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Thursday 12 March 2015

The West's plan to drop Russia from SWIFT hilariously backfires

Putin Giggling

© onrgaia's/Photobucket



If Vladimir Putin is remotely capable of laughter (the jury is out on that one...) then he's probably doing so right now.

Russia is once again Arch-Enemy of the United States. It's like living through a really bad James Bond movie, complete with cartoonish villains.


And for the last several months, the US government has been doing everything it can to torpedo the Russian economy, as well as Vladimir Putin's standing within his own country.


The economic nuclear option is to kick Russia out of the international banking system. And the US government has been vociferously pushing for this.


Specifically, the US government wants to kick Russia out of SWIFT, short for the Society of Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications.


That's a mouthful. But SWIFT is an important component in the global banking system because it lays the foundation for banks to communicate and transfer funds with one another.


It's a network protocol of sorts. Whenever a bank in Pakistan does business with a bank in Portugal, the funds will clear through the SWIFT network.


According to the SWIFT itself, they link over 9,000 financial institutions worldwide in over 200 countries, which transact 15 million times per day.


Bottom line, being part of SWIFT is critical to conducting business with the rest of the world. And if Russia gets kicked out of SWIFT, it would be a disaster.


Now, SWIFT is technically organized as a 'Cooperative Society' and governed by a board of directors. There are 25 available board seats, and each seat is allocated for a three-year term to a specific country.


The United States, Belgium, France, Germany, UK, and Switzerland each hold two seats. A handful of other countries hold just one seat. And of course, most countries don't hold any seats at all.


Here's what's utterly hilarious—




On Monday afternoon, not only did SWIFT NOT kick Russia out... but they announced that they were actually giving a BOARD SEAT to Russia.




This is basically the exact opposite of what the US government was pushing for.

Awkward...


But this story is even bigger than that.


Because at the same time that the US government isn't getting its way with SWIFT, the Chinese are busy putting together their own version of it called CIPS.


CIPS stands for the China International Payment System; it's intended to be a direct competitor to SWIFT, and a brand new way for global banks to communicate and transact with one another in a way that does NOT depend on the United States.


We'll talk about CIPS in more details in a future letter. But in brief, it addresses some serious weaknesses, inefficiencies, and technological challenges of SWIFT.


And it should be ready to go later this year.


Make no mistake, this is the beginning of the end of the US dollar's global hegemony. It's time to stop hoping that it won't happen and time to start preparing for it.


'Underground' ocean confirmed on Jupiter's largest moon

Ganymede

© NASA, ESA, G.Bacon (StScl)

An artist's impression of aurora on Ganymede.



Scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope have confirmed that the Jupiter-orbiting moon Ganymede has an ocean beneath its icy surface.

The finding resolves a mystery about the largest moon in the solar system after NASA's now-defunct Galileo spacecraft provided hints that Ganymede has a sub-surface ocean during exploration of Jupiter and its moons from 1995 to 2003.


Scientists say it took some detective work to confirm the discovery.


Like Earth, Ganymede has a liquid iron core that generates a magnetic field, though Ganymede's field is embedded within Jupiter's magnetic field. That sets up an interesting dynamic with telltale visuals -- twin bands of glowing aurora around Ganymede's northern and southern polar regions.


As Jupiter rotates, its magnetic field shifts, causing Ganymede's aurora to rock. Scientists measured the motion and found it fell short. Using computer models, they realised that a salty, electrically conductive ocean beneath the moon's surface was counteracting Jupiter's magnetic pull.


"Jupiter is like a lighthouse whose magnetic field changes with the rotation of the lighthouse. It influences the aurora," says geophysicist Joachim Saur, with the University of Cologne in Germany.


"With the ocean, the rocking is significantly reduced," says Saur.


Scientists ran more than 100 computer models to see if anything else could be having an impact on Ganymede's aurora. They also repeated the seven-hour, ultraviolet Hubble observations and analysed data for both belts of aurora.


"This gives us confidence in the measurement," says Saur.


Astounding demonstration


NASA Planetary Science Division director Jim Green says the finding is "an astounding demonstration."


"They developed new approach to look inside a planetary body with a telescope," says Green.


Ganymede joins a growing list of moons in the outer solar system with sub-surface water.


Earlier this week scientists reported that Saturn's moon Enceladus may have hot springs beneath its icy crust. Other water-rich worlds include Jupiter moons Europa and Callisto.


Scientists estimate Ganymede's ocean is 100 kilometres thick, 10 times deeper than Earth's oceans, and is buried under a 150-kilometre crust of mostly ice.


"It is one step further toward finding that habitable, water-rich environment in our solar system," says astronomer Heidi Hammel of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy.


IMF Ukraine $17.5B bailout links to "reform" and impoverishment of the Ukrainian population

IMF horse

© twitter.com



Ukraine will receive total loans of 40 billion dollars from international tax money. For this purpose, Ukraine will carry out "reforms" especially such demands as that the social system be dismantled and privatization [selloff of government assets in order to repay the loans] be performed. The Kiev government is very pleased with the 'help'. A native of the US, Ukraine's Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko wants to buy weapons with the money. European banks are relieved because Kiev, for the time being, is able to meet its debt service.

Angela Merkel and IMF chief Christine Lagarde rejoiced in Berlin on Wednesday, because, in their view, Ukraine is on the right track.


The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has fully approved its new loan package of 17.5 billion for Ukraine. This approval from the IMF Board of the four-year loan program was announced in Berlin on Wednesday by the IMF's head Christine Lagarde. She said that the loan will help to stabilize the economic situation in Ukraine as quickly as possible. At the same time Ukraine will launch far-reaching reforms to restore robust growth and improve the living conditions of the population, she promises.


"Ukraine has fulfilled all conditions for this loan program, "Lagarde said in Berlin after a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and the heads of other global financial and economic organizations. The newly approved plan will pay Ukraine ten billion dollars in the first year.


Overall, the international community is now fully committed to provide to Ukraine around $ 40 billion in loans. Specifically, the IMF has converted its previous short-term loans (Stand-By Arrangement) into a long-term loan program (Extended Fund Facility).


Ukraine is virtually bankrupt and can, according to the statement from Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, survive only with the IMF loans. Yatsenyuk says that the amount of the first installment of the new loan program from the IMF will be five billion US dollars. "We managed to show the IMF that we implement reforms," he said on Wednesday night, according to local media in Kiev - and he pointedly held five fingers in the air.




The EU has recently approved 1.8 billion euros for Ukraine. Germany has bilaterally (with Ukraine) granted an additional credit line of 500 million euros for economic stabilization. In addition, Reuters reports that IMF insiders believe that the creditors of Ukraine will be asked to pay. They are expected to contribute 15.4 billion euros - which could run for example via a waiver [of part of what's owed]. This could affect Russia as well as the investor George Soros, both of which hold Ukrainian government bonds.

Ukraine will get more funds, more time, more flexibility and better financing terms, Lagarde said. She pointed out that additional funding will be added. Furthermore, the Ukrainian government has initiated talks with lenders to reduce the national debt to a sustainable level in the medium term.


The IMF says that the impact of the reforms, particularly for the poorest part of the population, will be to cushion and enable to be strengthened the social network and enable its measures to be implemented in a more targeted way. But the opposite is actually true. The government has in particular brought in laws by which the situation of pensioners, the sick and children will significantly deteriorate.




"The program is ambitious and involves risks," said Lagarde. This is particularly true in view of the conflict in the east. Encouragingly, the ceasefire agreed in Minsk seems to be holding, to a large extent.

In addition to the new IMF loans, the loan program to Ukraine also includes money from Western industrialized countries (G7), the EU and other institutions. Germany alone controls so far the additional credit line of 500 million euros for the reconstruction of the country. These are guarantees [insurance] to project funding.


