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The Cs Hit List: Prophecy, Prediction, and Portents of Things to Come
Harrison Koehli Comment: Note: This is the first in a series of articles on the track record of the Cs (Cassiopaeans), those sometimes sarcastic and always insightful perhaps-future-intelligences and subject of the Cassiopaean Experiment. We aim to present those instances of statements that have proven themselves to be accurate, to greater or lesser degrees, as a result of subsequent events, research and discoveries. Installments will be published on a semi-regular basis, in other words, whenever we get around to writing them. "Speak My Will, Make Yourself a Prophet!"
At any given point in time there seems to be at least one charlatan running around predicting the imminent end of the world. In 2011, radio evangelist Harold Camping predicted the world's faithful would be 'Raptured' on 21 May 2011. Of course, the date turned out to be a total dud, prompting Camping to 'revise' his prediction to October 21. Needless to say, at the time of writing we weren't holding our breath, and with good reason. We might have passed out and missed another apocalyptic non-event! But is there such a thing as valid prophecy or prediction of future events? The results of the Cassiopaean Experiment suggest that there is indeed such a thing, and more (e.g., remote access to unconventional knowledge, whether obscure or just previously unheard of). But the Cs have presented a very unique take on the subject of prediction. It is intimately tied with their cosmology and their view on 'time'. According to the Cs, our universe is a 'free will' universe and time is not a strictly linear 'one-off' phenomenon. That means the future is open. More on that below. Most predictions are based on a pretty simplistic, and probably completely false, view of reality. According to this mechanistic idea, the universe was originally set in motion at some imaginary 'beginning' point in time by some equally imaginary 'first cause'. Religions have called this first cause 'God' while scientists have deemed it the 'Big Bang'. Once the machine has been set in motion, it obeys physical laws and plays itself out like clockwork. Theoretically, with enough data, every event in this mechanistic chain of cause and effect can be predicted. So when some prophet gives a prediction of a future event, he or she is basically operating on the assumption that because 'God' or some other divine being is omniscient and can see how everything will play itself out (and assuming this being actually exists, and that it is not simply pulling a cosmic practical joke on its subject), it's gotta be right. But things aren't that simple. | |
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Comment: Next installment: Space Weather and Science: Hide the Decline! |
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US: Veteran Scott Olsen Could Be The First Person To Die At A Wall Street Protest
Linette Lopez and Robert Johnson
Scott Olsen survived two tours of Iraq, but his life could be over after being critically injured by a police projectile at Occupy Oakland, The Guardian reports. He's 24 years old. As we know, Occupy Oakland got incredibly ugly this week as police tried to remove protesters from their camp in front of City Hall by using tear gas, fire crackers, and rubber bullets. Olsen suffered a head injury on Tuesday night, and is now in critical condition in Oakland's Highland Hospital. Jay Finneburgh, a photographer on the scene, managed to witness and take pictures of the incident. Police policy specifically prohibits the firing of these weapons at a person's head. "This poor guy was right behind me when he was hit in the head with a police projectile. He went down hard and did not get up," Finneburgh wrote. |
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Occupy the World - Comparing the Words and Actions of Our Dear Leaders
scottmcfann This video really puts things in perspective. Originally uploaded by Starvexer Creative commons: Non-Commercial, Attribution, No Derivative Works license. Please message filmmaker for translations, which are very welcome : ) http://www.facebook.com/OgilvieFilm http://www.ogilviefilm.com If mirroring, please do not change video in any way for its whole duration. Please credit the original filmmaker, musicians and music labels as some people have posted it claiming they made the video, which breaches the ethics of a creative commons. This said, please share with everyone, including your leaders. Mirroring is encouraged, but please don't change video in any way. This video is meant to be a warning to our leaders. Stunning music by: Hauschka, song "Stumm (Kein Wort)" Music Label: Karaoke Kalk label based in Berlin Including amazing shots from Alex Mallis and Kristopher Rae - sociallyawkwrd.tumblr.com |
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| Puppet Masters |
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Obama Rapidly Expanding Police State!
