The Raw Story

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

Wednesday, 18 February 2015

Ralph Nader - What's happening to Canada? An open letter to Stephen Harper

In his letter to Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Nader warns against following the U.S. example when it comes to counter-terrorism measures. (Photo: Canada PM Office/flickr/cc) The Right Honourable Stephen Harper, P.C., M.P.80 Wellington StreetOttawa, ON K1A 0A2Dear Prime Minister:Many Americans love Canada and the specific benefits that have come to our country from our northern neighbor's many achievements (see by Nader, Conacher and Milleron)....

Colima's violent volcanic eruption captured on film

Mexico's Colima volcano is playing to the camera. Known locally as the or Volcano of Fire, Colima's recent activity is being captured on video and time-lapse photography as well as during monitoring flights around the area.The latest blast, featured in this BBC clip, shows a huge ash column climbing over a mile into the sky. Blankets of ash covered villages as much as 15 miles away, but there was no structural damage. [embedded content]One of the...

Media demonizing Russia as 'guilty' of daring to resist US Empire

© RIA Novosti Alexey NikolskyRussian President Vladimir Putin. The demonization of Vladimir Putin and Russia by the British political establishment and media has never been as intense as in the wake of the recent Ukraine peace talks in Minsk.Rather than preparing British public opinion for peace and a negotiated settlement to a conflict which thus far has cost the lives of over 5,000 people and seen over a million displaced, the opposite has been...

Hong Kong's chief executive publicly tells citizens to "act more like sheep"

© Jerome Favre/BloombergCY Leung delivers his policy address in the chamber of the Legislative Council in Hong Kong last month. Hong Kong's unpopular chief executive has infuriated pro-democracy campaigners by using a Chinese New Year message to urge the former colony's citizens to act more "like sheep". "In the coming year, I hope that all people in Hong Kong will take inspiration from the sheep's character and pull together in an accommodating...

Coming next - DNA data storage

© Thinkstock If you must preserve messages for people in the far future to read, Blu-ray discs and USB sticks are no good. For real long-term storage, you want a DNA time capsule.Just 1 gram of DNA is theoretically capable of holding 455 exabytes - enough for all the data held by Google, Facebook and every other major tech company, with room to spare. It's also incredibly durable: DNA has been extracted and sequenced from 700,000-year-old horse...

Ukraine gas prices skyrocket 280% as part of IMF aid terms

© Reuters / Regis Duvignau Ukraine has agreed to increase the cost of gas to consumer by 280 percent, and 66 percent for heating, as part of the IMF terms for getting extra financial aid, says Valery Gontareva the head of the National Bank of Ukraine."From now on, in accordance with our joint program with the IMF, the tariffs will see rather a sharp increase of 280 percent for gas and about 66 percent for heat," said Gontareva Wednesday during the...

Poland complicity in CIA torture program confirmed by European court

© Reuters / Kacper PempelMilitary area in the forest near Stare Kiejkuty village, close to Szczytno in northeastern Poland The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) rejected Poland's appeal to overturn a criminal investigation into officials working at a secret prison used in the CIA torture program. The Polish government now has to conclude its investigation and pay damages.The original July 2014 ruling by the court included a demand that Poland...

Canada adds Russian oil producer Rosneft to sanctions list

© Reuters / Chris Wattie Canada has added Russia's largest oil producer Rosneft, and the CEO of Rostec, to a sanctions blacklist along with 37 Ukrainians and 17 Russian and Ukrainian organizations. They are all covered by economic sanctions and travel bans.It's a coordinated move with the European Union and the United States, who have already imposed a number of sanctions on Russia, according to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. "In coordination...

Learning to silence critical self-talk

Self-nurturing means, above all, making a commitment to self-compassion. - Jennifer LoudenWhen does your internal critic show up? Is it when you spill your coffee? When you forget to buy the bread? When you speak too harshly to your children? Is it when you made the C when you were striving for the A, or is it when you didn't get invited to the party?There are many opportunities for the internal critic to sneak in and remind you of your faults,...

Limpet teeth discovered to be strong enough to construct ships

© wikipedia.orgThe true limpet species Patella vulgata on a rock surface in Wales The newest contender for the strongest material is found in the sea. Science has discovered recently that teeth belonging to tiny marine creatures called limpets are so incredibly tough they could be used to construct boats.The chompers are 100 times thinner than the diameter of a human hair. Scientists have determined that if we built huge structures from material...

British scientists say metal ball containing bio matter could be alien 'seed'

© Reuters / NASA A newly discovered microscopic ball could have been sent to earth by an alien civilization in an attempt to start new life, a British scientist has claimed.The mysterious metal sphere has been photographed spewing out a biological substance, which scientists believe could be genetic material.It was discovered by a team of researchers at the University of Sheffield and the University of Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology.While several...

Former White House chief of staff regrets not being able to disclose UFO secrets

© Jayne Clark,Alien statues posed outside a flying saucer are the centerpiece exhibit at the International UFO Museum in Roswell. Longtime White House insider excited UFO buffs with a tweet last week expressing his regrets as he left an advisor post with the Obama administration."Finally, my biggest failure of 2014: Once again not securing the #disclosure of the UFO files. #thetruthisstilloutthere," said John Podesta, who stepped down from his senior...