The federal government had earlier stressed the "bailout" is linked to "reform". "This financial support from the IMF and the European Union can be provided only with the understanding that Ukraine will adopt and implement urgently needed reforms," said government spokesman Steffen Seibert in Berlin.


US Secretary of State Victoria Nuland vowed on Wednesday in addressing the US Congress, that the reforms in Ukraine, will go beyond all the praise, by cutting pensions and the social system, and by privatizing Ukraine's agriculture. International seed companies like Monsanto will benefit from the credits from taxpayers because these companies will be able to buy agricultural land from local farmers at low prices [without having to worry about the riskiness of Ukraine's government debt]. [It should also be noted that until the U.S. took over Ukraine, there were no GMO seeds allowed anywhere in Europe.]


Only recently have oligarchs established an agency for the reconstruction of Ukraine. The agency is endorsed by ex-Commissioners and SPD politicians like Peer Steinbrück. Western politicians will likely help Ukraine's oligarchs benefit from the tax money coming from Europe and America.



Taxpayers' money will be controlled by the former employee of the US State Department, the investment banker [and now Ukraine's Finance Minister] Natalie Jaresko.
Jaresko has already announced that the new credit in addition to the debt service will help Ukraine to buy, especially, weapons.




The occupation of the key Ministry of Ukraine [Finance] by an American is describe by criticis critics as a provocation.

Banks in Europe are investing heavily in Ukraine, and therefore also will benefit from the newly approved loans. [Taxpayers take the risks, while those banks reap the benefits.]




Note by Eric Zeusse

The deal that seems to be shaping up is that while Obama's secondary goal of enabling U.S. and EU corporations to plunder Ukraine will be fulfilled, Obama's primary goal of Ukraine's joining NATO will not. Russia has to approve these loans to Ukraine, because Russia is Ukraine's most-senior debtholder. So, if this plan works out as described, and Russia accepts being treated instead as a junior debtholder, then Russia will have to be getting in return what it wants most, which is that the new, rabidly anti-Russian, Obama-imposed, Ukrainian regime, not be allowed into NATO, and not become a launch-site for NATO missiles. Implicit in this is also that the acceptance and permanency of the existing battle-demarcation-lines, in which Ukraine's forces occupy Mariupol. This settlement suggests that Russia will somehow have to find a way to build a ten-mile bridge across the Kerch Strait connecting Crimea with the rest of Russia.


When Ukraine invaded Mariupol during 7-9 May 2014 and set afire the police headquarters and shot directly at the residents to terrify and subdue them, this started the bloodiest of the civil war's battles that Ukraine ended up winning, and Mariupol is now virtually a ghost town except for Ukraine's occupying troops. Ukraine's very bloody conquest of Mariupol may be considered to be Ukraine's revenge for having peacefully — because of Russian troops in Crimea — lost Crimea to Russia on 16 March 2014.


This news-story is basically a first-statement of the proposed and implicitly accepted settlement-terms of Ukraine's civil war. Western taxpayers will be bearing much of the burden, though they had no role in approving these terms except for their having been fooled by propaganda into voting for politicians whose primarly loyalty is to the individuals who financed their campaigns and their careers — not to the public. The entire Ukrainian gambit of Obama ends up as little more than a pillaging operation. If he accepts it as being that, and if Putin accepts it as being nothing more than that, then the deal will stick, and the residents of Ukraine will become even more impoverished, and will massively migrate into Europe, as prostitutes and other desperate people competing against the existing refugees and other poor there. This will be a major victory for aristocrats, who will not need to pay as much for workers as formerly. However, everyone else will suffer. This is what the aristocracy calls 'the free market,' and 'democracy.' It's a massive money-funnel to the super-rich.]


Concerned Hawaii residents discuss Trans Pacific Partnership

- A community forum was held in Hilo Wednesday night on the subject of the Trans-Pacific Partnership - a proposed regional regulatory and investment treaty involving twelve countries throughout the Asia-Pacific region currently in negotiations. This week, those negotiations are reportedly being conducted, behind closed doors, at the posh Waikoloa resorts. It was a great opportunity for those opposed to the TPP to speak out.


© bigislandvideonews.com

Juliet Begley, Americans for Democratic Action, Hawaii Island



Jim Albertini of the Malu 'Aina Center For Non-violent Education & Action helped organize the forum.

[embedded content]


[embedded content]





Comment: WikiLeaks: Updated Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) The Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement that would strip governments of the power to regulate transnational corporate activities, is another dirty corporate tactic to dominate the world:

Under Cover of Darkness, an International Corporate Coup Is Underway



With the direct participation of 600 corporations and shocking levels of secrecy, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) is rushing to complete the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Branded as a trade agreement (yawn) by its corporate proponents, TPP largely has evaded public and congressional scrutiny since negotiations were launched in 2008 by the George W. Bush administration.


But trade is the least of it. Only two of TPP's 26 chapters actually have to do with trade. The rest is about new enforceable corporate rights and privileges and constraints on government regulation. This includes new extensions of price-raising drug patent monopolies , corporate rights to attack government drug formulary pricing plans, safeguards to facilitate job offshoring and new corporate controls over natural resources .


Also included are severe limits on government regulation of financial services, zoning and land use, product and food safety , energy and other essential services, tobacco, and more. The copyright chapter poses many of the threats to Internet freedom of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which was stalled in Congress under intense public pressure.


The proposed pact is so invasive of domestic policy space that it would even limit how governments can spend tax dollars. Buy America and other Buy Local procurement preferences used to reinvest our tax dollars in the American economy would be banned and sweat-free, human rights or environmental conditions on government contracts would be subject to challenge in closed-door foreign tribunals.




American diagnosed with Ebola being flown to Bethesda, MD for treatment


© Michael Duff/AP

A healthcare worker prepares a colleague’s Ebola virus protective gear at a clinic operated by the International Medical Corps in Makeni, Sierra Leone.



An American healthcare worker who contracted Ebola while fighting the outbreak in Sierra Leone will be brought to the US for treatment, the National Institutes of Health announced on Thursday.

The healthcare worker is due to arrive at the NIH facility in Bethesda, Maryland, on Friday. The patient, who has not been identified as male or female, was volunteering in an Ebola treatment unit in Sierra Leone.


News of the American's infection came hours after it was announced that the epidemic in west Africa had a grim milestone: more than 10,000 people had died from Ebola in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, according to numbers released by the World Health Organization. So far, more than 24,000 people in nine countries have been infected.




The countries have made significant gains in the fight against Ebola in recent months, with the overall number of new Ebola cases slowing significantly. Earlier this month, Liberia discharged its last Ebola patient. Just six months earlier, Liberia - which has recorded more than 9,000 cases of Ebola, including more than 4,000 deaths - was reporting 300 new cases a week.

Healthcare workers are at heightened risk of exposure because of their close contact with ill patients. Since the outbreak began in December, 840 health workers have tested positive for Ebola in west Africa; there have been 491 reported deaths.


The individual being flown to the US will be the second Ebola patient to receive treatment at the facility, specifically designed to provide high-level isolation capabilities and staffed by infectious diseases and critical care specialists. The first patient, Dallas nurse Nina Pham, was treated successfully.


Pham is now suing the Dallas hospital where she contracted the disease while caring for Thomas Eric Duncan, who was first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the US. Duncan, a Liberian national, died in the Dallas hospital in October, after he was initially misdiagnosed and sent home. His relatives settled a lawsuit with the hospital for an undisclosed sum of money.


The NIH facility has also monitored a doctor and a nurse exposed to the Ebola virus. Neither developed the disease.


In total 10 Ebola patients have been treated in the US. Eight patients survived and two have died, including Duncan and Dr Martin Salia, a Sierra Leone national and US resident who died while undergoing treatment in Nebraska.


