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British CEO Pay 81 Times That of Workers
Simon Whelan
World Socialist Website
2009-12-17 10:00:00
In spite of the deepest economic recession in 70 years, the CEO's of the FTSE top 100 companies continue to fill their pockets with enormous amounts of money.
According to figures compiled by the Income Data Services (IDS), a remuneration monitoring group, the pay gap between the boardroom of Britain's top companies and the shopfloor has almost doubled in size over the last decade. The chief executives of the UK's 100 largest companies now earn 81 times the average pay of full-time workers.
When the IDS compiled its figures for pay inequality in 2000, three years after the election of the Labour government, chief executives commanded 47 times the average worker's wage.
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Nearly Half of Detroit's Workers Are Unemployed
Mike Wilkinson
Detroit News
2009-12-16 13:42:00
Analysis shows reported jobless rate understates extent of problem
Despite an official unemployment rate of 27 percent, the real jobs problem in Detroit may be affecting half of the working-age population, thousands of whom either can't find a job or are working fewer hours than they want.
Using a broader definition of unemployment, as much as 45 percent of the labor force has been affected by the downturn.
And that doesn't include those who gave up the job search more than a year ago, a number that could exceed 100,000 potential workers alone.
"It's a big number, and we should be concerned about it whether it's one in two or something less than that," said George Fulton, a University of Michigan economist who helps craft economic forecasts for the state.
Mayor Dave Bing recently raised eyebrows when he said what many already suspected: that the city's official unemployment rate was as believable as Santa Claus. In Washington for a jobs forum earlier this month, he estimated it was "closer to 50 percent."
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Are Americans a Broken People?
Bruce E. Levine
Cryptogon/Alternet
2009-12-16 20:28:00
In general, Americans represent a collective battered spouse who hopes that the batterer will change. Spitting teeth and squinting through two black eyes, they usually go back for more of the same.
This isn't politics. It's pathology.
- The Devil and Mr. Obama
Can people become so broken that truths of how they are being screwed do not "set them free" but instead further demoralize them? Has such a demoralization happened in the United States?
Do some totalitarians actually want us to hear how we have been screwed because they know that humiliating passivity in the face of obvious oppression will demoralize us even further?
What forces have created a demoralized, passive, dis-couraged U.S. population?
Can anything be done to turn this around?
Can people become so broken that truths of how they are being screwed do not "set them free" but instead further demoralize them?
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U.S. News
Study: 1 in 5 Lost Health Insurance in Past Year
Susan Heavey
ABC News
2009-12-16 17:00:00
Nearly 20 percent of the U.S. population -- or almost 60 million people -- went without health insurance at some point since January 2008, according to government estimates released Wednesday.
The analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention comes as Democratic senators wrestle to pass their version of health reform legislation before the end of the year to help make good on President Barack Obama's top domestic goal of overhauling the nation's $2.5 trillion healthcare system.
Much of the focus so far has been on how to expand access to health insurance in a nation where coverage is closely tied to employment but 10 percent of the work force in unemployed. More than 45 million people are uninsured.
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The Tiger Woods episode: Money, the media, and the "path to redemption"
David Walsh
World Socialist Web Site
2009-12-17 07:39:00
The American media is generally full of rubbish, but more rubbish has been written and broadcast about Tiger Woods and his affairs than any other subject in some time. This episode brings together many of the most deplorable elements that dominate official public life in the US at present: money, celebrity, official piety, and media prurience.
The revelation that Woods, the world's leading golfer and one of its most prominent sports figures, has had numerous lovers is nobody's business but his own, his wife's and the people immediately around them. How they sort that out is a purely personal matter. Woods hasn't committed any crimes, and the relentless media attention is reprehensible. All the arguments of tabloid journalists to the effect that "celebrities" forfeit their right to privacy is self-serving nonsense.
The issue has garnered so much coverage for several reasons, Woods' enormous skill with a golf club probably being, in the immediate sense, one of the less significant ones. Of course, without that ability the financial interests currently bound up with his brand name would not exist, but whether he can hit a golf ball longer or more accurately than his rivals is not the issue at present.
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North Carolina: Woman's Death Unnoticed for 8 Months
Kevin Maurer and Alysia Patterson
The Associated Press
2009-12-16 22:28:00
A woman was charged Wednesday with keeping the corpse of her elderly mother in their home for months before the body was discovered in the woman's bed.
Amy Blanche Stewart, 47, was charged with concealment of death, which is considered a low-level felony in North Carolina, the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office said.
"There is no question it was known to the family and should have been communicated to law enforcement," said New Hanover County District Attorney Benjamin R. David. "This is not tolerated under North Carolina law and it is not tolerated by this law enforcement community."
Stewart was charged one day after police said a 911 caller reported that Blanche Matilda Roth, 87, was unconscious and not breathing. Police say she likely died in May, before her 88th birthday in September.
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FDA dupes Interpol to achieve illegal kidnapping and deportation of herbal formulator Greg Caton
Mike Adams
Natural News
2009-12-16 19:48:00
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today stands accused of taking part in the kidnapping and illegal extradition of a permanent resident of Ecuador, in violation of both international law and Ecuadorian law.