Council of Conservative Citizens From AntiWar.com... Homeland security set to seize television and radio airwaves. FEMA will now have the power to shut down communications. The same tactic is used by 3rd world dictators around the world. |
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The US Is Fast Becoming a Third World Police State
Jeff Berwick
As a P.T. (often referred to as perpetual traveller, permanent tourist or prior taxpayer), I have travelled to nearly 100 countries. During those travels there has always been one defining moment, upon entry into a country, which shows that the country is what is generally thought of as a "third world country". It is the moment when, upon arrival, you are charged a fee to enter the country. The reason generally being that the government of the country has so destroyed the economy and/or they have so little understanding of what creates wealth that they think that the way to make their country prosperous is to charge a fee upon entry rather than allowing people to enter freely and transact, trade and spend their money in the economy. Either that or the government is so desperate for money that it uses this as a significant source of revenue. They have this in Cambodia, Indonesia, Bolivia and numerous other similar countries. And now, they have it in the US. The US has long-used "visa application fees" to bilk money from people in countries like Thailand as a way to raise money but now the US has announced that they are going to charge a $5.50 fee to Canadians upon entering the US. The fee is ludicrous and counterproductive for many reasons. Not least of which is making it five dollars and fifty cents, ensuring that payment of the transaction will take twice as long as normal to make the extra change. Canadians who are one of the only large groups of people still bringing some economic activity into the US will both be turned off by having to pay to enter the US but also by the extra long lines to enter as they make change for this fee. Not to mention the hilarity of calling it an "inspection fee". Does this mean that if we would not like to be inspected then we don't have to pay? |
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Tip-toe totalitarianism: Commissioner Rehn gets more powers over national economies and euro
Constant Brand
Economic and monetary affairs commissioner to get wider remit to monitor national fiscal policies. Olli Rehn, the European commissioner for economic and monetary affairs, is to get expanded powers to oversee the eurozone's economy and the euro, Commission President José Manuel Barroso announced today. Barroso said that Rehn to will be appointed vice-president within the Commission in charge of the euro and will be given a wider remit to more effectively monitor national fiscal policies. Barroso announced the plans just hours after the end of a European Council and summit of eurozone leaders that led to agreement on a package of measures to tackle the eurozone's debt crisis. The Commission president said the change to Rehn's position was to reflect the endorsement of his plans by EU leaders at their talks on Wednesday (26 October). A statement issued by leaders of eurozone countries issued this morning welcomed the intention of the Commission "to strengthen ... the role of the competent commissioner for closer monitoring and additional enforcement". |
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Euro debt crisis: MEPs call for closer economic union
Constant Brand
MEPs press for additional, faster steps to stabilise the eurozone, following EU deal on debt management. MEPs today broadly welcomed EU's latest package of measures to contain the eurozone crisis as a step in the right direction. However, the parliamentary debate in Strasbourg, held just hours after the conclusion of two emergency summits in Brussels, made clear that MEPs feel that the measures - the EU's most comprehensive response yet presented - need to be followed by further, significant steps to stabilise the euro and forge a closer economic union. Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, and José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, spent much of the debate on the defensive. 'More fiscal integration' Joseph Daul, the leader of the centre-right European People's Party (EPP), the largest bloc in the Parliament, urged Van Rompuy and Barroso to push for more fiscal and economic integration to address shortcomings in the current system of economic governance. |
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TSA to start setting up check points outside of airports
Adam Ghassemi "Where is a terrorist more apt to be found? Not these days on an airplane more likely on the interstate," said Tennessee Department of Safety & Homeland Security Commissioner Bill Gibbons. Tuesday Tennessee was first to deploy VIPR simultaneously at five weigh stations and two bus stations across the state. |
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U.S. Economy Expands at Faster Pace
Alex Kowalski Gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services produced, rose at a 2.5 percent annual rate, matching the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News and up from a 1.3 percent gain in the prior quarter, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington. Household purchases, the biggest part of the economy, increased at a more-than-projected 2.4 percent pace. Americans last quarter cut savings to boost purchases as incomes dropped by the most in two years, calling into question the sustainability of the acceleration in sales. With the lack of jobs holding back wages, the Obama administration and Federal Reserve policy makers have proposed additional measures aimed at stimulating growth and hiring. |
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European Stocks Advance on Sovereign Debt-Crisis Deal; Banks Lead Gains
Adria Cimino BNP Paribas SA, France's biggest bank, and Deutsche Bank AG, Germany's largest, surged at least 15 percent as policy makers boosted the firepower of the European rescue fund to 1 trillion euros ($1.4 trillion). PPR SA, the French owner of the Gucci luxury-goods brand, jumped 5.4 percent after third-quarter sales surpassed analyst estimates. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index rose 3.5 percent to 249.25 at the close in London, the highest since Aug. 3. The index has rallied 16 percent from this year's low on Sept. 22 amid growing speculation that policy makers would agree on a solution to the region's debt woes. "Some of the fear, which has been the dominant factor in the market, has been removed," said Pierre Mouton, a fund manager who helps oversee $7.5 billion at Notz Stucki & Cie. in Geneva. "Europe came to an agreement and has a plan. This allows financial stocks to rise because there is no longer the specter of nationalization. There is a sense of relief for the banking sector." |
