

Want something else to read? How about 'Grievous Censorship' By The Guardian: Israel, Gaza And The Termination Of Nafeez Ahmed's Blog


Non-profit hospitals are suing poor patients and seizing their wages

keith herie

© Steve Hebert for ProPublica

Northwest Financial Services first sued Keith and Katie Herie when they couldn't afford the $14,000 bill for Katie's emergency appendectomy. Since 2006, the Heries have had almost $20,000 takes from their wages to repay medical bills and still owe at least $26,000 with interest mounting.



Some wealthy nonprofit hospitals are going after their low-income patients' wages.

According to a new report by NPR and ProPublica, the Heartland Regional Medical Center (recently renamed Mosaic Life Care) in St. Joseph, Missouri, plays hard ball with poor people who cannot afford high bills.


When people are treated at the nonprofit Heartland Regional Medical Center and they cannot pay, their bills are turned over to Northwest Financial Services, a for-profit debt collection agency owned by Mosaic Life Care.


Northwest Financial Services reportedly sued (under its corporate name Midwestern Health Management) more than 11,000 people between 2009 through 2013. The collection agency garnished the wages of almost 6,000 people, which totaled up to $12 million, according to state records, says ProPublica and NPR.


To make matters worse, many of these patients were uninsured and eligible for some state financial aid, which would have cut their charges. Instead, they ended up paying the full, maximum price.


Many of these folks could have been covered under Obamacare's expansion of Medicaid, but Missouri Republicans refused to expand Medicaid to residents, noted the Springfield News-Leader.


ProPublica and NPR also reported that hospitals in Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Alabama also sued their poor patients and went after their wages.


For it's part, the nonprofit Heartland Regional Medical Center reported a $45 million profit in 2013, according to its annual report.


The Heartland Regional Medical Center doesn't pay income taxes or property taxes because it is a nonprofit.


"No one goes into this with the goal or the desire to ruin someone's life," Tama Wagner, the hospital's chief brand officer, told ProPublica and NPR. "But at the same time, the services were rendered, and we have to figure out how to get them paid for."


However, Wagner couldn't explain why Heartland Regional Medical Center sues more of its patients than any hospital in Missouri.


Chi Chi Wu, a lawyer with the National Consumer Law Center, told ProPublica and NPR that nonprofit hospitals get massive tax breaks "because they are supposed to be serving the public and especially the poor."


CNBC reported in 2013 that medical bills are the top reason for bankruptcies in America.


Want something else to read? How about 'Grievous Censorship' By The Guardian: Israel, Gaza And The Termination Of Nafeez Ahmed's Blog


Are Russian economic wizards behind the ruble free fall?


The remaining BRICS - Brazil, India and South Africa - plus the members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) - China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kirgizstan, Uzbekistan and considered for membership since September 2014 are also India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Mongolia, with Turkey also waiting in the wings - will also trade in their local currencies, detached from the dollar-based western casino scheme. A host of other nations increasingly weary of the decay of the western financial system which they are locked into are just waiting for a new monetary scheme to emerge. So far their governments may have been afraid of the emperor's wrath - but gradually they are seeing the light. They are sensing the sham and weakness behind Obama's boisterous noise. They don't want to be sucked into the black hole, when the casino goes down the drain.


To punish Russia for Ukraine, Obama is about to sign into law major new sanctions against Russia, following Congress's unanimous passing of a recent motion to this effect. - That is what the MSM would like you to believe. It is amazing that ten months after the Washington instigated Maidan slaughter and coup where a Washington selected Nazi Government was put in place, the MSM still lies high about the origins of this government and the massacres it is committing in the eastern Ukraine Donbass area.


Congress's unanimity - what Congress and what unanimity? - Out of 425 lawmakers, only 3 were present for the vote. The others may have already taken off for their year-end recess, or simply were 'ashamed' or rather afraid to object to the bill. As a matter of fact, of the three who were present to vote, two at first objected. Only after a bit of arm-twisting and what not, they were willing to say yes. This is how the 'unanimous' vote came to be, as trumpeted by the MSM - unanimous by three votes! The public at large is duped again into believing what is not.


What new sanctions does this repeatedly propagated bill entail? - It addresses mostly Russian energy companies and the defense industry with regard to sales to Syria, as well more anti-Russia propaganda and 'democratization' programs in Ukraine - and Russia; all countries with the objective for regime change.


How do these sanctions affect Russia, especially since all Russian energy sales are no longer dollar denominated? - Sheer propaganda. The naked emperor once more is calling an unsubstantiated bluff. To show his western stooges who is in power. It's an ever weaker showoff.


Now - as a consequence of declining oil prices and of western 'sanctions' - of course, what else? - Russia's economy is suffering and the ruble is in free fall. Since the beginning of the year it lost about 60%; last week alone 20%. As a result and after serious consideration, says MSM, the Russian Central Bank decided a few days ago to increase the interest of reference from 10.5% to 17% to make the ruble more attractive for foreign investors. It worked only for a few hours. Raising the interbank interest was Putin's reply to Obama's bluff - feeding at the same time western illusion about Russia's decline.


The propaganda drums tell you Russia is helpless because the world has lost the last bit of confidence in President Putin - of course. Regime change is on the agenda. Mr. Putin must be blamed as the culprit, hoping to discredit him with his people. He is leading Russia into a deep recession; the worst since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The mainstream media show you interviews with average mainstreet Russians saying they have lost all their savings, their salaries and pensions are worth nothing anymore and they don't know how to survive this coming calamity.


In reality, at least 80% of the Russian population stands solidly behind Vladimir Putin. He has brought them universal education, health care and fixed infrastructure that was decaying after the fall of the Soviet Union. President Putin is literally revered as a hero by the vast majority of Russians - including the country's oligarchy.


In fact, nobody in the western economic system these days is dealing in rubles. In short-sighted connivance with Washington, the treasuries of the western vassals are releasing their ruble reserves - which Russia does not buy, thereby flooding the market. Russia not only has large dollar reserves, plus the ruble is backed by gold, a fact consistently omitted in the MSM. For now, Russia prefers to let the ruble plummet.


Under another 'arrangement' by bully Obama, Middle Eastern oil producing puppets like Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States are overproducing and flooding the market with petrol and gas, thereby driving the price down to the ostensible detriment of Russia and Venezuela, both countries where Washington vies for regime change. A double whammy thinks Washington, buying kudos with the stooges. The sheiks that control their energy output apparently have been promised enough goodies from Washington to bite the bullet and take their own losses.


Russia needs rubles. That's her currency. That is the currency Russia needs for future trading - detached from the western monetary system.


When Russia deems that her currency has reached rock-bottom, she will buy back cheap rubles in the market with massive amounts of dollars. Russia may then flood the western market - with dollars, euros and other western-allied currencies - and gold. Let's not forget, the ruble is backed by gold. By now we know what flooding a market with currencies may do to these currencies - and simultaneously buy back rubles from the West. A brilliant move to reestablish Russia's currency in a new emerging monetary system - which Europe would be welcome to join, but willingly, no by Washington style arm-twisting.


Surely, Russia is not interested to cause the sudden destruction of the dollar-linked financial world. She is not interested in a sudden death of the many countries that are potential new trading partners in a new monetary system. Instead, the fall of the western economy of deceit may be planned as a gradual slide, so that countries have time to switch - switch their reserves to rubles, yuans and other BRICS and SCO currencies. This move is on its way. Only ten years ago, dollar denominated securities constituted 90% of reserves worldwide. Today the rate is 60% and declining.


After all, perhaps as Plan B, there is also a pact of monetary alliance between Russia and China. China holds currently about 1.5 trillion dollars and in total more than 3 trillion dollar equivalent in western currencies - and undefined but huge gold reserves. Chinese, BRICS and SCO solidarity with Russia is a solid security for the ruble. Imagine - the first major action of the new BRICS Development Bank with a current capital base of 100 billion dollars would launch a massive ruble rescue operation. No worries, Russia's economy is on firm course.


