2012-02-22T14:11:20Z Sott.net tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-22:/:signsofthetimes tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-22:/articles/show/241920 2012-02-22T14:02:08Z

From the Financial Times to the far left, tons of ink has been spilt writing about some variant of the "Crises of Global Capitalism". While writers differ in the causes, consequences and cures, according to their ideological lights, there is a common agreement that "the crises" threatens to end the capitalist system as we know it. There is no doubt that, between 2008-2009, the capitalist system in Europe and the United States suffered a severe shock that shook the foundations of its financial system and threatened to bankrupt its 'leading sectors'. However, I will argue the 'crises of capitalism' was turned into a 'crises of labor'. Finance capital, the principle detonator of the crash and crises, recovered, the capitalist class as a whole was strengthened, and most important of all, it utilized the political, social, ideological conditions created as a result of "the crises" to further consolidate their dominance and exploitation over the rest of society. In other words, the 'crises of capital' has been converted into a strategic advantage for furthering the most fundamental interests of capital: the enlargement of profits, the consolidation of capitalist rule, the greater concentration of ownership, the deepening of inequalities between capital and labor and the creation of huge reserves of labor to further augment their profits.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-22:/articles/show/241919 2012-02-22T13:52:10Z

More than 600 people are injured, officials say, with reports of some passengers still trapped in carnage at Buenos Aires station Buenos Aires - A packed train slammed into the end of the line in Buenos Aires' busy Once station, killing 49 people and injuring hundreds of morning commuters in Argentina's worst train accident in decades. Federal Police Commissioner Nestor Rodriguez said Wednesday's dead included 48 adults and one child. Officials said more than 600 people were injured out of more than 800 people who were reportedly on the train. The death toll was Argentina's highest from a train accident since 1970, when 200 were killed. Officials said the train was unable to stop and it slammed into the buffers inside the centrally located station. "The train entered the Once station at 26 kilometers per hour (16 mph)... we suppose there was some flaw in the brakes," Transport Secretary Juan Pablo Schiavi told state news agency Telam. "The train was full and the impact was tremendous," a passenger named Ezequiel told local television, AFP reported.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-22:/articles/show/241918 2012-02-22T13:35:17Z

Arturo de los Santos lost his home to foreclosure more than a year ago and was evicted. But because he felt he was treated unfairly, he moved back into his home of 10 years in an effort to force the lender, Freddie Mac, to back down. "I'm just a regular guy who gets up each day, takes the kids to school and goes to work," said de los Santos, a retired Marine who is hunkered down in the modest three-bedroom house in Riverside, Calif., surrounded by an encampment of Occupy Riverside protesters and housing activists. "We've done everything the way we were supposed to. We're not going to just sit back and let Freddie Mac steal our home." A new eviction order aimed at forcing de los Santos, a 46-year-old metal worker, and his family out of the house took effect Tuesday, meaning that sheriff's deputies could arrive at any time. Arturo de los Santos also has been served a court summons threaten[ing] him with arrest if he doesn't leave his house. De los Santos' story is similar to thousands of other American homeowners who claim that banks mishandled mortgage modifications. When the economic crisis hit in 2008, the factory where he worked cut his hours, so de los Santos pursued a modification based on his lower income with JP Morgan Chase, servicer of the loan.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-22:/articles/show/241917 2012-02-22T13:04:57Z

It's being called the "negative salary": Due to austerity measures in Greece, it's being reported that up to 64,000 Greeks will go without pay this month, and some will have to pay for having a job. Numbers in austerity reports have usually reflected figures in the millions, since they reflect industry-wide cuts (i.e. a 537-million euro cut to health and pension funds). And plans of cutting minimum wage by up to 32% is all but a given in the country. Today's "negative salary" deal - which could have government employees returning funds - reveals the real human impact of the austerity measures. As Zero Hedge and the Press Project report: Salary cutbacks (called "unified payroll") for contract workers at the public sector set to be finalized today. Cuts to be valid retroactively since november 2011. Expected result: Up to 64.000 people will work without salary this month, or even be asked to return money. Amongst them 21,000 teachers, 13,000 municipal employees and 30,000 civil servants.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-22:/articles/show/241916 2012-02-22T11:47:15Z

