PINK SLIME

Pink Slime... it's what's for dinner

Pink Slime is in the US School Lunch Program.

"Pink slime" (ammoniated boneless lean beef trimmings) is the nickname earned by a formerly inedible byproduct of the beef industry.

Once used in pet food, it's now a cheap additive in ground beef. Pink Slime is an additive that the federal government has approved to be mixed in with ground beef. To make "real" beef stretch further, manufacturers can use this ammonia-infused beef as up to 15 percent of the product.

Pink slime is now an additive in 70% of the ground beef in the U.S., which means that if you’re eating a burger, there’s a good chance you’re also eating Pink Slime.

According to a New York Times article, The "majority of hamburger" now sold in the U.S. now contains fatty slaughterhouse trimmings "the industry once relegated to pet food and cooking oil," "typically including most of the material from the outer surfaces of the carcass" that contains "larger microbiological populations."

For awards go to www.beefproducts.com for information, don't bother, the info tabs are "under  construction".

 

 

POISONOUS ADVERTISING

BUTTERFLY EFFECT

 

Did David Blair sink the Titanic?

A sailor called David Blair forgot to leave behind a key as the Titanic set off on its maiden voyage. Without it, his shipmates were unable to open a locker in the crow's nest containing a pair of binoculars for the designated lookout.

The binoculars were to look out for dangers in the distance including signs of bad weather - and icebergs.
Lookout Fred Fleet, who survived the disaster in which 1,522 people lost their lives, later told an official inquiry that if they had binoculars they would have seen the iceberg sooner.

A few days before the Titanic sailed Blair was bumped off the crew list, a decision which probably saved his life. When he left the Titanic he carried his key off in his pocket forgetting to hand it to his replacement, Charles Lightoller.

HERO OF HUMANITY

From a sweet-faced kid (above) to a product of US military torture.

Bradley Manning Now 'Catatonic'

Whistleblower Private Bradley Manning's friend David House says that more than eight months in isolation, with movement and sleep restrictions placed on him, had their intended effect. 

House has told MSNBC that by the end of January (2011) Manning appeared "catatonic"  and that he had "severe problems communicating," with it having taken House nearly 45 minutes on a recent visit to engage in any meaningful way. 

House said Manning's demeanor was as "if he had just woken up and didn't know what was going on around him".

Manning was "utterly exhausted physically and mentally...it was difficult to have any kind of social engagement".

Mannning has been held in a bare, windowless 6x12 foot cell for 23 hours a day, with no sound or personal effects, no radio or clock with which to distinguish night from day.

He is not allowed to exercise in his cell.  His only exercise is walking figure eights in another room, in shackles.

He is forced to strip naked to sleep and to stand at attention in the morning in this state.

Bradley Manning didn’t break the secrecy system It was already broken but the WikiLeaks suspect is the only person held accountable

WHISTLE STOP

Bradley Manning's bad dream
Private Manning was working as an army intelligence analyst at Forward Operating Base Hammer in Iraq when he apparently went rogue, allegedly funnelling to Wikileaks hundreds of thousands of diplomatic communications and battlefield reports from Iraq and Afghanistan, none more shocking than the video of an Apache helicopter crew gunning down a group of men in Bagdad - two of whom turned out to be a Reuters news photographer and his driver.
Supporters like Daniel Ellsberg, the former US military analyst who precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released the top secret Pentagon Papers revealing US government decision-making in relation to the Vietnam War, see Bradley Manning as a hero who only wanted to reveal the truth. But the US military regard him as a traitor who endangered national security.

ENLIGHTENING THE YOUTH

Ron Paul Speech at Campaign Youth Rally at The University of Iowa (1 of 3) 10/21/2011Paul Speech at Campaign Youth Rally at The University of Iowa

THE QUICKENING

Vast methane 'plumes' seen in Arctic ocean as sea ice retreats
 Dramatic and unprecedented plumes of methane - a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide - have been seen bubbling to the surface of the Arctic Ocean by scientists undertaking an extensive survey of the region.
The scale and volume of the methane release has astonished the head of the Russian research team who has been surveying the seabed of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf off northern Russia for nearly 20 years.

FAMILY TIES

Fishermen unravel family mystery after month at sea

 

Uein Buranibwe, 53, and Temaei Tontaake, 26, made headlines late last month when they washed ashore in the Marshall Islands after 33 days lost at sea.

They were more than 600 kilometres from home.

Audio: Pacific castaways discover lost relatives 

Their global satellite positioning system had run out of batteries after they left their island on what should have been an 80km trip to get gas.

Marshall Islands Journal editor Giff Johnson says the men found much-needed food and water on Namdrik Island.

But he also says that one of the men discovered that his uncle, feared drowned at sea 50 years earlier, had also wound up on the same atoll and married into the community.

SOL SURVIVOR

Could the desert sun power the world?
During the summer of 1913, in a field just south of Cairo on the eastern bank of the Nile, an American engineer called Frank Shuman stood before a gathering of Egypt's colonial elite, including the British consul-general Lord Kitchener, and switched on his new invention. Gallons of water soon spilled from a pump, saturating the soil by his feet. Behind him stood row upon row of curved mirrors held aloft on metal cradles, each directed towards the fierce sun overhead. As the sun's rays hit the mirrors, they were reflected towards a thin glass pipe containing water. The now super-heated water turned to steam, resulting in enough pressure to drive the pumps used to irrigate the surrounding fields where Egypt's lucrative cotton crop was grown. It was an invention, claimed Shuman, which could help Egypt become far less reliant on the coal being imported at great expense from Britain's mines.
"The human race must finally utilise direct sun power or revert to barbarism," wrote Shuman in a letter to Scientific American magazine the following year. But the outbreak of the first world war just a few months later abruptly ended his dream and his solar troughs were soon broken up for scrap, with the metal being used for the war effort. Barbarism, it seemed, had prevailed.

