Atomic apocalypse more likely than ever say US, Russian retired generals

© Reuters

    

Modern technologies, coupled with Cold War-era nuclear doctrines and increasing tensions between the US and Russia make a nuclear war a real threat, say high-ranking retired officers from both countries.

The opinion column by former US Marine Corps General James E. Cartwright and retired Russian Major General Vladimir Dvorkin, both from the Global Zero Commission on Nuclear Risk Reduction, warns of the dangers of old nuclear strike doctrines, at a time when relations between the two superpowers are at such a low point. They call on Moscow and Washington prevent possible provocations.

It says there are three strategic options at the two countries' disposal, which are relic's of the Cold War: striking first, retaliation after an attack and launch on warning. The final option is seen as the one posing the most danger.

Under the launch-on-warning strategy, a country fires its nuclear missiles after it detects enemy rockets have been launched. It is aimed at being able to use the missiles before they are destroyed by the incoming attack.

Launch detection is carried out by satellites and ground-based radars, which give the target country a window of 10 to 30 minutes in which to decide whether to launch a nuclear strike of its own.

The two generals say this system is susceptible to provocations and malfunctions. With the advent of precise computer technologies, the chance of such an error occurring has been decreasing. However, at a time when cyberattacks are becoming increasingly common, the danger of someone deliberately triggering a false warning has jumped.

"This makes it all the more critical for Russia and the United States to talk, to relieve the pressures to 'use or lose' nuclear forces during a crisis and minimize the risk of a mistaken launch," their article reads.

The US and Russia have signed a joint nuclear arsenal reduction treaty called New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), in April 2010. It is aimed at drastically decreasing the number of nuclear weapons available to both nations.

Despite both Russia and the US complying with the treaty and reducing their arsenals to about 1,500 warheads each, they remain in possession of two of the world's largest atomic payloads.

Cooperation on the treaty remains "a silver lining" amid growing Russia-US tensions, Assistant Secretary of State Frank Rose said on Thursday: "At such a hard time it is highly important to maintain transparency in the displacement and deployment of strategic nuclear weapons... The two sides have made significant progress over the restrictions presumed by the treaty by February 2018".

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Monsanto's Roundup linked to cancer of the lymph system

    

About 30 years of research regarding non-Hodgkin lymphoma (cancer) and its correlation with occupational exposure to 80 agricultural pesticides and 21 chemical groups has linked glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup, with cancer of the lymph tissue. In a paper published in the 44 papers representing studies in high-income countries found that there was a "striking increase" in the incidence of non-Hodgkin's type lymphomas in the last 30 years.

The paper explains that farmers have high cancer rates, overall, and agrochemical exposure is likely the culprit, even among a group that normally has low across-the board mortality rates. Among the pesticides studied, glyphosate exposure was found to be positively associated with a particular type of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma - called B cell lymphoma. This best-selling toxin distributed primarily by Monsanto is just the tip of the iceberg, as pointed out by Sayer Ji of GreenMedInfo.

The inactive ingredients in Roundup have also been found to be carcinogenic even in the parts per trillion range, so the study brings attention to a phenomenon which was already coming to light in the scientific community.

The fact is, human blood is not 'Roundup Ready.' As mentioned, the 'inactive' ingredients in Roundup are just as harmful, making 'RoundUp Ready' chemicals a toxic blood-venom none of us can ignore. The background context of one study are described:

"Today, the dissemination of glyphosate in the environment increases, and humans are permanently exposed to its action. Worst case scenario provides even ten-fold increase of using a glyphosate in the following years [32].

Considering the widespread and frequent use of glyphosate throughout in world, thus the current risk assessment is important because the exposure will concern not only the users of the preparations containing glyphosate, but also those who do not have direct contact with that herbicide."

As these chemicals are used in a slap-dash cocktail, understudied, and haphazardly applied to our crops, it is no wonder that different types of cancers are showing up in the populations most closely tied to their use - such as with farmers, their families, and even children who go to schools or playgrounds near fields that are sprayed.

Lymphomas are a special type of cancer that attack the immune system. It would only be logical that pesticides and herbicides which also attack a plant's immune system would be adverse to our own. That they are also creating organisms that are immune to the toxicity of these concoctions should be alarming. When cancer cells are stronger than our own healthy cells, perhaps the agencies allowing GM crops to exist will finally listen.

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Sitting for too long can do harm to your body

    

With the continuous progress of technology, we need to put less and less effort to get the things done. And it's not only about jobs which are getting more and more computerized every day; it's about our lifestyle in general.

If in the recent past we had to wash the dishes and clean the floor ourselves, now there are people who have a dishwasher and a robotic vacuum cleaner which can do that for us. I'm not saying it's bad to take advantage of the privileges of technology (I'm a fan of technology myself), but the problem is that, as a result, there are those of us who sometimes tend to avoid physical activity and end up sitting for more hours a day than our parents and grandparents did.

Let's take a look at some statistics. Approximately 80% of the Americans use the Internet on a daily basis, and there is at least one computer in 90 % of the homes. Of course, it's not only about the Internet usage or home computers. Imagine how many Americans do office jobs that require sitting in a chair for at least eight hours a day.