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Google: US law enforcement tried to get videos removed from YouTube
Josh Halliday
The technology giant's biannual transparency report reveals a 70% rise in takedown requests from US government or police Google faced down demands from a US law enforcement agency to take down YouTube videos allegedly showing police brutality earlier this year, figures released for the first time show. The technology giant's biannual transparency report shows that Google refused the demands from the unnamed authority in the first half of this year. According to the report, Google separately declined orders by other police authorities to remove videos that allegedly defamed law enforcement officials. |
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Google asked to remove 135 YouTube videos for 'UK national security issues'
Josh Halliday
British police authorities ordered the removal of 135 videos from YouTube in the first half of this year because of a perceived threat to national security, according to figures published by the video sharing website's owner Google. The US technology giant reported a 71% rise in content removal requests from the UK government or police, compared with the final half of 2010, with almost 200 YouTube videos requested to be taken down following complaints about privacy, security or hate speech. Google revealed the figures in its biannual transparency report, part of an effort to highlight online censorship across the world. The report shows that private information about 1,443 British users or accounts was demanded by law enforcement agencies between January and June this year. It is the first time Google has revealed how many users the data requests relate to. |
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Anonymous Hackers Take Down Child Porn Websites, Leak Users' Names
Matt Liebowitz
Members of the Anonymous hacktivist movement are claiming responsibility for taking down more than 40 secret child-pornography websites and leaking the names of more than 1,500 members of one of the illegal sites. The Anonymous campaign began Oct. 14, when members of the hacktivist group found a cache of child-pornography websites while browsing a secret website called the Hidden Wiki, a guidebook to hundreds of underground websites invisible to search engines and regular Internet users. The hackers singled out Lolita City, a file-sharing site used by pedophiles, and leaked the names of the site's 1,589 active members to Pastebin on Tuesday (Oct. 18), the Examiner reported. |
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The Triumph of America's Supranational Emergency State
Saman Mohammadi
Today marks the 10th anniversary of the destruction of the American Constitution. On October 26, 2001, the Bush administration and U.S. Congress passed the Patriot (Traitor) Act and used the false flag 9/11 attacks to sell it to the American people. The prediction that the Traitor Act would help the U.S. National Security State completely take over American society has come true. Useless government agencies like the TSA, FBI, IRS, DEA and CIA have been given carte blanche to spy on Americans and crush dissent. In the last few years, illegal TSA checkpoints have been set up across America to control the movement of people and create a false sense of security in the public mind. Their intent is to get Americans to slowly conform to the new totalitarian society in which government officials treat people like mindless cattle and monitor the individual's every move. It is wrong to call America's totalitarian beast "a National Security State." It does not provide security and it is not even national. A more fitting term is "Supranational Emergency State." Let me explain. America's Emergency State depends on national emergencies like the 9/11 attacks to strengthen its authority and justify its unconstitutional powers. America has been in a state of national emergency since September 23, 2001, when President Bush issued Executive Order 13224 to declare a national emergency. |
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'Rogue Websites' Bill Introduced in US House
Agence France Presse
Washington - US lawmakers introduced a bill on Wednesday that would give US authorities more tools to crack down on websites accused of piracy of movies, television shows and music and the sale of counterfeit goods. The Stop Online Piracy Act has received bipartisan support in the House of Representatives and is the House version of a bill introduced in the Senate in May known as the Theft of Intellectual Property Act or Protect IP Act. The legislation has received the backing of Hollywood, the music industry, the Business Software Alliance, the National Association of Manufacturers, the US Chamber of Commerce and other groups. But it has come under fire from digital rights and free speech organizations for allegedly paving the way for US law enforcement to unilaterally shut down websites, including foreign sites, without due process. |
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Fidel Castro: NATO: the Brutal Alliance
Fidel Castro
NATO's brutal military alliance has become the most perfidious instrument of repression known in the history of humankind. NATO took on that global repressive role as soon as the USSR, which had served the United States as an excuse for its creation, ceased to exist. Its criminal purpose became obvious in Serbia, a Slavic country, whose people had so heroically fought against Nazi troops in WW II. When in March of 1999 the countries of this ill-fated organization, in its efforts to disintegrate Yugoslavia after the death of Josip Broz Tito, sent their troops in support of the Kosovar secessionists, they ran into strong resistance from that nation whose experienced forces were still intact. |
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US-backed Kenyan forces invade Somalia
Eddie Haywood
Kenya sent military forces into Somalia last week, vowing to fight al-Shabaab militants it blamed for a spate of abductions of foreign nationals in recent weeks in northern Kenya, near the Somali border. The operation, involving 1,600 soldiers, is the first foreign intervention carried out by Kenya in its history. Al-Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage warned Kenya: "We know fighting more than you and defeated other invaders before... We shall inflict on you the same damage you inflicted on us. You have to see what happened to the other aggressors, like [Ugandan President Yoweri] Museveni and his country when they invaded us. We hit them in their country." The intervention by Kenyan military forces was requested and welcomed by the US-backed Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in Mogadishu. Somali government spokesman Abdirahman Omar Osman said: "The governments of Kenya and Somalia are now cooperating in the fight against al Shabaab, which is an enemy of both countries." US officials said last week that they have been pressuring Kenya to "do something" in response to a string of security incidents along the Kenya-Somalia border, while at the same time maintaining that the Kenyan invasion into Somalia caught them by surprise. |
