- Signs of the Times Archive for Fri, 02 May 2008 -



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Best of the Web
The Bumps under the Blanket and the Suicide Flu

Les Visible
Smoking Mirrors
2008-05-02 07:41:00

Sometimes it is hard to know what to talk about. You come to that point where you feel like you've talked about everything you could think of and you don't know where to go next. There's some kind of massive cleanup operation going on recently. A number of British policemen were found dead. A hooker and a madam wind up hung- the latter said she would never commit suicide. A CIA man gets shot to death by police. There's some kind of Danny Casolaro virus going around.

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Since I Gave Up Hope, I Feel Better

By William Blum
ICH
2008-05-02 02:32:00



"More than any time in history, mankind now faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness, the other to total extinction. Let us pray that we have the wisdom to choose correctly." -- Woody Allen


Food riots, in dozens of countries, in the 21st century. Is this what we envisioned during the post-World War Two, moon-landing 20th century as humankind's glorious future? It's not the end of the world, but you can almost see it from here.

American writer Henry Miller (1891-1980) once asserted that the role of the artist was to "inoculate the world with disillusionment". So just in case you -- for whatever weird reason -- cling to the belief/hope that the United States can be a positive force in ending or slowing down the new jump in world hunger, here are some disillusioning facts of life.

On December 14, 1981 a resolution was proposed in the United Nations General Assembly which declared that "education, work, health care, proper nourishment, national development are human rights". Notice the "proper nourishment". The resolution was approved by a vote of 135-1. The United States cast the only "No" vote.

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U.S. News
Would-be Hitler assassin dies at 90


Agence France Presse
2008-05-02 16:19:00

A former German army officer involved in two failed plots to assassinate Hitler, including one in 1944 when the Nazi leader narrowly survived a bomb explosion, has died aged 90, his family said Friday.

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Propaganda Alert! Bush Seeks $770 Million More in World Food Aid

Dan Eggen
Washington Post
2008-05-02 14:12:00

President Bush asked Congress yesterday to approve $770 million in new global food aid for the coming fiscal year, the centerpiece of an evolving administration response to a crisis that has sparked increased violence and hunger around the world.
Unknown
©Associated Press





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So it begins: Americans unload prized belongings to make ends meet

Anne D'Innocenzio
Associated Press
2008-05-02 13:45:00

Struggling with mounting debt and rising prices, faced with the toughest economic times since the early 1990s, Americans are selling prized possessions online and at flea markets at alarming rates.

Karen Tam
©AP Photo
Nancy Baughman, left, and her husband Daren display items that they will be selling on their online auction service, eBizAuctions, in their Raleigh, N.C. home, Friday, April 25, 2008.





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Houston Police: Man shot by officers flashed CIA card before deadly chase

Mike Tolson, Lindsay Wise and Mike Glenn
Houston Chronicle
2008-05-02 13:16:00

The man Houston police fatally shot after an hourlong chase Tuesday had shown a card identifying him as a CIA employee to officers who stopped him earlier for speeding, authorities said Wednesday.

Chase




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The stark truth: Bush's accomplishments - More poor and more poverty

Na'im Qudaah
Watching America
2008-05-02 12:55:00

"The immunity that Bush enjoyed as president has led America to its very bottom."

Unknown
©The Independent UK



A long queue of people waiting in front of a center for distributing food stamps. This photo, which was published by the British newspaper "The Independent" on April 2, 2008's front page, was not taken in an African country or any country of the so-called Third World or even a country from the former Socialist countries, but rather in The United States itself on one of the streets of New York. In fact it was determined to be taken on a street near Wall Street: the street famous for its financiers and businessmen.




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Truckers protest high gasoline prices

Brett Zongker
Associated Press
2008-04-29 11:57:00

Washington - Truck drivers honked horns, waived placards and shouted through bullhorns at the Capitol on Monday to protest rising gas prices they say are hurting their livelihood.

Members of Truckers and Citizens United circled the National Mall before parking their rigs at RFK Stadium. From there, about 100 protesters marched and took shuttles to the Capitol, where an afternoon rally was held.