Niagara Falls freezes over as extreme winter weather continues

Niagara Falls has frozen over due to temperatures which dropped to 16F on Wednesday Extreme winter weather has been causing problems for millions across the East Coast, but it has also made for some beautiful sights.Among those beautiful sights is Niagara Falls, which has now frozen over due to temperatures which dropped to 16F on Wednesday.And it looks like the popular tourist destination may stay frozen, as temperatures are expected to drop even...

Massive explosion as oil tanker train derails in West Virginia

© APTNHuge explosion as a train derails in West Virginia. A train carrying more than 100 tankers of crude oil has derailed in southern West Virginia, sending at least one tanker into the Kanawha River and igniting at least 14 others that caused a house fire, officials said.One person was being treated for potential inhalation issues, but no other injuries were reported, according to a news release from CSX, the train company.Nearby residents were...

Explosion tears through Torrance refinery, California

Four people sustained minor injuries Wednesday morning after a “large explosion” was reported at the ExxonMobil Refinery in Torrance Minor injuries were reported after an explosion ripped apart structures at an oil refinery in southern Los Angeles County Wednesday morning and shook homes for miles around the blast site.Aerial video showed smoke coming from a damaged portion of the Torrance ExxonMobil Refinery, located south of the 405 Freeway. The...

Sott Exclusive: CNN says ISIS lures Western women with pictures of Nutella and kittens

On Wednesday morning, CNN revealed shocking information about the depth of dastardliness to which ISIS is now stooping in its effort to subvert the glorious freedoms and democracy of Western peoples: they're after our women, using the most devilish and devious ploy ever imagined by the mind of man or jihadi.CNN's Carol Costello spelled out, in glorious technicolor, that Western women are being manipulated by ISIS onlineTM into thinking that life...

Sperm whale dies off the Philippines coast

© Quezon policeThe Sperm whale carcass floating off the coast of Bangkorohan village in Calauag town, Quezon province. A sperm whale that had been stranded near a coastal village in the town of Calauag, Quezon province, died yesterday, an environment official of the province said.Manny Calayag, community coordinator of the Quezon-Environment and Natural Resources Office, said the sperm whale, one of the world's largest animals, died around 7:30...

Minnesota newspaper apologizes for calling selfie-loving narcissist Obama a 'self-absorbed assclown'

© Screenshot from youtube video by TVblipAssclown A local newspaper in Minnesota has retracted part of a story in which its reporter criticized President Barack Obama for using a selfie stick during a BuzzFeed video piece, calling the Commander in Chief an "assclown".The original comments were made by sports producer Kevin Cusick, who ran one of his "Loop Ten" articles - a column that pokes fun at the top newsmakers and "fakers" of the day. When...

Russian researchers discover NSA spying and sabotage software hidden in hard drives

© REUTERS/JIM URQUHARTA National Security Agency (NSA) data gathering facility The U.S. National Security Agency has figured out how to hide spying software deep within hard drives made by Western Digital, Seagate, Toshiba and other top manufacturers, giving the agency the means to eavesdrop on the majority of the world's computers, according to cyber researchers and former operatives.That long-sought and closely guarded ability was part of a cluster...

British Chelsea fans push black man off train and chant 'We're racist and that's the way we like it!'

© Screenshot from theguardian.com video Racism rears its ugly head, as this video shows a black man in Paris forcefully pushed off a subway train by rowdy British Chelsea fans headed for a match with Paris Saint-Germain. An investigation into their identities is underway."We're racist, we're racist and that's the way we like it" - this is the phrase they chanted during the incident, seen here in amateur video footage taken at the Richelieu-Drouot...

Currying for future favors? Foreign government gifts to Clinton Foundation on the rise

© European Pressphoto AgencyFormer President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton address the Clinton Global Initiative in New York in September 2014. The Clinton Foundation has dropped its self-imposed ban on collecting funds from foreign governments and is winning contributions at an accelerating rate, raising ethical questions as Hillary Clinton ramps up her expected bid for the presidency.Recent donors include the United...

Nazi revival: supporters of Anglo Saxon charity found giving Nazi salutes, making racist rants

© Image from http://on.fb.me/1AT2Omm Supporters of a charity which aims to support English culture have been exposed giving Nazi salutes and making racist comments in an undercover investigation.The Steadfast Trust, set up in 2004, claims to be the only charity representing the Anglo-Saxon community in England and supports "education, legal rights and welfare" for the English community.Supporters have now been shown proudly revealing their membership...

Bad news for warmists: Sun has gone quiet - Weakest solar cycle in over 100 years

© spaceweather.comLatest solar image with little sunspot activity DiscussionOverview The main driver of all weather and climate, the entity which occupies 99.86% of all of the mass in our solar system, the great ball of fire in the sky - has gone quiet again during what is likely to be the weakest sunspot cycle in more than a century. For the past 5 days, solar activity has been very low and one measure of solar activity - its X-ray output - has...

Not isolated: Putin visits Hungary, joint energy projects in the works

© Reuters / Laszlo BaloghHungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (R) addresses during a joint news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest February 17, 2015. Russia sees Hungary as a strategic partner and will pursue mutually beneficial energy projects, while Budapest is striving for cooperation with Moscow. The European economy will never be competitive without Russia, the Hungarian PM told Vladimir Putin.Both Hungary and Russia...
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)