The Raw Story

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

Sunday, 4 January 2015

Oliver Stone: U.S.'s narrative of events in Ukraine a "surreal perversion of history"

Viktor Yanukovych and Oliver Stone in a picture posted to Stone's Facebook page. January 03, 2015 "ICH" - (I) Interviewed Viktor Yanukovych (for) 4 hours in Moscow for new English language documentary produced by Ukrainians. He was the legitimate President of Ukraine until he suddenly wasn't on February 22 of this year. Details to follow in the documentary, but it seems clear that the so-called 'shooters' who killed 14 police men, wounded some 85,...

The secret intelligence of plants

"Plants have electrical and chemical signaling systems, may possess memory, and exhibit brainy behavior in the absence of brains."The idea that plants possess intelligence worthy of in depth exploration is an idea still largely scoffed at, despite the emergence of research suggesting otherwise. In large part, this is due to the widespread belief that "intelligence" and "brains" are inextricably connected, that the two must coexist to exist at all....

Russia's "startling" proposal to EU: Dump the US, join the Eurasian Economic Union

Slowly but surely Europe is figuring out that as a result of the western economic and financial blockade of Russian, it is Europe itself that is suffering the most. And while Germany was first to acknowledge this late in 2014 when its economy swooned and is now on the verge of a recession, now others are catching on. Case in point: the former head of the European Commission, and Italy's former Prime Minister, Romano Prodi who told Messaggero newspaper...

Depression: It's not your Serotonin

Millions believe depression is caused by 'serotonin deficiency,' but where is the science in support of this theory?"Depression is a serious medical condition that may be due to a chemical imbalance, and Zoloft works to correct this imbalance."Herein lies the serotonin myth.As one of only two countries in the world that permits direct to consumer advertising, you have undoubtedly been subjected to promotion of the "cause of depression." A cause...

Have you heard of all these surveillance programs?

All your data are belong to us! According to various publications in the American and foreign media, the United States has created a global system of cyber espionage that allows the interception and processing of personal data around the globe in violation of fundamental human rights. Tapped phones, intercepted short messages, supervised discussions in social networks and stolen emails - this is the ugly reality we are living in. The NSA and other...

Bully state: Israel withholds Palestine's tax revenue after Abbas requests

© Flickr/ Global Panorama Israel allegedly decided to freeze a monthly transfer of tax revenues to the Palestinian authorities after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signed a request to join the International Criminal Court, Reuters reports, citing an Israeli official.The monthly tax revenues amount to approximately $125 million. Palestinians use the funds to run their government and pay salaries to those employed in the public sector. Israel...

Rob Kirby: Early warnings for 2015

Rob Kirby of Kirby Analytics Gold and derivatives expert Rob Kirby thinks crashing oil prices are going to lead to a 2008 style financial meltdown. This is not a maybe - a market explosion is going to happen in 2015. Kirby contends,"Oh yes, without a doubt, it will. It must because the income crude oil sales generate are used to pay the interest on the debt. . . . If you have a mortgage payment of $5,000 at the end of the month and you only have...

Washington's quiet proxy war against Vietnam

© Unknown Washington's meddling across Asia has grabbed headlines recently in Hong Kong where US National Endowment for Democracy (NED) funded opposition leaders attempted to trigger a "color revolution" targeting the government of Beijing and Hong Kong's local administrators. Its spectacular failure was owed to the almost immediate exposure of the protesters as foreign-backed proxies serving foreign interests.Additionally, political chaos has plagued...

Rare Arctic Ivory gull spotted in Quincy, Illinois

© Brandon StehlIvory Gull Bird enthusiasts from all over the Midwest descended upon Quincy Saturday to get a glimpse of the extremely rare Ivory Gull."It's a fairly small gull but very elegant, pure white with very dark eyes and legs, with this cute little bill that's dark with a yellow tip on it," biology professor Jim Mountjoy said.It was rainy, cold, and damp. But that didn't stop Knox College Biology Professor and bird expert Jim Mountjoy from...