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FEMA denies disaster relief to Southern Illinois

Kandace McCoy
Mt Vernon Register News
2008-04-29 11:49:00

Springfield - The Federal Emergency Management Agency has denied the state's request for federal assistance for Southern Illinois individuals and businesses affected by March flooding.


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Jeremiah Wright: U.S. 'Capable' of Inventing HIV for Genocide

Penny Starr
Cypercast News Service
2008-04-28 11:10:00

Washington - The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, former long-time pastor to Sen. Barack Obama (D.Ill.), said at the National Press Club on Monday that he believes the U.S. government is "capable" of having invented HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, as a means of committing genocide against people of color.

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Press Release: ADL Offers Resources and Training on Bullying


The Earth Times
2008-04-25 09:32:00

San Francisco -- In light of the recent assault on a first-grader at Piedmont Avenue Elementary School in Oakland, CA, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is calling on the entire community to consider the issue of name-calling and bullying as a serious issue with serious consequences. The Anti-Defamation League offers anti-bias and anti-bullying programming to school communities around the country to address this growing problem in our schools.

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North Carolina man accused of tasering his 10-year-old son


wcnc.com
2008-05-02 01:37:00

MONROE, NC -- A Monroe man faces child abuse charges for allegedly using a Taser on his 10-year-old son.

Deputies say 30-year-old Donald Ricci, Jr., used the Taser at least three times.

The boy was visiting his grandparents in Georgia when they noticed burns on his bottom, neck and chest and took him to a hospital.

"I was shocked and sickened," said Detective Kevin Rogers. "(Tasers) are very, very painful."



Comment: See news video HERE.




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Released 1968 Lyndon B. Johnson tapes show him fretting over war, poverty


news.yahoo.com
2008-05-02 01:26:00

AUSTIN, Texas - Politically crippled by the Vietnam War, President Lyndon B. Johnson still sounded like a candidate for re-election in private 1968 telephone conversations just before deciding to pull out of the race, according to recordings released Thursday.

Johnson, who had many of his White House conversations secretly recorded, sought support from labor leaders and talked of winning state primaries heading into that year's Democratic National Convention, despite potential threats to his candidacy by Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and others in his party.


Comment: For a more in-depth study of LBJ see Evidence of Revision.



Laced throughout the talks were Johnson's statements about the Vietnam War and the stinging criticism he faced from hawks and doves alike.

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Former Child Protective Services worker accused of child molestation


azfamily.com
2008-05-01 23:33:00

PHOENIX, AZ -- A former Child Protective Services employee has been accused of child molestation.

His name is David Wigton. He's a 58 year old Phoenix man who works for the Department of Economic Services and had worked in CPS for more than 20 years. Phoenix Police arrested Wigton and charged him with sexually molesting a four year old family member. They've also charged him with furnishing pornography to young relatives.

CPS sent 3TV a statement saying Wigton has been a supervisor in the Family Connections program for the past two years. CPS says he has limited contact with children and families but prior to his current position he served more than 20 years in various child welfare positions.

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Disturbing! Charter school will teach homeland security


Delaware Business Ledger
2008-04-03 03:36:00

The first high school dedicated to preparing students for the front lines in the Nation's homeland security has gone from theory to planning in Wilmington.

The Project Manager for the Delaware Academy for Public Safety and Security, New Castle Attorney Thomas Little, signed a contract with Innovative Schools, a professional firm which will coordinate the mechanics of preparing the school for its eventual opening.

The process to find and fund a site for as many as six-hundred young men and women in Wilmington's inner city is underway.

Curriculum choices for students, who are to be called Cadets, range from SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) through prison guard, water rescue, paramedic, fireman, professional demolition and emergency response operator, according to a Board statement.

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Sick Bag Alert: "America will lead fight against hunger": Bush


BBC News
2008-05-01 19:34:00

George W Bush has offered $770m (£390m) in international food aid to help ease the effects of surging food prices that have sparked riots in some countries.

The US president said he was asking Congress to approve his request.

The White House has come under intense pressure to step in as high food and petrol prices have squeezed poor families both at home and abroad.