The question begs - is this gigantic 'engineered' ruble devaluation scheme another precursor to war? A nuclear confrontation or Cold War II? - Precursor to another western, Washington-driven false flag attempting Moscow to fall into a lethal trap? - Not necessarily. Russia is playing a clever chess game, diplomacy at its best. Instead of sabre rattling - Russia is coin rattling. It might lead to a western financial fiasco early in 2015 for the dollar and euro denominated economies. And the winner is...?


Want something else to read? How about 'Grievous Censorship' By The Guardian: Israel, Gaza And The Termination Of Nafeez Ahmed's Blog


Magnitude 5.7 strikes the Basse-Terre island in Guadeloupe

basse terre, guadeloupe

A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck the Basse-Terre island of the France's Guadeloupe archipelago in the Antilles on Friday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

It said the quake's epicenter was located three miles (4.8 km)northwest of Lamentin on Basse-Terre and was 69.5 miles (111 km)deep. It struck at 3:49 p.m. (1949 GMT)


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Crowd erupts when cop beats handcuffed boy in New York

NYPD Car

© pisaphotography/Shutterstock



The cell phone video of Eric Garner may not have resulted in a trial for the police officers who choked him to death, but New Yorkers are still recording incidents of police using over-the-top force against African Americans.

In a recent video recorded by an onlooker on the streets of New York City, several large uniformed cops have a young African-American boy subdued and pinned against a car, when a white plainclothes police officer runs up and throws several punches at the immobilized boy.


The video clearly shows that there is no reason or justification for this, and the bystanders erupt in horror, particularly one outspoken woman.


"He's 12!" she shouts. "Why would you do that? After everything that's happened! I'm a lawyer, I'm writing all this down."


"Stop it, get off of him!" yells another.


"You guys...need a different profession. Go to war, this is not a war, this is a 12-year-old kid!" says a woman standing on the sidewalk facing the officers, who do not respond to her. Another boy is pinned by other officers against another car. He cries out as the officers yank his hands behind his back.


The woman who captured the video is actually actress Sarah Donegy. On the YouTube page where the video was posted, she explained that the incident started when officers accused the two boys being arrested for pushing a classmate down. Donegy said the victim was questioned and that the boys being arrested were not the ones who pushed him.


This and other videos being shot around New York City signal that residents, particularly African Americans, have reached a point where they will not allow brutal arrests to go undocumented and unprotested. This is just one of the ways people are fighting back.


The NYPD has engaged its Internal Affairs unit to investigate the officer caught throwing the punches. While the onlookers claim the boy being beaten was 12 years old, the police say he is 16.


Watch the video of the incident:


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Want something else to read? How about 'Grievous Censorship' By The Guardian: Israel, Gaza And The Termination Of Nafeez Ahmed's Blog


Heavy metal toxicity can ruin your health


To a greater or lesser degree, most of us are contaminated with heavy metals today - some seriously, some without ever knowing it. It is a subject that just doesn't cross our everyday minds and physicians are often not alert to the possibility of metal exposure such as lead, mercury, and cadmium. In fact, the chronic accumulation of toxic contaminants that may not achieve classic 'acute toxicity' thresholds levels receives little attention at all, although it may nevertheless contribute to important adverse health effects. 1 On the other hand, acute toxicity - which is most often the consequence of occupational exposure - tend to be recognized, properly diagnosed, and then treated. Acute toxicities arise from sudden exposures to substantial quantities of some metals, and typically these toxins affect multiple organ systems; commonly the GI tract, cardiovascular system, the brain and nervous system, the endocrine system, kidneys, hair, and nails.

Unfortunately, chronic heavy metal toxicity that builds up over longer periods of time often presents with symptomology similar to many other chronic health conditions, therefore may not be immediately recognized or accurately diagnosed by health physicians.


Chronic toxicities are manifested as conditions that develop over extended periods from chronic exposure to relatively low concentrations, for example through conventional cosmetics. Increasedcancer risk is a common feature of chronic exposure to certain metals. The exact mechanism of their carcinogenicity is not completely understood, although many cause DNA damage, alter gene function, interfere with innate DNA repair systems, disrupt gene expression, and deregulate cellular functions.2


Within the body, heavy metals act as free radicals, causing cellular damage. This results in rapid aging and depletes the body's natural capacities to heal itself, aggravating disease. Heavy metals slowly accumulate in the kidneys, liver, pancreas, bones, central nervous system and brain where they degrade health without being noticed or diagnosed.


Not all metals are toxic and in fact in trace amounts, some are essential to human biochemical processes. For example, zinc is an important co-factor for several enzymatic reactions in the human body, vitamin B-12 has a cobalt atom at its core, and hemoglobin contains iron. Likewise, copper, manganese, selenium, chromium, and molybdenum are all trace elements, which are important in the human diet. Although these metals are essential to body functions, accumulation past trace amounts may have detrimental effects, should the usual mechanisms of detoxification and elimination be impaired.


Heavy metal poisoning thus means the accumulation of metals in the body past trace amounts. Common examples of metals that are toxic in any amounts are mercury, lead, cadmium and arsenic.


The potential for serious health consequences from heavy metal contamination has been documented.3 Heavy metal intoxications may damage central nervous function, the cardiovascular and gastrointestinal (GI) systems, lungs, kidneys, liver, endocrine glands, and bones (Jang 2011; Adal 2013). Chronic heavy metal exposure has been implicated in several degenerative diseases of these same systems and may increase the risk of some cancers (Galanis 2009; Wu 2012).


Other symptoms of toxic heavy metal poisoning range from skin ailments, intellectual disabilities in children, dementia in adults, central nervous system (CNS) disorders, nerve damage, organ degeneration, kidney (renal) diseases, liver (hepatic) diseases, insomnia, personality changes, emotional instability, depression, panic attacks, memory loss, headaches, vision disturbances, peripheral neuropathy and carpal tunnel syndrome, blood acidity, lack of coordination (ataxia), hardening arteries, encephalopathy or cardiovascular diseases (CVD).4


With several toxic metals lacking robust pathways for elimination, or otherwise remaining in the body for a long time, body burdens of some toxic metals are a major detriment to health.5 There are many ways to detox from heavy metals, chelation therapy being the most common treatment in terms of acute poisoning, but comes with a smorgasbord of detrimental health and side effects.


It is possible to reduce metal toxicity risk through lifestyle choices that diminish the probability of harmful heavy metal uptake, such as dietary measures that promote daily detoxification. Ensuring that the body's natural metabolic processes are strong will further assist in naturally excreting heavy metals.


Detoxing from heavy metals has strong anti-aging and health enhancing benefits and daily detoxification is a safe way of supporting your body in naturally eliminating contaminants. Adding antioxidants and zeolite to your daily routine will attract and remove heavy metals from the body, assisting in the maintenance of healthy metabolism.


Resources


[1] lef.org

[2] Jang, D. H., and Hoffman, R. S. Heavy metal chelation in neurotoxic exposures. 2011;29(3):607 - 22


[3] Galanis, A., Karapetsas, A., and Sandaltzopoulos, R. Metal-induced carcinogenesis, oxidative stress and hypoxia signalling. 2009;674(1-2)

[4] ATSDR. Detailed Data Table for the Priority List of Hazardous Substances 2011: 1 - 20. Available online at

[5] biblelife.org


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Santa’s real workshop: the town in China that makes the world’s Christmas decorations



600 factories producing 60% of all decorations



There’s red on the ceiling and red on the floor, red dripping from the window sills and red globules splattered across the walls. It looks like the artist Anish Kapoor has been let loose with his wax cannon again. But this, in fact, is what the making of Christmas looks like; this is the very heart of the real Santa’s workshop – thousands of miles from the North Pole, in the Chinese city of Yiwu.


Our yuletide myth-making might like to imagine that Christmas is made by rosy-cheeked elves hammering away in a snow-bound log cabin somewhere in the Arctic Circle. But it’s not. The likelihood is that most of those baubles, tinsel and flashing LED lights you’ve draped liberally around your house came from Yiwu, 300km south of Shanghai – where there’s not a (real) pine tree nor (natural) snowflake in sight.


Christened “China’s Christmas village”, Yiwu is home to 600 factories that collectively churn out over 60% of all the world’s Christmas decorations and accessories, from glowing fibre-optic trees to felt Santa hats. The “elves” that staff these factories are mainly migrant labourers, working 12 hours a day for a maximum of £200 to £300 a month – and it turns out they’re not entirely sure what Christmas is.