The half-century habits of Franco-German condominium die hard. It is a painful process for French elites to admit that monetary union is asphyxiating their economy and must inevitably trap France in mercantilist subordination to Germany. The Carolingian union is all that anybody in French public life can really remember. It worked marvellously for two generations, levering French power on the global stage, and the euro was of course their own creation, intended to tie down a reunited Germany with "silken cords". How can they now face the awful truth that this elegant strategy has blown up in their faces, enthroning Germany as undisputed hegemon? Yet they can hardly ignore the evidence. While German unemployment has fallen to a post-Reunification low of 5.5pc, France's jobless rate has crept up to a post-EMU high of 9.9pc and is certain to rise further as recession bites again. While both countries had the same sorts of export surplus in the early 1990s, they have diverged massively since the D-Mark and franc were fixed in perpetuity. Germany has a current account surplus of 5pc of GDP: France has a deficit of 2.7pc, anathema for Colbertistes.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-22:/articles/show/241915 2012-02-22T11:29:17Z

Here's the draft of the supposed agreement to "sort out" the Greek debt problem once and for all. According to Bloomberg, here are the essentials: Greece's 2012 GDP will shrink by as much as 5%. Greece is expected to return to growth in 2013. Greece will cut 15,000 state jobs in 2012. Minimum wage will be cut by 20 percent. There will be no increase to sales tax. The government will cut medicine spending from 1.9% to 1.5% and merge all auxiliary pension funds. It will also sell stakes in six companies - in particular, energy companies and refineries. Of course, the current thrust of fiscal policy will almost certainly guarantee that there still will be a default, involuntary or otherwise, in spite of this agreement. If you don't have a mechanism to allow growth, then how can the Greeks service their debt, even with the reduced debt burden?

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-22:/articles/show/241914 2012-02-22T11:13:46Z

The conditions the European Union set for Greece in exchange for a second bailout represent a very unusual amount of outside control and oversight of a sovereign country. The $172 billion Greek bailout package hammered out in Brussels Tuesday averts a looming Greek default and, its architects hope, will ward off dangerous financial consequences for neighbors. The sheer size of the bailout and a promised debt write-off of roughly 100 billion euros ($132 billion) represents a more favorable outcome than Greek officials expected. But the bailout comes with rigorous budget cuts demanded by northern European states and other requirements that represent an unprecedented amount of European Union control over a sovereign member. "We have been learning for years how to share sovereignty in Europe," says Loukas Tsoukalis of the University of Athens and head of the think tank Eliamep, which deals with European and foreign policy. "With the crisis, we are all being asked to take some difficult steps further. It is uncharted territory. If you are a country on the verge of default, such as Greece, sovereignty and economic survival may create awkward tradeoffs."

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-22:/articles/show/241913 2012-02-22T10:31:16Z

Earth's clouds got a little lower -- about one percent on average -- during the first decade of this century, finds a new NASA-funded university study based on NASA satellite data. The results have potential implications for future global climate. Scientists at the University of Auckland in New Zealand analyzed the first 10 years of global cloud-top height measurements (from March 2000 to February 2010) from the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft. The study, published recently in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, revealed an overall trend of decreasing cloud height. Global average cloud height declined by around one percent over the decade, or by around 100 to 130 feet (30 to 40 meters). Most of the reduction was due to fewer clouds occurring at very high altitudes. Lead researcher Roger Davies said that while the record is too short to be definitive, it provides a hint that something quite important might be going on. Longer-term monitoring will be required to determine the significance of the observation for global temperatures.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-22:/articles/show/241912 2012-02-22T10:22:49Z

Splenda Essentials pretend to be health-supporting, when in fact they seem to have more in common with pesticides than with sugar. Sucralose, sold under the brand name Splenda, is simply chlorinated sugar; in chemical terms, it is a chlorocarbon. The idea behind this is that the body would no longer recognize it as sugar. But, as Johns Hopkins-trained physician and biochemist James Bowen, MD, points out, chlorine is "nature's Doberman attack dog - a highly excitable, ferocious atomic element employed as a biocide in bleach, disinfectants, insecticide, WWI poison gas and hydrochloric acid." Common chlorocarbons include chlordane and DDT, a product so harmful that it is now banned for agricultural use the world over. Now Splenda is selling a product called Splenda Essentials. Different formulations contain B vitamins, antioxidants (vitamins C and E), or fiber. The marketing and advertising appear to be targeting health-conscious people who are interested in vitamins and nutrition - despite the fact that Splenda is highly toxic and has no place in a healthy diet.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-22:/articles/show/241911 2012-02-22T10:12:46Z