Also on Thursday, NBC News chief medical editor Nancy Snyderman announced that she will be leaving the network for a teaching position at a US medical school.


In a statement, Snyderman said: "Covering the Ebola epidemic last fall in Liberia, and then becoming part of the story upon my return to the US, contributed to my decision that now is the time to return to academic medicine."


While reporting in Liberia, one of Snyderman's cameramen, Ashoka Mukpo, contracted the Ebola virus. Snyderman was placed under a 21-day quarantine because of her exposure to an Ebola patient. Snyderman was forced to make a public apology when she failed to abide by the conditions of her voluntary quarantine.


Mukpo was transported to an infectious disease facility in Nebraska and successfully treated.


Cops shot by sniper in Ferguson, MO - 'rhetoric' blamed


© Michael B. Thomas/Getty

Police officers armed and relishing the idea of combat during a protest outside the Ferguson Police Department on March 11th, 2015.



Two police officers shot and wounded while standing guard outside the Ferguson, Missouri, police department early Thursday were deliberately targeted in what a police official called an "ambush." Such ambush-style attacks were the leading method in the surging number of shooting deaths of law enforcement officers, according to the nonprofit, Washington-based National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

The shootings were a chilling low point in the nonstop protests in the city since a Ferguson police officer shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown in August. The demonstrators were out again late Wednesday -- in response to the announcement hours earlier of Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson's resignation -- when shots rang out from a hill about 125 yards from where the protesters had gathered, according to witnesses.

St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said the shootings were an ambush intended "for whatever nefarious reason" to inflict harm on the officers. The officers -- one shot in the face, the other in the shoulder -- have been released from the hospital.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday decried the shootings as a "heinous assault (that) was inexcusable and repugnant."


Calling the shooting a "cowardly action," Holder said, "I condemn violence against any public safety officials in the strongest terms, and the Department of Justice will never accept any threats or violence directed at those who serve and protect our communities."




Holder: Figures 'underscore the very real dangers' officers face

The number of law enforcement officers shot to death in the line of duty rose more than 50% in 2014, the law enforcement group said in a report released in December.


Many of those shootings occurred during police interactions with suspects such as traffic stops, responses to disturbances or attempted arrests. Such was the case with in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Tuesday, when Deputy U.S. Marshal Josie Wells was killed in an exchange of gunfire after going to arrest a fugitive murder suspect at a motel.




However, ambushes were the largest single category of circumstances in the shooting deaths of officers the past two years, according to the group's report. Fifty officers were killed by firearms -- 15 in ambush attacks -- in 2014, the Memorial Fund said, compared with 10 ambushes among 32 shooting deaths the year before.

The FBI, however, found that five officers were ambushed and killed in 2013.


According to the group's 2014 report, 126 federal, state, local, tribal and territorial officers died in the line of duty in 2014, compared with 102 and 123 the previous two years. Most of the on-duty deaths considered "non-felonious" were from traffic accidents or health reasons.


CNN has not analyzed each case and cannot authenticate the group's findings.




After the findings were released in December, Holder said: "These troubling statistics underscore the very real dangers that America's brave law enforcement officers face every time they put on their uniforms. Each loss is both tragic and unacceptable -- a beloved father, mother, son or daughter who never came home to their loved ones."


He added that the Department of Justice is doing its own analysis of officer deaths in 2014 "so we can mitigate risks in the future."




Police memorial fund leader blames 'rhetoric'

The report's release came amid simmering distrust and tension between the police and some communities across the country. It was published less than two weeks after the December 20 ambush killing of two New York City police officers. Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, approached Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos as they sat in their marked patrol car in Brooklyn on December 20 and shot them to death. He killed himself shortly afterward. The police memorial fund invoked the memories of Liu and Ramos' deaths in a December statement.


"With the increasing number of ambush-style attacks against our officers, I am deeply concerned that a growing anti-government sentiment in America is influencing weak-minded individuals to launch violent assaults against the men and women working to enforce our laws and keep our nation safe," said Craig W. Floyd, chairman and CEO of the police fund.


"Enough is enough," Floyd said. "We need to tone down the rhetoric and rally in support of law enforcement and against lawlessness."




That angry rhetoric isn't confined to the case of Ferguson -- or of Staten Island, New York, where the death of Eric Garner in July after police attempted to subdue him spurred national protests and preceded the slayings of Liu and Ramos, said Steve Groeninger, a spokesman for the memorial fund.

Groeninger said the uptick in ambush-style attacks was "punctuated" by the New York officers' slayings, but there were other targeted attacks against law enforcement in 2014 that concern the Fund.


They included:


-- In Las Vegas in June, Jerad Miller and his wife surprised two police officers as they ate lunch, shooting them to death. Witnesses said the Millers placed a "Don't Tread on Me" flag and a swastika on one officer's body. The couple then died in a murder-suicide as police closed in.


-- In Jersey City, New Jersey, in July, police said a man assaulted a Walgreen's security guard and took his gun in order to carry out the ambush-style killing of an officer, according to theJersey Journal.


-- Two Pennsylvania State Police troopers were ambushed and shot outside police barracks in Blooming Grove in September. The hunt for the alleged killer, Eric Frein, lasted almost seven weeks. He was captured at an abandoned airport on October 30. Frein was hit with terrorism charges in November for allegedly admitting that he shot the officers to change the government and "wake people up."


Cops assassinated by sniper in Ferguson, MO - 'rhetoric' blamed


© Michael B. Thomas/Getty

Police officers armed and relishing the idea of combat during a protest outside the Ferguson Police Department on March 11th, 2015.



Two police officers shot and wounded while standing guard outside the Ferguson, Missouri, police department early Thursday were deliberately targeted in what a police official called an "ambush." Such ambush-style attacks were the leading method in the surging number of shooting deaths of law enforcement officers, according to the nonprofit, Washington-based National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

The shootings were a chilling low point in the nonstop protests in the city since a Ferguson police officer shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown in August. The demonstrators were out again late Wednesday -- in response to the announcement hours earlier of Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson's resignation -- when shots rang out from a hill about 125 yards from where the protesters had gathered, according to witnesses.

St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said the shootings were an ambush intended "for whatever nefarious reason" to inflict harm on the officers. The officers -- one shot in the face, the other in the shoulder -- have been released from the hospital.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday decried the shootings as a "heinous assault (that) was inexcusable and repugnant."


Calling the shooting a "cowardly action," Holder said, "I condemn violence against any public safety officials in the strongest terms, and the Department of Justice will never accept any threats or violence directed at those who serve and protect our communities."




Holder: Figures 'underscore the very real dangers' officers face

The number of law enforcement officers shot to death in the line of duty rose more than 50% in 2014, the law enforcement group said in a report released in December.


Many of those shootings occurred during police interactions with suspects such as traffic stops, responses to disturbances or attempted arrests. Such was the case with in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Tuesday, when Deputy U.S. Marshal Josie Wells was killed in an exchange of gunfire after going to arrest a fugitive murder suspect at a motel.




However, ambushes were the largest single category of circumstances in the shooting deaths of officers the past two years, according to the group's report. Fifty officers were killed by firearms -- 15 in ambush attacks -- in 2014, the Memorial Fund said, compared with 10 ambushes among 32 shooting deaths the year before.

The FBI, however, found that five officers were ambushed and killed in 2013.


According to the group's 2014 report, 126 federal, state, local, tribal and territorial officers died in the line of duty in 2014, compared with 102 and 123 the previous two years. Most of the on-duty deaths considered "non-felonious" were from traffic accidents or health reasons.


CNN has not analyzed each case and cannot authenticate the group's findings.





After the findings were released in December, Holder said: "These troubling statistics underscore the very real dangers that America's brave law enforcement officers face every time they put on their uniforms. Each loss is both tragic and unacceptable -- a beloved father, mother, son or daughter who never came home to their loved ones."