Greg Caton, owner and operator of Alpha Omega Labs, an herbal products company that sells anti-cancer herbal remedies made with Ecuadorian medicinal herbs, was arrested at gunpoint at a road checkpoint in Ecuador, then transported to an Ecuadorian holding facility to await a hearing on December 14, 2009. Caton was expected to be set free by the Ecuadorian judge at that hearing based on the facts of the case which indicated Caton's permanent residency in Ecuador is legal and valid.
Three days before the hearing could take place, Caton was taken from his holding facility and, with the help of U.S. State Department employees, involuntarily placed on an American Airlines plane headed for Miami. An Ecuadorian judge rushed to the airport in Guayaquil and demanded that Caton be released from the plane, stating that the attempted deportation was illegal, but American Airlines employees reportedly refused to allow Caton to leave the plane, stating that the plane was "U.S. territory" and that Ecuadorian law did not apply there (even though the plane was still on the tarmac in Guayaquil and under the direction of the air traffic control tower there).
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Dr. No: Joe Lieberman Loves Campaign Cash More Than His Constituents
Ron Reagan
Air America
2009-12-15 19:31:00
Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman has finally realized his life's goal of becoming America's foremost exemplar of hypocrisy and moral cowardice... and did I forget to mention dishonesty and small-minded spite? Let's throw those in the mix as well.
A quick review: three months ago, Lieberman sat down with the Connecticut Post and reiterated his long-standing position that a Medicare buy-in should be available for people 55 to 64 years old
Again, this is something Lieberman has been saying for years: it was central to his health care platform when he was Al Gore's running mate in 2000 and it was been his position ever since. That is, it was his position until it became part of the Senate's proposed health care legislation. At that point, the guy who'd made a Medicare buy-in the centerpiece of his health care reform philosophy suddenly morphed into Dr. No.
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UK & Euro-Asian News
Ireland: Dozens queued to embrace and shake hands with convicted sex offender
RTE News
2009-12-17 17:19:00
A priest in County Kerry has defended providing a character reference for a convicted sex offender in which he described the man as being always respectful of women and said there wasn't an abusive bone in his body.
Fr Sean Sheehy was one of dozens of people who queued to embrace and shake hands with Danny Foley before he was sentenced to seven years in jail.
Danny Foley is a 35-year old bouncer from Listowel in County Kerry. At the Circuit Criminal Court in Tralee he was convicted by a jury of sexually assaulting a 22-year-old woman he'd met at a nightclub on the night of his 34th birthday.
Minutes before his sentencing hearing yesterday, dozens of people queued in court to embrace and shake hands with Danny Foley, who was given a seven-year jail term.
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Irish bishop resigns over Dublin sex-abuse scandal
Frances D'Emilio and Shawn Pogatchnik
Associated Press
2009-12-17 17:06:00
A Roman Catholic bishop in Ireland has resigned after an investigation into child sex abuse by clergymen accused him of ignoring reports of crimes by priests in his diocese, the Vatican said Thursday.
The one-line announcement that Bishop Donal Murray had resigned did not mention the scandal.
But a statement that Murray read to colleagues and curates in the western Irish city of Limerick left no doubt that he was going because of an Irish government investigation's damning findings about his time as an auxiliary bishop in Dublin from 1982 to 1996.
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The Swiss Minaret Ban: What Are They Really Trying to Outlaw?
Laila Lalami
The Nation
2009-12-09 08:53:00
A voter referendum prohibiting the construction of minarets in Switzerland is part of a disturbing, anti-Muslim trend that's been working its way through Europe for years.
When I was five years old, my parents enrolled me in Sainte Marguerite-Marie, a French grade school in a suburb of Rabat, in Morocco. The school was run by a group of Franciscan nuns who had arrived in the country during the colonial period but had stayed behind after independence. My favorite teacher was Soeur Laurette, who nurtured my love of books, and my regular tormentor was Soeur Isabelle, who, whenever I made a mistake, pulled my ponytail so hard my neck would hurt for hours.
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Britain Makes Job Cuts to Pay for Afghan War
Press TV
2009-12-16 07:36:00
Britain says it is to buy new helicopters and equipment for the war in Afghanistan, but says it would have to close a military base and cut jobs to pay for them.
British Defense Secretary Bob Ainsworth said Tuesday that 900 million pounds (1.5 billion dollars) has been allocated to buy 22 new Chinook heavy-lift helicopters and equipment including body armor, night vision goggles and tactical radios from the United States.
"These decisions have not been taken lightly, but these are tough times for everyone in defense and we must ensure we prioritize spending on operations to achieve success in Afghanistan," Ainsworth said.
"We need to make reductions in lower priority areas. Inevitably these reductions will have an impact on some capabilities," he said.
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Around the World
India: Was Mumbai suspect a double agent for US?
Huma Yusuf
The Christian Science Monitor
2009-12-16 17:35:00
The Indian press is abuzz with news that Indian Home Ministry officials have said they are investigating whether Pakistani-American terror suspect David Coleman Headley was working as a "double agent."