“Maybe it’s like [Chinese] New Year for foreigners,” says 19-year-old Wei, a worker who came to Yiwu from rural Guizhou province this year, speaking to Chinese news agency Sina. Together with his father, he works long days in the red-splattered lair, taking polystyrene snowflakes, dipping them in a bath of glue, then putting them in a powder-coating machine until they turn red – and making 5,000 of the things every day.




Mount Gamalama eruption sends ash and rocks 2 km into the sky, Indonesia


Mount Gamalama in North Maluku province of Indonesia erupted at 13:41 UTC on Thursday, December 18, 2014, sending ash and rocks 2 km into the sky and forcing the authorities to close an airport and issue warnings to planes. Nine people were injured while running to escape the eruption. One person is still unaccounted for, authorities said.

Increased seismicity around the volcano was observed since 08:30 UTC. It then sharply increased at 13:09 UTC (22:09 local time), about 30 minutes before the eruption.


Evacuation orders are still not in place, however, a senior official from the disaster management agency in North Maluku province said the communities are ordered to be on alert of possible cool lava flowing in rivers as rain is frequent in recent days.


Sutopo Nugroho, a spokesman for the National Disaster Management Agency, said the volcanic ash was still blanketing much of the city of Ternate on Friday morning.


Meanwhile, USGS is registering a swarm of earthquakes about 150 km NW of Gamalama. They registered 67 moderate to strong earthquakes in the region (Molucca Sea) with magnitudes ranging from 4.0 - 6.8 in last 30 days.




The last time this volcano appeared in GVP's weekly volcanic report was during the week of October 10 - 16, 2012:

CVGHM reported that eruptions at Gamalama during September 15 - 16 prompted CVGHM to raise the Alert Level to 3 (on a scale of 1-4) on September 16. An eruption on September 17 produced a white-and-gray plume that rose 300 m above the crater and drifted E and SE. Ashfall was reported in the ESE part of Ternate (S, SE, and E part of island). After the eruption through October 8 white plumes rose 10-50 m high. Seismicity decreased in early October. The Alert Level was decreased to 2 on October 9. Visitors and residents were warned not to approach the crater within a radius of 1.5 km.


Geologic summary


Gamalama (Peak of Ternate) is a near-conical stratovolcano that comprises the entire island of Ternate off the western coast of Halmahera and is one of Indonesia's most active volcanoes. The island of Ternate was a major regional center in the Portuguese and Dutch spice trade for several centuries, which contributed to the thorough documentation of Gamalama's historical activity.


Three cones, progressively younger to the north, form the summit of Gamalama, which reaches 1715 m. Several maars and vents define a rift zone, parallel to the Halmahera island arc, that cuts the volcano. Eruptions, recorded frequently since the 16th century, typically originated from the summit craters, although flank eruptions have occurred in 1763, 1770, 1775, and 1962-63. (GVP)


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Pentagon’s Counter IED unit collecting intelligence on U.S. Companies



CounterIED The Pentagon’s main arm for fighting improvised explosive devices engaged in unauthorized surveillance of U.S. citizens and companies and improperly collected intelligence from Afghan farmers when an analyst posed as a college student, according to an inspector general’s report released Thursday.


The intelligence efforts by the Joint IED Defeat Organization — established to fight roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan — were found to violate executive orders and regulations.


Two military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, confirmed that Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, released in June after five-years captivity by the Taliban, was one of the Americans on which JIEDDO collected information.


JIEDDO acknowledged that the inspector general’s findings but a spokesman said they were minor, technical issues that have been addressed.


The incidents involved regarded technicalities of policy and process and were corrected as soon as it was recognized,” spokesman David Small said in a statement. “Many of the IG’s recommendations to assure such actions do not occur in the future have already been acted upon.”


The Pentagon inspector general found that members of JIEDDO’s Counter-IED Operations Intelligence Integration Center (COIC) “improperly collected information about U.S. persons. At the direction of COIC and JIEDDO leadership, analysts collected information on U.S. companies and their CEOs, U.S. hostages held by foreign extremists, and specific U.S. persons. In addition COIC analysts improperly collected intelligence using aliases and uncoordinated cover.”


The information JIEDDO collected came from “open sources,” which include newspapers, websites and other publicly accessible media. It was not electronic eavesdropping or surveillance.




Terror attacks prevented at Crimean Prosecutor's Office

Natalya Poklonskaya



Natalya Poklonskaya



Two attempted terrorist attacks on the Crimean Prosecutor's Office have recently been prevented by members of the local People's Guard. So-called 'prosecutie' Natalia Poklonskaya has also had previous threats.

Two members of the guard prevented a couple of terrorist attacks that could have led to multiple casualties at Poklonskaya's office, newspaper reported Friday.


"Several months ago, our guys found a bag with explosives at... the Crimean Prosecutor's Office and in November it was an envelope with a blasting agent, sent via mail and addressed to the prosecutor," Sergey Turchanenko, the commander of the People's Militia told .


"Thanks to the brave attitude toward their duty of the self-defense forces' that serve at the Prosecutor's Office, we managed to secure it from negative consequences," Poklonskaya told Tass news agency.


She praised the guards, saying it was "a good job."


Poklonskaya refused to provide the media with further details, saying: "This information is undisclosed. A criminal case has been opened. I have no right to reveal details concerning this incident."


newspaper obtained a copy of Poklonskaya's letter to Crimea's leader, Sergey Aksenov. It reveals that on August 18, a checkered shopping bag filled with explosives was found near the prosecutor's office at night. The casualty radius of the improvised explosive device was reportedly 350 meters.


Aksenov confirmed this information, saying: "Such attempts did occur, do and will probably do in future."


Turchanenko said that the People's Guard, alongside the police, frequently find packages that replicate explosive devices. Such an accident happened in December at the Council of Ministers building, he said.


"It turned out to be a cobblestone inside, but it could have been something different," he said.


The 33-year-old Crimean prosecutor has survived several assassination attempts during her 12 years of service.


She was severely beaten up when she jailed one of the leaders of 'The Shoes' gang, which was accused of plotting assassinations.


An internet sensation, Poklonskaya earned fame earlier this year after a video from a press conference went viral. Her Japanese and Russian fans even dubbed her 'Prosecutie' and 'Nyash-Myash'.


Want something else to read? How about 'Grievous Censorship' By The Guardian: Israel, Gaza And The Termination Of Nafeez Ahmed's Blog


Virgin Coconut Oil: More effective than drugs in combating stress and depression


© the-open-mind.com



A new study conducted in Malaysia looked at the effects of consuming high-antioxidant virgin coconut oil on mental health.

Published in the journal and believed to be the first study of its kind, researchers evaluated the anti-stress and antioxidant effects of virgin coconut oil in mice with stress-induced injuries. The title of the study is ""


The researchers performed several stress tests on groups of mice. Control groups included untreated mice and mice not subjected to stress, and virgin coconut oil was compared to a commonly prescribed psychiatric drug, Diazepam.


Their results were quite impressive, and suggest that using a high quality virgin coconut oil can rival antidepressant drugs without the dangerous side effects. The researchers attributed the success in treatment to the unique mixture of medium chain fatty acids found in coconut oil, rich in saturated fats, and to the antioxidants present in higher grade, less processed virgin coconut oils.


While we do not endorse the supposed "science" behind psychiatric drugs which attempts to measure such things as "neurotransmitters" and "biochemical profiles" as true indicators of mental health that can be altered by chemical drugs, it is encouraging to see researchers consider natural foods as alternatives, given the fact that they do not have all the serious side effects that psychiatric drugs do.




One of the more interesting tests conducted in this study was a measurement of "immobility time" after a forced swim test. The researchers found that the untreated mice had a longer immobility time than mice treated with virgin coconut oil. They attributed this to the high medium-chain fatty acid content of coconut oil, which is known to produce thermogenesis and increased energy.

One area where virgin coconut oil (VCO) really outperformed the drug Diazepam was in the area of oxidation and elimination of free radicals. This is something that can be measured with lipid peroxidation (MDA) and antioxidant enzyme SOD levels. Stress is known to increase oxidation and the creation of free radicals, leading to neuronal cell damage and death. Antioxidants, on the other hand, reverse this trend and help prevent further neuronal damage.