A giant storm is brewing under the sea off the coast of South Africa. Snapped on December 26 by NASA's Terra satellite, the recently released image shows the incredible huge swirl of water estimated to stretch nearly 150km across. It looks like it could swallow a moderately sized island nation, but the "storm" is actually just a harmless eddy, also known as a "current ring". This one has formed off the Agulhas Current which flows around the southeastern coast and tip of South Africa. And rather than suck unwitting life down to the ocean's murky depths, the anticlockwise swirl is more likely to bring nutrients up to the surface, according to the Daily Mail. Still, it's a great pic, even though it's not exactly the Terra satellite's main mission. NASA launched Terra back in 2003 as part of a multinational effort to monitor the spread of pollution around the Earth through a 15-year lifecycle.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-22:/articles/show/241910 2012-02-22T09:35:33Z

The National Weather Service in Honolulu has issued a winter storm warning for the summits of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa until 6 a.m. Wednesday (Feb 22) for elevations above 8,000 feet. A winter storm warning means significant amounts of snow, sleet and ice are expected or is occuring. Strong winds are also possible. Sleet, snow and freezing rain will make for hazardous conditions for drivers and hikers. An additional three to four inches of snowfall is expected this afternoon and evening. Time-lapse movie of Mauna Loa. This panorama is a composite of a five images from a temporary research camera positioned on the north rim of Mokuʻāweoweo, the summit caldera of Mauna Loa volcano. If you look carefully around early morning or late evening, you may see a few thermal areas emitting steam. Images courtesy of USGS

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-22:/articles/show/241909 2012-02-22T09:26:25Z

Goldman, SM, PJ Quinlan, GW Ross, C Marras, C Meng, GS Bhudhikanok, K Comyns, M Korell, AR Chade, M Kasten, B Priestly, KL Chou, HH Fernandez, F Cambi, JW Langston and CT Tanner. 2011. Solvent exposures and Parkinson disease risk in twins. Annals of Neurology Even relatively limited exposure to some common chemical solvents at work or through hobbies may increase the risk of having Parkinson's disease (PD), report researchers who found a higher risk regardless of the number of exposures, their duration or lifetime totals. They also found that the first symptoms of the disease - the second most common neurodegenerative disease in the United States - may not surface until decades after exposure. Animal research and limited studies with people suggest exposure to environmental contaminants may play a role in PD. This study of twins supports that idea by providing the first population-based evidence that links exposure to specific solvents - including TCE, PERC, and CCI4 - and the risk of PD. The highest risk was seen with TCE, a degreaser and a chemical used in dry cleaning that contaminates up to a third of U.S. drinking water. The ubiquitous nature these chemicals in the environment suggests more research is needed to confirm and better understand the possible link between human exposures and PD risk.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-22:/articles/show/241908 2012-02-22T08:13:14Z

One third of our economy thrive on making people sick and fat. Big Farming grows 500 more calories per person per day than 25 years ago because they get paid to grow extra food even when it is not needed. The extra corn (sugar) and soy (fat) are turned into industrial processed food and sugar-sweetened beverages - combinations of fat, sugar and salt that are proven to be addictive. These subsidized ($288 billion) cheap, low-quality foods are heavily marketed ($30 billion) and consumed by our ever-widening population with an obesity rate approaching three out of four Americans. The more they eat, the fatter they become. The fatter they become the more they develop heart disease, diabetes, cancer and a myriad of other chronic ailments. Comment: Research has shown that salt is a necessary and beneficial nutrient as long as it's unrefined sea salt as opposed to the typical processed store bought variety. Today, one in 10 Americans have diabetes. By 2050 one in three Americans will have diabetes. The sicker our population, the more medications are sold for high cholesterol, diabetes, high blood pressure, depression, and many other lifestyle driven diseases. The Toxic Triad of Big Farming, Big Food, and Big Pharma profits from creating a nation of sick and fat citizens.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-22:/articles/show/241907 2012-02-22T05:22:55Z