He added that the Department of Justice is doing its own analysis of officer deaths in 2014 "so we can mitigate risks in the future."




Police memorial fund leader blames 'rhetoric'

The report's release came amid simmering distrust and tension between the police and some communities across the country. It was published less than two weeks after the December 20 ambush killing of two New York City police officers. Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, approached Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos as they sat in their marked patrol car in Brooklyn on December 20 and shot them to death. He killed himself shortly afterward. The police memorial fund invoked the memories of Liu and Ramos' deaths in a December statement.


"With the increasing number of ambush-style attacks against our officers, I am deeply concerned that a growing anti-government sentiment in America is influencing weak-minded individuals to launch violent assaults against the men and women working to enforce our laws and keep our nation safe," said Craig W. Floyd, chairman and CEO of the police fund.


"Enough is enough," Floyd said. "We need to tone down the rhetoric and rally in support of law enforcement and against lawlessness."




That angry rhetoric isn't confined to the case of Ferguson -- or of Staten Island, New York, where the death of Eric Garner in July after police attempted to subdue him spurred national protests and preceded the slayings of Liu and Ramos, said Steve Groeninger, a spokesman for the memorial fund.

Groeninger said the uptick in ambush-style attacks was "punctuated" by the New York officers' slayings, but there were other targeted attacks against law enforcement in 2014 that concern the Fund.


They included:


-- In Las Vegas in June, Jerad Miller and his wife surprised two police officers as they ate lunch, shooting them to death. Witnesses said the Millers placed a "Don't Tread on Me" flag and a swastika on one officer's body. The couple then died in a murder-suicide as police closed in.


-- In Jersey City, New Jersey, in July, police said a man assaulted a Walgreen's security guard and took his gun in order to carry out the ambush-style killing of an officer, according to theJersey Journal.


-- Two Pennsylvania State Police troopers were ambushed and shot outside police barracks in Blooming Grove in September. The hunt for the alleged killer, Eric Frein, lasted almost seven weeks. He was captured at an abandoned airport on October 30. Frein was hit with terrorism charges in November for allegedly admitting that he shot the officers to change the government and "wake people up."


Russia Insider's Charles Bausman: Germans are fed up with media lies




Russia Insider has launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds



A poll by German public broadcaster NDR has found out that 63 percent of Germans have little or no confidence in the Ukraine reporting by German media. Of these 63 percent almost every third thinks their reporting might be one-sided or not objective. No wonder given the principles which Germany's largest publishing house follows. Alex Springer SE - among its brands are and newspapers. So its media outlets have to uphold their policies which are further unification of the peoples of Europe, supporting the vital rights of the people of Israel and maintain solidarity with the United States of America. In other words Mainstream. Russia Insider editor Charles Bausman is telling us how German outlets are reacting to people's criticism and how his new project is launching to change things.

[embedded content]




"In the Now" with RT's Senior Political correspondent Anissa Naouai is the first dedicated nightly Primetime show to air live out of our Moscow headquarters. Host Anissa Naouai has worked in the field for almost a decade and has reported from over 80 cities across the globe. Now from Monday to Thursday viewers can enjoy fresh, honest, and hard-hitting news coverage on some of the world's most pressing issues with one of RT's most experienced journalists . We'll put the spotlight on stories you'll never hear on mainstream networks or even in RT's daily news bulletins. "In the Now" - 8pm Moscow, 5pm London, 12pm New York.

30 people feared dead and 40 injured after shopping centre inferno in Kazan, Russia




Firefighters extinguish a fire at a shopping mall in Kazan, 720 kilometers (450 miles) east of Moscow, Russia



Five people are confirmed dead and 25 more are missing and presumed dead after a shopping center in the city of Kazan collapsed in a fire, Russian emergency officials said.

Officials said on Thursday that the toll of missing at the Admiral centre is based on reports from relatives and workers in the shopping center, 450 miles east of Moscow.


Forty people were injured in the blaze.





The cause of the fire that began Wednesday has not been determined








According to local media many of those injured in the fire were hurt as they tried to save their shopping



Regional emergency services head Igor Panshin was quoted by the Tass news agency as saying 'the hope of finding survivors under the shopping center debris has been abandoned.'

The cause of the fire that began Wednesday has not been determined.


At first a security guard battled with the flames on his own before calling the emergency services, according to the BBC.





Officials said on Thursday that the toll of missing is based on reports from relatives and workers in the shopping centre



It's thought that the blaze began in a cafe situated next to the shopping centre.

Officials believe a 43,000-square-foot area has been razed to the ground.


Around 500 riot police were eventually deployed to stop members of the public entering the building.





It's thought that the blaze began in a cafe situated next to the shopping centre



Wall Street firm develops new high-speed algorithm capable of performing over 10,000 ethical violations per second

Trading Computers

© The Onion



New York—Calling it a major breakthrough that will significantly expedite and streamline its daily operations, Wall Street financial firm Goldman Sachs revealed Thursday it has developed a new high-speed algorithm that is capable of performing more than 10,000 ethical violations per second. "With this new automated program, we'll be able to systematically deceive investors, engage in conflicts of interest, and execute thousands of other blatantly unethical dealings in the time it takes to press a button," said John Waldron, co-head of Goldman Sachs' investment banking division, who added that the high-frequency impropriety system will be able to break more rules in a minute than an entire floor of morally suspect securities traders, financial analysts, and portfolio managers could over the course of a week.

"In the past, if one of our brokers wanted to exploit a questionably legal regulatory loophole or breach the covenant of good faith with an investment client, that would require hours of manually contravening the basic principles of professional integrity. But this innovative system will allow millions of such transgressions to go through every single day. Going forward, I expect this revolutionary program to be the cornerstone of our business." Upon learning of the advanced new unethical algorithm, investors initiated a buying frenzy on Goldman Sachs stock, sending share prices surging more than 30 percent to $245.46.


Took 'em long enough! USA Today finds Nazis in Ukraine

azov

© RIA Novosti / Alexandr Maksimenko

Azov battalion soldiers take an oath of allegiance to Ukraine in Kiev's Sophia Square before being sent to the Donbass region



An Azov Battalion sergeant has confessed to of praising Nazi ideology. He also pledged a march on the Ukrainian capital after the war. A spokesman for the pro-Kiev brigade insists this is a 'personal choice' of no more than a fifth of the unit.

visited the Azov Battalion stationed in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol and spoke to a number of servicemen of the unit, which is sponsored by Ukrainian oligarch Igor Kolomoysky.

A drill sergeant who identified himself as Alex told the newspaper that he supports Nazi-style strong leadership for Ukraine but does not share Nazis' genocide agenda against Jews, as long as minorities "don't demand special privileges."

Alex insisted that once the war is over, he and others from the Azov Battalion will go back to Kiev to oust the corrupt government and nationalize the property of wealthy oligarchs.


Officers of higher ranks in the battalion denied the presence of a large number of neo-Nazis among servicemen.


azov

© RIA Novosti / Alexandr Maksimenko

Students of the Azov battalion are dispatched to the conflict zone in southeastern Ukraine



"I know Alex is a Nazi, but it's his personal ideology. It has nothing to do with the official ideology of the Azov," said Andrey Dyachenko, a spokesman for the Azov Battalion. However, he did state that "only 10 percent to 20 percent of the group's members are Nazis."

The Azov Battalion's deputy commander, Oleg Odnorozhenko, insisted that the drill sergeant does not speak for the group. "If he has his own sympathies, it's his own matter," Odnorozhenko said, adding that Alex "will be dealt with severely for his lack of discipline."