NO GMO

Hungary Destroys All Monsanto GMO Corn Fields

Hungary has taken a bold stand against biotech giant Monsanto and genetic modification by destroying 1000 acres of maize found to have been grown with genetically modified seeds, according to Hungary deputy state secretary of the Minstry of Rural Development Lajos Bognar. Unlike many European Union countries, genetically modified (GM) seeds are banned in Hungary. In a similar stance against GM ingredients, Peru has also passed a 10 year ban on GM foods.

SKY NET

Iran 'shoots down US drone'

 

Iran's military said it shot down a US military drone inside its territory near the Afghan and Pakistani borders, and threatened to retaliate for the violation, Iranian media reported.

In response to the reports, a statement from the NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan said a surveillance drone flying over western Afghanistan had gone out of control late last week and may be the one Iran said it had shot down.

 

MISSION CRITICAL

The notebook with calculations from the aborted 1970 NASA mission to the Moon fetched $US388,375 at auction.

Apollo 13 notebook fetches $380k

Shortly after Apollo 13 astronauts reported, "Houston, we have had a problem", Commander James Lovell jotted down handwritten calculations in the hope of guiding his crew safely home.

Lovell's calculations in the notebook were critical to identifying the crew's position in space.

"We didn't have the technology back then that we have now," he said. "I didn't even have a calculator to do the arithmetic. I had to ask the people in Houston to double-check my numbers."

Lovell and astronauts Jack Swigert and Fred Haise aborted their mission to the Moon and manoeuvred quickly in space to survive after encountering a critical operating problem aboard the spacecraft's command module.

They had to shift to the lunar module to return home.

WAR FOR DRUGS

Afghanistan is, by far, the largest grower and exporter of opium in the world today, cultivating a 92 percent market share of the global opium trade.

But what may shock many is the fact that the US military has been specifically tasked with guarding Afghan poppy fields, from which opium is derived, in order to protect this multibillion dollar industry that enriches Wall Street, the CIA, MI6, and various other groups that profit big time from this illicit drug trade scheme.

Learn more

RED ALERT

Europe days away from 'apocalyptic' debt crisis

"If the European summit could reach a deal on December 9, its next scheduled meeting, the eurozone will survive. If not, it risks a violent collapse," writes Wolfgang Munchau of the Financial Times (www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/d9a299a8-17...). Two years ago, such language would have been spat upon as "doom and gloom fear mongering." Today it is the mathematical reality across the European Union.

The Polish foreign minister said today that what Europe faces is "a crisis of apocalyptic proportions" (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d29da7fc-...) and urged what is essentially more useless debt bailout tactics to try to delay mathematical reality a little while longer.

After the coming debt implosion wreaks economic havoc across the globe, more than a few banksters and money-changers will find themselves objects of oprobium when the full realization of the unprecedented theft and criminality of the global banking elite hits the 99%.

GRASS GREENER

Sheep lawn mowers, and other go-getters

IN this verdant lawn-filled college town, most people keep their lawn mowers tuned up by oiling the motor and sharpening the blades. Eddie Miller keeps his in shape with salt licks and shearing scissors.

Mr. Miller, 23, is the founder of Heritage Lawn Mowing, a company that rents out sheep — yes, sheep — as a landscaping aid. For a small fee, Mr. Miller, whose official job title is “shepherd,” brings his ovine squad to the yards of area homeowners, where the sheep spend anywhere from three hours to several days grazing on grass, weeds and dandelions.
[Customers pay $1 per sheep per day, but Mr. Miller also accepts barter payments, which have so far included karate lessons, jugs of maple syrup and the use of one homeowner’s truck. He has done around 20 homes so far, and has so many requests he can’t keep up with them.

TRUE COLOURS

 
Published in The Australian,
Tuesday, November 29, 2011

REPROGRAMING DNA

Scientist prove DNA can be reprogrammed by words and frequencies


DNA is a biological internet and superior in many aspects to the artificial one. Russian scientific research directly or indirectly explains phenomena such as clairvoyance, intuition, spontaneous and remote acts of healing, self healing, affirmation techniques, unusual light/auras around people (namely spiritual masters), mind’s influence on weather patterns and much more. In addition, there is evidence for a whole new type of medicine in which DNA can be influenced and reprogrammed by words and frequencies without cutting out and replacing single genes.

SODA JERKS

Teen violence linked to sugary soft drink consumption

Teenagers, who are heavy soda drinkers, are more violent and carry more weapons, according to a new study from the University of Vermont. In the past, parents have been told too much soda could set their kids up for obesity and diabetes, but now researchers say soft drink beverages are linked to even more disturbing problems like violent behavior and carrying knives and guns.

FOOD FIGHT

Food Bill Backlash Stuns Government

Politicians and government officials appear to have been blindsided by a backlash to new food safety laws, with nearly 4000 people signing a petition demanding change.

The petition argues that the sharing of food is a basic human right.

"The Food Bill ... will seriously impede initiatives like community gardens, food co-ops, heritage seed banks, farmers markets, bake sales, and roadside fruit and vegetable stalls," say the organisers of the petition, nzfoodsecurity.org.

Opponents of the law claim free trade agreement negotiations and the long arm of multinational genetically modified seed giant Monsanto are among the drivers of the new law. They also cite changes to US food laws that have seen armed raids conducted against organic food producers and distributors.

FOOD FIGHT

Food rights eroded

I was shocked to learn from a friend on the weekend that a new Food Bill is being brought in here in New Zealand. The new bill will make it a privilege and not a right to grow food.

I find two aspects of this bill alarming. The first is the scope and impact the new bill has, and secondly that it has all happened so quietly. There has been VERY little media coverage, on a bill which promises to jeopardise the future food security of the country.

I read that the bill is being brought in because of the WTO, which of course has the US FDA behind it, and of course that is influenced by big business (Monsanto and other players). It looks like this NZ food bill will pave the way to reduce the plant diversity and small owner operations in New Zealand, for example by way of controlling the legality of seed saving and trading/barter/giving away; all will be potentially illegal.

The best website to read about the problems with the new bill is http://nzfoodsecurity.org (I have no connection with this website)

CASHLESSNESS

Happy 69 Year Old Lady Has Not Used Money For 15 Years

Heidemarie Schwermer, a 69-year-old woman from Germany, gave up using money 15 years ago and says she’s been much happier ever since.