Indian officials reportedly raised questions about Mr. Headley's links with US intelligence agencies - even as another terror suspect accused of involvement in the 2008 Mumbai attacks was denied bail by a US federal court. These latest and widely-publicized accusations against Headley are expected to put pressure on India's ruling Congress Party, which has emphasized closer ties with the US as part of its foreign policy.
The US has not allowed Indian authorities to interrogate Headley over the Mumbai attacks, much to India's consternation.
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Yemen Claims 34 Killed in Raid on Qaida Hide-Outs
Ahmed Al-Haj
The Associated Press
2009-12-17 17:15:00
Yemeni security forces struck suspected al-Qaida hide-outs and training sites Thursday, and officials said at least 34 militants were killed, in an unusually heavy assault as Washington presses the deeply unstable country for tougher action against the terror network.
Witnesses, however, put the number killed at over 60 in the heaviest strike and said the dead were mostly civilians, including women and children. They denied the target was an al-Qaida stronghold, and one provincial official said only 10 militant suspects died.
The differing accounts raised questions over the seriousness of the government campaign. The United States has repeatedly called on Yemen to take stronger action against al-Qaida, whose fighters have increasingly found refuge here in the past year. Worries over the growing presence are compounded by fears that Yemen could collapse into turmoil from its multiple conflicts and increasing poverty and become another Afghanistan, giving the militants even freer rein.
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U.S. drone strikes kill 16 in Pakistan
Griff Witte and Haq Nawaz Khan
The Washington Post
2009-12-17 17:11:00
A series of U.S. drone strikes in the tribal area of North Waziristan on Thursday killed at least 16 people, including Arab members of al-Qaeda, Pakistani intelligence officials said.
The attacks included one set of strikes that officials said involved 10 missiles and five drones -- an unusual concentration of firepower on a single target. Fifteen people died in those strikes, and one person was killed in a separate, earlier strike.
The attacks come as the United States is pressuring Pakistan to do more to combat militancy in North Waziristan. U.S. officials have threatened to escalate a covert program of drone strikes in Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal areas if Pakistan refuses.
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Study: religion restricted for 70 percent of world's population
Dave Bryan
Associated Press
2009-12-16 16:45:00
In Indonesia, Muslim groups burn down a mosque belonging to the minority Ahmadiyya. In Singapore, the government refuses to recognize Jehovah's Witnesses. In Belgium, 68 religion-based hate crimes are reported in 2007 alone.
People living in a third of all countries are restricted from practicing religion freely, either because of government policies and laws or hostile acts by individuals or groups, according to a study released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center, "Global Restrictions on Religion."
That amounts to 70 percent of the globe's population, since some of the most restrictive countries are very populous. Of the world's 25 most populous countries, citizens in Iran, Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan and India live with the most restrictions when both measures are taken into account, the study found.
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50 Sewing Needles Found in Brazilian Boy
United Press International
2009-12-16 23:05:00
A 2-year-old Brazilian boy with 50 sewing needles lodged inside his body may have been subjected to a black magic ritual, his parents say.
The boy has been hospitalized in Barreiras and police have taken his stepfather, Roberto Carlos Magalhaes, into custody for questioning, Brazzil Magazine reported Wednesday.
The boy was initially taken to a hospital last Thursday after complaining of stomach pain and vomiting, the magazine reported. X-rays revealed the 1.8-inch needles in his stomach and digestive tract, with some puncturing a lung and his liver.
Doctors inserted a drain and plan to remove most of the needles surgically. Some, however, may be too close to vital organs to remove. Dr. Luiz Cesar Soltoski said he thinks the needles were inserted one at a time.
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United States to Expand Eyes in the Sky Over Afghanistan
Lolita C. Baldor
The Associated Press
2009-12-16 08:03:00
The U.S. military is adding more drones and expanding its video surveillance in the skies over Afghanistan to meet the needs of American forces as 30,000 more troops head into the war zone, a top Air Force general said Wednesday.
The bolstered eyes in the sky will come from a mix of manned and unmanned aircraft and added technology that allows each MQ-9 Reaper drone to collect 10 video transmissions and beam them back to 10 different users on the ground, Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula, deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, told reporters.
Deptula's comments came as Defense Secretary Robert Gates continues to press the Air Force to find ways to more rapidly provide better intelligence to the U.S. and its allies in Afghanistan.
The first troop units of the surge ordered by President Barack Obama have begun to arrive in Afghanistan, a Pentagon official said Wednesday, adding to the 68,000 U.S. forces already deployed to counter emboldened insurgents.
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Big Brother
Laptop Stolen from MOD Complete With Encryption Key
John Kay
The Sun
2009-12-12 13:39:00
A Mmajor hunt was in progress last night after a laptop crammed with secret data was stolen from inside the Ministry of Defence nerve centre.
The machine, plus an encryption key to unlock highly sensitive files, vanished from the heart of the MoD's London HQ.
It sparked fears that a "mole" is operating there.
Last night a source said: "This has the potential to become one of the most serious security breaches at the Ministry for a very long time.
