February 2012
55 posts
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What's in Pepper Spray?
W hen seated Occupy UC Davis protesters turned their backs on Lt. John Pike and his UC Davis police squad clad in riot gear on Nov. 18, he had had enough.
Pike aimed a large can of First Defense aerosolized Oleoresin Capsicum at two-dozen occupiers, including student David Buscho and his girlfriend.
“The police officer came up to us and said, ‘If you guys don’t move,...
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Charity shop worker drowned in lake just 3ft deep...
‘Too deep’: Emergency services are pictured here just after they recovered the body from the lake. They had refused to get into the water until specialists arrived because it was ‘too deep’
Drowning Simon Burgess, 41, was just 20ft away from firefighters but inquest hears they refused to save him
Police officer who went in to water was ordered back
Witness...
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Blind man uses sonar to 'see'
A Californian man who has been blind for most of his life can ‘see’ using sound, and is in Australia to help teach the technique to others.
Daniel Kish, who lost his sight to retinal cancer when he was just 13 months old, has dubbed his bat-like technique “flash sonar”.
He uses sounds to detect objects in his environment by sensing echoes from those objects.
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Megaupload founder granted bail by NZ court
Photo: Kim Dotcom was arrested on January 20.
The German founder of file-sharing website Megaupload has been granted bail by a New Zealand court after a month in custody.
Kim Dotcom, who has New Zealand residency, is preparing to fight US extradition hearings over internet-piracy and money-laundering charges.
“I’m relieved to go home and see my family, my three little kids and my...
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Scientists identify steamy 'waterworld' planet
An astronaut attempting to visit recently discovered planet GJ1214b would land in hot water - literally, United States scientists say.
Researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics said they have identified a new kind of planet, dominated not by rock, gas or other common materials - but water.
The planet is “a waterworld enshrouded by a thick, steamy atmosphere”,...
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Tehran steps into US-Israel Iran row with threat...
Deputy Chief of Iran’s Armed Forces Gen. Mohammad Hejazi issued a new threat Tuesday, Feb. 21: “Our strategy now is that if we feel our enemies want to endanger Iran’s national interests… we will act without waiting for their actions.” debkafile’s military sources report that an Iranian preemptive attack on Israel has been in the air for some weeks. It became realistic because the dragging...
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A US government program secretly injected people...
The horrors of the nuclear age, in terms of exploding reactors and nuclear bombs, are well known. Behind the well-publicized threat of mass death lies a secret history of nuclear projects being used to destroy individuals. In the late 1940s, United States citizens were injected with plutonium without their knowledge.
In early 1945, Ebb Cade, a worker at the Oak Ridge Nuclear Facility, got into...
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7 year-old branded 'racist' for asking student...
The mother of a seven-year-old boy was told to sign a school form admitting he was racist after he asked another pupil about the colour of his skin. Elliott Dearlove had asked a five-year-old boy in the playground whether he was ‘brown because he was from Africa’. His mother, Hayley White, 29, said she received a phone call last month to say her son had been at the centre of a...
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UK to take major role in making new 'eurodrones'
Plans to build a new generation of “fighter drones” that can wage war by remote control are set to be agreed today by Britain and France. David Cameron and President Nicolas Sarkozy are preparing to put their recent tensions behind them to launch proposals for the pilotless stealth aircraft at a summit in Paris. In a second agreement, they will promise closer co-operation on...
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Israel 'will make own decision' on Iran, says...
ISRAEL will ultimately decide on its own whether to strike Iranian nuclear facilities, its military chief of staff says, as a senior US official arrived for talks on the Islamic Republic.
“Israel is the central guarantor of its own security; this is our role as army, the State of Israel should defend itself,” Lieutenant General Benny Gantz told state-owned Channel One TV.
...
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Humans Are Done Trading, It's Time For The Rise Of...
We know this from driving cars — human beings can only react so fast.
This fact also applies, obviously, to driving the market. Human beings can still only move so fast, but the financial industry is calling for vehicles that move faster and faster. A group of professors and researchers got together to think out exactly what that means.
Their findings were published in a paper called...
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Revealed: The occult obsessions of Britain's...
Broad interests: Sir Isaac Newton, whose studies included theology and the occult as well as physics, maths and astronomy
He laid the foundations of classical physics and is considered to be one of the greatest scientists of all time.
But Sir Isaac Newton was also deeply interested in the occult and applied a scientific approach to the study of scripture and Jewish mysticism.
Now...
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UFO inspired metal boxes still vex experts while...
In a world where people see lots of strange things on the Internet every day, something as interesting and unusual as these strange metal boxes has produced both suspicion and an unruly feeling of disorientation in people who can’t figure out what the boxes are, or where they came from. In turn, those who both viewed and touched a grouping of the boxes at a Florence beach Feb. 15 gave the...
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Dream warriors? U.S. military to research...
Will use hi-tech optics and sound to confuse enemies
Research division is investing $4 million in technology
Aims to cause ‘auditory and visual’ hallucinations
The American military’s technology research division Darpa is to investigate hi tech ‘battlefield illusions’ designed to baffle enemy troops, according to budget figures announced this week.