Heidemarie’s incredible story began 22 years ago, when she, a middle-aged secondary school teacher emerging from a difficult marriage, took her two children and moved to the city of Dortmund, in Germany’s Ruhr area.
One of the first things she noticed was the large number of homeless people, and this shocked her so much that she decided to actually do something about it.

She had always believed the homeless didn’t need actual money to be accepted back into society, only a chance to empower themselves by making themselves useful, so she opened a Tauschring (swap shop), called “Gib und Nimm” (Give and Take).

SILENCING THE TRUTH

Ron Paul Gets 89 Seconds To Speak In CBS Debate

Leaked email to Bachmann campaign indicates decision to limit air time for certain candidates was deliberate CBS News policy

[Congressman Ron Paul was a victim of what later transpired to be a deliberate policy on behalf of CBS News to restrict the air time of certain candidates during last night’s Republican debate, after he was afforded just 90 seconds of speaking time during the course of the event in South Carolina last night.

Paul’s campaign reacted furiously to the Texan being limited to 90 seconds in what was a 90 minute-long debate, with Campaign Manager John Tate blasting out an email entitled “What a Joke,” in which he stated, “It literally made me sick watching the mainstream media once again silence the one sane voice in this election. The one dissenter to a decade of unchecked war. The one candidate who stands for true defense and actual constitutional government. Ron Paul was silenced, in perhaps the most important debate of the cycle.”

UNORTHODOX VIEWS

Ultra-Orthodox Jews In Jerusalem: When Women & Girls Are The Enemy

Imagine a world where all photographs of women and girls - on posters, advertising material, buses, billboards and shop windows - gradually disappear from public view; where supermarket lines are segregated and men and women sit in different sections of public transport: men at the front, women at the back.

This is Jerusalem in November 2011.

FUTURE TENSE

Neutrinos still faster than light in latest version of experiment

The finding that neutrinos might break one of the most fundamental laws of physics sent scientists into a frenzy when it was first reported in September.

Not only because it appeared to go against Albert Einstein's theory of special relativity but, if correct, the finding opened up the troubling possibility of being able to send information back in time, blurring the line between past and present and wreaking havoc with the fundamental principle of cause and effect.

WATER FROM AIR

Get water from thin air

 

First, a turbine draws air underneath the ground into a network of pipes. When the air reaches condensation point the water pours down into a underwater tank. A submersible pump pumps the water back up through the central column of the piping and this is pumped through to the roots of plants through a process called sub-surface drip irrigation – which is the most efficient method of irrigating crops because you don't get evaporation.

What was the biggest design challenge you faced?

Creating enough condensation. We made a huge breakthrough by putting copper wool inside the pipes. The wool was cooled by the pipes and this increased the surface area within the pipes that was cool enough to cause condensation to take place.

PREMONITION AND PORTENTS

A stranger dressed in a hideous mask steps from the crowd and puts his hand on little Damian Godson.
It is the last picture ever taken of the boy before he is lost in a fire aboard the ghost train at Sydney's Luna Park.

Australian Tragic - our top ten darkest tales

While waiting at Circular Quay for a ferry to take them to Sydney's Luna Park on June 9, 1979, the Godson family are approached by a Satanic-looking figure dressed in a loincloth and wearing a mask with horns.

The creature voicelessly places his hand on young Damian Godson's shoulder. Somebody snaps a photograph. It is the last photograph of the boy ever taken - hours later, Damian, his brother, Craig, and his father, John, will burn in the fire that sweeps through The Ghost Train. Nobody will ever see the horned man again.

[ Australian Tragic by Jack Marx ]

NAKED TRUTH

Egyptian blogger Aliaa Magda Elmahdy has become a household name in the Middle East and sparked a global uproar after a friend posted a photo of her naked on Twitter.

The photo, which the 20-year-old former student first posted on her blog, shows her naked apart from a pair of thigh-high stockings and some red patent leather shoes.

Aliaa Magda Elmahdy (مذكرات ثائرة: فن عاري)

Put on trial the artists' models who posed nude for art schools until the early 70s, hide the art books and destroy the nude statues of antiquity, then undress and stand before a mirror and burn your bodies that you despise to forever rid yourselves of your sexual hangups before you direct your humiliation and chauvinism and dare to try to deny me my freedom of expression.

Elmahdy describes herself as an atheist. She has been living for the past five months with her boyfriend, blogger Kareem Amer, who, in 2006 was sentenced to four years in a maximum security prison for criticizing Islam and defaming former president Hosni Mubarak.

After my photo was removed from Facebook, a male friend of mine asked me if he may post it on Twitter. I accepted because I am not shy of being a woman in a society where women are nothing but sex objects harassed on a daily basis by men who know nothing about sex or the importance of a woman.

The photo is an expression of my being and I see the human body as the best artistic representation of that. I took the photo myself using a timer on my personal camera. The powerful colors black and red inspire me.

I am not positive at all unless a social revolution erupts. Women under Islam will always be objects to use at home. The (sexism) against women in Egypt is unreal, but I am not going anywhere and will battle it 'til the end. Many women wear the veil just to escape the harassment and be able to walk the streets. I hate how society labels gays and lesbians as abnormal people. Different is not abnormal!

EUROZONE DEBT CRISIS

A quick lesson in economics in the Eurozone

Some years ago a small rural town in Spain twinned with a similar town in Greece. The Mayor of the Greek town visited the Spanish town. When he saw the palatial mansion belonging to the Spanish mayor he wondered how he could afford such a house.

The Spaniard said; "You see that bridge over there? The EU gave us a grant to build a two-lane bridge, but by building a single lane bridge with traffic lights at either end this house could be built".

The following year the Spaniard visited the Greek town. He was simply amazed at the Greek Mayor's house, gold taps, marble floors, it was marvellous.

When he asked how this could be afforded the Greek said; "You see that bridge over there?".

The Spaniard replied "No".