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Flashback: D.C. Madam predicted she could be 'suicided'

Wyatt Buchanan, John Coté, Henry K. Lee, Peter Fimrite
San Francisco Chronicle
2007-04-01 18:59:00

If the Vallejo woman accused of running a tony Washington escort service really has Beltway bigwigs on her client list, as she hints, they have good reason to be nervous.

When she gets in a fight, Deborah Jeane Palfrey fights rough.

Palfrey is standing up to federal prosecutors who accuse her of running a prostitution ring servicing hundreds of men in the nation's capital, and a key part of her battle plan is to go public with her customers' names.

The woman dubbed by the tabloids as the "D.C. Madam" may have the goods on the sexual habits of prominent men -- or she may not. Even as she warns prosecutors that their efforts to lock her up will cause "terrible and quite unnecessary" trouble for all concerned, she protests that her business was perfectly legal.

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UK & Euro-Asian News
Josef Fritzl: Details from his life point to a conscienceless, feelingless animal

Christel Kucharz
ABC News
2008-04-30 09:03:00

While crime scene investigators are continuing their inquiries, more details about the man who held his daughter and children captive in Austria are coming to light.

Josef Fritzl
©Reuters - Europics/Polaris
Right: Elisabeth Fritzl in a 1981 school photo taken when she was 15 at the "Polytechnische Lehrgang Amstetten". This is the last picture of her before she went missing. Left: An Austrian police handout picture released April 28, 2008 of Josef Fritzl.


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Josef Fritzl's 'rape victims' come forward

Bojan Pancevski
Times Online
2008-05-02 08:54:00

Police files revealing that Josef Fritzl had previous convictions and charges for rape emerged today as his victims came forward to testify about their ordeals.

Josef Fritzl
©Unknown
Josef Fritzl, shown on a holiday in Thailand in 1998


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Josef Fritzl - In the shadow of the swastika

Peter Millar
The Daily Mail
2008-05-02 05:58:00

The similarity between the drab old three-storey apartment house in Amstetten where Josef Fritzl raped and imprisoned his daughter for 24 years, and the one 90 minutes' drive away where Adolf Hitler was born is a coincidence - but not a comfortable one.

Austria's politicians are battling to prevent damage to the country's reputation from the grotesque scandal of small-town incest and brutality. Yet one kidnap victim has already made the link between her ordeal and the nation's past.

Natasha Kampusch, who for eight years was held in a similar dungeon to the one where Josef Fritzl imprisoned his daughter, opened a Pandora's box when she linked both horror stories to the country's 'authoritarian education' and 'the suppression of women' under the Nazis.

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UK: Labour suffers big council election losses


BBC News
2008-05-02 04:32:00

Labour is on course to suffer its worst performance in at least 40 years in the local elections in England and Wales.

BBC research suggests the party has fallen into third place nationally with 24% of votes, with the Conservatives on 44% and Lib Dems on 25%.

So far Labour has lost more than 160 seats with the Tories gaining 147.

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Abkhazia welcomes new Russian troops


Agence France-Presse
2008-05-02 20:34:00

Sukhumi, Abkhazia -- Residents of the rebel Black Sea region of Abkhazia welcomed the arrival of extra Russian troops on Thursday as a guarantee of their self-declared independence from former Soviet Georgia.

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Satellite photos show Chinese build secret nuclear submarine base: Jane's Intelligence Review

Thomas Harding
Daily Telegraph
2008-05-01 19:14:00

China has secretly built a major underground nuclear submarine base that could threaten Asian countries and challenge American power in the region, it can be disclosed.

sub base
©DigitalGlobe


Satellite imagery, passed to The Daily Telegraph, shows that a substantial harbour has been built which could house a score of nuclear ballistic missile submarines and a host of aircraft carriers.

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Italian income tax secrets go up online - and promptly come down amid fury


The Times
2008-05-02 18:07:00

Rich and poor, young and old - for a few hours this week there were no secrets among Italians when millions of tax returns were published online, and promptly taken down again after howls of protest.

The country's privacy watchdog ordered the national tax office, the Agenzia delle Entrate, to suspend publication on its website of personal information filed by all Italian taxpayers, arguing that the unprecedented move was a violation of privacy.