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Kenya blasts kill 1, injure 20
Christabelle Fombu and Jack Maddox
Separate blasts rocked the capital of Kenya on Monday, killing at least one person and injuring 20, officials said. The second explosion took place at a crowded bus station in downtown Nairobi. One person was killed and eight wounded, according to the Kenyan police and Red Cross. "This is a time when a lot of people would have been going home from work -- more or less rush hour," said Robert Nagil, a journalist in Nairobi. Charles Owino, a deputy police spokesman, confirmed the explosion and said he was awaiting more details. |
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| Society's Child |
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Anger in China as bodies 'fall from carriages' during train crash clean-up
Malcolm Moore On Sunday, less than a day after two bullet trains collided in the south of the country, killing at least 43 people and injuring a further 210, eight mechanical diggers began to dig trenches to bury two twisted and broken train carriages. The crash occurred on Saturday night after a bolt of lightning hit one bullet train, causing it to lose power and grind to a halt. A second train then hit it from behind, causing six carriages to derail and two to fall off the side of the elevated tracks. Locals immediately accused the government of trying to cover up the disaster and questioned how a full investigation could be carried out without an inspection of the wreckage. A video then emerged which appeared to show at least two bodies falling out of the carriages as they were being moved. The video has now been watched over 1.2 million times in less than a day. |
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US, New York: Feds Arrest 11 People Connected to Multimillion Dollar LIRR Pension Scam
Scott Shifrel and Larry Mcshane
A $1 billion disability scam for retiring Long Island Rail Road workers was exposed Thursday with the arrest of 11 people - including a pair of crooked doctors, authorities said. Orthopedists Peter Ajemian and Peter Lesniewski recommended nearly 1,000 LIRR employees for illegal benefits between 1998-2009, turning their offices into "disability mills," according to a criminal complaint. Arrested along with the two physicians were Ajemian's office manager, a former LIRR union president, a one-time official with the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) and a half-dozen ex-LIRR employees. "The defendants and their co-conspirators participated in a massive fraud scheme in which LIRR workers who were ready to retire falsely claimed to be disabled," federal authorities charged in a 74-page criminal complaint. The arrests capped a three-year probe into the stunningly high approval rate of disability pensions for retiring LIRR employees. The complaint charged that Ajemian recommended at least 734 LIRR workers for disability over the 11-year stretch, while Lesniewski approved 222 railroad employees. |
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US, Ohio: Halloween No Excuse for Racism, Ignorance
Kristina Bui
Halloween is just a week away, and this year, I'm going to dress up like a white person. But wait, won't that be kind of offensive? I mean, most of the real-life white people I know don't even actually like mayonnaise. A white-person costume sounds pretty stupid, doesn't it? Absurd, really. But costumes of any minority are totally cool. Super funny. Not awkward at all. Unless, of course, you're the minority. In that case, you're kind of like, "What the hell? Do you know any Asians who walk around in kimonos?" In the parade of trendy movie character costumes and sexy (insert small animals here) outfits, there is always that one guy who decided it would be funny to be another race for the night, based on every stereotype in the book. That guy is why I'm glad for Students Teaching About Racism in Society, the force behind one of the best campaigns I've ever seen. STARS, a student organization at Ohio University, created a series of posters just in time for Halloween. In one, a Latino man holds up a picture of a white guy wearing a handlebar mustache, sombrero and poncho. There's a stuffed donkey attached to the front, so that he looks like he's riding it. Similar posters feature an Asian woman, a black woman, an Arab man and a Native American man. Across the top of each poster, the text says, "We're a culture, not a costume. This is not who I am, and this is not okay." |
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Canada, Halifax: University of Manitoba president apologizes for its role in residential schools
The Canadian Press
The president of the University of Manitoba has issued a public apology for the university's indirect role in perpetuating the damage caused by Canada's native residential schools. David Barnard appeared today in Halifax before the federal Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Barnard says the university failed to challenge the policy of forced assimilation that was central to the 130 residential schools that operated for more than a century. He says the physical, sexual and emotional abuses that occurred at residential schools were among the most deplorable acts committed at any time in Canada's history. Barnard says the university played a role in perpetuating the system by educating clergy, teachers, civil servants and politicians who carried out the assimilation policies. Phil Fontaine, a residential school survivor who is also a former grand chief of the Assembly of First Nations, was on hand to witness the apology. |
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US, Arizona: Exposé gets Valley mom banned from McDonald's
Jared Dillingham An Arizona State University professor's campaign against dirty restaurant playgrounds got her banned from several McDonald's in the Valley. Dr. Erin Carr-Jordan, a mother of four, started recording and posting videos of trashy playgrounds, and quickly built an international following. Her lab tests, which revealed dangerous bacteria on the equipment, have been featured on network broadcasts and in major national newspapers. This week, Carr-Jordan was notified by an East Valley franchisee's attorney that she is no longer allowed in any of his McDonald's restaurants that have playgrounds. "Rather than have someone come into the playgrounds and do the right thing and make them clean and safe, they told me not to come in anymore," Carr-Jordan said. |
