The Raw Story

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

Saturday, 28 February 2015

Cuba and the US: What is the future?

The victory of the Cuban revolution over the forces of U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista meant that January 1, 1959 marked the first time in 467 years that Cubans were not subjected to serfdom and exploitation by a foreign power. Spain was the first country to exercise dominion over Cuba beginning in 1510, up until the Spanish-American War of 1898. During this period, Spain engaged in the exploitation of Cuban natural resources and subjected...

Noctilucent clouds, behaving strangely

The southern season for noctilucent clouds (NLCs) has come to an end. NASA's AIM spacecraft observed the last wisps of electric-blue over Antarctica on Feb. 20, 2015. The end of the season was no surprise: The polar clouds always subside in late summer. Looking back over the entire season, however, reveals something unexpected. In an 8-year plot of Antarctic noctilucent cloud frequencies, the 2014-2015 season is clearly different from the rest: ©...

Dark energy camera takes accidental gigantic, magnificent picture of Comet Lovejoy

© Fermilab’s Marty Murphy, Nikolay Kuropatkin, Huan Lin and Brian Yanny.Comet 2014 Q2 (Lovejoy), on December 27, 2014, as seen by the Dark Energy Survey. Oops! In a happy accident, Comet Lovejoy just happened to be in the field of view of the 570-megapixel Dark Energy Camera, the world's most powerful digital camera. One member of the observing team said it was a "shock" to see Comet Lovejoy pop up on the display in the control room."It reminds...

Nemtsov's murder: Russian opposition bloggers weigh in - 'only people to gain want to destablize Russia'

A little more than a day after the killing of Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, very little is known about the reasons for his murder. Online and in the news, in Russia and across the world, most liberal voices have one way or another blamed the Kremlin for Nemtsov's homicide.The two most popular theories to emerge seem to be that Russia's authorities either sanctioned the assassination outright, or they cultivated an "atmosphere of hatred"...

Gone with the wind: Wind-powered freighters

© Lade AS To make ships more eco-efficient, engineers have been working with alternative fuels. A Norwegian engineer is currently pursuing a new approach: With VindskipTM, he has designed a cargo ship that is powered by wind and gas. Software developed by Fraunhofer researchers will ensure an optimum use of the available wind energy at any time.International shipping is transporting 90 percent of all goods on earth. Running on heavy fuel oil freighters...

Breaking Bad (Debt) - Episode One

“At this juncture, the impact on the broader economy and financial markets of the problems in the subprime market seems likely to be contained.” – Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke, Congressional testimony, March, 2007 “Capitalism without financial failure is not capitalism at all, but a kind of socialism for the rich.” – James Grant, Grant’s Interest Rate Observer The Federal Reserve issued their fourth quarter Report on Household Debt and Credit last...

DNA evidence: cultural connections between Britain and Europe 8,000 years ago

The ancient British were not cut off from Europeans on an isolated island 8,000 years ago as previously thought, new research suggests.Researchers found evidence for a variety of wheat at a submerged archaeological site off the south coast of England, 2,000 years before the introduction of farming in the UK.The team argue that the introduction of farming is usually regarded as a defining historic moment for almost all human communities leading...

Orwell and black boxes in car

Orwell had it right; his timing was just off a couple decades.The world of universal surveillance is upon us and so far not much of anything is really being said about it. Those who talk about "privacy" are written off as crackpots or malcontents. Anyone who complains about being tracked, monitored, or photographed is assumed to be guilty of some transgression against an employer, government edict, or society in general.There once were technical...

Did the U.S. murder Boris Nemtsov?

Headlines around the world have carried some variation of the story: the murder of Boris Nemtsov. Each of these includes some retelling of the pertinent facts: what, who, where, how ... but the real question is 'why'. The answer to this question, or rather, what the west insists is the answer, will tell us a lot about the US's plans to escalate the tensions in Russia over Ukraine, and beyond.It would be foolish to set aside any hypothesis about...

SOTT FOCUS: Insignificant 'Putin critic' gunned down by someone who hates Putin

Boris Nemtsov entering the US embassy in 2012 Boris Nemtsov was shot in the back last night as he walked with his Ukrainian girlfriend near the Kremlin in Moscow. Nemtsov ran unsuccessfully for office in 1989 before eventually being elected to Russia's parliament in 1990. As deputy minster for economic reform under Yeltsin, he failed to actually deliver economic reform amid the August 1998 economic crisis and it cost him his job.In 1999 he founded...

Four more Homan Square torture victims come forward

© unknown Four more victims of incarceration at Chicago's Guantanamo Bay style secret detention/torture center, known as Homan Square, have come out and spoken to The Guardian about their experience being essentially treated like cattle. They are four black males, Brock Terry, Kory Wright, Deandre Hutcherson and David Smith.Three of them were held in 2006, and one in 2011.They were kicked in the genitals while helpless and bound, put in 'kennels...

CCTV footage of Nemtsov's death released

© Reuters/Sergei KarpukhinA visitor holds a photo at the site where Boris Nemtsov was recently murdered, in central Moscow, February 28, 2015. The TVTs TV channel published surveillance camera video which captured the moment of Nemtsov's murder in the center of Moscow. One can see the car and the silhouettes of people.We can see how Boris Nemtsov and Anna Duritskaya are walking on the bridge toward the Bolotnaya square. They are overtaken and obscured...

Keeping fear alive: If terrorism is such a grave threat, why does the FBI need to manufacture plots?

The FBI and major media outlets yesterday trumpeted the agency's latest counterterrorism triumph: the arrest of three Brooklyn men, ages 19 to 30, on charges of conspiring to travel to Syria to fight for ISIS (photo of joint FBI/NYPD press conference, above). As my colleague Murtaza Hussain ably documents, "it appears that none of the three men was in any condition to travel or support the Islamic State, without help from the FBI informant." One...
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