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Around the World
Zimbabwe announces poll results


BBC News
2008-05-02 17:51:00

The long-awaited results of Zimbabwe's presidential poll have been announced, with the opposition's Morgan Tsvangirai winning 47.9%, forcing a second round.

Election officials say Mr Tsvangirai beat President Robert Mugabe's 43.2%, but neither candidate passed the 50% threshold for an outright win.

A spokesman for 84-year-old Mr Mugabe says he will stand in a run-off vote.

But Mr Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said the result was "scandalous daylight robbery".

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Sudan plane crashes, S.Sudan minister on board-SPLM


Reuters
2008-05-02 14:56:00

A plane crash landed in Sudan on Friday and Southern Sudan's minister of defence was on board but it was unclear if he had been killed, a government spokesman said.

"The Southern Minister of Defence (Dominic Dim) and the former Minister of Cabinet Affairs were on the plane along with other passengers from an SPLM conference on their way back to Juba," SPLM spokesman Deng Goc said.

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South Korea investigates monstrous mass sex abuse at school


Reuters
2008-05-02 06:16:00

Seoul - South Korean police on Friday arrested three teenage males on suspicion of sexually molesting primary school students in a series of assault cases that a civic group and local media said had more than 50 victims.

Older students forced boy and girl students at the primary school in the southeastern city of Daegu to mimic sexual acts they had seen on pornographic websites and TV, according to the civic group made up of parents from the area, teachers and human rights advocates.

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Israeli and Japanese tourists killed in a traffic accident in Bolivia


Jerusalem Post
2008-05-02 06:07:00

Five Israeli tourists were killed in a traffic accident in Bolivia Thursday overnight.

The tourists' names were not yet released for publication.

The group's members were all in their twenties, according to Israel Radio.

Preliminary details reveal that the five were traveling in a jeep when they collided with another jeep near the city of La Paz.

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Hundreds of Ducks Dead After Landing in Pond Owned by Canadian Oil Sands Company


Cryptogon
2008-05-01 06:01:00

Alberta's environment minister said the provincial government's efforts to allay environmental concerns about its booming oil sands industry will be hurt by the deaths of hundreds of ducks that landed on a pond filled with toxic waste.

Environment Minister Rob Renner concedes the deaths have put a dent in Alberta's efforts to counter the message being spread by environmental groups that Canada's oil sands projects are taking a toll on the environment.

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Nigerian gets 18 months for cyber attack on NASA employee

Sharon Gaudin
DailyAstronomy
2008-05-01 05:45:00

A Nigerian man has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for wooing a NASA employee so he could sneak malware onto her work computer and steal passwords, banking information and 25,000 screen shots.

Akeem Adejumo, a 22-year-old Nigerian citizen, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 18 months in prison by the Lagos State High Court in Nigeria late last month. He was initially charged with four counts but pleaded guilty to two counts of obtaining goods by false pretenses and forgery.

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U.S. Airstrike Kills Somali Accused of Links to Al-Qaeda

Stephanie McCrummen and Karen DeYoung
Washington Post
2008-05-02 03:06:00

Nairobi -- A top insurgent leader in Somalia whom U.S. officials have accused of having ties to al-Qaeda was killed in a U.S. airstrike early Thursday, according to the Islamist group he led.

somalia us airstrike
©Washington Post/Laris Karklis


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Leaked poll results show that Mugabe lost - but will fight second round

Catherine Philp
The Times
2008-05-01 18:16:00

Mugabe lost
©Unknown


Senior government officials in Zimbabwe leaked results yesterday for last month's presidential elections, which apparently hand victory to the main opposition leader - but not by enough votes to win outright.

The news sets the scene for a bruising election run-off.

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Big Brother
Post Carrier Accused of Warning Customer About 'Mail Cover' Surveillance

Kevin Poulsen
Wired
2008-05-02 16:20:00

Here's a good reason to remember your postal carrier at Christmas time. Apparently, he or she can tell you if the government is secretly monitoring your mail.

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Axis of Evil
Flashback: Autopsy: No Arabs on Flight 77

Thomas R. Olmsted, M.D
Physics911
2008-05-02 17:42:00

I am an ex Naval line officer and a psychiatrist in private practice in New Orleans, a Christian and homeschool dad. It troubled me a great deal that we rushed off to war on the flimsiest of evidence. I considered various ways to provide a smoking gun of who and why Sept 11th happened. Astute observers noticed right away that there were no Arabic sounding names on any of the flight manifests of the planes that "crashed" on that day.