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Marines to Oakland Police: 'You Did This To My Brother'
Robert Johnson and Linette Lopez
Marines around the world are outraged by the injuries inflicted by police on Scott Olsen at Tuesday's Occupy Oakland protests. Olsen is in a medically-induced coma after getting hit in the head by a police projectile. The following picture is taken from the Reddit thread "How I feel, as a United States Marine, about what occurred in Oakland." This man is not alone. In the five hours since the thread went up there have been over 600 comments. |
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Top Romney Adviser Tied to Militia That Massacred
Adam Serwer
Walid Phares, the recently announced co-chair of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney's Middle East advisory group, has a long résumé. College professor. Author. Political pundit. Counterterrorism expert. But there's one chapter of his life that you won't find on his CV: He was a high ranking political official in a sectarian religious militia responsible for massacres during Lebanon's brutal, 15-year civil war. During the 1980s, Phares, a Maronite Christian, trained Lebanese militants in ideological beliefs justifying the war against Lebanon's Muslim and Druze factions, according to former colleagues. Phares, they say, advocated the hard-line view that Lebanon's Christians should work toward creating a separate, independent Christian enclave. A photo obtained by Mother Jones shows him conducting a press conference in 1986 for the Lebanese Forces, an umbrella group of Christian militias that has been accused of committing atrocities. He was also a close adviser to Samir Geagea, a Lebanese warlord who rose from leading hit squads to running the Lebanese Forces. Since fleeing to the United States in 1990, when the Syrians took over Lebanon, Phares has reinvented himself as a counterterrorism and national security expert, traveling comfortably between official circles and the GOP's anti-Muslim wing. In a little over two decades, he's gone from training Lebanese militants to teaching American law enforcement and intelligence officials about the Middle East, and from advising Lebanese warlords to counseling a man who could be the next president of the United States. |
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US: North Dakota oil boom creates thousands of jobs
Catherine Kim & Jessica Hopper "There's opportunity here and that's what we all need is opportunity," said Williston Mayor Ward Koeser. "It's kind of been an oasis for the country. You know, there's a lot of jobs here, good paying jobs in the oil industry." Williston is situated on the Bakken formation, an oil field that some say will produce the biggest boom in North America since the 1960s. Koeser said that his town currently has 2,000 to 3000 jobs and they haven't been able to fill the openings fast enough. "A lot of jobs get filled every day, but it's like for every job you fill, another job and a half opens up," Koeser said. A job on an oil rig can pay as much as six figures. The starting salary for truck drivers is around $80,000. While the nation's unemployment rate is 9.1 percent, Williston's unemployment rate is less than 1 percent. |
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Catholic cardinals and Bishops revolt against Benedict XVI
Third Secret of Fatima The Cause is that many Cardinals around the world think that Benedict XVI's authority was removed by God publicly, this happened during the World youth Day this year. In this shocking video, a violent storms attacks Benedict XVI and removes his zucchetto, (hat) which is the symbol of authority, this is called ''Defenestration''. As recorded in the book of Kings II in the Bible, Jezebel was defenestrated at Jezreel by her own servants at the urging of Jehu. (2 Kings 9: 33) |
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US: Campaign team walks out on Bachmann
David Usborne
Staff in key state of New Hampshire quit in a huff over 'cruelty' of candidate's inner circle The star of Michele Bachmann, who wants to ride the energy of the Tea Party all the way to the White House, is dimming quickly - at least in the key state of New Hampshire, where her entire team has resigned in a huff over the "cruel" and "dismissive" way they were being treated by the congresswoman's national campaign team. While personnel struggles and high-dudgeon walk-outs are hardly uncommon within presidential campaigns, few can remember a candidate being ditched by every one of their hires in a state, particularly one as important as New Hampshire, which holds the first Republican primary on 10 January. The drama in the Bachmann enclosure is the latest in a series of squalls to ruffle the Republican field. Causing fresh consternation yesterday, at least in the camp of long-time front-runner Mitt Romney, was a New York Times/CBS News poll showing him slipping to second place nationally behind Herman Cain, the former Godfather's Pizza chief executive and radio talk show host. |
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US: Marine Veteran's Skull Fractured by Police Projectile at 'Occupy Oakland' Protest
Eric W. Dolan
A Marine veteran protesting with "Occupy Oakland" sustained a skull fracture Tuesday night after being shot in the head with appears to be a tear gas canister. Scott Olsen, a two-time Iraq war veteran and member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, was at 14th Street and Broadway when he was struck in the head. "We need medic!" one protester was heard screaming. "Medic! Medic!" "What happened?" another asked. "He got shot!" As Olsen was carried away, he appeared unconscious and bloody, unable to even respond when asked his name. |
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US: Drum Circles Could Doom Wall Street Occupation, Organizers Fear
Will Oremus
Incessant noise divides demonstrators, upsets neighbors. Someday the Occupy Wall Street protests will end, and the only question is whether they will go out with a bang or a whimper - or a lot of loud banging followed by whimpers. At least one organizer fears it's the latter. An anonymous activist wrote a letter to the literary magazine N+1 on Monday warning that drum circles are causing such an outcry that it could derail the whole movement. Really. It seems a core group of beat-niks in New York's Zuccotti Park has been holding marathon jam sessions from mid-morning until late at night every day, punishing the eardrums of their fellow protesters and the surrounding neighborhood. Teachers at a school across the street have complained they can't teach. And the local neighborhood community board is holding a meeting Tuesday night in which it could revoke its support of the protests if it's not satisfied that the noise will subside. |