"Laptops have been mislaid before, but not with encryption keys."
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Top Arizona Republican Accused of Using Voter Database to Stalk Woman
Dawn Teo
Huffington Post
2009-12-15 12:53:00
More misconduct has been alleged against Arizona Republican Party executive director Brett Mecum, who is now the subject of a criminal complaint alleging he used the Republican's voter database to stalk a young female graduate student.
The affidavit, filed last month with the local sheriff's office, alleges that Mecum "is using Voter Vault to stalk." Voter Vault is used by the Republican Party to micro-target the party's message and to canvas specific demographics. The complainant was celebrating her acceptance into an East Coast graduate school on August 29 at her home when Mecum showed up uninvited. She reveals details about Voter Volt in her sworn affidavit:
I did not invite Brett Mecum. He is rather creepy and intimidating around women. I did not want to expose my guests to that kind of individual. I was shocked to see him show up at my party. He had never been to my house, and I had never told him where I lived. I asked him how he found my address, and he responded "I looked it up on Voter Vault, I called a staffer to look it up for me there."
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UK: Every parent a suspect
Henry Porter
The Guardian
2009-12-09 13:14:00
The criteria have changed slightly, but the Vetting and Barring Scheme still creates an atmosphere of suspicion and fear
"Soft intelligence" is the phrase used by the head of the Independent Standards Authority (ISA), Sir Roger Singleton, in explanation of the sort of information his quango will seek to vet 9 million people who have contact with children. It's a pity this ghoul of bureaucratic suspicion doesn't use the more easily understood words of "rumour" and "unfounded and malicious gossip" because that is what soft intelligence is. It will not be proven by a court or any kind of formal hearing but will linger like a bad smell around the names of many innocent people, who of course will not be able to challenge the decisions of the ISA.
The criteria for who must be vetted were changed but essentially the announcement is part of an operation to reduce the widespread contempt for this epic piece of Labour madness, as well as for Singleton's organisation.
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UK: With falling crime, why deploy Tasers?
Henry Porter
The Guardian
2009-12-17 13:06:00
Labour likes to take the credit for better crime stats yet wants to roll out weapons that leave the police open to claims of abuse
While trumpeting the new virtual courts scheme - about which more at a later date - Jack Straw said there had been a 40% decrease in serious crime since Labour came to power in 1997. He is right: serious crime is down but the trend was set long before Straw got used to a ministerial car.
The curious thing about Labour permitting itself the odd boast about crime is that the message the government and the Home Office want us to accept is that British society stands on the brink of anarchy, and that the only means of maintaining order and security is to give the police ever more powers.
One result is that British Transport police are being equipped with 50,000-volt Tasers, which are to be given to 46 officers in special response teams. These will be used to tackle violent situations on stations or platforms, a prospect that must fill people with horror, given the proximity of lethal voltage in the electrified rail and of moving trains.
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Government appoints CCTV yes man - as surveillance industrial complex begins its takeover
No CCTV
2009-12-15 13:03:00
Today (15th December) the government announced the appointment of Andrew Rennison to the post of Interim CCTV Regulator. The Home Office says that the Interim Regulator will work with the National CCTV Strategy Board on six key areas:
develop national standards for the installation and use of CCTV in public space; determine training requirements for users and practitioners; engage with the public and private sector in determining the need for and potential content of any regulatory framework; raise public awareness and understanding of how CCTV operates and how it contributes to tackling crime and increasing public protection; review the existing recommendations of the National CCTV Strategy and advise the Strategy Board on implementation, timelines and cost and development of an effective evidence base; and promote public awareness of the complaints process and criteria for complaints to the relevant agencies
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Italy's challenge to internet freedom
Manuela Mesco
The Guardian
2009-12-17 12:59:00
The Italian government's attempt to stop online 'hatred' about the attack on Berlusconi is likely to bring it into conflict with the EU
The debate about freedom of expression on the internet has heated up again in Italy, following the online response to the appalling attack on Silvio Berlusconi. Over the past few days, social networking sites have been filled with groups, many now closed, supporting either Berlusconi or his assailant, Massimo Tartaglia. Strong incitement to violence has been coming from both sides.
Italian politicians within Berlusconi's party say that the web reflects a "climate of hatred" that "dissident" journalists - with their constant attacks on the government - must take the blame for. Tighter regulations have been announced to "provide judges with further tools to prosecute web criminals", said Italian interior minister Roberto Maroni. He is due to present a new proposal aiming to punish those who, by writing their opinions on the internet, "engage in incitement to crime or the condoning of criminal acts". This is likely to be a set of new ways to control expression on the internet using judiciary power.
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Axis of Evil
Obama seeks Guantánamo-style prison on US soil
Bill Van Auken
World Socialist Web Site
2009-12-17 07:36:00
With its decision to purchase a state prison in rural Illinois, the Obama administration is preparing to recreate the essential features of the infamous military prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba - indefinite detention without charges and trials by military commissions - on US soil.