A list of names on a piece of paper is not evidence, but an autopsy by a pathologist, is. I undertook by FOIA request, to obtain that autopsy list and you are invited to view it below. Guess what? Still no Arabs on the list. In my opinion the monsters who planned this crime made a mistake by not including Arabic names on the original list to make the ruse seem more believable.

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Flashback: The Three Irrefutable Facts That Shatter Bush's Official 911 Theory

Len Hart
OpEdNews
2008-02-18 17:17:00

Nothing Bush has ever said about 911 is true --nor is there a shred, a scintilla of verifiable evidence in support of it. Bush put forward a crazy conspiracy theory about a world wide conspiracy of radical Arabs and incompetent pilots. Not a word of it can be believed! Three indisputable, verifiable facts utterly disprove everything said by Bush and apologists about 911.

Bush kicked up a lot of dust and hoped to hide out in the smokescreen. It hasn't worked. Three irrefutable facts lay waste to the official lies.
Image
©Joe Tabacca / New York Times




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Secret Bush "Finding" Widens War on Iran

Andrew Cockburn
Counterpunch
2008-05-02 16:59:00

Six weeks ago, President Bush signed a secret finding authorizing a covert offensive against the Iranian regime that, according to those familiar with its contents, "unprecedented in its scope."

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Hapless victim or terrorist threat? The evidence is unclear - or is it?


Globe and Mail
2008-04-28 10:19:00

In the furtive world of Islamic jihad and among the shadowy government counterterrorist agents seeking to track and destroy groups such as al-Qaeda, he is known as Djolaida the Sudanese.

Abousfian Abdelrazik
©Unknown
Abousfian Abdelrazik is shown in a family photograph taken in Montreal, before he left for Sudan.


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Propaganda Report: Al-Qaeda leader financed terror cells from Spanish prison


Monsters and Critics
2008-04-28 10:02:00

Madrid - A Spanish leader of the al-Qaeda terrorist network financed terrorist cells from prison, making money transfers worth 2.4 million euros (3.8 million dollars), the daily El Pais said Monday.

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CBS report: State Department drafting ultimatum to Iran; Pentagon denies


AFP
2008-05-01 18:32:00

EL PASO, Texas - Despite a loud rattling of sabers over Iran in Iraq, the US military has not embarked on new planning for war, its chief spokesman said.

"I just want to be abundantly clear that there are no new directives, there are no new plans in the works, there is no new effort to prepare for a possible war with Iran," Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Wednesday.



Comment: Nope, no plans for war. That's why they are increasing the propaganda and sending a second aircraft carrier to the region. That's why they are giving Iran the exact same treatment that Iraq got before being invaded.



Speaking to reporters traveling with US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Morrell acknowledged that the Pentagon has contingency plans and "we update them for every possibility."

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Middle East Madness
US military says unmanned drone crashes in southern Iraq


Associated Press
2008-05-02 15:00:00

U.S. military says an unmanned drone has crashed in southern Iraq.

The military says the Air Force MQ-1 Predator unmanned drone crashed after being launched from an air base near Balad, 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Baghdad, at about 4 a.m. Friday.

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Turkey launches intensive air strikes in north Iraq


Reuters
2008-05-02 06:05:00

Arbil, Iraq - Turkish warplanes launched intensive bombing raids on Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq overnight but there were no reports of any casualties, a rebel spokesman said on Friday.

The air strikes began at 11.30 p.m. and lasted for three hours, targeting bases belonging to the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), an off-shoot of the PKK fighting against Iran.

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The Loan Gunmen
Fed joins with European banks to battle credit crisis

Martin Crutsinger
Associated Press
2008-05-02 14:18:00

The Federal Reserve announced Friday that it will expand a series of efforts to deal with the global credit crisis, in coordination with European central banks.