"Ideas like going to Kiev to change the government in an illegal way should be nipped in the bud," Odnorozhenko said, adding that Alex is a "good drill sergeant and a good instructor for tactics and weapons skills," so his future in the unit is probably as bright as it gets.

azov

© voicesevas.ru



A member of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Kiev, Col. Oleksy Nozdrachov, defended the Azov fighters as patriots. "They are volunteers who decided to sacrifice their lives to the country," he said.

"They are tough and fierce in battle who stand and fight and won't give up soil."




Kiev-controlled volunteer battalions and the Ukrainian Security Service are involved in an increasing number of human rights violations, including torture and forced disappearances of those suspected of "separatism," the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a December 2014 report.

The report - which covered a period of just one month, from November 1-30 - said the Office of the Military Prosecutor had not taken any actions to investigate the "considerable" number of allegations of human rights violations, "including looting, arbitrary detention and ill-treatment by members of certain voluntary battalions such as Aidar, Azov, Slobozhanshchina and Shakhtarsk."




In September last year, another international report confirmed that war crimes - including abductions, executions, and extortion - were committed by the Ukrainian Aidar volunteer battalion in the Lugansk region in eastern Ukraine.

The recent interview is not the first time that Ukraine battalion volunteers have openly supported Nazi ideology. Last year, troops from the Ukrainian Azov and Donbass battalions were reportedly noticed wearing swastikas and SS badges.

According to a video on German TV station ZDF, Ukrainian soldiers were shown wearing swastikas and the "SS runes" of Adolph Hitler's elite corps. The footage was shot by a camera team from Norwegian broadcaster TV2.


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A year ago, BBC Newsnight journalist Gabriel Gatehouse visited Kiev to investigate the links between the new Ukrainian government and Neo-nazis. Having reported "groups of armed men strut through the [Maidan] square with dubious iconography" - including German symbols used by SS divisions during WWII - the British journalistic investigation found that "the most organized and perhaps the most effective were a small number of far right groups," adding that "when it came to confrontation with the police, it was often the nationalists who were the loudest and the most violent."

"National Socialist themes are popular amongst some of us...I like the idea of one nation. A clean nation...Not like under Hitler, but in our own way, a little bit like that," a member of Ukraine's Right Sector told the BBC reporter, who concluded that "the influence of the far right in Ukraine is growing."


In February, Right Sector leader Dmitry Yarosh said the party's paramilitary units in eastern Ukraine will continue "active fighting" despite the ceasefire, as the radical movement did not recognize the Minsk peace deal agreed upon by Ukraine, France, Germany, and Russia after 16 hours of talks.


French terror threat 'high': 10,000 troops to stay on streets

paris

© Reuters / Gonzalo Fuentes



As the threat of attacks by Islamist extremists remains high in France, President Francois Hollande has decided to continue the deployment of 10,000 troops on the streets across the country.

"The threat of terrorist attack against our country remains high. The head of state has decided to maintain the level of the army on the national territory at 10,000 troops in support of security forces from the Interior Ministry," Hollande's office said in a statement after a meeting of senior ministers, AFP reported.




A total of 7,000 troops will be monitoring and protecting religious buildings that are "particularly threatened," the statement added.

Among other sites that are being patrolled by the troops are stations, media buildings and various other possible targets for terrorists.


The move comes almost two months after deadly attacks on the magazine's headquarters and a kosher shop in Paris left 17 people dead.


Among the counter-terrorism measures, French authorities announced last week that they would double Islamic courses at universities to raise awareness about the threat of radical Islamism, and to avoid French imams being financed by foreign sources.




At the end of February, passports of six French nationals were seized after the group had been planning a trip to Syria - the hotbed of Islamic State (IS) extremists.

Just over a month ago, IS vowed more attacks on France, and urged French Muslims to join their "caliphate," in a video that emerged online.


Taken to the dark side: How we are coerced into accepting torture

walking off cliff

© unknown



Cleverly at work for the dark side, the corporate media isn't going into great detail about the recent discovery that the Chicago Police Department has for years been operating a secret, off-site, extra-judicial, unconstitutional detention and interrogation center in a nondescript warehouse on the West side of the Windy City. Americans, so the talking heads would have us believe, have more important things to busy ourselves with.

The protest against this outrage is growing, however, because at Homan Square, as it's known, the local police 'disappear' American citizens before charging them with any crime. They hide them there for hours or days without the knowledge of lawyers, family, or friends, interrogating, threatening, abusing and at times coming up with cleverly inhumane ways to torture them.


Think Gitmo, think Abu Ghraib. Think Pol Pot, think Mao. Pardon my French here, but, c'est quoi ce bordel?


This sort of thing has always been in the play books of imperialists and barbarians, but in just over a short decade in the 'land of the free,' torture has clawed its gory soul into mainstream ideology, and it's making the death march to becoming acceptable public policy for your local police goons. Who, by the way, are already up-armed to the teeth and better equipped than most of the world's national armies.


Utterly impossible to conceal or ignore the moral depreciation taking place here, it's puzzling to consider why so many otherwise good Americans either actively or passively support so many emergent government sponsored atrocities like the illegal detention and torture of enemies, both foreign and domestic. The answer to this riddle says a great deal about where we're at as human beings, where we're going as a society, and how bumpy and horrifying the ride is going to get along the way.


Here's a look at how the matrix coerces us into tacit or explicit acceptance of things that only the most psychopathic of us could conjure up.


1. Human on Human Violence Conditioning


The human mind learns by observation, and the average person witnesses tens of thousands of acts of theatric violence before they even reach adulthood. Nothing's shocking once you've seen it all, and as the barrier to revulsion against human on human carnage is broken down by low grade television programs, mindlessly violent films, and absurd staged news programs, the mind is forced to seek normalcy in an insane environment.


Social engineering is a pet project of the corporate and political elite, it's how they sell consumerism and maintain a 'business as usual' attitude when usurping rights and corrupting humanity. As products of a multi-generational experiment in mass mind control, human on human violence has been presented to the masses as a God, and is equal parts fearful, righteous and entertaining, appearing in every form of consumable media.


The torture of nameless aggressors by the military and police state is a drop in the bucket of what we've already witnessed, and as such, it's just not that big of a deal to most.


2. Fear the Fear Itself


How many Hollywood bloodbaths, eyewitness police brutality videos, 9/11's, and terrorist executions can be consumed before the psyche caves in completely to combat exhaustion? This a psychological coup of sorts by the fear pimps, as public consciousness is always directed toward an unrelenting stream of well-produced anxiety-inducing propaganda. It is the continual over-stimulation of every possible worry... violence programming merely being one part of it. This has triggered a mass psychosis, a sort of cultural PTSD, and we have the neuroses to prove it, constantly anxious, constantly concerned, and never content to live and let live.




"Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering." - Yoda




Instilling great fear in their subjects has always been the most basic offensive play for tyrants, control freaks and cult leaders . When you're afraid of everything, the reptilian mind is given dominion over our more human qualities, and the world seems a far more dangerous than it may actually be. Anything becomes justifiable as self-defense, and anyone with a big enough stick to pose as a savior is revered as a savior.

3. The Applied Science of the Shock Doctrine


The natural bias of the human being is to eventually perceive the abnormal as normal, when given sufficient exposure. Fear is like a steam engine; it must be continually stoked or it loses momentum. If it does, the shock of witnessing something terrifying can eventually be normalized out of the psyche by the natural proclivity we have to heal ourselves.


And so the nightmares themselves must evolve and intensify in order to keep carrying their weight... and so they do. The application of fear-based propaganda is now ubiquitous in modern life and it always intensifies. Ruby Ridge becomes Waco. Bird flu becomes Ebola. Al Qaeda becomes ISIS. Search warrants become no-knock raids. And routine police work becomes torturous.