This latest move has exposed Obama's pledge to close down the prison at the US military base in Cuba as an empty gesture. In substance, the administration is adopting the criminal practices of the Bush administration as its own, while seeking to legitimize them through legislation and empty rhetoric about American "values and ideals."
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Middle East Madness
No new articles.
Grand Theft Economics
How Banks Prey on the Unemployed
Barbara Koeppel
Counterpunch
2009-12-17 13:55:00
While posting breathtaking profits in the last two quarters - Wells Fargo's $3.2 billion, Citigroup's $3 billion and Chase's $2.7 billion - U.S. banks have figured out a way to squeeze some extra dollars from those who can least afford it, the unemployed.
Here's how it works. In the past two years, states have been overwhelmed with unemployment claims. Always eager to serve, America's banks offered a deal the states couldn't refuse.
Sign a contract - which won't cost you a dime - and send us your weekly unemployment funds, the banks said. In return, we'll issue our VISA or MasterCard debit cards to your laid-off workers, on which we'll post their benefits electronically.
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As Wage Theft Rises, States and Cities Crack Down
Sophia Tareen and Laura Wides-Munoz
The Associated Press
2009-12-17 10:28:00
Chicago - Fabian Gutierrez logged more than 60 hours a week slicing meat and stocking shelves with cheeses and milk at a neighborhood grocery for less than minimum wage and no overtime.
The 32-year-old Mexican immigrant said he put up with the situation for months because he was desperate to support his wife and young daughter. And like many co-workers, he was afraid to challenge his boss.
"All of us took abuse. We were disrespected," said Gutierrez, who found help at a workers' rights center, joined with other workers to sue the owner of La Fruteria and now works at another grocery store that he says treats him better.
Across the nation, the long-simmering problem of employers who don't pay their workers appears to be getting worse, especially for immigrant laborers.
In the absence of aggressive federal action, some states and local governments have begun to tackle the issue on their own.
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U.S. consumers fall behind in holiday shopping: National Retail Federation
Nicole Maestri
Reuters
2009-12-16 10:37:00
New York - The holiday shopping that consumers have completed so far this season is at a five-year low, according to a new survey, raising the stakes for retailers in their last major push to capture sales this year.
Consumers on average had completed 46.7 percent of their holiday shopping by the second week of December, according to the survey by the National Retail Federation released on Wednesday.
That is down from the 47.1 percent completed by this time last year and marks the lowest percentage completed since 2004. The NRF still expects total holiday season sales to fall 1 percent this year, an unprecedented drop for two straight years since a financial markets crisis erupted in late 2008.
Last year, retailers slashed prices more steeply than planned to lure shoppers. They have since cut inventories and planned their discounts more carefully.
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California revenues lag, underscore budget woes
Jim Christie
Reuters
2009-12-16 10:32:00
San Fransisco revenues since the start of its fiscal year are trailing estimates by more than $1 billion, according to the state's November revenue report, which comes as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger wrestles with crafting a balanced state spending plan.
Next month Schwarzenegger must present to lawmakers a balanced budget plan for California's next fiscal year beginning in July, while closing the deficit that has reopened in the current fiscal year's spending plan.
The combined shortfall for the two years has been pegged at about $21 billion -- the result of a state economy battered by a steep decline in its housing market, weak consumer spending, widespread layoffs and 12.5 percent unemployment.
The broad economic weakness gripping the most populous U.S. state was reflected in the state Department of Finance's November revenue report released on Tuesday.
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Shock therapy for Greece
Marius Heuser
World Socialist Web Site
2009-12-17 07:33:00
Some of the measures will be "painful" and "we will have do without pleasantries," declared Greek Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou. This was the grim message delivered by the head of government in a televised address to the Greek population on Monday.
Under orders from the European Union, the Greek government plans to announce a "shock therapy" budget next month aimed at reducing the country's soaring budget deficit. Papandreous' declaration that in the course of the next three months his government will implement measures which have been postponed for decades puts his regime on a collision course with the working class.
Greece faces the threat of sovereign default, with a budget deficit expected to amount to 12.7 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), more than four times the deficit-to-GDP ratio allowed under the European Union stability pact for member states.
It is, however, only the most immediately threatened of a number of Eurozone states that are plunging into bankruptcy as a result of the world economic crisis and the massive indebtedness assumed by governments to bail out their banking systems. Greece is just "the tip of the iceberg," said Norbert Barthle, budget spokesman for the ruling Christian Democratic Union of Germany.
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The Living Planet
No new articles.
Health & Wellness
Diet Soda Destroys Kidney Function
Ethan Huff
NaturalNews
2009-12-16 02:00:00
Scientists from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston have revealed results from a study outlining some of the effects of artificial sweeteners on the body. Conducted on a group of 3,000 women, the results indicated that those who drank two or more artificially-sweetened beverages a day doubled their risk of more-rapid-than-normal kidney function decline.
The study accounted for various other risk factors including the woman's age, her blood pressure, if she smoked, and if she had any other pre-existing conditions such as heart disease or diabetes. The 11-year study evaluated the effects of all sweetened drinks on progressive kidney decline and discovered that two or more diet drinks leads to a two-fold increase in rapid kidney decline incidences.