CASHLESSNESS

Richard Branson invests in Square

Square launched in 2010 provides an innovative way for individuals and businesses to accept credit card payments on their mobile devices. The company distributes an elegant and easy-to-use card reader and mobile application, which has seen widespread adoption.

WATER WATER EVERYWHERE

Liquid lakes close to moon's skin

Scientists have found the best evidence yet for water just beneath the surface of Jupiter's icy moon, Europa.

Analysis of the moon's surface suggests plumes of warmer water well up beneath its icy shell, melting and fracturing the outer layers.

The results, published in the journal Nature, predict that small lakes exist only 3km below the crust. Any liquid water could represent a potential habitat for life.

From models of magnetic forces, and images of its surface, scientists have long suspected that a giant ocean, roughly 160km (100 miles) deep, lies somewhere between 10-30km beneath the ice crust.

 

BIGFOOT FIND

Ninth human foot in a shoe found in Canada

 

British Columbia has been plagued by human feet, eight of which have recently washed ashore in the province, with another appendage found on the shore of Sasamat Lake near Port Moody on Friday, The Vancouver Sun reports.

 

This is at least the ninth foot discovered in British Columbia since 2007, according to The National Post. By other counts, there have been a dozen feet found.

 

The case of the mysterious feet has vexed authorities and the public, with details of the latest find differing from its predecessors in two ways, the CBC says.

 

The ninth foot, found last Friday by a child at a camp, was in a body of fresh water. All the previous feet, believed to have come from six different people, were in saltwater. And unlike the first eight, which were inside running shoes, the latest foot was in a hiking boot, media outlets said.

MARS ATTACK

Russians/Chinese launch Mars moon probe

Russia has launched an audacious bid to scoop up rock and dust samples from the 27km-wide Martian moon Phobos and bring them back to Earth for study.

The mission 'Phobos-Grunt' is significant because it is carrying China's first Mars satellite Yinghuo-1 - a 115kg probe that will be released into orbit around Mars.
Russia is hoping the 11 tonne Phobos-Grunt will finally see it conquer its Martian curse so that about 200g of regolith can be returned to Earth in August 2014.
Potato-shaped Phobos has an extremely low density.
Panspermia
US participation comes in the form of its Living Interplanetar Flight Experiment (LIFE) on Phobos-Grunt.
This package of hardy micro-organisms will make the journeys out and back inside a separate compartment in the return capsule. It includes the bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans, known for its ability to withstand high doses of radiation and the eight-legged tardigrade, a microscopic invertebrate that can survive the space environment.
It will test theories on how living organisms could spread through the Solar System.
Missions to Mars
Of 39 missions listed by JPL 24 are marked as having failed.

UPDATE
False start for Russian Mars probe

Russia's bid for its first interplanetary mission in more than two decades went awry when an unmanned spacecraft failed to take the proper course toward Mars after its launch, officials said.

NINETY-NINE PERCENT

We are paid too much, bankers confess in St Paul's survey

A survey of 500 workers in City financial institutions, carried out for the Christian think-tank St Paul's Institute, found that "a substantial number" believed they were overpaid compared with other professions – particularly frontline workers including teachers and, most of all, nurses.

KILL THE BEAST

Someone joked, "I'll believe corporations are 'persons' when Texas executes one".

Corporations do all manner of things to benefit the shareholders but sometimes their actions are anti-social (dumping toxins in rivers and aquifers, etc, etc, etc... Such corporate actions are akin to a psychopathy, which is not surprising given they are inhuman/immortal entities.

So why not create laws which effectively execute these 'persons' for heinous crimes against society?

Their family (the shareholders) shouldn't be able to benefit directly from the break-up of the company, rather the proceeds should go to the individuals affected or the community generally.

TIME FOR CHANGE

Clock ticking: GMT could be history

 

Tiny variations between Earth speed and atomic speed have become a problem for GPS, the global positioning systems and mobile phone networks on which the modern world relies.

"These networks need to be synchronised to the millisecond," Dr Arias said. "We are starting to have parallel definitions of time. Imagine a world where there were two or three definitions of a kilogram."

A meeting in London will look at the implications of abolishing the leap seconds required by GMT/UTC and moving fully to atomic time. That would see atomic time slowly diverge from GMT, by about one minute every 60 to 90 years, or by an hour every 600 years, and there would need to be "leap minutes" a couple of times a century to bring the two in line.

PACK OF BANKERS

Did You Hear the One About the Bankers?

 

Citibank sold a package of toxic mortgage-backed securities to unsuspecting customers — securities that it knew were likely to go bust — and, with the other hand, shorted the same securities — that is, bet millions of dollars that they would go bust.

It doesn’t get any more immoral than this.

As the Securities and Exchange Commission civil complaint noted, in 2007, Citigroup exercised “significant influence” over choosing $500 million of the $1 billion worth of assets in the deal, and the global bank deliberately chose collateralized debt obligations, or C.D.O.’s, built from mortgage loans almost sure to fail.

One trader outside Citigroup described the portfolio as resembling something your dog leaves on your neighbor’s lawn.

About 15 hedge funds, investment managers and other firms that invested in the deal lost hundreds of millions of dollars, while Citigroup made $160 million in fees and trading profits.

STAR MAN

NASA’s “most important” Jupiter discovery previously published by UFO contactee

According to NASA, the most important discovery of the 1979 Voyager mission to Jupiter was that its moon, Io, was the most volcanically active body in the solar system. The mission also established that there were rings around Jupiter, some comprised of volcanic material from Io, and that the moon Europa was covered in ice

It now appears to have been conclusively proven, in part by skeptical challengers, that Swiss UFO contactee Billy Meier first published that information – five months before NASA’s discovery.

There is a legend which points to previous pre-scientific discovery of astronomical knowledge, such as the Dogon tribe of Africa and their understanding of Sirius as a multiple star system.