The...
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Afghan drug war debacle: Blair said smashing opium...
The West is losing the heroin war in Afghanistan – ten years after Tony Blair pledged that wiping out the drug was one of the main reasons for invading the country.
Despite spending £18billion and a conflict which has so far cost the lives of almost 400 British troops, production of the class-A drug by Afghan farmers rose between 2001 and 2011 from just 185 tons to a staggering 5,800...
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Russia is squaring up for a fight with America...
Confirmation that the U.S. and its allies are studying their military options for helping the anti-Assad rebels in Syria is a worrying development on a number of levels, not least of which is the prospect of the West becoming embroiled in a direct confrontation with the Russians.
As I have argued before, I think the West – and that includes Britain – needs to proceed with great caution before...
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NYPD "Stop and Frisks" Hit All-Time High
City police officers stopped and questioned 684,330 people on the street last year.
The number of so-called “stop and frisks” is rising.
City police officers stopped and questioned 684,330 people on the street last year, a record since the NYPD began yearly tallies of the tactic in 2002 and a 14 percent increase over 2010.
It couldn’t be determined how many people were patted...
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Last secret door of Great Pyramid 'to be opened in...
The ‘Micro-Snake’ robot which will explore the interior of the Great Pyramid once the ‘Djedi’ expedition resumes
The secret gates at the heart of the Great Pyramid may be opened for the first time in 2012, a British robot company believes - solving a mystery that has puzzled archaeologists since 1872.
Scoutek UK had already begun exploring behind the gates earlier...
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New Bill to Mandate Flu Vaccine for New Jersey...
Thanks to a new bill currently going through New Jersey legislature, employees working at health care facilities such as general or special hospitals, nursing homes, or home health care agencies may be ‘mandatorily’ required to receive the flu vaccine. The bill, recently approved by the Assembly Health and Senior Services Committee, may be voted on this week. Needless to say, this bill is...
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Monsanto Found Guilty of Chemical Poisoning in...
In a major victory for public health and what will hopefully lead to other nations taking action, a French court decided today that GMO crops monster Monsanto is guilty of chemically poisoning a French farmer. The grain grower, Paul Francois, says he developed neurological problems such as memory loss and headaches after being exposed to Monsanto’s Lasso weedkiller back in 2004. The...
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Tragedy unfolding in Europe – Is U.S. media trying...
“The cold snap in Europe, which began in late January, has killed hundreds and brought deep snow where it hasn’t been seen in decades,” says this article in the Seattle Times.
This should be front page news. Instead, the article doesn’t appear until page eight. And the title, “At least 3 killed in avalanche in Kosovo,” belies the seriousness of the situation. (The print version carries a...
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21st century airships may join Navy fleet
A new generation of British-built airships may be bought by the Royal Navy to resupply ships, following their use by the US Army on the front line in Afghanistan.
Modern-day Zeppelins will take to the sky for the first time since the First World War when the US Army begins using airships in Afghanistan.
But Navy chiefs are now giving serious consideration to purchasing an airship ...
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U.S. admiral says forces prepared to confront Iran...
The top US Navy official in the Gulf said Sunday he takes Iran’s military capabilities seriously but insists his forces are prepared to confront any Iranian aggression in the region.
Vice Adm Mark Fox, commander of the 5th Fleet, told reporters at the naval force’s Bahrain headquarters that the Navy has ‘built a wide range of potential options to give the president’...
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Living with Werewolf Syndrome
As strange as it sounds three sisters are afflicted by one of the strangest condition in the world. The Sangli sisters are suffering from a rare genetic disorder referred to as werewolf syndrome – where they are covered from their head to toe in very thick hair. Named Savita, 23, Monisha, 18, and 16-year-old Savitri Sangli, who live in a small village near Pune, doctors believe they contracted...
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How to Save the Global Economy: Write Off the...
The best way to restart global growth is with debt. We need both more and less of it. Bear with me here.
We need less debt now: Developed-world debt is holding the recovery back. Individuals are cutting what they owe as fast as they can, especially in the United States and Europe, and governments aren’t picking up the difference. After briefly loading up on debt — in part because...
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Drones over U.S. get OK by Congress
Look! Up in the sky! Is it a bird? Is it a plane? It’s … a drone, and it’s watching you. That’s what privacy advocates fear from a bill Congress passed this week to make it easier for the government to fly unmanned spy planes in U.S. airspace.
The FAA Reauthorization Act, which President Obama is expected to sign, also orders the Federal Aviation Administration to develop regulations for the...
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Lincoln Memorial Park Grave Disturbances Could Be...
As first reported by WSVN, bodies at Miami cemetery Lincoln Memorial Park have been robbed and disturbed for what is believed to be use in Santeria rituals.
Miami-Dade Police said suspects broke open several graves and removed the remains, according to an incident report (PDF).
Officers reported seeing bones sitting next to open graves. A forensic examiner collected the remains for further...