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| Secret History |
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UK: Mystery Yellow Stone Found in Belfast Hills
News Letter
A mysterious yellow stone which could date back to prehistoric times has been discovered in the hills above Belfast. The yellow, honeycomb type stone was found by a member of the public as part of an ongoing open archaeological dig in the Ballyaghagan town land on the Upper Hightown Road in the north of the city. Archaeologists believe it may have been used in prehistoric ceremonies, but they will know more after testing and further study has been carried out on the stone. Up to 400 people, including groups of school children, have taken part in a public dig on Cavehill over the last week as part of an initiative by the Belfast Hills Partnership. They have been supervised by archaeologists from the Queen's University's Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork. |
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Buddha Statues Found in Cambodia
Press TV
The two headless stone statues have been discovered during the excavation at Ta Prohm temple that if they were complete, they would stand about 10 feet (3 meters) tall, Archaeologica reported. The statues have been discovered when workers were carrying out the Archaeological Survey of India's 10-year, $ 4 million restoration project. "The statue is incomplete, missing a large Buddha head with a naga snake fan and part of the base which found in the Hall of Dancers at the temple," described the Indian Embassy First Secretary Saurav Ray. The statues are believed to date back to the 12th century and are the biggest ones discovered since the 1930s, said the expert for the government's Apsara Authority that oversees the site Ly Vanna. UNESCO Culture Program specialist Philippe Delanghe asserted that he had deployed a field officer to investigate the impressive find. |
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| Science & Technology |
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Discovery: Cosmic Dust Contains Organic Matter from Stars
Denise Chow
A new look at the interstellar dust permeating the universe has revealed hints of organic matter that could be created naturally by stars, scientists say. Researchers at the University of Hong Kong observed stars at different evolutionary phases and found that they are able to produce complex organic compounds and eject them into space, filling the regions between stars. The compounds are so complex that their chemical structures resemble the makeup of coal and petroleum, the study's lead author Sun Kwok, of the University of Hong Kong, said. |
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| Earth Changes |
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US: Snow blankets Denver area - soon after 80-degree day
Keith Coffman A heavy, wet snowstorm descended on the Denver area early on Wednesday morning, causing widespread power outages and numerous car crashes and minor injuries in the Centennial State. Just two days after record high temperatures, six inches of snow fell in the Denver area forcing the closure of roads in the mountains and eastern planes. Another two to five inches is expected before the storm moves out on Wednesday evening, according to the National Weather Service. There were no fatalities but numerous car crashes and slide-offs causing minor injuries, the Colorado State Patrol said. Some 87,000 customers east of the continental divide and north of Denver were without power, public utility company Xcel Energy, Inc. said in a statement. |
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Thailand: Bangkok braced for month of flooding as big evacuation gets under way
Robert Booth and Andrew Chambers
Waters flood northern suburbs, swamp Don Muang airport and close in on city centre By boat, truck and bamboo raft, residents evacuated Bangkok's outer suburbs on Thursday as rising floods - which have claimed close to 400 lives across Thailand since July - closed in on the centre of the capital. Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, apparently close to tears as she briefed the media on Thailand's worst flooding for half a century, warned Bangkok's 12 million residents "we're fighting against the forces of nature" and said flood waters were damaging several of the city's dykes. Residents of Sai Mai district were told to evacuate to safer ground and Don Muang airport, location of the government's flood relief operations centre, was inundated. "What we can do now is to manage it, so that it flows slowly, otherwise everybody will suffer," Yingluck told reporters, her voice trembling. "I haven't cried and I won't. I'll be strong to solve this problem for the Thai people. Right now we need to release floodwater to the sea as soon as possible and we need a quick rehabilitation plan." |
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India: 9 aftershocks rattle Sasan Gir region
Times of India According to Institute of Seismological Research (ISR), Gandhinagar, the tremors had a magnitude of 0.8 to 1.7 on the Richter scale. All nine aftershocks were reported 10-13 km south-east of Sasan Gir. People are still spending sleepless nights in Junagadh region, which had experienced an earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale on October 20. "Even a small tremor is scaring us these days. People rush out of their homes the moment they feel the earth shaking. However, people here now know that these are aftershocks and not earthquake,'' said Mensi Sariya, a resident of Talala town in Junagadh district. |
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Underwater Eruptions Could Create New Island in the Canaries
Axel Bojanowski
What would the island be called? And who would own it? Spewing magma and growing in height, an underwater volcano off the Canary Island of El Hierro has captured the imagination of locals in recent weeks. It could eventually rise from the sea to create a new part of the archipelago. It hasn't yet reached the surface, but residents of the Canary Islands have taken to the internet to suggest names for a potential new islet. There are already more than 500 suggestions. Favorites include "The Discovery," "Atlantis" and "The Best." Meanwhile Spanish newspapers are taking a different approach to the subject, debating who would take responsibility for the new territory. |
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The Big One: Could a Warning Help?