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Worldwide: May Day clashes and anger over food prices


Agence France-Presse
2008-05-02 20:28:00

Istanbul -- Police firing pepper gas and water cannons clashed with union activists in Istanbul on Thursday, as workers around the world made soaring food prices their May Day battle cry.

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The Living Planet
Storms kill 7 in Arkansas, damage homes around Kansas City

Jon Gambrell
Associated Press
2008-05-02 17:57:00

Arkansas storm
©Unknown


Severe storms that rolled across Arkansas early Friday killed at least seven people, including a teenager crushed by a tree while she slept in her bed. The deaths came after earlier storms seriously damaged homes and businesses in the Kansas City, Mo., area. Tornadoes were also reported in Oklahoma and Texas, although there were no immediate reports of severe damage.

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All salmon fishing banned on US West Coast

Peter Fimrite
San Francisco Chronicle
2008-05-02 13:55:00

Salmon fishing was banned along the West Coast for the first time in 160 years Thursday, a decision that is expected to have a devastating economic impact on fishermen, dozens of businesses, tourism and boating.

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6.4 Earthquake Hit Between Vanuatu, New Caledonia


Pacific Magazine
2008-04-28 11:04:00

A magnitude 6.4 undersea temblor occurred today between Vanuatu and New Caledonia, the U.S. Geological Survey, based in Denver (Colorado) said.

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Moderate earthquake hit southern Mexico


Xinhua
2008-04-27 10:49:00

Mexico City -- A moderate earthquake of a preliminary magnitude of 5.8 on the Richter scale rocked southern Mexico Sunday, but no major injuries or damages have been reported.

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4.2-magnitude quake shakes area near Palm Springs


cbs47.tv
2008-05-01 23:44:00

PALM SPRINGS - A moderate earthquake has shaken an area near Palm Springs.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the 4.2-magnitude quake struck at 8:55 p.m. 14 miles east-southeast of Anza and 27 miles south of Palm Springs.

USGS geophysicist Randy Baldwin says the quake was felt from the Palm Springs area south to the El Centro area along the Mexican border.



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US Geological Survey reports 6.5 magnitude quake near Alaska


news.yahoo.com
2008-05-01 23:40:00

ANCHORAGE - The U.S. Geological Survey on Thursday reported a 6.5 magnitude earthquake in a sparsely inhabited area near the tip of the Aleutian island chain, 45 miles WNW of Adak, Alaska.

The temblor, recorded at 6:33 p.m. Pacific time (9:33 p.m. EDT), was at a depth of 29.6 miles, the USGS said.

There were no immediate reports of damage or injury in the Aleutians, a chain of more than 300 small volcanic islands that are home to small communities of some 8,000 natives.



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Oxygen Depletion Zones In Tropical Oceans Expanding, May be Due To Climate Change


Science Daily
2008-05-01 18:50:00

Scientists confirm computer model predictions that oxygen-depleted zones in tropical oceans are expanding, possibly because of climate change. An international team of physical oceanographers including a researcher from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego has discovered that oxygen-poor regions of tropical oceans are expanding as the oceans warm, limiting the areas in which predatory fishes and other marine organisms can live or enter in search of food.

oxygen concentrations in the worlds oceans
©AAAS/Science
Mean dissolved oxygen concentrations in the world's oceans at a depth of 400 meters (1,312 feet) with blue contours representing the lowest concentrations. Boxed areas represent ocean regions analyzed in the study.


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Health & Wellness
Merck Plant Dumps Vaccine Waste and Chemicals Into Water Supply

Joanne Waldron
Natural News
2008-05-02 16:56:00

Merck, the maker of the very controversial Gardasil vaccine, has a pharmaceutical plant located in West Point, Pennsylvania, that discards pollutants from this facility into the Upper Gwynedd Township Publicly Owned Treatment Works (UGT POTW), according to a press release by the U.S. Department of Justice. The treated wastewater is released into the Wissahickon Creek, a tributary of the Schuylkill River. A federal court complaint was filed alleging that Merck violated the Clean Water Act with various discharges that caused numerous pass through and interference violations at the UGT POTW.


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More parents opt not to genitally mutilate their sons

Blythe Bernhard
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
2008-04-23 16:05:00

When Michelle Timke's son was born 12 years ago, she had the baby circumcised because "that's just what you did."