Though study results did not show any correlation between sugar- or corn syrup-sweetened drinks and the onset of rapid kidney decline, these ingredients are implicated in causing diabetes and obesity and should not be perceived as safe merely because they did not have a direct correlation in this particular study topic.
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Green Tea Nutrients Prevent and Treat Brain Disorders
Mike Adams
NaturalNews
2009-12-17 01:00:00
The December issue of Nature Chemical Biology contains a study that reveals the powerful effect of the green tea component EGCG in preventing and treating serious brain disorders like Alzheimer's, Huntington's, and Parkinson's diseases. When combined with another isolated component, the elements therapeutically eliminate the protein amyloids which are thought to cause these brain diseases.
Amyloid plaques are tightly-bound protein sheets that make their way into the brain and occupy nerve cells. Sometimes they literally bind themselves around the brain tissue. Consequently, brain cells lose their oxygen source and begin to die, leading to memory and speech loss, diminished motor skills, and eventually death.
Researchers from Boston Biomedical Research Institute (BBRI) and the University of Pennsylvania discovered that two chemical components, one found in green tea, were able to break up the amyloid plaques and restore normal cell function in samples similar to what would be found in patients with brain disorders. The combination was found to be effective at eradicating all kinds of amyloids.
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A Fish Oil Story
Paul Greenberg
New York Times
2009-12-15 20:00:00
If you are someone who catches and eats a lot of fish, as I am, you get adept at answering questions about which fish are safe, which are sustainable and which should be avoided altogether. But when this fish oil question arrived in my inbox recently, I was stumped. I knew that concerns about overfishing had prompted many consumers to choose supplements as a guilt-free way of getting their omega-3 fatty acids, which studies show lower triglycerides and the risk of heart attack. But I had never looked into the fish behind the oil and whether it was fit, morally or environmentally speaking, to be consumed.
The deal with fish oil, I found out, is that a considerable portion of it comes from a creature upon which the entire Atlantic coastal ecosystem relies, a big-headed, smelly, foot-long member of the herring family called menhaden, which a recent book identifies in its title as The Most Important Fish in the Sea.
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Glutamate Can Play Key Role in Drug Impact on Brain
PhysOrg
2009-12-16 18:00:00
Addiction disorders of various kinds are a major health and social problem, and our knowledge of how the brain's reward system functions needs to be enhanced. Uppsala researchers now shows an unexpected effect of the signal substance glutamate on the midbrain in mice. The study is published in the Web edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, PNAS.
"We have found that a certain part of the brain's reward system requires not only the signal substance dopamine, as was previously thought, but also glutamate" says Ĺsa Mackenzie, who directed the study at the Department of Neuroscience, Uppsala University.
Among other things, the dopamine nerve cells in the midbrain are important for the brain's control of willed movements and for the brain's "reward system." The latter in turn is important for providing us with a feeling of pleasure and happiness, for example, when we have eaten, worked out, or been affirmed. The feeling itself is mediated by dopamine released from the midbrain's dopamine-producing nerve cells to the brain's limbic system.
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Music and the Arts Fight Depression, Promote Health
ScienceDaily
2009-12-16 18:00:00
If you paint, dance or play a musical instrument -- or just enjoy going to the theatre or to concerts -- it's likely that you feel healthier and are less depressed than people who don't, a survey of nearly 50,000 individuals from all socio-economic backgrounds from a county in mid-Norway shows.
The findings are drawn from the latest round of studies conducted for the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's (NTNU) Nord-Trøndelag Health Study, or HUNT, which used questionnaires, interviews, clinical examinations and the collection of blood and urine samples to assemble detailed health profiles of 48,289 participants.
"There is a positive relationship between cultural participation and self-perceived health for both women and men, "says Professor Jostein Holmen, a HUNT researcher who presented the findings, which have not yet been published, at a Norwegian health conference in Stjørdal in late November. "For men, there is also a positive relationship between cultural participation and depression, in that there is less depression among men who participate in cultural activities, although this is not true for women."
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The Importance of Attractiveness Depends on Where You Live
ScienceDaily
2009-12-16 17:00:00
Do good-looking people really benefit from their looks, and in what ways? A team of researchers from the University of Georgia and the University of Kansas found that yes; attractive people do tend to have more social relationships and therefore an increased sense of psychological well-being. This seems like common sense, and might be why we spend billions of dollars each year trying to become more attractive.
However, the study, published in this month's issue of Personal Relationships, also determines that the importance of attractiveness is not universal; rather, it is determined by where we live.
The importance of attractiveness in everyday life is not fixed, or simply a matter of human nature. Instead, the impact of our attractiveness on our social lives depends on the social environment where we live. Attractiveness does matter in more socially mobile, urban areas (and from a woman's point of view actually indicates psychological well-being), but it is far less relevant in rural areas. In urban areas individuals experience a high level of social choice, and associating with attractive people is one of those choices.