In 1976 Robert K. G. Temple wrote a book called The Sirius Mystery arguing that the Dogon's system reveals precise knowledge of cosmological facts only known by the development of modern astronomy, since they appear to know, from Griaule and Dieterlen's account, that Sirius was part of a binary star system, whose second star, Sirius B, a white dwarf, was however completely invisible to the human eye, (just as Digitaria is the smallest grain known to the Dogon), and that it took 50 years to complete its orbit. The existence of Sirius B had only been inferred to exist through mathematical calculations undertaken by Friedrich Bessel in 1844. Temple then argued that the Dogon's information, if traced back to ancient Egyptian sources and myth, indicated an extraterrestrial transmission of knowledge of the stars.

OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

NASA Says Comet Elenin Gone and Should Be Forgotten - NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Latest indications are this relatively small comet has broken into even smaller, even less significant, chunks of dust and ice. This trail of piffling particles will remain on the same path as the original comet, completing its unexceptional swing through the inner solar system this fall.

"Elenin did as new comets passing close by the sun do about two percent of the time: It broke apart," said Don Yeomans of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Elenin's remnants will also act as other broken-up comets act. They will trail along in a debris cloud that will follow a well-understood path out of the inner solar system. After that, we won't see the scraps of comet Elenin around these parts for almost 12 millennia."

EARTH CHANGES

Sherpas warn ice melt is making Everest 'dangerous'

 

Sherpa mountaineers in Nepal say a rise in the rate of snow and ice melt on Mount Everest has exposed bare rock faces and made it dangerous to climb.

FLASHBACK: 2002 Everest Melting? High Signs of Climate Change

CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER

Homeland Security moves forward with 'pre-crime' detection

A US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) document indicates that a controversial program designed to predict whether a person will commit a crime is already being tested on members of the public (DHS employees who "volunteered" to be test subjects).

DHS is building a "prototype screening facility" that it hopes will use factors such as ethnicity, gender, breathing, and heart rate to "detect cues indicative of mal-intent". DHS calls its "pre-crime" system Future Attribute Screening Technology, or FAST.

LIGHT FIELD

Lytro’s Light Field Camera Creates ‘Living’ Pictures

The Lytro camera is a light-field, or plenoptic, camera. An array of micro-lenses sits over the camera’s sensor, capturing all the light in the scene being photographed (11 million rays of light, to be precise). The Lytro then saves your image in a proprietary file format to deliver a “living picture” that you can manipulate on your computer, much like a raw file. By manipulating key attributes, you can effectively change the focus of the image. That’s right: After the image has been taken.

ECONOMIC WITH THE TRUTH

Seven big economic lies
Here's a 2:30 video rebutting the seven biggest whoppers now being told by those who want to take the US economy backwards.

OUR ALIEN MASTERS

 

Iran actress sentenced to 90 lashes and one year in jail

Actress Marzieh Vafamehr has been sentenced to a year in jail and 90 lashes for her role in a film about the limits imposed on artists in the Islamic republic, an Iranian opposition website reported Sunday.

"A verdict has been issued for Marzieh Vafamehr, sentencing her to a year in jail and 90 lashes," Kalameh.com reported.

WATCH THE SKIES

UFO sightings reported in Missouri


UFO experts in Missouri said strange lights were reported above Kansas City on three consecutive nights.

Margie Kay, assistant state director for the Mutual UFO Network, said Kansas City residents reported bright lights and hovering craft in the sky above the city Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday night, WDAF-TV, Kansas City, reported.



Nothing to see here. Move along.

The mystery of Kansas City's UFO lights has been explained.
KC Flight, a civilian air formation team out of Lee's Summit, Missouri, has come forward and said they're the "aliens" in the sky. Pilot Phillip Lamb said his eight-man team is to blame.

[Except, of course, formation teams don't hover.]

SKY NET

Virus strikes US drone fleet

A computer virus has hit the US Predator and Reaper drone fleet that Washington deploys to hunt down militants, logging the keystrokes of pilots remotely flying missions.

The virus was first detected about two weeks ago by the military's Host-Based Security System, but it had not halted missions flown remotely over Afghanistan and other warzones from Nevada's Creech Air Force Base.

DISCARNATE ENTITY

Living doll

Frightened at what she might find, Irene rushed to Holly's bedroom, and flung open the door - but all that met her eyes was Holly, fast asleep in her bed, and her doll sitting on the bed beside her.

Softly closing the door again, she went back to her friends, who were as puzzled as she was. There had certainly been a strange voice - but even as they spoke, they heard it again!

And this time it was much louder - and it was calling to Holly. "Will you get up, Holly Anne - get up and talk to me!"

BURN NOTICE

Spontaneous combustion killed Irish pensioner, inquest rules

Keiran McLoughlin, a West Galeway, Ireland coroner, gave his first spontaneous combustion verdict in 25-year career after man found dead in unexplained circumstances

Irish pensioner, Micheal O' Fatharta, was found burnt to death at his home due to spontaneous human combustion, an inquest has concluded.

The West Galway coroner, Kieran McLoughlin, said there was no other adequate explanation for the death of 76-year-old Michael Faherty, also known as Micheal O'Fatharta. He said it was the first time in his 25 years as a coroner that he had returned such a verdict.

FUN AT THE FAIR

Plane crashes into NSW ferris wheel

_Picture

Plane crashes into NSW ferris wheel

The pilot of a light plane that crashed into a ferris wheel at a fair on the New South Wales mid-north coast says he simply did not see it.

Two children had to be rescued from a basket at the top of the ferris wheel and Mr Cox and his son-in-law were rescued after dangling from the top of the wheel inside their plane for more than an hour.

Taree Mayor Paul Hogan says it is amazing no one was killed. "I had to open the ceremony and I said we've witnessed a miracle here today," he said.

THE EYES HAVE IT

Photo in The Australian (29 Sep 2011)

Iris ID - Iris Recognition Technology
Since 1997, Iris ID has been the key developer and driver of the commercialization of iris recognition technology. IrisAccess, now in a third generation, is the world's leading deployed iris recognition platform, identifying more people in more places than all other iris recognition products combined.