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Complex Memory Test Helps Young Adults Solve Problems Faster

John Lauerman
Bloomberg
2008-04-28 11:19:00

A brain exercise designed to help people improve memory also boosted their problem-solving abilities, scientists said in a study that may lead to techniques to improve learning and stave off brain illnesses.

Young adults who performed the exercise, a complex matching game of sounds and pictures, improved about twice as much on problem-solving tests as those who didn't participate, University of Michigan researchers said in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Dr. Bronner's sues rivals over organic labels

Paul Elias
Mercury News/Associated Press
2008-04-28 10:43:00

San Francisco - The company that makes Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps, a counterculture staple, sued many of its personal care competitors Monday over the validity of their organic labels as the once-quiet "green" cosmetic sector has soared in popularity, luring several Wall Street corporations into the field.

The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, accused 10 companies and two industry groups of selling and promoting soaps, lotions and other products that are manufactured using conventionally grown crops or chemicals derived from petroleum.

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Measles in U.S. at Highest Level Since 2001; "Experts" use fear to push iatrogenocide agenda

Denise Grady
New York Times
2008-05-02 08:10:00

Measles outbreaks in at least seven states are expected to produce more cases in 2008 than in any other recent year, federal health officials said Thursday, warning that measles is highly contagious and can cause severe illness and even death.

Measles
©New York Times




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Flashback: BioWarfare: Mycoplasma - The Linking Pathogen in Neurosystemic Diseases

Donald W. Scott MA, MSc.
Nexus Magazine
2001-08-01 05:15:00

Several strains of mycoplasma have been "engineered" to become more dangerous. They are now being blamed for AIDS, cancer, CFS, MS, CJD and other neurosystemic diseases.



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Deadly virus spreads in China, 21 children die


Reuters
2008-05-02 05:05:00

Beijing - A deadly virus has spread rapidly in eastern China, killing at least 21 children and infecting nearly 3,000, Xinhua news agency said on Friday.

Enterovirus 71 began spreading in Fuyang in the eastern province of Anhui in early March but authorities only reported it publicly on Sunday, saying there had been 789 cases.

By Thursday, the number had risen to 2,946, Xinhua said.

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The man who grew a finger

Matthew Price
BBC News
2008-05-01 22:10:00

I think that within ten years that we will have strategies that will re-grow the bones, and promote the growth of functional tissue around those bones.

Dr Dr Stephen Badylak
University of Pittsburgh




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LSD May Shed Hippie Image With Swiss Medical Study

Dermot Doherty
Bloomberg
2008-05-01 22:05:00

Four decades after the Grateful Dead and Timothy Leary made acid trips a counter-cultural rite of passage, Rick Doblin is trying to shake the drug's hippie image and reclaim its use as a medicine.

Doblin, who leads a group sponsoring the first study of LSD as a therapy in 36 years, says the new Swiss research may show the drug helps ease anxiety and pain in patients suffering from illnesses such as cancer and multiple sclerosis.

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More Than Half of US Hospitals Insolvent or Near Insolvency, Study Finds


Kaisernetwork.org
2008-04-30 00:00:00

More than half of U.S. hospitals are "teetering on the brink of insolvency" or have become insolvent because they do not treat an adequate number of patients to provide sufficient revenue, according to a study recently released by Alvarez & Marsal, the Wall Street Journal reports.

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Tree Lined Streets Have Fewer Young Children With Asthma

Anna Sophia McKenney
Medical News Today
2008-05-01 00:00:00

Lower rates of asthma are found in children who live on tree-lined streets, according to an article released on May 1, 2008 in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, a BMJ Specialist journal.

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Science & Technology
Why male pharaoh had feminine physique

Alex Dominguez
MSNBC
2008-05-02 13:54:00

Despite genetic mutation, Akhenaten fathered at least six children

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Study suggests link between comet bombardment and movement through the galaxy, causing mass extinctions on earth


Science Daily
2008-05-02 13:03:00

The sun's movement through the Milky Way regularly sends comets hurtling into the inner solar system -- coinciding with mass life extinctions on earth, a new study claims. The study suggests a link between comet bombardment and the movement through the galaxy.