The researchers found:




VCO was able to reduce lipid peroxidation and increase the activity of SOD in the serum of mice undergoing the forced swim test and the brains of mice subjected to chronic cold restraint. It was previously reported that VCO is rich in polyphenols and these antioxidants may contribute to the increased levels of antioxidant enzymes, which subsequently reduce lipid peroxidation and inflammation in VCO-treated mice. Restoration of antioxidant levels in the brain may help prevent further neuronal damage and avoid subsequent depletion of monoamines, including DA. In conclusion, the present study demonstrated the potential of VCO in preventing exercise- and chronic cold restraint stress-induced damage and restoring the antioxidant balance. This promising antistress activity may be attributed to the polyphenols and medium-chain fatty acids present in VCO.




It is high time for a new paradigm in mental health. Drugs are not the solution to stress and depression. Non-drug alternatives are not only safer, but can be more effective than pharmaceutical drugs as well.

Reference


Antistress and antioxidant effects of virgin coconut oil in vivo. - Jan 2015; 9(1): 39 - 42. Full Study.


About the authors


Virgin Coconut Oil: How it has changed people's lives and how it can change yours!


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Sugar, not salt, plays major role in high blood pressure and heart disease

Sugar

© Natural Society



Added sugars in processed foods are likely to have a greater role in high blood pressure and heart disease and stroke, than added salt, say doctors in an analysis of the published evidence in the online journal .

Dietary guidelines should emphasize the role played by added sugars, particularly fructose, in the fight to curb the prevalence of cardiovascular, they insist.


Cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of premature death in the developed world. And high blood pressure is its most important risk factor,accounting for almost 350,000 deaths in the US in 2009 and costing more than $50 billion US dollars every year.


Dietary approaches to lower high blood pressure have historically focused on cutting salt intake. But the potential benefits of this approach "are debatable," say the authors.


This is because the average reductions in blood pressure achieved by restricting salt intake tend to be relatively small, and there is some evidence to suggest that 3-6 g salt daily may be optimal for health, and that intake below 3 g may actually be harmful, they write.


Most salt in the diet comes from processed foods, which also happen to be a rich source of added sugars, they point out.


"Sugar may be much more meaningfully related to blood pressure than sodium, as suggested by a greater magnitude of effect with dietary manipulation," they state.


"Compelling evidence from basic science, population studies, and clinical trials implicates sugars, and particularly the monosaccharide fructose, as playing a major role in the development of hypertension [high blood pressure]," they write.


"Moreover, evidence suggests that sugars in general, and fructose in particular, may contribute to overall cardiovascular risk through a variety of mechanisms," they add.


They point the finger in particular to high fructose corn syrup, which is the most frequently used sweetener in processed foods, particularly fruit-flavoured and fizzy drinks.


"Worldwide, sugar sweetened beverage consumption has been implicated in 180,000 deaths a year," they write. Around 300 years ago, people only consumed a few pounds of sugar a year, they add, whereas current estimates suggest that average consumption in the US is 77-152 pounds a year - equivalent to 24-47 teaspoons a day.


The evidence suggests that people whose dietary intake of added sugars adds up to at least a quarter of their total daily calories have almost triple the cardiovascular disease risk of those who consume less than 10%.


And a daily intake of more than 74 g of fructose is associated with a 30% greater risk of blood pressure above 140/90 mm Hg and a 77% increased risk of blood pressure above 160/100 mm Hg.


A high fructose diet has also been linked to an unfavorable blood fat profile, higher fasting blood insulin levels, and a doubling in the risk of metabolic syndrome.


Some dietary guidelines do include recommendations about daily intake of added sugars, but are not stringent enough, nor do they make specific recommendations about fructose, say the authors. And it's high time they did.


Of particular concern, they say, is that UK and US teens may be consuming added sugars up to 16 times the recommended limit.


They emphasize that naturally-occurring sugars found in fruit and vegetables are not harmful to health. Eating fruit and vegetables is almost certainly beneficial.


"Just as most dietary sodium does not come from the salt shaker, most dietary sugar does not come from the sugar bowl; reducing consumption of added sugars by limiting processed foods containing it, made by corporations, would be a good place to start," write the authors.


And they go on to warn: "The evidence is clear that even moderate doses of added sugar for short durations may cause substantial harm."


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Pakistan investigating British doctor's ties to Taliban school massacre


pakistan

© Reuters / Fayaz Aziz

A local cameraman films in front of an army soldier at the Army Public School, which was attacked by Taliban gunmen, in Peshawar, December 17, 2014.



As Britain's Pakistani community mourns the massacre of 132 children in Tuesday's school siege, a British doctor with links to the Taliban is being investigated by Pakistan's intelligence service, suspected of involvement in the attack.

Former NHS surgeon Mirza Tariq Ali fled the UK last year. He is reported to have become a senior Pakistani Taliban commander after his attempts to join Islamic State in Syria were hindered.


Pakistani authorities are currently investigating whether Ali could have been the commander of the six gunmen who opened fire on the school in Pakistan, leaving a total of 141 dead and a further 125 injured.


The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack. Pakistani officials believe that several factions of the local Pakistani Taliban orchestrated the siege from the border of neighboring Afghanistan.


Ali is reported to have had links with radical UK cleric Anjem Choudary while he was practicing medicine in the UK.


The doctor, who now operates under the moniker Dr Abu Obaidah Al-Islamabadi, has been described as "someone of interest" to the inquiry into the mass shooting. He is known to have appeared in a recruitment video for the Taliban in November, where he urged Pakistanis to stop resisting sharia law.


Ali was arrested by UK police in 2013 and charged with violent disorder after attending a demonstration in central London, organized by Choudary, where he advocated jihad in Syria. He was due to stand trial in May, but fled the country.


He was arrested in Croatia and deported to Pakistan, where he is reported to have risen quickly through Taliban ranks.


Ali was, however, prosecuted in his absence, and has been sentenced to 15 months in jail for Islamic sectarian violence; the first ever successful conviction of its type in the UK.





Comment: Let's get this straight. Ali is arrested in UK, somehow manages to 'flee' before trial, is then arrested in Croatia, deported to Pakistan, where he then joins up with the Taliban and "quickly rises" through its ranks?! Then, his prosecution in absentia is the first of its kind (how convenient!). Give us a break. His story is similar to Gladio operator Abdullah Catli and numerous other 'terrorists' who always manage to stay one step ahead of the law (e.g., escaping from military prisons). This just smacks of manufactured terror, with Anjem Choudary perhaps playing the role of a Fethullah Gulen-like handler.

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Blackmail opportunity? More than 48,000 federal employees affected by background check hack


© Shutterstock



The Office of Personnel Management is alerting more than 48,000 federal employees their personal information may have been exposed following a breach at KeyPoint Government Solutions, which conducts background investigations of federal employees seeking security clearances.

The total number of employees affected is 48,439, according to an email from OPM Chief Information Officer Donna Seymour obtained by Nextgov


Seymour said OPM worked closely with the Department of Homeland Security to investigate the incident, "and while we found no conclusive evidence that [personally identifiable information] was taken by the intruder, OPM has elected to conduct these notifications out of an abundance of caution."


Affected employees will receive free credit monitoring.


DHS spokesman S.Y. Lee on Thursday evening told Nextgov the breach was detected by a DHS entity.


"Recently, the DHS National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center became aware of a potential intrusion of a private sector company that conducts U.S. government security background investigations for OPM," he said in a statement. "Working with OPM and other interagency partners, the NCCIC, per standard procedure, deployed an on-site [U.S.-Computer Emergency Readiness Team] to assess and mitigate any risks identified."


"As we examine the potential impact on DHS employees, we are committed to ensuring the privacy of our workforce and will take all appropriate measures to safeguard it," he added.


Background investigators conduct interviews with employees or applicants seeking security clearances, as well as their family members, neighbors and former employers. Investigators also compile police and court records on interview subjects. Their reports are used by federal officials to determine potential employees' suitability to hold security clearances and are a treasure trove of personal information.