The point of mass-inflicted crisis consciousness is to alter how we perceive the world and how we react to stressors in life by creating the illusion that catastrophe lies around every corner. When agitated by the continuous consumption of violence, shock and fear programming, protection from anything and everything becomes top priority. From this level of consciousness our behavior is both predictable and manageable, and we readily accept the solutions proffered by those who market themselves as our heroes.


4. Compliance Training and National Opinion Manufacturing


Perhaps there is nothing more to blame than human nature, as human beings are quite adept at following rules, orders and obeying suggestions, especially when compliance training is a built-in part of education and work, and day-to-day life is preoccupied with avoiding prosecution for the violation of an ever-expanding code of laws, regulations and ordinances. The federal tax code alone, for example, is some 74,000+ pages long.


But let's be honest here, government authority comes explicitly from its capacity and willingness to inflict violence. Watching how coldly they enforce their rules and suppress dissent, the message is crystal clear: obey. Compliance is a survival tool in a police state.


Original thought is rare in an environment where obedience is expected, and most people just repeat ideas from the sources in front of them. Mainstream media, national opinion theatre, and social cliques set the tone for national opinion building, as talk celebrities, shock-jocks, and expert pundits chatter away 24/7, reinforcing the narratives of impending doom, the need for safety, and the vainglory of deference to the military industrial complex.


Group-think is an epidemic, and compliance is contagious. It's easiest and most convenient to sail with the prevailing winds rather than to row against the current. It's a survival mechanism, triggered by shock and trauma conditioning.


5. Trickle Down Psychopathy


Looking up at the eye of the pyramid, we see that psychopaths are in control, and with all eyes on them, their deeds become examples for us all. The message is that compassion no longer has a place in our calculating world, and that other human beings, even mother nature herself, are both acceptable targets and collateral damage in the quest for the satiation of fear.


No wonder we accept atrocities like torture... our most revered leaders have been showing the way for decades now. When the insanity of violence, corruption and torture is coming from the highest positions in public leadership, it is little wonder that the rank and file citizenry has lost much of their humanity as well.


Those people you meet who openly advocate torture are merely the top-products of the mold, and they've accepted their free ticket to join the party and indulge the darkest parts of themselves. Psychopathy begets psychopathy.


6. The Sheeple Have Been Sent to Pasture


Life in the matrix is a full-spectrum occupation of the mind, senses and soul. In this environment, dank with cognitive dissonance, the life of the sheeple is blissful ignorant and mindlessly obedient to the shepherd and the sheepdogs.


It wouldn't be entirely fair to say that most Americans approve of torture, but that doesn't matter much, because it is fair to say that the majority of Americans are so heavily entranced in their own immediate affairs, and so heavily sedated, poisoned , intoxicated and entertained that they are powerless to confront the reality of state sponsored oppression. Out to pasture in the American dream, the sheeple are sidelined from any meaningful participation in public decision making.


In fact, the infamous political insider Karl Rove gives a realistic impression of how little influence the masses have over the activities of empires and tyrants:




"We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do." - Karl Rove




Being part of the herd is like being at the movies. It's easy... you're reality is created for you. You just stay put, stay quiet, stay focused on the actors appearing in front of you, enjoy your junk food, and try not to ruin the movie for others by making noise or breaking the rules. It doesn't matter if the movie is any good or not, you just need something to occupy your time.

Apathy has been bred into our genetic code.


7. The Collapse of Spiritual Intelligence


Perhaps you've already become sensitive to this, or perhaps you're just now beginning to wake up. The realization here is that if you remove all of the oppressive, negative fear-mongering and dark shock psychology of the mainstream, and elevate your own consciousness to a perspective well above all of this, then the possibilities for the progress and happiness of yourself and the entire human race appear to be infinite. We truly are infinite beings temporarily occupying human bodies... violence and torture are simply incompatible with this revelation.


Yet, there is a spiritual war being waged to prevent us from realizing this natural fact. The sum total effect of this effort against society is to disconnect us from our spiritual intelligence, soften our resistance to evil, and weaken our natural draw towards the beautiful and endearing aspects of being.


They want us to believe, as Orwell said, that "people sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." That there is no other source of peace than violence.


Conclusion


As evidence of their moral superiority, the matrix programmers still depend on cultural myths like the Founding Fathers story, American liberty, and the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Hero narratives like the WWII triumph over evil, American Sniper, and big-budget disaster films create the illusion that good people sometimes have to step up to the plate and do bad things for the rest of us.


But these stories are losing their potency, because, let's face it, it's tough to claim moral authority when you're torturing people. The recent news about Chicago's black-site detention center should be taken as a severe warning to us all that the powers that be are no longer too concerned with maintaining the impression of being morally superior.


The American police state now has all the pieces in place to make its Great Leap Forward. Welcome to the express elevator to hell, comrades... going down.




"When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty." - Thomas Jefferson




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Unusual ice heave on Otter Tail County lakes, Minnesota




Ice damage on Otter Tail Lake mostly has been concentrated on the south shore of the lake, according to Dave Sethre, President of the Otter Tail County Coalition of Lake Associations



Ice is a normal part of winter along Minnesota's lakes. However, this year, some property owners on Otter Tail County lakes are dealing with more ice, and damage, than usual.

Dave Sethre, president of the Otter Tail County Coalition of Lake Associations, called the ice on one of the biggest lakes -- Otter Tail -- "pretty radical" this year.


"This is turning out to be the winter of the ice heave on many of our larger Otter Tail County lakes," Sethre wrote in a March newsletter. "Estimates are that expansion has been 150 to 200 percent at some locations."


According to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, ice heaves and ridges are caused by caused by the pushing action of a lake's ice sheet against the shore.


"This is especially true in years that the ice sheet lacks an insulating snow cover," the department added. When lake ice cracks for whatever reason, water rises into the cracks and freezes, gradually expanding the sheet.


Fluctuating temperatures can worsen this problem by causing additional expansion, the DNR said, which exerts a tremendous thrust against the shore. Alternate warming and cooling of the ice sheet leads to additional pushing action, causing the ice to creep shoreward and scrape, gouge, and push soil and rock into mounds (called "ice ridges").


Sethre said he has seen the most damage on Otter Tail Lake on the southern shore.



© Eric Hendrickx/FOCUS

Ice along the shore of Otter Tail Lake has been pushing up against the shoreline again this year. This picture, taken by the public lake access along State Highway 78 and across from the Pelican Bay Pier, shows a group of trees as no match for the heaped-up ice.



"I don't think it's because of high water," Sethre responded, when asked if he thought the summer's precipitation made for more problems this winter.

Instead, he said, the water level actually seems to be lower, based on outflow near the lake's weir.


"At times in the past, major ice breakers with mid-lake pushups have occurred to relieve the impact to shoreline areas," Sethre said. "Unfortunately, we have not seen this in recent years... with ice thickness about 24 inches now; there will be little hope for any stress relief to occur with a mid-lake ice breaker from here on to the end of the winter."


Ross Hagemeister, a professional fishing guide who is often on Otter Tail Lake, said he thinks the lake's shallow shoreline also contributes to the problem, acting as a sort of an ice ramp.


Hagemeister also agreed that the ice heave seems to be more dramatic in some areas this year.


While it isn't out of the ordinary to find heaves on the lake, he said, where about 10 feet of push-up might be average, it appears closer to 20 feet this year.


"The ice just needs somewhere to go," Hagemeister said,as the ice grows during warmer spells.


"But, I'm not a hydrologist," Hagemeister said. "It's just observation."


Very unusual snowfall forces closure of Puebla, Mexico highway


© Mexico News Daily



Snow closed some roads yesterday in Michoacán, but today the wintry conditions have moved to the State of Mexico and Puebla, closing the Mexico City-Puebla freeway early this morning.