The real problem is that even after a long working day, many people continue spending their free time in front of a screen, watching TV, playing video games, browsing the Internet or chatting with friends online.

So when it comes to health problems, the statistics show that 40% of people who suffer from back issues tend to spend long hours sitting at the computer. You may think that back problems are the only major consequence of a sedentary lifestyle. Unfortunately, it's not that simple, and recent research reveals that too much sitting is linked to a number of health problems, including obesity, heart disease and diabetes.

Here is an infographic that explains the health problems associated with spending too much time in a chair. There are some recommendations on the proper sitting position and exercises too.

    

Comment: Additional information about the negative effects of sitting too long: Also check out this excellent article by Mark Sisson: 10 principles of primal living that are (finally) getting mainstream media coverage

Yes, Primal health principles and positions are getting mainstream recognition. Let's take a look at some of the major ones.

That sitting is bad and exercise might not be enough.

Everyone knows that being sedentary is a poor health choice. But most people figured the solution was to set aside regular times each week to exercise. Formal exercise was the answer, and movement was segregated from "normal" life. As long as you hit the gym every other day, you could do nothing for the remainder of your time and be perfectly healthy.

That's just intermittent sedentism, though, and it doesn't work. Frequent low level movement throughout the day punctuated by intermittent bouts of intense exercise is what I've prescribed for years, and the mainstream is beginning to get the hint. Articles lamenting the prevalence of sitting, its scary effect on our health, and how exercising isn't enough to counter it come out on a regular basis now.

Going barefoot isn't insane.

Going barefoot is perhaps the most intuitive Primal lifestyle change. People can deny the meat-eating, fat-loving, sun-seeking behavior, they can claim that "sleep is for the weak" and "gluten-free is a fad" all they want, but they can't ignore the shoeless feet that humans have been born with for millions of years. The bare feet we wear to bed at night somehow use to walk without teetering over and falling or twisting an ankle on the way to the bathroom are also fairly competent vehicles for daily locomotion.

Ignoring the big push back from podiatrists (likely worried about losing patients and orthotics addicts), the mass media coverage of barefooting has been reasonable. They don't wholeheartedly endorse it, but then again, neither do we without caveats like "do it gradually" and "walk before you run." Harvard even has a guide to safe barefoot running. And the people who matter - the ones who decide to or decide not to go barefoot, as opposed to the experts urging them to reconsider - are embracing it; sales of shoes that emulate the unshod state have stabilized but remain high.

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Former Chicago police commander Jon Burge convicted in connection to torturing suspects condemns victim reparations

© Flickr/ Thomas Hawk

    

Convicted former Police Commander Jon Burge has publically condemned a reparations fund that would support victims of police torture, whom he referred to as human vermin and "guilty, viscous criminals." He also believes he will be "vindicated."

For decades, Burge had been accused of running a "midnight crew" of Chicago Police officers who allegedly tortured African American suspects. In 2011, he was convicted of perjury for lying under oath in civil lawsuits connected to that torture.

This month, Mayor Rahm Emanuel agreed to create a $5.5 million reparations fund to compensate victims of police torture.

Burge, who maintained his Fifth Amendment rights when questioned under oath about the alleged torture, criticized the compensation program in an interview with writer and Chicago Police officer Martin Preib, which was published on "The Conviction Project."

Burge directed his remarks at politicians, the media, and alleged torture victims Anthony Holmes and Darrell Cannon as well as the plantiffs' attorney Flint Taylor.

"These private attorneys grow rich because the city of Chicago is afraid to defend the lawsuits filed by these human vultures," Burge said in the interview. "Ask the mayor and City Council members how many relatives of the victims of these crimes they spoke with before deciding on their 'Reparations.' "

Taylor responded to Burge's words.

"He is clearly a serial human rights violator, who has committed racist crimes against humanity too numerous to count. And this attack on the men who have so bravely stood up to him — and who a jury and a federal judge relied upon to send him to the penitentiary — only underscores how disgraceful and cowardly his unsworn statements... slandering me, my fellow lawyers and these clients are.

"I stand ready to go anywhere, any time, any place to place him under oath and to ask him point-blank whether he tortured Anthony Holmes and whether he was responsible for the torture of Darrell Cannon and 115-to-120 other African-American men who have documented proof that he and his co-conspirators tortured them," Taylor said.

The plantiffs also responded to Burge's comments.

"The city is trying to help us because he put us in this position," Holmes said. "If he hadn't, we wouldn't need no help. All of us are mentally unstable. We're not ourselves.... He's trying to cover up for himself and saying he did everything right. He didn't do everything right. He tortured us. He's saying what he did to us was justified to get information. We can't stand torture. That's how he broke all of us.

"I was a gang-banger out on the street. True enough. But, I didn't deserve what he did to me. He did what he wanted to do and now, he's got to pay for it. But, he still won't admit that he did it."

However, Burge believes that he will eventually be vindicated.

He said "evidence is slowly emerging that clearly shows what happened to the dedicated Chicago Police detectives who fought, as best we could, the worst, most violent predators on the South Side."