An OPM statement provided to Nextgov read in part: "We take very seriously our responsibility to protect sensitive data in background investigations, and our top priority is to make sure the networks that handle that data are secure. KeyPoint has worked closely with OPM to implement additional security controls that will afford its network greater protection."


It's the second time this year hackers have targeted a private background-check company. Over the summer, USIS, once the government's largest provider of checks, revealed its systems had been breached, potentially exposing information on 25,000 employees. OPM subsequently temporarily suspended work with the company in the wake of that breach and later severed ties altogether.


"Following the discovery of the problem, KeyPoint implemented numerous controls to strengthen the security of its network," Seymour's email stated. "The immediacy with which KeyPoint was able to remediate vulnerabilities has allowed us to continue to conduct business with the company without interruption."


A month before the USIS hack, OPM's own networks were breached, with news reports indicating Chinese hackers had infiltrated OPM's databases, potentially in pursuit of the personnel files of security clearance holders.


KeyPoint did not immediately return phone calls and emails seeking comment.


DHS says it inspected other background check firms for vulnerabilities following the USIS breach.


The U.S.-CERT, the agency's cyber-response squad, analyzed similar companies for "indicators of compromise," revealed Brad Nix, US-CERT's deputy director, who spoke earlier in the week at a Washington, D.C., cyber summit.


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Science and fraud are the same thing with biotech giant Monsanto


© nihongonews.wordpress



Imagine this. A killer is put on trial, and the jury, in a surprise verdict, finds him not guilty. Afterwards, reporters interview this killer. He says, "The jury freed me. It's up to them. They decide. That's what justice is all about."

Then the press moves along to members of the jury, who say: Well, we had to take the defendant's word. He said he was innocent, so that's what we ruled.


That's an exact description of the FDA and Monsanto partnership.


When you cut through the verbiage that surrounded the introduction of GMO food into America, you arrive at two key statements. One from Monsanto and one from the FDA, the agency responsible for overseeing, licensing, and certifying new food varieties as safe.


Quoted in the (October 25, 1998, "Playing God in the Garden"), Philip Angell, Monsanto's director of corporate communications, famously stated:



"Monsanto shouldn't have to vouchsafe the safety of biotech food. Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is the FDA's job."



From the , Volume 57, No.104, "Statement of [FDA] Policy: Foods Derived from New Plant Varieties," here is what the FDA had to say on this matter:

"Ultimately, it is the food producer who is responsible for assuring safety."



The direct and irreconcilable clash of these two statements is no accident. It's not a sign of incompetence or sloppy work or a mistake or a miscommunication. It's a clear signal that the fix was in.

No real science. No deep investigation. No convincing evidence of safety. Passing the buck back and forth was the chilling and arrogant strategy through which Pandora's Box was pried opened and GMO food was let into the US food supply.


In order for this titanic scam to work, the media had to cooperate. Reporters had to be a) idiots and b) sell-outs.


Reporters and their editors let the story die. No sane principled journalist would have cut bait, but who said mainstream reporters are sane or principled?


Underneath the Monsanto-FDA buck-passing act, there was a conscious deal to give a free pass to GMO crops. This had nothing to do with science or health or "feeding the world." It was about profits. It was also about establishing a new monopoly on food.


Not only would big agribusiness dominate the planet's food supply as never before, it would strengthen its stranglehold through patents on novel types of seeds which were engineered.


It's very much like saying, "A cob of corn is not a plant, it's a machine, and we own the rights to every one of those yellow machines."


How was Monsanto able to gather so much clout?


There was one reason and one reason only. Putting the world's food supply into fewer hands was, and is, a major item on the Globalist agenda. If it weren't, the FDA-Monsanto approval scam would have been exposed in a matter of weeks.


Major newspapers and television networks would have attacked the obvious con job like packs of wild dogs and torn it to pieces.


But once the scam had been given a free pass, the primary corporate-government tactic was to accomplish a fait accompli, a series of events that was irreversible.


In this case, it was about gene drift. From the beginning, it was well known that GMO plants release genes that blow in the wind and spread from plant to plant, crop to crop, and field to field. There is no stopping it.


Along with convincing enough farmers to lock themselves into GMO-seed contracts, Monsanto bought up food-seed companies in order to engineer the seeds...and the gene-drift factor was the ace in the hole.


Sell enough GMO seeds, plant enough GMO crops, and you flood the world's food crops with Monsanto genes.


Back in the 1990s, the prince of darkness, Michael Taylor, who had moved through the revolving door between the FDA and Monsanto several times, and is now the czar of food safety at the FDA - Taylor said, with great conviction, that the GMO revolution was unstoppable; within a decade or two, an overwhelming percentage of food grown on planet Earth would be GMO.


Taylor and others knew. They knew about gene drift, and they also knew that ownership of the world's food, by a few companies, was a prime focus for Globalist kings.


Control food and water, and you hold the world in your hand.


Here is evidence that, even in earlier days, Monsanto knew about and pushed for the Globalist agenda. Quoted by J. Flint, in his 1998 Agricultural Giants Moving Towards Genetic Monopolism, Robert Fraley, head of Monsanto's agri-division, stated:



"What you are seeing is not just a consolidation of [Monsanto-purchased] seed companies. It's really a consolidation of the entire food chain."



And as for the power of the propaganda in that time period, I can think of no better statement than the one made on January 25th, 2001, by the outgoing US Secretary of Agriculture, Dan Glickman. As reported by the , Glickman said:

"What I saw generically on the pro-biotech [GMO] side was the attitude that the technology was good and that it was almost immoral to say that it wasn't good, because it was going to solve the problems of the human race and feed the hungry and clothe the naked. And there was a lot of money that had been invested in this, and if you're against it, you're Luddites, you're stupid. There was rhetoric like that even here in this department [USDA]. You felt like you were almost an alien, disloyal, by trying to present an open-minded view on some of these issues being raised. So I pretty much spouted the rhetoric that everybody else around here spouted; it was written into my speeches."



Glickman reveals several things in these remarks: he was spineless; people at the Dept. of Agriculture were madly buying into the Monsanto cover story about feeding the world; and there had to be a significant degree of infiltration at his Agency.

The last point is key. This wasn't left to chance. You don't get a vocal majority of Dept. of Agriculture personnel spouting Monsanto propaganda merely because the fairy tale about feeding the world sounds so good. No, there are people working on the inside to promote the "social cause" and make pariahs out of dissenters.


You need special background and training to pull that off. It isn't an automatic walk in the park. This is professional psyop and intelligence work.


It isn't rinky-dink stuff. To tune up bureaucrats and scientists, you have to have a background in manipulation. You have to know what you're doing. You have to be able to build and sustain support, without giving your game away.


Psyop specialists are hired to help make overarching and planet-wide agendas come true, as populations are brought under sophisticated and pathological elites who care, for example, about feeding the world as much as a collector cares about paralyzing and pinning butterflies on a panel in a glass case.


Here is David Rockefeller, writing in his 2003 :



"Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as 'internationalists' and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure - one world, if you will. If that is the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it."



The Globalists play for keeps.

Owning the food of the world is part of their strike-force action plan, and Monsanto is a technocratic arm of that plan.


Meanwhile, the controlled press treats the whole sordid Monsanto/FDA story with its time-honored policy of "he said-he said." This policy dictates that stories merely present both sides of a conflict without drawing conclusions.


Monsanto's lies and crimes and cover-ups are everywhere. You could wear sunglasses and find them in the dark.


and the could sell millions more papers on the back of Monsanto stories. It would be a bonanza for them. But no. They don't care. They'd rather keep declining and losing readers. They'd rather die.


Normally, a business doesn't commit suicide, especially when it sees exactly how to resuscitate itself. But here we are dealing with an agenda which can't be disturbed. Globalism, and its agri-techno partner, Monsanto, are creating a planetary future. Major media are part and parcel of that op. They are selling it.


Again, we aren't talking about sloppy reporting or accidental omissions of fact or boggling incompetence or ignorance about science. We are talking about conscious intent to deceive.