OUR ALIEN MASTERS

A Saudi woman shows the result of a State-sanctioned lashing she received for the crime of being raped.
Two Steps Back: Saudi Woman Sentenced to 10 Lashes for Driving
Just days after King Abdullah granted Saudi women the right to vote and run in municipal elections scheduled for 2015, a court convicted a woman of driving without permission and sentenced her to lashing. It is the harshest sentence yet and a stark reminder that despite real gains, the Kingdom's rigid social order endures.

OUR ALIEN MASTERS

Wall Street protests reveal slice of America's barely tamed brutality

An amateur video shows a small group of women protesters, who are doing nothing menacing at all, having been kettled by police. As they stand there fenced in and defenceless, the two white shirts walk up to them, hold out a pepper-spray canister and zap them straight in the face.

It's the officers' insouciance that is most shocking. They engage the pepper spray as calmly as if they were handing out parking tickets, then turn and just as calmly walk away.

The video reminded me of another recent event at which I was present: last week's execution in Georgia of Troy Davis. The case drew international attention because there was no forensic evidence and seven out of nine key witnesses had recanted their testimony.

But it was the incidental details outside the prison that caught my eye. An impassioned but entirely peaceful crowd of protesters had gathered to make the pretty reasonable argument that states should not go around killing innocent people. Georgia's response was to line up a Swat team in black riot gear like extras in a Batman movie and fly police helicopters with spotlights overhead. Add to that the balmy night and the loud buzzing of the crickets and it was like stepping back in time into a pastiche of the old Deep South.

SACKS OF GOLD

The collapse is coming... and Goldman Sachs rules the world.


Alessio Rastani claimed on BBC news the Euro-zone market would crash and the economic problems were like a cancer.
"It's not a time right now for wishful thinking that the government is going to sort things out. Governments don't rule the world - Goldman Sachs rules the world," he said, as he offered tips on how to turn a tidy profit when things go pear-shaped.

[News Corp. goes into damage control]

Is the trader from hell actually a hoax?
The BBC said Mr Rastani was authentic. However, Mr Rastani is not registered with the Financial Services Authority and his website, leadingtrader.com, crashes when you try to load the contact page. [It loaded fine when I tried.]

But the truth could be far simpler: Mr Rastani told telegraph.co.uk that he's just likes to talk on TV.

Goldman eyes full control of Australian arm

Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs is pushing ahead with the full buyout of the 55 per cent stake in its Australian offshoot it does not already own.
“Australia and New Zealand represent an important part of our growth strategy,” said Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs chairman and CEO.
There are about 130 equity-owning partners in the Australia and New Zealand businesses.
The Australian business has been moving closer to its US shareholder in recent years. Last August, the unit changed its name from Goldman Sachs JBWere.
The venture's sale of most of its private client business to National Australia Bank in 2009 was seen as making a full takeover of the Australian business more attractive to Goldman Sachs.

SHIPPING NEWS

UFO hovered in front of Navy Destroyer

A UFO hovered in front of an Australian Navy destroyer for more than half an hour and did not appear on the warship’s radar, an Australian Navy reservist claims.

The 39-year-old man said he was working on the guided missile destroyer HMAS Brisbane in 1992 as quartermaster gunner when an “illuminating, bright light” appeared in front of the vessel.

“We were sailing in the Great Australia Bight when the light was suddenly in front of us, about 45 degrees, high in the sky.

“We watched it for about half an hour – but nothing was on the radar.”

The Navy Reservist said the light then “quickly moved to south east and then south west and gave a bit of a jiggle”, before it “shot up and disappeared”.

The man, who didn’t want to be named, came forward after visiting Katherine recently, where he heard about a spate of sightings of unexplained lights and objects in the sky.

SUPER LUMINAL

Particles travel faster than light, say scientists




Physicists have reported that sub-atomic particles called neutrinos can travel faster than light, a finding that, if verified, would blast a hole in Einstein's theory of relativity.
The neutrinos, which were recently discovered to have mass, were clocked at  about 6 km/sec faster than light's 300,000 km/sec - while passing through a chord of the earth's crust.

GAME OF LIFE

Online gamers crack enzyme riddle

 

Foldit, developed in 2008 by the University of Washington, it is a video game in which gamers, divided into competing groups, compete to unfold chains of amino acids - the building blocks of proteins - using a set of online tools. To the astonishment of the scientists, the gamers produced an accurate model of the enzyme in just three weeks.

 

CLOAK AND DAGGER

Zero: an investigation into 9/11

ZERO: An Investigation into 9/11, has one central thesis - that the official version of the events surrounding the attacks on 9/11 can not be true. This brand new feature documentary from Italian production company Telemaco explores the latest scientific evidence and reveals dramatic new witness testimony, which directly conflicts with the US Government's account.

CLOAK AND DAGGER

The mysterious Saudi family that vanished two weeks before 9/11

Did you know that a Saudi family living in Sarasota, Fla., that met with 9/11 mastermind Mohammed Atta disappeared without a trace—leaving behind their cars, food, and furniture—two weeks before the attacks? Neither did Congress, or the 9/11 Commission! The FBI didn't think to tell them.

It turns out the couple, Anoud and Abdulazzi al-Hiijjii, had ties to the 9/11 hijackers.

SPACE BALLS

Progress cargo spaceship reportedly falls in eastern Russia

The Russian cargo spaceship Progress M-12M has reportedly crashed to Earth in eastern Russia after it failed to reach its target orbit after a launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. It was the first such failure of a Russian cargo rocket in the last 30 years. The Progress vessel was to deliver 3.5 tonnes of cargo to the International Space Station (ISS), including water, food, oxygen, fuel.
On August 18 the “Express” satellite was lost after it had been launched aboard a Russian Proton-M carrier rocket from Baikonur.

HARDWORK AND HONESTY

TITLE: HARDWORK AND HONESTY          

Sub: Corruption, Bribery, Cheating and Shirking

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The person who earns money by means of bribery, corruption, cheating , fraud and shirking is an unfortunate person who does wrong to his own parents, brothers, sisters, children and friends by earning Wages of Sin.