Officials closed the highway about 4:30am between the San Marcos toll booth, on the outskirts of the Federal District, to Río Frío in the State of Mexico, near the Puebla border.


The Federal Highways and Bridges Agency, Capufe, issued a warning via Twitter at 7:51 to urge drivers to use alternate routes. The 5 de Mayo freeway has also been closed, according to another report.


As many as 18,000 residents of the communities of Río Frío, Llano Grande and Avila Camacho are reported to have been cut off by the closure of the highway.


Yesterday, Civil Protection officials in Michoacán described as very rare the sight of snow on various hills in the municipalities of Paracho, Nahuatzén, Cherán and Zacapu.


The Zacapu-Zamora highway was closed for a while due to a heavy hailstorm at about 1:00pm, blanketing the road with four centimeters of ice and causing at least four accidents.


Officials said that with the exception of the Pico de Tancítaro, with an altitude of 3,485 meters, the sight of snow on five hills in the region was uncommon.


The National Meteorological Service said the center of the country is being affected by cold front #41, and the combination of cold air and Pacific moisture are bringing about colder temperatures, rain and snow.



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Ex-DEA agent claims he was told by superiors to avoid drug busts in wealthy neighborhoods


© Flickr/ U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Rob Simpson.



It's all about the race.That's what a former special agent with the Drug Enforcement Agency says in explosive new comments about how the US is handling the so-called "war on drugs" and why wealthier people are treated differently than the poor and working class.

"We were jumping on guys in the middle of the night, all of that. Swooping down on folks all across the country, using these sorts of attack tactics that we went out on, that you would use in Vietnam, or some kind of war-torn zone. And there wasn't very many black guys in my position," says Matthew Fogg in an interview with Brave New Films for a documentary about racial disparities in drug enforcement.


"So when I would go into the war room, where we were setting up all of our drug and gun and addiction task force determining what cities we were going to hit, I would notice that most of the time it always appeared to be urban areas."


[embedded content]




Fogg says that when he would ask why weren't they investigating in more affluent areas, he would get brushed off.

"Maybe you all think they don't, but statistics show they use more drugs out in those areas than anywhere. The special agent in charge, he says 'You know, if we go out there and start messing with those folks, they know judges, they know lawyers, they know politicians. You start locking their kids up; somebody's going to jerk our chain.' He said, 'they're going to call us on it, and before you know it, they're going to shut us down, and there goes your overtime.'"


Fogg, who is also a former US Marshal, says "racism drives the war on drugs." Since retiring from federal law enforcement after more than 30 years on the job, Fogg has been speaking out against drug policy, police brutality and racial profiling.


"If we were locking up everybody, white and black, for doing the same drugs, they would have done the same thing they did with prohibition.


They would have outlawed it. They would have said, 'Let's stop this craziness. You're not putting my son in jail. My daughter isn't going to jail.'


If it was an equal enforcement opportunity operation, we wouldn't be sitting here anyway. It's all about fairness, man."


12 top Russian inventions that changed the world

Russian inventors have contributed generously to the development of global scientific thought. Many of their inventions have literally transformed the world, enabling us to enjoy such blessings of civilisation as aircraft, cars, computers and television. RIR presents a dozen of such revolutionary innovations that have become an integral part of modern existence.

Caterpillar tracks, track assembly


In 1837, Russian army captain Dmitry Zagryazhsky came up with drawings of a caterpillar drive and applied to the Ministry of Finance for a patent for his invention of a "carriage with a flat chain mechanical caterpillar". He was granted a patent but his invention did not interest manufacturers at that time and the patent was annulled in 1839. Much later, in 1877, Russian peasant and self-taught inventor Fyodor Blinov completed Zagryazhsky's unfinshed task and created a wagon that moved on caterpillars. This invention gave the green light to production of tractors and, subsequently, of tanks.



© ITAR-TASS





Electrically-powered railway wagons

The invention of an electrically-powered railway wagon was a precondition for the transport revolution that spurred the development of towns and industrial centres. It all started in 1874-1876, when Fyodor Pirotsky conducted a slew of experiments on transmitting electricity over a distance, with one rail serving as a direct conductor and the other, as a reverse conductor. An electric motor, located one kilometre from the power source, worked. A few years later, he conducted an experiment at a railway spur near Sestroretsk. There were 40 people in the wagon. The first electrified tram line was opened as late as 1881 in a Berlin suburb on the basis of designs by the Russian inventor.



© ITAR-TASS





Videotape recorder

Alexander Poniatoff (Poniatov), a student of the founding father of Russian aviation Nikolay Zhukovsky, started the Ampex company in the United States and worked there in the 1950s. The company succeeded in producing the first quality video signal recorder. Ampex kept its lead in the market for professional magnetic recording of video for half a century and global electronics giants had to use Poniatoff's patents to produce home video equipment.



© ITAR-TASS





Radio

Alexander Popov, a professor of physics, announced the invention of a system for wireless communications at a lecture at St Petersburg University in April 1885 and displayed the world's first radio set. He was unable to publish his work though because he worked for a military institution. Italian Guglielmo Marconi conducted similar experiments at about the same time - his article was published in 1897. Unlike Popov's, Marconi's invention was commercialised fast, so they still argue in the West over who invented radio first.





Alexander Stepanovich Popov





Helicopter

Igor Sikorsky was another Russian inventor whose potential was fully realized abroad. In 1910, he created the prototype of a rotor-driven device, which successfully got off the ground. In 1912, he created the first hydroplane in the world and then the first multiple-engine aircraft. After the 1917 Revolution in Russia, he had to emigrate to the US, where he established his own company, Sikorsky Aero Engineering Company, using a contribution from remarkable Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff. Sikorsky's first experimental helicopter designed in the United States got off the ground in September 1939. The design of that machine, which has been considered a classic helicopter design for more than fifty years now, has been used for almost 95% helicopters built around the world. In 1942, Sikorsky created a two-seater helicopter.



© ITAR-TASS





Solar cell

It is owing to discoveries by Russian physicist Alexander Stoletov that we enjoy television today. In the late 1880s, he produced a theoretical justification of photoelectric effect through a series of experiments. Photoelectric effect formed the basis for the production of solar cells, which are broadly used in practice now. Stoletov created the first solar cell based upon outer photoelectric effect and discovered the proportionality between the intensity of light and photo induced current.



© Getty Images/Fotobank





Transformers

You cannot have a power grid without transformers. Transformers were invented, built and put into operation by Russian electrical engineer Pavel Yablochkov and physicist Ivan Usagin. The solution that made it to history books as the "distribution of light" was produced by Yablochkov in the mid-1870s. The invention, which consisted of a transformer and condenser, was displayed in Paris and St Petersburg and, as early as 1882, the open-core transformer was patented in France by inventors Lucien Gaulard and Josiah Willard Gibbs.



© PhotoXpress





Yoghurt

Although cultured milk products appeared centuries ago, it was Russian scientist Mechnikov who first theorised their positive impact on longevity. Back in 1910, he suggested that, in order to live longer, a person should consume fermented milk products, which reduce putrefactive processes in the intestines. Mechnikov proved that Bulgaria had the biggest percentage of long-livers - and it is in Bulgaria that yoghurt is believed to have been born, because ancient Thrace was the first country to ever mix milk with ferments.



© Getty Images/Fotobank





Television

Vladimir Zworykin was another Russian engineer whose inventions debuted in the United States. He came up with the main invention of the 20th century - electronic television. He applied for a television patent in the US in 1923. Six years later, he developed the kinescope, a high-vacuum television receiver tube, and two years later, he created the first transmitting device, which he called an iconoscope.