Yes, now and then the controlled media will release a troubling piece about Monsanto. But placement and frequency are everything. How often do these stories run? Do they run as the lead or do we find them on page 3? Are reporters assigned to keep pounding on a basic story and reveal more and more crimes? Does the basic story gather steam over the course of weeks and months?


These are the decisions that make or break a story. In the case of Monsanto and the FDA, the decisions were made a long time ago.


Part of every reporter's training in how the real world works, if he has any ideals at all, is marching into his editor's office with his hair on fire demanding to be given an assignment to expose a crime. The editor, knowing the true agenda of his newspaper or television network, tells the reporter:


"We've already covered that."


"It's old news."


"People aren't interested in it."


"It's too complicated."


"The evidence you're showing me is thin."


"You'll never get to the bottom of it."


"The people involved won't talk to you."


And if none of those lies work, the editor might say, "If you keep pushing this, it would be bad for your career. You'll lose access to other stories. You'll be thought of as weird..."


This is how the game works at ground level. But make no mistake about it, the hidden agenda is about protecting an elite's op from exposure.


If NBC, for example, gave its golden boy, Brian Williams, the green light, he would become an expert on Monsanto in three days. He'd become a tiger. He'd affect a whole set of morally outraged poses and send Monsanto down into Hell.


Don't misunderstand. Brian hasn't been waiting to move in for the kill. But wind him up and point to a target and he'll go there.


However, no one at NBC in the executive offices will point him at Monsanto or the FDA.


All the major reporters at news outlets and all the elite television anchors are really psyop specialists. It's just that most of them don't know it.


One outraged major reporter who woke up and got out of the business put it to me this way: "When I was in the game, I looked at the news as a big public restroom. My one guiding principle was: don't piss on your shoes. That meant covering a story that was considered out of bounds. If I talked to the boss about one of those stories, he'd look me up and down and say, 'Hey, you pissed on your shoes. Get out of here.'"


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Birds may detect approaching storm from 900km away by infrasound waves


© Alamy

The golden-winged warblers may have picked up infrasound from tornadoes, which travels through the ground.



A group of songbirds may have avoided a devastating storm by fleeing their US breeding grounds after detecting telltale infrasound waves.

Researchers noticed the behaviour after analysing trackers attached to the birds to study their migration patterns. They believe it is the first documented case of birds making detours to avoid destructive weather systems on the basis of infrasound.


The golden-winged warblers had just returned from South America to their breeding grounds in the mountains of Tennessee in 2013 when a massive storm was edging closer. Although the birds had just completed a migration of more than 2,500km, they still had the energy to evade the danger.


The storm, which spawned more than 80 tornadoes across the US and killed 35 people, was 900km away when the birds, apparently acting independently of one another, fled south, with one bird embarking on a 1,500km flight to Cuba before making the return trip once the storm had passed.



© Reed Timmer/Jim Reed Photography/Corbis

A tornado in Brisco County, Texas. The birds didn’t appear to have used changes in pressure, wind speed or precipitation to warn them of the approaching storm.



"We looked at barometric pressure, wind speeds on the ground and at low elevations, and the precipitation, but none of these things that typically trigger birds to move had changed," said David Andersen at the University of Minnesota.

"What we're left with is something that allows them to detect a storm from a long distance, and the one thing that seems to be the most obvious is infrasound from tornadoes, which travels through the ground."


The scientists had fitted trackers to 20 golden-winged warblers in 2013. Only nine returned to their breeding ground after migrating to South America. Of those nine, the researchers trapped and analysed the flight histories of five. All took evasive action to avoid the storm.


The birds started to leave their breeding grounds on 27 April 2013, when the storm was whipping up tornadoes in Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas. The next day, with the storm about 100km from their breeding site, the birds had moved a few hundred kilometres south east. When the storm moved over the study area, battering it with winds of up to 160 kilometres per hour, the warblers were on Florida's Gulf Coast. One flew on to Cuba.


"In five to six days, they all made this big move around the storm," Andersen said. "They all went south east in front of the storm, and then let it go by, or moved behind it. It was individual behaviour, they were several hundred kilometres away from each other most of the time." Details are reported in the journal .


The scientists cannot be sure that the birds picked up infrasound waves from the storm, but previous work in pigeons has suggested that birds might use infrasound to help them navigate. Infrasound waves range from about 0.5Hz to 18Hz, below the audible range of humans.


The discovery of the evasive action could be good news, said Andersen. "With climate change increasing the frequency and severity of storms, this suggests that birds may have some ability to cope that we hadn't previously realised. These birds seemed to be capable of making really dramatic movements at short notice, even just after returning on their northwards migration," he said.


Had the storm arrived a couple of weeks later, the birds may not have taken flight. By that time, they would have been nesting, and females especially may have been less likely to flee. "It's hard to say what would happen. It may be more advantageous to survive than stay with a nest that is going to be destroyed anyway," Andersen said.


"Biologists had not been looking at the use of infrasound in this way, but it certainly makes sense to me," said Jon Hagstrum at the US Geological Survey in California, who has studied infrasound use by pigeons. "We may find that acoustics are a pretty significant way that birds in general view their environment, much like dogs use olfaction and humans use sight."


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NASA experts: California needs 11 trillion gallons to end drought


© Justin Sullivan / Getty Images



Rain has returned to California, taking pressure off of the immediate emergency of the ongoing drought via the help of several inches of recent rainfall.

But the Golden State loses about 4 trillion gallons per year, and would need roughly three times that amount to return to safe and normal levels.




"Recent rains are no reason to let up on our conservation efforts," Felicia Marcus, chair of the State Water Resources Control Board stated.




The same NASA experts who sounded the alarm over the drought's threat to the food supply are now warning that California needs some 11 trillion gallons of water to replenish to normal levels.


Eleven trillion gallons - that's the amount of water that NASA scientists say would be needed to replenish key California river basins in what they're calling the first-ever estimate of the water necessary to end an episode of drought. That 11 trillion gallons is the deficit in normal seasonal levels that NASA said a team found earlier this year in the Sacramento and San Joaquin river basins, using Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites. The GRACE data, presented Tuesday at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco, showed those river basins losing about 4 trillion gallons per year - more than state residents use annually, NASA said.




Adding to this challenge, neighboring and nearby states in the Southwest with whom California shares some water rights have been meeting recently over the water emergencies - and making clear that it will NOT BE SHARING any additional water with the parched state:


"If anybody thought we were going to roll over and say, 'OK, California, you're in a really bad drought, you get to use the water that we were going to use,' they're mistaken," said James Eklund, director of the Colorado Water Conservation Board


"Arizona has the same interest" as Colorado in ensuring its supply is protected, said Michael J. Lacey, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources. "I am not sure we will express it as pointedly as that," Lacey said of Eklund's remarks.


Eklund's insistence on Colorado's water rights drew diplomatic responses from his colleagues in other states on the eve of a Las Vegas meeting of water managers. The managers, from seven states, are working on ways to ensure 40 million people in the parched Colorado River basin don't go thirsty.


"California has not sought any Colorado River water beyond its entitlement and has no intention of doing so," said Jeff Kightlinger, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California




The ongoing droughts in the Southwest during the past decade have depleted more than 14 trillion gallons from the Colorado River basin - an amount even greater than California needs to regain normal levels.

And the worst may be yet to come:


Many experts believe the current drought is only the harbinger of a new, drier era in which the Colorado's flow will be substantially and permanently diminished.


Faced with the shortage, federal authorities this year will for the first time decrease the amount of water that flows into Lake Mead... a crucial source of water for cities from Las Vegas to Los Angeles and for millions of acres of farmland.


Reclamation officials say there is a 50-50 chance that by 2015, Lake Mead's water will be rationed to states downstream. That, too, has never happened before.


"If Lake Mead goes below elevation 1,000" - 1,000 feet above sea level - "we lose any capacity to pump water to serve the municipal needs of seven in 10 people in the state of Nevada," said John Entsminger, the senior deputy general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority.




As SHTF previously mentioned, the rationale for prepping is as strong as ever:

That's pretty harsh news, and the long term impact could be pretty serious, and just one more reason to prepare a reserve food supply and prepare a plan to deal with anything that may come.


There have been many other warning signs about the food supply and commodities markets - not the least of which include the billions in losses that corn farmers are facing due to market rejection in China and other countries as a result of GMO contamination.