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Science & Technology
Study Proves Three Monsanto Corn Varieties' Noxiousness to the Organism
Truthout
2009-12-11 15:13:00
A study published in the International Journal of Biological Sciences demonstrates the toxicity of three genetically modified corn varieties from the American seed company Monsanto, the Committee for Independent Research and Information on Genetic Engineering (Criigen, based in Caen), which participated in that study, announced Friday, December 11.
"For the first time in the world, we've proven that GMO are neither sufficiently healthy nor proper to be commercialized. [...] Each time, for all three GMOs, the kidneys and liver, which are the main organs that react to a chemical food poisoning, had problems," indicated Gilles-Eric Séralini, an expert member of the Commission for Biotechnology Reevaluation, created by the EU in 2008.
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Watery "Super Earth" spotted 40 light years from us
John Timmer
Ars Technica
2009-12-16 16:53:00
Our collection of exoplanets continues to expand and, in recent years, some dedicated hardware like CoRoT and Kepler have joined the search in space. But the latest discovery comes from some pretty mundane hardware - a collection of 40cm telescopes - and has some very compelling properties: a super earth that's likely to harbor liquid water, and orbits a star that's close enough to allow current observatories to image its atmosphere.
The results come courtesy of the MEarth project (a description is available via the arXiv), which is based on Mount Hopkins in Arizona. Instead of exotic, high-end optics, MEarth relies on eight 0.4m telescopes that can be pointed independently. The project works because the hardware is pointed at a very carefully chosen collection of stars: about 2,000 nearby M-dwarfs, which, as the name implies, are relatively small stars. That means that even a moderate-sized planet orbiting one will occlude a significant fraction of its surface during transit. The MEarth scopes are able to spot anything that blocks more than a half of a percent of the light as it transits in front of its host star.
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Real Occult Science: Hubble Spots Smallest Comet Vagabond
Ray Villard
Discovery News
2009-12-16 22:51:00
The largest piece of real estate in the solar system is also the least explored. The solar system's outer rim, the Kuiper Belt, extends from just beyond Neptune's orbit to 5 billion miles from the Sun. It is a debris field of presumably millions of icy bodies left over from the formation of the planets.
First hypothesized 60 years ago by planetary expert Gerard Kuiper, the existence of such an outer comet belt wasn't proven to exist until astronomers began discovering objects in the Kuiper Belt (other than Pluto) in the early 1990s. Now Hubble Space Telescope has stumbled across the smallest thing ever seen in the Kuiper belt.
The previous record holder is 30 miles across. But the interloper Hubble spotted is merely one half-mile across. It would just stretch across the width of New York City's Central Park. In terms of angular size, the object would be the apparent width of a dime located 1/3rd of the way between here and the moon! It is 100 times fainter that Hubble's detection limit.
So how did the Hubble ever uncover such a puny object?
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Scientists Shed New Light on Right Brain Activity
PhysOrg
2009-12-16 16:00:00
It's a world first: thanks to new technology developed by the University of Victoria, Canada, researchers can now show how multiple parts of the right brain dynamically process spatial relationships.
"We already know that most people's right brains deal with the relationship between things in 3-D space," says UVic researcher Phil Zeman. "But until now we didn't know how multiple areas in the right brain interact with each other for spatial processing. This information is vital to understanding the key functions of the right brain, including why people with traumatic brain injury have difficulties with spatial navigation and how pharmaceuticals such as antidepressants affect the brain."
Zeman, along with his supervisor Dr. Ron Skelton, and PhD student Sharon Lee, are using UVic-developed technology to show how people process information. The MOST-EEG (Multiple Origin Spatio-Temporal -EEG) uses the electrical activity obtained from a person's scalp, recorded while a study participant plays a video game for example, to construct a meaningful representation of the brain activity that took place while the participant learned and used the layout of the virtual environment.
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New Technique Detects Proteins That Make Us Age
ScienceDaily
2009-12-16 15:00:00
Chemists and biologists from the University of Bath have developed a new technique that could be used to diagnose and develop treatments for age-related conditions like Alzheimer's disease, diabetes and cancer.
In these diseases, proteins in the body react with sugars in a process called glycation. This modifies the protein's function and can trigger complications such as inflammation and premature aging.
The team at Bath, led by Dr Jean van den Elsen and Dr Tony James, has developed a technique that can detect glycated proteins and could in the future be used for diagnosing a whole range of diseases in patients.
They used a technique called gel electrophoresis, where samples are put into a thin gel layer and an electric current is applied. The gel acts like a molecular sieve, sorting proteins from the samples according to their size and shape, allowing scientists to identify whether specific proteins are present in the blood.
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New Bacterial Behavior: Puzzling 'Dance' of Electricity-Producing Bacteria Near Energy Sources
ScienceDaily
2009-12-16 17:00:00
Bacteria dance the electric slide, officially named electrokinesis by the USC geobiologists who discovered the phenomenon.
Their study, published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Early Edition), describes what appears to be an entirely new bacterial behavior.
The metal-metabolizing Shewanella oneidensis microbe does not just cling to metal in its environment, as previously thought. Instead, it harvests electrochemical energy obtained upon contact with the metal and swims furiously for a few minutes before landing again.