The law of nature says that ill-gotten money becomes a poison. The conscience of every individual dies who is fed in any way with such a cursed  money. He becomes a shameless person, various evils and diseases take hold of him, he turns into an axis of evil, his ability to do good comes to an end and thus the doors to heaven are also closed for him.

Advice:  Please spend over your loved ones, the lawful money earned only through HARDWORK and HONESTY.

Thank you,

S.A.Rehman
Peace Activist
PAKISTAN

BOOB TUBE

TV shortens life by 22 minutes per hour
Australian researchers have found that spending an hour in front of the TV shortens your life expectancy by 22 minutes (added to the 60 minutes you already wasted).

TOTALLY FUK'D

No end in sight for Fukushima disaster as bureaucrats battle the laws of physics

The physicist Dr. Michio Kaku said,

“The situation at Fukushima is relatively stable now… in the same way that you are stable if you hang by your fingernails off a cliff, and your fingernails begin to break one by one.”

(http://bigthink.com/ideas/37705).

BLUE BALL

Loch Ness search for mysterious balloon-like object

 

Emergency services undertook a night-time search of Loch Ness after reports a balloon-like object was seen falling from the sky.

The police, coastguard, lifeboat and an RAF search and rescue helicopter scoured the area but found nothing after members of the public said they saw a blue object fall on the south of the Loch, near Dores.

Police thought it might have been a hang glider or microlight. However, following a three-hour search the emergency services could find "nothing untoward".

"We believe the reports were based on sightings causing genuine concern and we commend the actions of the members of the public that contacted the emergency services."

 

COPY THAT

Stars step up war on music leaks

Storing music on fingerprint-protected hard drives that were kept in locked suitcases, wi-fi on computers disabled during recording, pop-up studios in hotel rooms around the world, draft versions of songs were not sent by email but collaborators had to visit the temporary studios to record their contributions in person.

Jay-Z and Kanye West employed tight security and extreme tactics to ensure their album Watch The Throne did not fall victim to the curse that hits almost every other big release - the online leak.

NO BRAINER

Cigarette makers sue over graphic warning labels
Five tobacco companies say graphic health warnings on packs would make consumers "depressed, discouraged and afraid" to buy their products.

MEDIA MATTERS

Hacked to death

EVIDENCE BULLDOZED

Israeli military withheld evidence over Corrie’s

The family of Rachel Corrie, the US activist killed in Gaza while protesting against house demolitions in 2003, yesterday claimed the Israeli military authorities withheld video evidence during the Corries’ civil lawsuit and misled US officials on crucial details.
Craig Corrie, Rachel’s father, told a press conference in Jerusalem that the footage from a surveillance camera near the scene of his daughter’s death submitted to the court was incomplete. Additional video material obtained by the family showed Rachel’s body in a different spot to the place identified by some military commanders, he said.
He also alleged that the Israeli military had misled US officials on the position of Rachel’s body when she was killed.
Rachel, from Olympia, Washington state, was killed while attempting to protect the home of a Palestinian family in the Rafah area of Gaza from being demolished by Israeli troops in March 2003. Her family and other activists who witnessed the incident say she was crushed by an Israeli army bulldozer.

FLASHBACK

DEFINE: AMERICA

From where does the name "America" originate?

It is an irony of history that the name "America" did not come from Christopher Columbus. That distinction belongs to a German geographer. In fact America was named after Amerigo Vespucci, a 15th century Florentine merchant who owned a business in Seville, Spain, furnishing supplies for ships, preparing them for mercantile expeditions.

EARLY NERDS

BOMB SQUAD

Moldovan police seize enriched uranium

Authorities in Moldova detained six men and seized a quantity of Russian-enriched uranium valued at nearly $29 million.

The six men are accused of trying to sell at least a kilo to a Muslim national from an unnamed African country.

The container, 20cm long and 40cm in diameter, contained uranium-235, which can be used in nuclear weapons.

[The uranium is therefore worth about $1.5million per litre.]

ITS ELEMENTARY

Two new elements added to periodic table

Two new elements are being added to the periodic table after they were discovered through a collaboration between U.S. and Russian scientists, a top U.S. chemistry expert said.

The elements are the first to be added since copernicium in 2009. They have not yet been named, but are known for now as 114 and 116.

HACKING ... COUGH!

RSA offers to replace all SecurID tokens after hack attack

"We recognize that the increasing frequency and sophistication of cyber attacks generally, and the recent announcements by Lockheed Martin, may reduce some customers' overall risk tolerance," RSA wrote in a letter posted on its website.

A 'very serious' attack: SecurID tokens use a "two-factor" authentication method, meaning they require two separate, unique bits of secret data for a successful login. In addition to their username, users must enter a password or PIN number that they have memorized, plus the six-digit number currently displayed on their SecurID. The tokens display a new number every 60 seconds.

"This is a very serious hack," said Josh Daymont, principal at Securisea. "It's not known exactly what was compromised, but SecurIDs control a significant portion of access [for corporate America]. It's not just Lockheed that should be concerned."

INDIGO CHILD

Jacob Barnett, 12, is working on his ''expanded version of Einstein's theory of relativity'.

Boy with higher IQ than Einstein develops his own theory of relativity


A 12-year-old child prodigy has astounded university professors after grappling with some of the most advanced concepts in mathematics.
Jacob Barnett has an IQ of 170 - higher than Albert Einstein - and is now so far advanced in his Indiana university studies that professors are lining him up for a PHD research role.

The boy wonder, who taught himself calculus, algebra, geometry and trigonometry in a week, is now tutoring fellow college classmates after hours.

COGITO ERGO SUM

"...if we conceive the world in that vast extension you give it, it is impossible that man conserve himself therein in this honorable rank, on the contrary, he shall consider himself along with the entire earth he inhabits as in but a small, tiny and in no proportion to the enormous size of the rest. He will very likely judge that these stars have inhabitants, or even that the earths surrounding them are all filled with creatures more intelligent and better than he, certainly, he will lose the opinion that this infinite extent of the world is made for him or can serve him in any way."