© Getty Images/Fotobank





Petrol cracking

You cannot imagine living in the modern world without a car but no car would be possible without petrol. Cracking is a process that allows petrol to be produced from heavy or high-boiling factions of oil and it is owing to cracking that we can produce the enormous amounts of petrol modern cars consume. Cracking allows up to 70% of crude oil to be turned into petrol, while standard distillation methods provide 10% to 20%. The cracking method was invented by Russian engineer Vladimir Shukhov, who also created the first industrial cracking unit in 1891.



© Getty Images/Fotobank





Synthetic rubber

It's hard to envisage modern economy without synthetic rubber. Man-made rubber is mostly used to make tyres for vehicles, aircraft and bicycles. Artificial rubber is also used in making seals, insulation, medical devices and in many other areas. Synthetic rubbers are also indispensable for producing solid rocket propellants. The first commercially viable artificial rubber was polybutadiene resin, synthesised by the method developed by Russian chemist Sergei Lebedev. He obtained the first specimens of synthetic rubber in 1910. His book "Research in polymerisation of by-ethylene hydrocarbons", printed in 1913, provided the foundations for commercial artificial rubber synthesis.



© Getty Images/Fotobank





Grain harvester

Andrei Vlasenko ran an estate in Tver province. In 1868, he invented the world's first grain harvester, which he called a "reaper-thrasher". It was mostly wooden and was powered by three horses. The machine had a capacity of twenty 19th century peasants. Vlasenko built two machines, powered by two horses each and driven by a single operator, which worked on the landowner's fields in Tver province for many years. Only a decade later, American newspapers delivered breaking news about a thrasher built in California - newsmen called it a "combine harvester". The first American harvester was similar to Vlasenko's machine in terms of its operating principle, but was powered by 24 mules and driven by seven operators.



© Getty Images/Fotobank



Man killed by wild boar and 9 injured in India




The boar which was shot dead with the help of residents. (Inset) Abdul Salam who was killed by the wild animal



A man died and nine others sustained injuries in a wild boar attack near Koodaranji here on Friday. The deceased has been identified as Keelath Abdul Salam, 50, alias Abdu, a farmer and a resident of Kalpur. The wild boar was later shot dead with the help of the local residents.

According to the police, the wild boar attacked Abdul Salam at his farm land, around 9 am. Though he was rushed to the Kozhikode Medical College Hospital, he succumbed to injuries, the officials said.


The injured - Haseena, Vasu, Lalitha, Kunjumon, Sabu, Abu, Najeed and Abdullah - have been admitted to the hospital and their condition has been reported to be not serious.


Eye-witnesses said the animal first attacked Haseena on a road and later went on the rampage, attacking Abdul Salam and others.


Later, the boar was shot dead. "We received a call informing us of a wild boar attack at Karassery, bordering Mukkam and Thiruvambadi panchayats. We rushed to the spot and the animal was shot dead by a local resident using his licensed gun, by around 11 am," said Thiruvambadi Sub-Inspector P E Kunhahammed Kutty.


Meanwhile, the forest officials with the Thamarassery range said the carcass of the boar was taken to the College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Pookkode, Wayanad, for postmortem.


"In normal cases there is no need to conduct a postmortem after an animal is shot dead for causing human loss and damage. In this case, it is suspected that the wild boar was rabid. We do not want to take any chances and have decided to conduct the postmortem examination," the official added.


Sources said the next of kin of the deceased would be given Rs 5 lakh as compensation by the state government. Top police and forest department officials also visited the place.


Dead Humpback whale washes ashore in Monterey, California


© CBS

A young humpback whale carcass is washed ashore at Sunset Beach in Monterey, March 6, 2015.



A dead humpback has whale washed ashore on a Monterey beach close to where a second whale was seen swimming near the shore.

The whale turned up Friday morning at Sunset State Beach after being seen floating offshore Thursday night.


A marine biologist said it was a young whale about 45 feet long. It had no apparent signs of trauma on the carcass and was in the beginning stages of decomposition.


Biologists say it's not uncommon to see a humpback wash ashore. "It kind of comes in waves. Last year we had one humpback whale. Few years before that we didn't have any, one year we had two or three," said Robin Duncan, UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab operations manager.


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An adult humpback whale was also spotted swimming near the shore in the same area. It was not known whether there is a relation to the dead whale.

The cause of death won't be known until results of a necropsy are available, likely in a couple of days.


Monterey Bay has often been a feeding area for humpback whales almost year round. This time of year is the start of spring migration for humpback whales as they head north from tropical breeding waters.


Russia press secretary answers Putin illness rumors - 'His handshakes break hands'


© Press Service of the Russian President



Vladimir Putin's press secretary has dismissed reports that the Russian president is ill as rumors, adding that the news itself could be a result of "spring madness" among some reporters.

"No need to worry, everything is all right. He has working meetings all the time, only not all of these meetings are public," Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday in an interview with Echo of Moscow radio. He added that the president is "absolutely healthy" and that "his handshake is so strong he breaks hands with it."


Shortly before the radio interview Peskov dismissed the rumors of Putin's possible illness in an interview with TASS.


"As soon as the sun appears in spring, when the smell of spring is in the air, some people suffer from crises. ... Some have hallucinations about the government dissolution and some cannot see Putin on television for several days," he said. "We have a calm attitude to such crises and keep answering all questions in a patient manner."


News of Putin's alleged health problems was initially circulated by Reuters in a report about the postponement of the president's visit to Kazakhstan.


"It looks like he has fallen ill," an unnamed source in Kazakhstan's government told the agency. However, reporters and bloggers quickly inflated that suggestion into the size of a statement, seeking comment from the Kremlin.


The current situation is reminiscent of November 2012, when Russian and international media outlets suggested that Putin's state of health had deteriorated. Journalists pointed out that the president's visits to Moscow from his suburban residence had become less frequent and that he had canceled several international trips because of back pain.


Back then Peskov categorically dismissed allegations that Putin's state of health was affecting his work schedule and reminded reporters that Putin had been a semi-professional sportsman. As with any sportsman, he nurses a lot of old injuries, but they do not limit his professional activities in any way.


In December 2012, Putin personally addressed the issue during a major press conference. He claimed the false reports about his health problems had been circulated by his political opponents who sought to question his ability to run the country.


UK Party Leader Farage: "We poked Russian bear with a stick, unsurprisingly Putin reacted"


© Reuters / Vincent Kessler

Leader of Britain's UK Independence Party (UKIP) and member of the European Parliament (MEP) Nigel Farage



Britain's Nigel Farage launched a stinging attack on the idea of an EU army to counter Russia. The UKIP leader also placed some of the blame for the Ukraine crisis on EU expansion.

The notion of building up an EU army to counter Russia was the brainchild of European Commissioner Jean-Claude Juncker. Farage quickly noted that the idea is already happening, despite many European leaders being against it.


He pointed to a conversation he had with Nick Clegg - leader of the Liberal Democrats and the UK's deputy prime minister - a year ago, during which both men agreed that the idea of a European army was a dangerous fantasy.


Farage then cited examples of the European Defense Agency, EU battle groups, an EU Navy operation against pirates off the coast of Somalia, and article 28 of the Lisbon Treaty, which provides for collective EU defense.


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He went on to say that the EU was the catalyst for the conflict in eastern Ukraine, due to its territorial expansion.

"We poked the Russian bear with a stick and unsurprisingly Putin reacted," Farage said.


Harking back to the words of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who said "the EU is not a project about peace but a project about power," Farage accused Juncker of being opportunistic by calling for an EU army.


He also countered the European commissioner's statement that "We must convey to Russia that we are serious."


"Who do you think you're kidding Mr. Junker?," Farage said. The comment was a reference to the sitcom in which a group of old men try to fight off a German invasion. The show featured the lines "Who do you think you're kidding Mr. Hitler, if you think old England's gone?" Farage's comment was met with laughter from British MEPs.


"We do not want any part of an EU army and I doubt the peoples of Europe do either," he added.