Burge had been sentenced to four-and-a-half years for lying under oath, but got time off for good behavior. He was recently released from a halfway house in the Tampa, Fla. area.

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Greece seeks strategic relationship with Iran despite EU sanctions

© Reuters/ Alkis Konstantinidis

    

Greece's new ambassador to Iran said that his country seeks friendship and strategic ties as the European Union continues its sanctions regime despite breakthroughs in nuclear negotiations.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani welcomed Greece's new ambassador to the country, who told the President that his country wants to develop a strategic partnership with Iran.

The move would be a first for any EU member state, as the organization previously pursued sanctions against Iran.

"Iran is a key country in the region and Athens is determined to be Tehran's friend and strategic partner," incoming Ambassador Georgio Aifantis said.

Rouhani commended Greece for its moderate stance on Iran and opposition on the use of sanctions.

"Tehran welcomes better relations with Athens, and we appreciate the country's moderate positions on Iran's nuclear program," Rouhani said.

Rouhani added the use of sanctions in the modern world is unacceptable and that the era of using sanctions to pressure countries is over.

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Detroit police arrest 9-year-old boy, leave mother in panic searching for missing son

© Flickr/ Tony Webster

    

A Detroit mother called the police, panicked that her 9-year-old son hadn't returned home. However, it turns out he had been arrested and the police neglected to inform her.

Stephanie Horton's 9-year-old son went off to play with friends and, when he didn't return, Horton assumed the worst and reported him as missing. It wasn't until the next day that police bothered to inform her that Kamian wasn't missing — he was in police custody after being arrested for a home invasion.

Horton was further distressed to learn that her son had been arrested the day she reported him missing.

Officers said they did not have a way of contacting Horton, saying they didn't know her number and that they had gone to her house but she was out at the time. However, that doesn't explain why they didn't inform her when she called.

"I said how could I not be notified until 24 hours later. No explanation, no information, no anything," she told local media.

Turns out, the charges for the home invasion against the third-grader got dropped as well. However, Horton say she is still concerned about her son's activities because of the company he keeps.

"There are some older guys who come and take him and he does what they tell him to do," Horton said. "We have been having a problem with that, coinciding with an officer trying to keep them away from here, but to no avail."

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Close passage of asteroid 2015 HD1 tonight

© Gianluca Masi
Newly found asteroid 2015 HD1 will pay a close visit to Earth overnight, zipping by at just 45,600 miles at 3:11 a.m. Tuesday morning April 21.

    

If you wake up in the middle of the night with weird dreams about flying asteroids, I wouldn't be surprised. Around 3 a.m. (CDT) tomorrow morning April 21, a 50-foot-wide asteroid will hurdle just 0.2 lunar distances or 45,600 miles over your bed.

The Mt. Lemmon Survey, based in Tucson, Arizona, snagged the space rock Saturday. 2015 HD1 is about as big as a full grown T-rex through not nearly as scary, since it will safely miss Earth ... but not by much.

Geostationary satellites, used for global communications, weather forecasting and satellite TV, are parked in orbits about 22,300 miles above the Earth. 2015 HD1 will zip by at just twice that distance, putting it in a more select group of extremely close-approaching objects. Yet given its small size, even if it were to collide with Earth, this dino-sized rock would probably break up into a shower of meteorites.

Lucky for all of us, astronomers conducting photographic surveys like the one at Mt. Lemmon rake the skies every clear night, turning up a dozen or more generally small, Earth-approaching asteroids every month. None yet has been found on a collision course with Earth, but many pass within a few lunar distances.

A common misunderstanding about approaching asteroids concerns Earth's gravity. While our planet has plenty of gravitational pull, it's no match for speedy asteroids. We can't "pull" them in like some tractor beam.

Because they're moving at miles per second velocities, they have lots of angular momentum (desire to keep moving in the direction they're headed). Only asteroids headed directly for us have any hope of striking our atmosphere and potentially leaving fragments behind as meteorites.

Still, both Earth and asteroid interact. Close-approaching asteroids often will have their orbits altered by Earth's gravity. They come in in one direction and leave on a slightly different one after Earth weighs in (literally!)

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Moving rapidly across the constellations Hydra, Antlia and Puppis tomorrow morning, 2015 HD1 is expected to reach climb briefly to magnitude +13.2. That's faint, but with a good map, amateur astronomers with 8-inch or larger telescopes will see it move in real time across the sky like a slow satellite. To create a map, you'll need sky-charting software like MegaStar, The Sky or Starry Night and these orbital elements.

Maximum brightness and visibility occurs between about 1 and 3 a.m CDT (6-8 UT) for observers in low northern or southern latitudes. From the West Coast, the asteroid will be low in the southwestern sky around 10 p.m. local time. Hawaiian skywatchers will get the brightest views with the asteroid highest in the sky around 9 p.m. local time. IF you live in the eastern two-thirds of the U.S., it's either too far south or will have set by the time it's bright enough to see.

No worries. Italian astronomer Gianluca Masi will once again fire up his telescope to provide live views of 2015 HD1 on his Virtual Telescope Project website today April 20 starting at 4 p.m. CDT (21:00 UT). So if you like, you can get a gander after all.

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