The Raw Story

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Wednesday, 3 June 2015

Israeli 'reality creators': Israel allegedly confiscates 120 rings bearing an insignia associated with ISIS en route to Palestine

Photo by Israeli Tax Authority      Israeli customs officials have confiscated a package with at least 120 rings, claiming the inscriptions in Arabic the jewelry bears are promoting Islamic State (formerly ISIS/ISIL). Staff at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport intercepted a "delivery of 120 rings bearing an insignia associated with the Daesh [the Arabic acronym for Islamic State] terrorist organization," the Israel Tax Authority...

Statins and Cancer

© Scott Olson/Getty Images      (Ho hum, not again) A number of people have written to me pointing out an outbreak of mass hysteria in the UK press about statins protecting against cancer. I suspect this hysteria has been repeated around the world. Here are the headlines from the eponymous Statins slash risk of death by cancer: They slow tumour growth by up to 50% reveal major studies Experts say there is 'overwhelming' evidence...

Texas Floods: Piles of worms mysteriously show up along roads

© Eisenhower State Park A bunch of worms clumps together on a road at Eisenhower State Park in Denison, Texas after heavy rains in a photo released by park rangers on May 29, 2015.      Park rangers in Texas had thought someone left spaghetti in the middle of the road. Instead, the piles in the middle of Eisenhower State Park were actually worms, Park Superintendent Ben Herman told ABC News today. Rangers were checking the back...

Israel launches multiple airstrikes in Gaza

© Reuters / Amir Cohen      Several massive explosions rocked the Gaza Strip on Thursday night amid multiple reports of Israeli jets buzzing the area. It follows reports that two rockets were launched from Gaza into Israel but failed to cause any damage. At least three major blasts rocked Gaza city as Twitter got flooded with reports of residents waking up to the sounds of airstrikes and Israeli F-16 jets flying over. The strikes...

Lost memories can be recalled by activating brain cells with light

© Christine Daniloff/MIT Scientists use optogenetics to reactivate memories that could not otherwise be retrieved.      Memories that have been "lost" as a result of amnesia can be recalled by activating brain cells with light. In a paper published today in the journal , researchers at MIT reveal that they were able to reactivate memories that could not otherwise be retrieved, using a technology known as optogenetics. The finding...

Mass die-off of marine life predicted from powerful red tide along California's central coast

A health warning is urging people not to eat anchovy, sardines, crab, or shellfish from the Monterey Bay      Scientists with the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary are predicting a mass die-off on the Central Coast because of a powerful red tide. Researchers are seeing the highest levels of red tide in more than a decade, and they're worried it will have grave impacts on marine life. "This is probably the largest domoic...

More economic indicators show we are heading into recession

     If we are not heading into a recession, why does our economy continue to act as if that is precisely what is happening? As you will see below, we learned this week that factory orders have declined year over year for six months in a row. That is something that has never happened outside of a time of recession. We have also seen new orders for consumer goods fall dramatically. In fact, the only time we have seen a more dramatic...

WikiLeaks releases secret TISA docs: The more evil sibling of TTIP and TPP

A cartoon by WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks WikiLeaks has released 17 secret documents from the negotiations of the global Trade in Services Agreement (TISA), which have been taking place behind closed doors, largely unnoticed, since 2013. The main participants are the United States, the European Union, and 23 other countries including Turkey, Mexico, Canada, Australia, Pakistan, Taiwan and Israel, which together comprise two-thirds of global GDP. Significantly,...

Federal judge investigating allegations U.S. government destroyed evidence in NSA whistleblower case

© AFP Photo / DPA Former senior executive of the US National Security Agency (NSA), Thomas Drake      A federal judge is investigating allegations that the US government may have destroyed documents during the investigation of National Security Agency whistleblower Thomas Drake, who leaked information about the agency's surveillance programs. According to a report by McClatchy, federal judge Stephanie Gallagher of Maryland wrote...

Blaming the victim: Lawyer for youth pastor accused of rape says underage girl is lying since "she consented 6 times after rape"

© WPXI Former youth pastor Daniel Jack      The lawyer for a Pennsylvania youth pastor who has been charged with rape suggested this week that the underage victim may have been lying because she consented to sex on other occasions. According to the , court documents filed against 31-year-old Daniel Allen Jack of Amplify Church alleged that the youth pastor first met the victim in December 2014 when she joined the church youth...

Rhode Island couple charged with murder after body found on property covered up by concrete

© Mary Murphy/Providence Journal via AP, Pool Steven Pietrowicz, Jr., center, of Burrillville, R.I., is arraigned on a murder charge in Providence District Court in Providence, R.I., for the murder of Domingo Ortiz of Worcester, Mass.      A Rhode Island couple was ordered held without bail Monday in the killing of a Massachusetts man whose body was found under newly poured concrete at the couple's home nearly a month after...

Fog bank gives illusion of tsunami wave off New Jersey

© Jim Freda The Sea Girt Lifeguards Twitter page said the fog bank showed up along the coastline after a storm Sunday.      Sea Girt Lifeguards @SGLifeguards Weekend 2 in the books & ended w a fog bank, some surf & a wicked storm that came through #swimnearalifeguard 10:17 PM - 31 May 2015 Lifeguards at a New Jersey beach shared photos of a massive fog bank that looked like an extremely slow-moving tsunami wave. The...

Hurricane Blanca, a category 4 storm is heading toward Baja, California

© National Hurricane Center The forecast track of Hurricane Blanca shows it heading for Mexico's Baja Peninsula.      Hurricane Blanca, a Category-4 storm with 130 mph winds, is spinning in the eastern Pacific Ocean. As of 2 p.m. ET Wednesday, it was located 455 miles south of Manzanillo, Mexico, according to the National Hurricane Center. Blanca is nearly stationary, but will begin moving northwestward Thursday, the Weather...

Australia's first day of winter brings lowest temperatures in forty years

The NSW alpine resorts of Perisher (pictured) and Thredbo turned white overnight as 30cm of snow blanketed the mountains with lows of minus nine degrees      Australia is experiencing the coldest start to winter in forty years after parts of the country were buried under a foot of snow. Temperatures plunged as low as minus nine degrees Celsius as the alpine resorts of Perisher and Thredbo in New South Wales disappeared underneath...

Southern California experiences reverse meteorological spring for first time in nearly a century

© Reuters/Lucy Nicholson/Files Rain clouds move in over downtown Los Angeles, California in this March 2, 2015 file photo.      Spring weather in downtown Los Angeles and other areas of Southern California flip-flopped this year as temperatures cooled from March to May, creating a so-called reverse meteorological spring for the first time in nearly a century, officials said on Tuesday. A reverse meteorological spring is rare...
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