Jesse Emspak
In the past 10 days, California has felt earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 and greater. While the quakes haven't caused any significant damage, they are an unnerving reminder that the state is due for the Big One. Could a warning system help -- even if it only offered mere seconds to prepare? The state is banking on it. California is setting up a network of seismic monitors that would detect the first vibrations from a quake, and transmit a warning to affected areas before the shaking gets violent. This could offer citizen precious seconds to brace for the shaking. "It's matured to the point where it's sort of duct tape and bailing wire," said Doug Given, a USGS Geophysicist and coordinator for the earthquake early warning project. "It's not ready for public use yet ... But we want to move that into a more fully functional and robust system." This isn't earthquake prediction -- that's not possible yet. While scientists can say where they think stronger quakes will happen, there is no way to forecast them the way meteorologists do the rain. But earthquakes aren't instantaneous, and that's where an early warning system can help. The key is the different types of waves that make up a typical earthquake. Initially there is the P-wave (primary wave), which is a pressure wave like the sound waves in air. It is often felt as a sudden vertical motion (though not always). That arrives ahead of the S-waves and surface waves. Those are more like the waves in the ocean. |
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Cambodia: Trees Blamed for Mass Fainting, But Real Cause is Unknown
Yi Somphose "According to the hospital's analysis, the reason why the students fainted is [because of] the huge tree in the school compound and the farmland surrounding the school, which absorbed the oxygen," said Heng Meng, police chief of Chamkar Leu district, adding that the punishment could not be blamed as one of the teachers "also [had difficulty breathing] and felt dizzy". Heng Phal Rith, school director of Bosknor high school in Chamkar Leu district, also cited the hospital's report in blaming the incident on a lack of oxygen, adding that he "did not punish the students. It is just a rumour". |
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Fiji Region - Earthquake Magnitude 6.0 - 27th Oct
US Geological Survey
Date-Time Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 00:15:25 UTC Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 12:15:25 PM at epicenter Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones Location 17.914°S, 179.424°W Depth 611.9 km (380.2 miles) Region FIJI REGION Distances 208 km (129 miles) SE of Lambasa, Vanua Levu, Fiji 230 km (142 miles) E of SUVA, Viti Levu, Fiji 312 km (193 miles) NNW of Ndoi Island, Fiji 2177 km (1352 miles) NNE of Auckland, New Zealand |
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Fallout Forensics Hike Fukushima Radiation Toll
Geoff Brumfiel
Global data on Fukushima challenge Japanese estimates. The disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in March released far more radiation than the Japanese government has claimed. So concludes a study(1) that combines radioactivity data from across the globe to estimate the scale and fate of emissions from the shattered plant. The study also suggests that, contrary to government claims, pools used to store spent nuclear fuel played a significant part in the release of the long-lived environmental contaminant caesium-137, which could have been prevented by prompt action. The analysis has been posted online for open peer review by the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. Andreas Stohl, an atmospheric scientist with the Norwegian Institute for Air Research in Kjeller, who led the research, believes that the analysis is the most comprehensive effort yet to understand how much radiation was released from Fukushima Daiichi. "It's a very valuable contribution," says Lars-Erik De Geer, an atmospheric modeller with the Swedish Defense Research Agency in Stockholm, who was not involved with the study. |
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Chilean Volcano Awakens After 20 Years of Silence- Unleashes 1 km High Cloud of Smoke
The Extinction Protocol
Chile - The National Service of Geology and Mining (SERNAGEOMIN) - Volcano Observatory of the Southern Andes (OVDAS), announced that from the early hours of last night there has been increased seismic activity related to the Hudson volcano. At 19:08 local time, an earthquake Volcano-tectonic (VT), magnitude (ML) equal to 4.6 located 7 km to the NW edge of the caldera, at a depth of 19 km, which was followed by the occurrence of a seismic swarm starting at 21:49 hrs, includes more than 100 seismic events recorded until the time of this report, whose depths range from 15 to 25 km. It notes that 15 events recorded magnitudes (ML) greater than 3.0 and three (3) of these magnitudes (ML) greater than 4.0, all characterized by having more to do with broken rock (VT) at 00: local 20 hours today, Wednesday, October 26, an earthquake associated with fluid movement and characterized by very low frequency (long period - VLP), located in the same area at a depth of 15 km, with a magnitude (ML) equal to 4.3. The seismic swarm continues at the time of issuance of this report with less intensity. The preceding activity indicates that the volcanic system has experienced changes in their dynamics, possibly associated magmatic activity at depth, which in the future the system can lead to imbalance. (Source: Sernageomin -translated) |
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| Fire in the Sky |
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No new articles. |
| Health & Wellness |
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Friendly Bacteria Move in Mysterious Ways
Ed Yong