Skin fat helps fight infection

© Nruboc | Dreamstime Fat cells just under a person's skin may be the first responders to invading bacteria, buying time until the white blood cells arrive at a wound site, according to a new study.The new findings suggest that the task of fighting infections is not solely the responsibility of the immune system, the researchers said. Moreover, fat cells may fight infections by producing antimicrobial compounds, lab experiments in mice and human...

Big Pharma deflects responsibility for gruesome antibiotic side effects

© unknown A recent ABC news item featured an unfortunate tragedy of a women hospitalized in an intensive care burn unit with Stevens-Johnson syndrome after taking a pharmaceutical antibiotic. This "rare" syndrome is gruesome.She was placed into intensive care of a burn unit in the University of California Irvine's burn unit, as 70 percent of her body is burning "from the inside out".Dr. Joshua Zeichner, a dermatology professor at the Mount Sinai...

Dead whale washes up on Sandøy, Norway

Locator map of Sandøy, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway Norway's Coast Guard faced a grim and smelly task over the weekend: Discarding a dead whale whose cadaver was in danger of exploding.The dead whale had washed up in a bay at Sandøy outside Bergen on Norway's West Coast. It was found by a local resident on Friday and immediately raised concerns because it was showing clear signs that gas had formed inside the whale's stomach.That meant it could explode,...

Indo-Tibetan Border Police sound high alert after early heavy snowfall on Himalayan border

© Sanju PantHeavy snowfall at an ITBP camp on the China border in Pithoragarh. The ITBP, which guards the high-altitude Himalayan border posts with China, has sounded a high alert as moderate to heavy snowfall has been reported in the region in the last 24 hours.The snowfall continued in the higher reaches of this part of the Himalayas today, ITBP sources said here. "The snowfall has broken records of recent years. After 2005, dense snowfall used...

Panicking passengers refuse to re-board AirAsia plane after engine stops with loud bang on Surabaya airport runway

Around 90 per cent of passengers refused to get back on an AirAsia plane after an engine struck a problem, it was reported (file picture) Almost an entire plane-load of passengers refused to re-board an AirAsia jet after one of the engines struck a problem as it started to taxi at Surabaya airport, it was reported today.It was the same airline that lost an Airbus last weekend as it flew from Surabaya to Singapore with the presumed loss of all 162...

Pope embraces false prophets of doom - Why I'm disassociating myself from the Vatican and church

© NoTricksZone I'm Catholic and this Sunday I'm announcing that I'm disassociating myself from the Vatican and its pope. I urge other skeptic Catholics to consider doing the same. This is not a step I've taken lightly.I'll be opting out of Germany's (Church Tax) and will not attend any services in the future. With their latest planned encyclical they are indicating that they have shifted back to the Dark Ages of bad-weather witches, superstitions...

Large asteroids to flyby Earth in January through March. Should we worry?

© NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCAL/MPS/DLR/IDAMassive rocks hurtling in space at speeds of thousands of miles per hour? They definitely sound dangerous, but they’re only really threatening if they hit you. Asteroids are headed in Earth's direction and with most of them about as wide as a double-decker bus, a collision would most likely result in significant damage. However, while experts warn against the potential dangers of these asteroids, they also say...

Russian Oligarchs Are Moving Assets Out Of Russia, Converting Rubles Into Hard Assets

We noticed a very interesting development late last week when there was a very late after-hours press release announcing what would generally be considered a normal transaction of shares in a thinly traded micro-cap mining company called Atico Mining. This tiny company is producing gold and copper from an underground mine in Colombia at a relatively low cost.Fast forward to the press release (which can be read in its entirety here) stating that Frontdeal...

Oil, Power and Psychopaths

James F. Gibson Tent of A. Foulke, Horse Artillery, Brandy Station, Virginia 1864 Iran has a – very – long running dispute with the US about its nuclear technology. The US wants Assad (Bashar Al-Assad) out of Syria, while Iran and Russia support Assad (Russia’s sole proper base in the Middle East), who’s an Alawite (a Shi-ite branch), a people historically persecuted by Sunni’s. ISIS (or Daesh in the region) is Sunni. So are the Saudi’s. Iran is...
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