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Maui stands as a beacon of hope: Moving closer to beating Monsanto over new GMO Moratorium


An attorney for the SHAKA Movement in Hawaii that has been trying to uphold a democratically voted moratorium on GMOs on the island of Maui reports that residents and activists have won - an intervention in a federal lawsuit that was brought on by Monsanto and Dow trying to push their genetically modified agenda on islanders will not go through. In other words, "proponents of the recently passed GMO Initiative on Maui have been given the green light to intervene in a federal lawsuit challenging the measure."


"Honolulu attorney Michael C. Carroll, who is representing the authors of the Maui GMO initiative tells Maui Now that the group won standing on Monday to intervene in the lawsuit filed by Monsanto which seeks to delay any enforcement of the measure and ultimately to have it declared unenforceable."




The federal lawsuit filed last month against Maui County by Monsanto Co. and a unit of Dow Chemical Co. thankfully flew over judge, Barry Kurren, who has deep ties with Monsanto, Dow, and Big Ag. The judge has recently overturned a democratically voted initiative to limit GMOs on the Big Island of Hawaii. Without an up-swelling of public pressure, he could have done the same in Maui.

Kurren previously ruled that laws instigated by Kauai and Hawaii banning GMOs were not applicable because the state, not the counties, had jurisdiction over the issue. Dow and Monsanto were hoping that Kurren would rule similarly on the recent ban on GMOs passed in Maui.


Likely due to pressure concerning his questionable allegiances, Kurren reassigned the Maui case to Chief Judge Susan Oki Mollway. It is also due to the fact that both the plaintiffs and defendants had agreed earlier to allow a magistrate judge to try the case. Once the SHAKA Movement found out Kurren's ties to biotech, they withdrew their approval for Kurren to preside over the case.


Maui voters clearly voted to ban GMOs on their November 4th ballots. Only a vote by the Maui County Council can lift the ban.


Last month, Judge Kurren ruled that Maui County couldn't implement the law until he considered the lawsuit put forth by Dow and Monsanto.


Maui stands as a beacon of hope for other towns throughout the US who are interested in banning GMOs. We applaud you, SHAKA Movement!



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First mountain lion seen in Kentucky since before the Civil War shot by wildlife officer


© US Fish and Wildlife Service.



A Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife officer killed a mountain lion on a Bourbon County farm on Monday, marking the first confirmed sighting of a mountain lion in Kentucky since before the Civil War, said Mark Marraccini, a spokesman for the agency.

Marraccini said a farmer spotted the cat in a tree and alerted the department. When the officer responded, he found the animal had been trapped in different tree by a barking dog and decided it was best to "dispatch it."


Mountain lions were once native to Kentucky but they were killed off here more than a century ago, Marraccini said.


Mountain lions are the largest cats found in North America and can measure up to eight feet from nose to tail and weigh up to 180 pounds. Also known as cougars, pumas, panthers and catamounts, the cats are considered top-line predators because no other species feed on them.


Marraccini said the wildlife officer shot the cat because it was about 5:30 p.m. and getting dark and he feared that it would slip away in darkness and threaten people in the nearby city of Paris.


"If that cat had left that tree, it would have disappeared into the brush and it was a fairly populated area," said Marraccini, who said it would have taken several hours and dark before a state veterinarian could retrieve the tranquilizer from her safe and get it to the scene had officials taken that route.


"It sounds good but it's pretty impractical," said Marraccini, who said the officer who shot the cat made the right call.


"That's the way the officers deemed to handle it and I don't see any reason why it shouldn't be handled that way," he said.


Marraccini said a state veterinarian will conduct a necropsy on the cat Tuesday to determine if it is a wild cat or a former pet that was either released or escaped.


According to the Cougar Network, the cat is mostly confined to the western United States but is advancing east. For years, the Mississippi River has been thought to be a barrier to the mountain lion's eastern expansion. But its clear they have been getting close to Kentucky.


They have colonized in South Dakota, Nebraska and Missouri, said Amy Rodrigues, a staff biologist for the Mountain Lion Foundation, and there have been sightings in recent years in Indiana and even downtown Chicago.


Rodrigues said that mountain lions each need more than 100 square miles to survive and many of the animals being killed as they expand east are young males under the age of two that have been kicked out by their mothers. They often travel east looking for deer, water and female cougars.


But Rodrigues said states that kill the animals when they enter are wrong for doing it and that the animals shouldn't cause fear. "If you're a deer, they're a little dangerous. If you're a human, not so much," she said. "Attacks on people are not that common. There have only been 22 deaths in the last 120 years."


She said people are at greater risk of dying from bee stings and lightning strikes than they are from cougar attacks.


They get a bad rap because "they are large animals with sharp teeth," Rodrigues said.


She added the presence of mountain lions in an ecosystem adds to biological diversity, which she said helps the environment recover from natural disaster and diseases that affect the fauna in a region.


Mark Dowling, a director of the Cougar Network, which advocates for the use of science to understand the animals, said the population was being pushed further and further west until the 1960s when a number of western and midwestern states began to classify them as game animals rather than vermin, and limiting people's right to kill them.


Since then, he said, the cats have been slowly reclaiming their old turf.


Marraccini said there is no official protocol about how to handle more mountain lions if they are found in Kentucky but he doubts that they will be allowed to colonize here like they have in many western states.


"Every one of them is handled on its own," said Marraccini.


Marraccini said that people and legislators probably would be opposed to allowing the cats to stay in the state. "When you have a population essentially that has had generations and generations and generations that have not had top-line predators, you think about it. You going to let your kids wait for the school bus in the dark? ..."


"From a wildlife diversity perspective, it would be a neat thing but from a social aspect, probably not," he said.


Dowling wouldn't take a position on whether the cat should have been killed but said that most states that have had the cats moving through them have just left the cats alone. In fact, he said he can't think of a state wildlife agency that shoots them on sight but he noted that South Dakota will shoot them when they enter a city.


But he said human attacks are few and far between, even in California where there are thousands of the cats, some of them living within large cities like Los Angeles.


"It's very, very rare for them to show any aggression toward humans," he said. "They, in fact, have a fear of people."


Animals like the mountain lion once near extinction or limited in their range are rebounding across the country. The first gray wolf confirmed in Kentucky in generations was shot by a hunter a year and a half ago near Munfordville.


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Supertyphoon shifted 177-ton boulder 150 feet


Supertyphoon Haiyan set a world record when it touched down in the Philippines by moving a 177-ton boulder a distance of about 150 feet.


Max Engel, a geoscientist at the University of Cologne in Germany, and colleagues from his college and the University of the Philippines' Marine Science Institute said they looked at satellite photos from before and after the typhoon's landfall in the Philippines in November 2013 and determined the boulder, weighing more than 25 adult African elephants, had been moved about 150 feet along a beach by the Haiyan's tsunami-like waves.


The researchers, who presented their paper, "" Tuesday at the American Geophysical Union's fall meeting in San Francisco, said the boulder is the largest on record to be shifted by a storm.


Engel and his colleagues said their findings suggest other boulder movements associated with tsunamis may have been caused by superstorms.


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Turkey seeks warrant for CIA asset Fethullah Gulen

Gulen

© AFP Photo / Zaman Daily

Fethullah Gulen.



A prosecutor has asked a Turkish court to issue an arrest warrant for long-time Erdogan rival Fethullah Gulen, a US-based cleric, Reuters cited a government official as saying.

However, no court decision has yet been reached.


An earlier report by TRT Haber television, a Turkish state-run channel, stated that the court had already issued the warrant. The broadcaster removed the story from its website without explanation.


This comes in the wake of the last week's media raids, during which over 20 suspected Gulen supporters, including chief editors and media executives, were detained.


President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is accusing the self-exiled preacher of plotting to overthrow the state.


Relations soured between the two after an anti-graft probe launched in 2013, which Erdogan suspects was an attempt by Gulen and his followers to destabilize the government.


Gulen, who heads Hizmet, an influential spiritual and social movement, has denied the allegations. Last week, Erdogan vowed to crush the "evil forces" associated with the movement and its leader.