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UFO sightings reveal more strange metal boxes...
BRAY’S POINT, Ore. – They can’t be moved; even when yanked by a four-wheel drive truck pulling on heavy chains tied around these humming metal boxes that are still appearing as of Feb. 8 up and down West Coast beaches
As of late afternoon Feb. 8, Bill Hanshumaker, a public marine specialist and (Ph.D) doctor of marine science at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in nearby Newport, told Huliq...
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Obama Phone: Gov to Spend $2.4 Billion On Millions...
One of the complaints about the U.S. Constitution recently, being as outdated as it is, is that it fails to guarantee certain unalienable rights such as free medical care, housing , food, and of course, the right to bear cell phones. And, although the founders failed to specifically cite social programs as a necessary element for promoting the general welfare, the living nature of our founding...
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Race to keep a lid on labs creating 'artificial...
Labs need to be monitored, says American institute
No framework in place to monitor projects
Free labs in New York, Boston and San Francisco for ‘DIY’ biology
Government ‘should assess’ DIY community
A system for keeping an eye on potentially dangerous ‘artificial life’ laboratories around the world is essential, say leading experts.
The Woodrow...
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US arrests British couple on terror charges for...
United States authorities prevented a British couple from entering the U.S. on account of their jokes about the country on the microblogging website Twitter, Daily Mail reported. Leigh Van Bryan and Emily Bunting were on their way to Hollywood when they were arrested after deplaning in Los Angeles. Bryan had previously tweeted about his trip to LA, saying, “Free this week, for quick...
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Two New Moons for Jupiter
Above are the the discovery images for one of Jupiter’s newest moons S/2011 J2. This object is faint and doesn’t have much visual information, but the moon was discovered using the optical telescope Magellan on Sept. 27, 2011. You can see the motion of the satellite over 40 minutes between the two exposures while the background stars and galaxies do not move. Jupiter is about 0.5...
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US drone kills 10 in Pakistan
American drones have killed as many as 10 people in the first such missile strike since Barack Obama officially acknowledged the covert CIA programme.
The attack happened in North Waziristan, an area used by members of the Haqqani network to launch operations against international forces across the border in Afghanistan, according to local intelligence officials.
“Two missiles...
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IAF chief: Iran is our top concern
Maj.-Gen. Amir Eshel said in rare speech last month that nuclear Iran would trigger arms race in Middle East, and should be addressed strategically before all other conflicts
The escalating public discourse over the possibility of a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities has put a magnifying glass on incoming IAF Chief Major-General Amir Eshel’s stance on the issue.
Eshel, whose...
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China tells US to stop groundless accusations
BEIJING - China on Monday asked the United States to abandon its “Cold War mentality” and cease making groundless accusations against China, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
Spokesman Liu Weimin made the remark at a daily press briefing when commenting on an annual national security threat assessment report delivered by the U.S. government.
The report stated that China has...
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WatchSperm Donors Assisted by Female Nurses
People, especially college students, are encouraged to donate their sperm to the needed, which should be considered a noble cause. Donors are accompanied and assisted by female nurses in a relaxed manner during the whole process.
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Woman tasered for blocking McDonalds Drive-Thru
HOPE MILLS, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina deputies say they used a stun gun on a woman who blocked a McDonalds drive-thru for 20 minutes after employees refused to serve her because she broke in line.
Authorities say 37-year-old Evangeline Lucca bypassed the order screen and the line at the restaurant in Hope Mills, about 60 miles south of Raleigh, and pulled directly up to the pick-up window...
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Is new form of pesticide to blame for catastrophic...
US study shows latest nicotine-based sprays attack insects’ immune systems
A new generation of pesticides may be to blame for the catastrophic decline in Britain’s honey bees.
The contain chemicals, routinely used on farms and in garden centres make bees more vulnerable to disease, a study has shown.
There have been concerns for some years about neonicotinoids, a family of...
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Flying fireball seen across three US states
The dashboard camera of a police car in the US has captured the spectacular sight of glowing ball of light hurtling across the night sky.
The streaking fireball was witnessed by baffled residents hundreds of kilometres away in the states of Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas on Wednesday evening.
US aviation officials were quick to point out that the bright light was ‘most likely’ a meteor...
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US Retaliates against Countries Refusing GM Crops
WikiLeaks: US targets EU over GM crops
US embassy cable recommends drawing up list of countries for ‘retaliation’ over opposition to genetic modification
The US embassy in Paris advised Washington to start a military-style trade war against any Euroxpean Union country which opposed genetically modified (GM) crops, newly released WikiLeaks cables show.
In response to moves by France...
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Argentina, Where the People are Lab Rats for Big...
GSK fined after over vaccine trials; 14 babies reported dead
GlaxoSmithKline Argentina Laboratories Company was fined 400,000 pesos by Judge Marcelo Aguinsky following a report issued by the National Administration of Medicine, Food and Technology (ANMAT in Spanish) for irregularities during lab vaccine trials conducted between 2007 and 2008 that allegedly killed 14 babies.
Likewise, two...