(Åckerman, 30. Kristina to Descartes)

Kristina Wasa, Queen of Sweden (1626-1689) 

NU CLEAR DAYS

Fukushima: Mark 1 Nuclear Reactor Design Caused GE Scientist To Quit In Protest


Thirty-five years ago, Dale G. Bridenbaugh and two of his colleagues at General Electric resigned from their jobs after becoming increasingly convinced that the nuclear reactor design they were reviewing -- the Mark 1 -- was so flawed it could lead to a devastating accident.

Questions persisted for decades about the ability of the Mark 1 to handle the immense pressures that would result if the reactor lost cooling power, and today that design is being put to the ultimate test in Japan. Five of the six reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which has been wracked since Friday's earthquake with explosions and radiation leaks, are Mark 1s.

CASHLESSNESS

Gold-coloured carbon transistors on the surface of a $5 dollar note.

Radio tags to track cash


Bootleggers could be left out in the cold as authentic goods and cash are tagged with tiny radio frequency identity (RFID) chips. Unless, that is, the criminals find a way to fake the tags as well.

HEADLINE NEWS

Surviving decapitation


You’ve daubed some graffiti on Robespierre’s door or burnt down the Reichstag. You are quickly sentenced and out you walk ‘one fine morning’ to the place of justice. But what happens when the guillotine blade or the Prussian axe comes down on your neck? Does consciousness cease immediately? When the executioner picks up your head to show it to the crowd do you actually see the rabble jeering?


Your thoughts?

THE DARKNESS

Bill Zeller was a talented programmer. He took his own life on Sunday and left an explanation. Zeller was a victim of sexual and psychological abuse. It's clear from his writing that the abuse left him unable to interface with the world in any way that didn't leave him feeling he was too sullied to have the same experiences that he thought others had. He had a self-described "darkness", which despite his prostration it's clear he handled more ably than perhaps he ever realized. Programming was a solace, but only temporarily. Zeller never felt he could escape the things that had happened to him because he carried his torment with him everywhere.





The Agonizing Last Words of Programmer Bill Zeller

Bill Zeller

I have the urge to declare my sanity and justify my actions, but I assume I'll never be able to convince anyone that this was the right decision. Maybe it's true that anyone who does this is insane by definition, but I can at least explain my reasoning. I considered not writing any of this because of how personal it is, but I like tying up loose ends and don't want people to wonder why I did this. Since I've never spoken to anyone about what happened to me, people would likely draw the wrong conclusions.
My first memories as a child are of being raped, repeatedly. This has affected every aspect of my life. This darkness, which is the only way I can describe it, has followed me like a fog, but at times intensified and overwhelmed me, usually triggered by a distinct situation.

AWKWARD SEGUE

Police Segways fall foul of NZ law

Police in a New Zealand town have been forced to resume foot patrols after their futuristic Segway scooters were deemed illegal, local media reports.

The two-wheeled scooters use gyroscopes and computers to remain upright and can reach speeds of up to 20 kilometres per hour.
Inspector Steve Bullock said they had proven popular with the community."They are a novel vehicle, I would liken them to a modern-day horse because they engender curiosity and people want to talk to you about them, which is what we want as a police organisation," he told NZPA.
"We want to be more engaged with our community and be approachable and be a person rather than just a blue shirt."

The millionaire British owner of the firm that makes the scooters, Jimi Heselden, died in an accident last September when he rode one over a cliff and into a river.

WHAT'S IN A NAME

Jared Lee (Loner) Loughner ... obviously a terrorist.

What makes Arizona's killer just a loner, not a terrorist?

Did you know that Jared Lee Loughner, the suspect in the Arizona shooting spree that left six dead and 14 wounded, including the US congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, had speculated beforehand on YouTube whether he would be labelled a "terrorist"? He needn't have worried. Loughner has yet to be described in such terms by the authorities or the media. "Loner"? Yes. "Extremist"? Yes. Terrorist? No.

PRIME CONSCIOUSNESS

Life is Religion

Life is religion.
Life experiences reflect how one interacts with God.
Those who are asleep are those of little faith in terms of their interaction with the creation.
Some people think that the world exists for them to overcome or ignore or shut out.
For those individuals, the world will cease.
They will become exactly what they give to life.
They will become merely a dream in the 'past'.
People who pay strict attention to objective reality right and left, become the reality of the 'Future'.

Cassiopaeans, 28 September, 2002

GUN NUTS

Sarah Palin's PAC Puts Gun Sights On Democrats She's Targeting In 2010



Shot Congresswoman Was In Sarah Palin's 'Crosshairs'

Gabrielle Giffords, The Arizona congresswoman shot outside a Tucson Safeway, was featured on Sarah Palin's infamous 'crosshairs' map, which targeted legislators who voted for Obama's health care bill.
The map that was criticized as an incitement to violence?


FLASHBACK: March 25, 2010.
Ms Giffords talks about the consequences of Palin's incitement to violence.

OUR ALIEN MASTERS

Habib drops torture case against Government

Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib has agreed to drop his lawsuit against the Australian Federal Government for being complicit in his torture while he was detained by the US.

"In reaching this settlement, the Government acted in the best interests of the commonwealth to avoid further protracted litigation and to enable our agencies to focus on their core responsibilities of protecting our national security," a spokesman said.


FLASHBACK: January 28, 2005

Downer defends Habib detention


Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has defended the three-year detention of Mamdouh Habib, who returned to Australia today from the US military camp at Guantanamo Bay.
Asked whether Mr Habib deserved compensation for his detention without charge, Mr Downer said: "No, I definitely don't".
"We have not a skerrick of evidence that any Australian has been involved in abusing Mr Habib.
"We've told the Americans we will provide appropriate security for Australian people," Mr Downer said.

FLASHBACK: January 31, 2008

Official denies witnessing Habib torture

An Australian consular official has denied claims he was present while former Guantanamo Bay inmate Mamdouh Habib was allegedly being tortured in Pakistan.
Mr Habib claims he was detained and interrogated at the Australian High Commission in the Pakistani capital Islamabad.