"We are not just faced with a simple network, but one which is a pawn of evil forces at home and abroad," the president declared last Friday.


Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu indicated last week that Ankara may ask Interpol for a "red notice" - a document necessary for the extradition and arrest of a suspect located abroad - for Gulen.


"The judiciary will do whatever is necessary in the investigation of Fethullah Gülen. Whether it is a red notice or something else. He will not be treated differently than any other Turkish citizen," Davutoglu said during a press conference, reported.


Earlier this year, Erdogan announced that he would be seeking Gulen's extradition. However, according to international law, an arrest warrant and evidence against the cleric first had to be produced.


Gulen has repeatedly been accused of attempting to form a "parallel state." He was tried and found guilty in 2000, before being acquitted of all charges in 2008.


Before relocating to the US in 1999, the popular cleric was one of Erdogan's top allies. Their relationship began to deteriorate as Erdogan grew paranoid about Gulen's growing influence, facilitated by schools, education centers, and charity organizations in over 160 countries.


Critics have accused Erdogan of building an authoritarian regime and bending the constitution to concentrate an increasing amount of power in the presidency.


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Carnivore Comeback: Bear and wolf populations are thriving in Europe


© Kjell Isaksen

A female brown bear (Ursus arctos) with three yearlings in Gutulia National Park in Hedmark, South East Norway.


Despite having half the land area of the contiguous United States and double the population density, Europe is home to twice as many wolves as the U.S.

A new study finds that Europe's other large carnivores are experiencing a resurgence in their numbers, too - and mostly in nonprotected areas where the animals coexist alongside humans. The success is owed to cross-border cooperation, strong regulations and a public attitude that brings wildlife into the fold with human society, rather than banishing it to the wilderness, according to study leader Guillaume Chapron, a professor at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences' Grimsö Wildlife Research Station.


In Europe, "we don't have unspoiled, untouched areas," Chapron told Live Science. "But what is interesting is, that does not mean we do not have carnivores. Au contraire; we have many carnivores."


Europe's carnivores bounce back


Chapron and his colleagues pulled together data from all over Europe - excluding Russia, Ukraine and Belarus - on the population numbers of brown bears (), Eurasian lynx (), wolverines () and gray wolves (). Their results, published today (Dec. 18) in the journal , reveal that large carnivores in Europe are doing very well.


With the exception of Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, every European country in the study has a permanent and reproducing population of at least one of the four large carnivores, the researchers reported. The continent is home to 17,000 brown bears in 10 populations spread over 22 countries. There are 9,000 lynx in 11 populations in 23 countries. Wolves are thriving, with more than 12,000 individuals found in 10 populations in 28 countries.


Wolverines can live only in the cold climates of Scandinavia, so Norway, Sweden and Finland are the only countries in the study that host all four of Europe's major large carnivore species. There are two populations of wolverines in Europe, with an estimated total of 1,250 individuals.


Some small populations of carnivores are in decline across Europe, the researchers noted, but none of the large to medium populations are suffering.


Attitudes toward the wild


What makes this success so surprising is that these wolves, bears, lynx and wolverines are surviving largely outside of protected areas.


"Maybe the wolf is your black bear," Chapron said, explaining European attitudes toward the animal. In the United States, he said, wolves are seen as animals that can't coexist with humans, whereas black bears are generally tolerated in residential areas, with locals making accommodations such as bear-proof trash cans.


Chapron acknowledged that there are clashes in Europe between carnivores and people, particularly around livestock farming. Traditional strategies - such as employing livestock-guarding dogs or shepherds, or corralling livestock in pens at night - help ease carnivore attacks on valuable livestock, and compensating farmers for losses can also help mitigate problems, he said.


"There is a need to keep the conflict at a low intensity," Chapron said.


Chapron also credited the Habitats Directive, a set of conservation regulations that protects species and habitat types across national borders, for keeping carnivores from decline and extinction.


"We have found a recipe that works," he said.


Whether a similar recipe could work in the United States depends on public attitudes. However, the European model clearly shows that large carnivores can coexist with people in places Americans tend to find unimaginable, Chapron said. In 2011, a male gray wolf traveled from Oregon to California, becoming the first wolf in the state since 1924. (He later trotted back across the border to Oregon, and fathered pups.)


The appearance of the wolf triggered debate over how to manage the return of wolves in California. That is a matter of public policy, but Chapron pointed out that there is a fast-growing wolf population in Germany and Poland, where roads are as dense as anywhere in the world.


"If people from California decide to have wolves," he said, "then the European model clearly shows that you can have plenty of wolves in California."


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Crows join humans, apes and monkeys in exhibiting advanced rational thinking


© Lomonosov Moscow University.

Study finds crows spontaneously solve higher-order relational-matching tasks.



But a newly published study finds crows also have the brain power to solve higher-order, relational-matching tasks, and they can do so spontaneously. That means crows join humans, apes and monkeys in exhibiting advanced relational thinking, according to the research.


Russian researcher Anna Smirnova studies a crow making the correct selection during a relational matching trial.


"What the crows have done is a phenomenal feat," says Ed Wasserman, a psychology professor at the University of Iowa and corresponding author of the study. "That's the marvel of the results. It's been done before with apes and monkeys, but now we're dealing with a bird; but not just any bird, a bird with a brain as special to birds as the brain of an apes is special to mammals."


"Crows Spontaneously Exhibit Analogical Reasoning," which was published December 18 in , was written by Wasserman and Anna Smirnova, Zoya Zorina and Tanya Obozova, researchers with the Department of Biology at Lomonosov Moscow State University in Moscow, Russia, where the study was conducted.


Wasserman said the Russian researchers have studied bird species for decades and that a main theme of their work is cognition. He credits his counterparts with a thoughtful and well-planned study.


"This was a very artful experiment," Wasserman says. "I was just bowled over by how innovative it was."


The study involved two hooded crows that were at least 2 years old. First, the birds were trained and tested to identify items by color, shape and number of single samples.


Here is how it worked: the birds were placed into a wire mesh cage into which a plastic tray containing three small cups was occasionally inserted. The sample cup in the middle was covered with a small card on which was pictured a color, shape or number of items. The other two cups were also covered with cards -- one that matched the sample and one that did not. During this initial training period, the cup with the matching card contained two mealworms; the crows were rewarded with these food items when they chose the matching card, but they received no food when they chose the other card.


Once the crows has been trained on identity matching-to-sample, the researchers moved to the second phase of the experiment. This time, the birds were assessed with relational matching pairs of items.


These relational matching trials were arranged in such a way that neither test pairs precisely matched the sample pair, thereby eliminating control by physical identity. For example, the crows might have to choose two same-sized circles rather than two different-sized circles when the sample card displayed two same-sized squares.


What surprised the researchers was not only that the crows could correctly perform the relational matches, but that they did so spontaneously--without explicit training.


"That is the crux of the discovery," Wasserman says. "Honestly, if it was only by brute force that the crows showed this learning, then it would have been an impressive result. But this feat was spontaneous."


Still the researchers acknowledge that the crows' relational matching behavior did not come without some background knowledge.


"Indeed, we believe that their earlier IMTS (identity matching-to-sample) training is likely to have enabled them to grasp a broadly applicable concept of sameness that could apply to novel two-item samples and test stimuli involving only relational sameness," the researchers wrote. "Just how that remarkable transfer is accomplished represents an intriguing matter for future study."


Anthony Wright, neurobiology and anatomy professor at the University of Texas-Houston Medical School, says the discovery ranks on par with demonstrations of tool use by some birds, including crows.


"Analogical reasoning, matching relations to relations, has been considered to be among the more so-called 'higher order' abstract reasoning processes," he says. "For decades such reasoning has been thought to be limited to humans and some great apes. The apparent spontaneity of this finding makes it all the more remarkable."


Joel Fagot, director of research at the University of Aix-Marseille in France, agrees the results shatter the notion that "sophisticated forms of cognition can only be found in our 'smart' human species. Accumulated evidence suggests that animals can do more than expected."


Wasserman concedes there will be skeptics and hopes the experiment will be repeated with more crows as well as other species. He suspects researchers will have more such surprises in store for science.


"We have always sold animals short," he says. "That human arrogance still permeates contemporary cognitive science."


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