any yoghurts are loaded with live bacteria, and labelled with claims that consuming these microorganisms can be good for your health. But a study published today shows that such yoghurts have only subtle effects on the bacteria already in the gut and do not replace them. Nathan McNulty, a microbiologist at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, recruited seven pairs of identical twins, and asked one in each pair to eat twice-daily servings of a popular yoghurt brand containing five strains of bacteria. By sequencing bacterial DNA in the twins' stool samples, the team showed that the yoghurt microbes neither took up residence in the volunteers' guts, nor affected the make-up of the local bacterial communities. Jeffrey Gordon, the microbiologist at Washington University who led the study, was not surprised. "We were only giving several billion bacterial cells in total to the twins, who harbour tens of trillions of gut microbes in their intestines," he says. |
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US: Children may be vaccinated with anthrax to test if they can survive bioterrorism attack
MailOnline A working group of federal advisers endorsed testing last month and the National Biodefense Science Board (NBSB) will meet on Friday to vote on its recommendation. But critics have called the plans unethical, unnecessary and dangerous and children should only be vaccinated in the face of an actual threat.
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| Science of the Spirit |
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Curiosity Doesn't Kill The Student
Association for Psychological Science
Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it's good for the student. That's the conclusion of a new study published in Perspectives in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The authors show that curiosity is a big part of academic performance. In fact, personality traits like curiosity seem to be as important as intelligence in determining how well students do in school. Intelligence is important to academic performance, but it's not the whole story. Everyone knows a brilliant kid who failed school, or someone with mediocre smarts who made up for it with hard work. So psychological scientists have started looking at factors other than intelligence that make some students do better than others. One of those is conscientiousness - basically, the inclination to go to class and do your homework. People who score high on this personality trait tend to do well in school. "It's not a huge surprise if you think of it, that hard work would be a predictor of academic performance," says Sophie von Stumm of the University of Edinburgh in the UK. She co-wrote the new paper with Benedikt Hell of the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland and Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic of Goldsmiths University of London. |
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Brain Scans Offer Peek Into People's Dreams
Stephanie Pappas
It's not quite Inception, but new research has allowed scientists to "read" some people as they dream. Using brain imaging, researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Germany said they were able to compare the brain activity of "lucid dreamers" as they entertained the same thoughts awake and asleep. The brain activity was similar, if weaker during sleep, the researchers said. Lucid dreamers are sleepers who are aware that they are dreaming and can deliberately control their dream actions. According to the researchers, lucid dreaming is a learned skill, one very useful to scientists trying to understand the secrets of dreams. "The main obstacle in studying specific dream content is that spontaneous dream activity cannot be experimentally controlled, as subjects typically cannot perform pre-decided mental actions during sleep," study researcher Michael Czisch said in a statement. "Employing the skill of lucid dreaming can help to overcome these obstacles." |
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The Most Successful Way to Brainstorm
Art Markman
There are many situations where we get together in groups to generate ideas. We usually call these events "brainstorming sessions." The term brainstorming actually comes from a technique developed by Alex Osborn in the 1950s following some basic intuitively reasonable rules like listing every idea that comes to mind and withholding criticism of ideas at first. The problem with group brainstorming sessions is that the technique is often ineffective. That is, groups that get together to generate ideas often generate fewer ideas than the individual group members would generate if they worked alone. A number of scientific studies have backed up this productivity loss from brainstorming. Because of the observation that brainstorming often backfires, researchers have explored ways to improve brainstorming techniques. For example, research that I did with my colleagues Julie Linsey and Kris Wood explored methods that involve having people generate ideas individually before getting together as a group. That helps to increase the number and quality of ideas people generate. An interesting study by Jonali Baruah and Paul Paulus published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology in 2011 examined the influence of the aspect of the problem people think about on the performance of the group. |
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| High Strangeness |
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Australia: Inner West's Mystery Noise Creates Buzz Abroad
Deborah FitzGerald
A mystery noise in the form of a persistent hum or buzz has residents across the inner west scratching their heads and reaching for the ear plugs. When Neil Hill of Newtown wrote a letter to the editor about such a hum and it appeared in the Courier's October 6 edition, he had no idea the response would be immediate and international. John Berry, who lives opposite Sydney University, said a continuous humming noise had disturbed his sleep for years but his investigation of the noise had been fruitless. "Sydney University has mechanical equipment running 24/7 so it seemed the most logical source," Mr Berry said. |
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| Don't Panic! Lighten Up! |
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No new articles. |
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