Comets
©Artby Don Davis / Courtesy of NASA
A large body of scientific evidence now exists that support the hypothesis that a major asteroid or comet impact occurred in the Caribbean region at the boundary of the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods in Earth's geologic history. Such an impact is suspected to be responsible for the mass extinction of many floral and faunal species, including the large dinosaurs, that marked the end of the Cretaceous period.




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UK computing Grid warming up for world's largest experiment


MatterNews.com
2008-04-26 09:31:00

UK scientists building a computing Grid for particle physics have launched the next phase of their project, in advance of the start of the world's largest experiment. Over the last six years, the GridPP collaboration has successfully built a distributed computer system for scientists working on the world's biggest experiment, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN near Geneva. The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), has extended the project for another three years which ensures that the expertise built up in the UK will be there for the start of the LHC later this year and for the crucial first years of data taking. The data crunching and storage capabilities of the Grid are essential to the LHC's science mission of exploring the fundamental particles and forces of nature.

GridPP
©Unknown
Cluster and racks at Queen Mary, University of London


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Graphene Gazing Gives Glimpse of Foundations of Universe


MatterNews.com
2008-04-05 09:25:00

Researchers at The University of Manchester have used graphene to measure an important and mysterious fundamental constant - and glimpse the foundations of the universe.

Graphene
©MatterNews
Magnified image of research samples with small holes covered by graphene. One can see light passing through them by the naked eye.




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Incubator Electromagnetic Fields Alter Newborns' Heart Rates


Science Daily
2008-05-01 19:03:00

The electromagnetic fields produced by incubators alter newborns' heart rates, reveals a small study published ahead of print in the Fetal and Neonatal Edition of Archives of Disease in Childhood. It is not clear what the long term effects might be, but this could have implications for babies born prematurely, who may spend several weeks or months in incubators, say the authors.

The research team assessed the variability in the heart rate of 43 newborn babies, none of whom was critically ill or premature.

The heart rates of 27 of these babies were assessed over three periods of five minutes each, during which the incubator motor was left running, then switched off, then left running again. To see if noise might be a factor, because incubators are noisy, 16 newborns were exposed to "background noise," by placing a tape beside the baby's head, while the incubator motor was switched off.

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Researchers find gene defect that boosts glucose

Michael Kahn
News Daily
2008-05-01 18:46:00

LONDON - An international research team has pinpointed a genetic mutation that can raise a healthy person's blood sugar to harmful levels, putting them at higher risk of serious problems like heart disease.

The defect could cause an increase of around 5 percent that can prove dangerous even for people without diabetes, the researchers reported in the journal Science said on Thursday.

Too much glucose in the blood can damage the eyes, kidneys and nerves, and also lead to heart disease, stroke and limb amputations. It is also a sign of diabetes, though the findings did not link the gene directly to the disease.

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Our Haunted Planet
UFO buzz puts Australia's Northern Territories into flap

Ben Langford
Northern Territory News
2008-05-02 15:04:00

A "UFO flap'' is taking place and Territorians are needed to help scan the skies during a national spotting session tomorrow.

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Bigfoot in Fresno County?

Gene Haagenson
ABC30 Fresno
2008-05-01 23:39:00

Whether you want to believe it or not, there are a lot of people in Central California who think they've had a brush with a Bigfoot, or Sasquatch.

Many won't talk about it for fear of being ridiculed. But others are convinced they are real, and think science is about to prove they really do exist.

Image
©Unknown


Lurking in the forests of the high Sierra are people, like Bill Compton. A cell phone salesman during the week, he spends many weekends in search of the elusive Bigfoot. He says," I truly believe there is a bi-pedal primate roaming the terrain. I've seen too many footprints, seen beasts walk away from me on two legs that look like giant, hairy animals."

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Does a Welsh Loch Ness monster lurk in city lake?

Robin Turner
Western Mail (Wales)
2008-04-30 19:47:00

Experts failed to pour cold water last night on reports a crocodile is alive and well and living in a Welsh lake.

Crocodile hunters are heading for Swansea after it emerged one of the reptiles has been spotted patrolling the 20ft deep pool in the middle of a city business park.

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