Electrokinesis is more than a curiosity. Laboratory director and co-author Kenneth Nealson, the Wrigley Professor of Geobiology at USC and discoverer of Shewanella, hopes to boost the power of microbe-based fuel cells enough to produce usable energy.
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Our Haunted Planet
US: Sonic boom-like noise heard by many last night
WGMD 92.7 News Radio
2009-12-17 11:50:00
A sonic boom like sound heard by many late last night is something that has happened before, according to State Police. They tells us that is what it probably is. They tell us there was nothing reported to them last night as far as an explosion or anything suspicious. Delaware's Dover Air Force Base has no information regarding any aircraft from their base that the noise may have been related to.
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England: Winkleigh UFO mystery
Dave Tanner
North Devon Gazette
2009-12-17 11:25:00
UFO researchers are trying to throw some more light on a mysterious sighting in Winkleigh earlier this week.
The bizarre close encounter happened following an evening visit to a Christmas fair at a neighbouring village on Monday (December 12).
The witness contacted the Truro-based Cornwall UFO Research Group to report the sighting and group chairman Dave Gillham contacted the Gazette to appeal to any other witnesses to get in touch.
Mr Gillham said the witness saw a "strange yellow orangey light" approaching from the south west as he unpacked his car at his farm in the village
The man said: "I went inside and told my wife that there was a strange light in the sky.
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Two Unknown Objects Sighted over Malaga, Spain
UFO Casebook
2009-12-17 11:25:00
Published: December 14, 2009
Date: 12-12-09
On December 12, I was just closing myself up for the night, at 18:37, when I noticed a stationary red light in the sky in the direction of Malaga.
At first I thought it was a helicopter or airplane on a direct line over me, and therefore appearing stationary. However, there was no noise, and the object did not get any closer.
I watched as the red light pulsed and dimmed a few times, and appeared to go out and then re-light and began to move in a very irregular manner, not in keeping with normal aircraft of the Costa del Sol.
I raced for the binoculars and as I went on to the balcony I saw that there were two objects. Through the binoculars they looked like the quick Photoshop illustration supplied.
Colors are more or less exact being at twilight. I am a lapsed astronomer, so I know that there should be no astronomical bodies in this area of this color.
Unfortunately the light was sufficiently dim as to not enable me to use the camera (I am a photographer by training), and a 300mm lens would not have given me the magnification of the binoculars.
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US: Vertical Rectangular Object With 4 Bright Lights in Night Sky
UFOs Northwest
2009-12-17 11:25:00
Posted: December 16, 2009
Date of Sighting: December 15, 2009
Time of Sighting: 8:30 PM PST
Location of Sighting: San Leandro, California (Bay Area About 15 Miles SE of Oakland)
Description: I saw a vertical rectangular shaped object with (4) bright white lights on the left side. The top light was the brightest of the four. There were (4) lights on the right that were equally adjacent to those on the left. However, these were not as bright and were amber in color. The object appeared motionless and it's lights steady and not flashing. I spotted it to the northeast. It was clearly visable to the naked eye in a cloudy sky where stars were barely visible.
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England: Bright orange lights coming from nowhere and racing across the sky
UK UFO Sightings
2009-12-17 10:59:00
Posted: December 15, 2009
Location of Sighting: Tiptree, Colchester, Essex
Date of Sighting: 14th Dec 2009
Time: 12.45am
Witness Statement: Hi, um this is prob going to sound mad, but between Sat/Sun 12:45am in Tiptree - I witness 6 Bright orange lights race across the sky.
At first there was only two, they came from nowhere then the two 1st lights swapped place's, one of them stayed stationary while the other one seemed to vanish!
Then while the other one stayed (almost hovering - for want of a better word), then once again from what seemed like nowhere, another orange light appeared and zipped across the sky followed by another, then another, until 5 lights had passed the stationary light.
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US: Silent UFO slow moving over Spring Hill, Tennessee
Roger Marsh
UFO Examiner
2009-12-17 10:21:00
A Spring Hill, TN, couple watched a slow moving disc-shaped object moving low and silently over their home on December 10, according to testimony from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) witness database.
The object was described as having several "yellowish white lights" around it and one red light on top.
The 37-year-old husband called the Spring Hill Police Department to report the sighting, and eventually talked to an officer who lives across the street. The officer witnessed the object too, but could not identify what they were looking at.
Following is the unedited and uninvestigated report from MUFON. Please keep in mind that most UFO reports can be explained as something natural or manmade. Some reports may be hoaxes. If Tennessee MUFON State Director Eddie Middleton investigates and reports back on this case, I will release an update.
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Don't Panic! Lighten Up!
'Santa' stumbles out of vehicle, seeks reindeer
Associated Press
2009-12-16 21:36:00
Sparta, Wisconsin - Santa Claus is in trouble with the law in one western Wisconsin city. Police in Sparta said they cited a man dressed as Santa after witnesses told officers he stumbled out of a vehicle, approached several children playing in a yard, hugged them and demanded to know the whereabouts of his reindeer.
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