I was thinking about the state of the world yesterday, having gotten off the phone with my sister. She was once again reminding me that even though she and her husband both work, they barely make it most months and things just keep getting worse. She said that they feel they have no connection to anything, since fewer things just make common sense - that she has no control - that no matter how hard they work, for so many years, the rules keep shifting and the liars keep making more money while normal people drown a little more every day. She's right. The rules have changed and they changed while no one was watching. In fact, I'd say they changed because no one was watching.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-22:/articles/show/241906 2012-02-22T01:22:01Z

Young children are leaving primary school unable to spell, add up or do their times tables because their parents are too busy to help them practise, a survey revealed today. Half of children aged between 10 and 12 do not know what a noun is or cannot identify an adverb - while almost a third, 31 per cent, cannot use apostrophes correctly. More than one in five - 22 per cent - could not use the correct version of 'they're', 'there' and 'their' in a sentence and more than four in 10 couldn't spell the word 'secretaries' correctly. Maths didn't fare much better in the survey by online tutor, mytutor, with more than a quarter of children being unable to add two small sums of money without using a calculator as they can't do division and basic algebra. Twenty-seven per cent of children surveyed could not add £2.36 and £1.49 to get £3.85. In addition, more than a third, 36 per cent, could not divide 415 by five and a quarter did not know the answer to seven multiplied by six.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-21:/articles/show/241905 2012-02-21T23:19:58Z

I was lucky enough to catch up with Donald Rumsfeld, former Secretary of Defense, at the Edward Teach Memorial Golf Course and Scuba Diving Facility outside of Kingston, Jamaica. Rummy had hit two horrible shots in a row, badly slicing both of his balls, and was in a foul mood. Interviewer Hey Rummy, you aim golf balls even worse than predator drones! Rumsfeld Watch out, asshole, or I'll aim one at you. Interviewer If you did, I'd be the safest guy on the fairway. Rumsfeld There are known knowns, known unknowns, unknown knowns, and unknown unknowns. You're an unknown unknown. Bug off. Interviewer Actually, I wanted to ask you a few questions about predator drones. Rumsfeld (chuckling) You don't say! That happens one of my favorite topics. After all, I pioneered them! Obama uses them more than we did, so he gets the Nobel Peace Prize! Is that unfair, or what? (The rest of the interview was conducted intermittently, between the 9th and 11th holes.)

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-21:/articles/show/241904 2012-02-21T23:04:03Z

Recent research published in the journal Archives of Environmental and Occupational Health concluded that the "Laptop is paradoxically an improper site for the use of a LTC [laptop computer], which consequently should be renamed to not induce customers towards an improper use." [emphasis added] What lead these reseachers to reach such a seemingly drastic conclusion? In the study referenced above and titled "Exposure to electromagnetic fields from laptop use of "laptop" computers," researchers found that electromagnetic fields (EMFs) produced by laptop computers likely induce currents within the adult body, and the bodies of developing fetuses exposed by proxy, to unsafe levels. They found that in the laptop computers analyzed EMF values were "considerably higher than the values recommended by 2 recent guidelines for computer monitors magnetic field emissions..."

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-21:/articles/show/241903 2012-02-21T22:57:39Z

Vienna - The U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Wednesday it had failed to secure an agreement with Iran during two days of talks over disputed atomic activities and that the Islamic Republic had rejected a request to visit a key military site. In the second such trip in less than a month, a senior team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had travelled to Tehran to press Iranian officials to start addressing mounting concerns that the Islamic Republic may be seeking to develop nuclear weapons. The outcome seems likely to add to already soaring tension between Iran and Western powers, which have ratcheted up sanctions on the major oil producer in recent months. "During both the first and second round of discussions, the agency team requested access to the military site at Parchin. Iran did not grant permission for this visit to take place," the Vienna-based IAEA said in a statement after the Feb 20-21 talks. The IAEA named Parchin in a detailed report in November that lent independent weight to Western fears that Iran was working to develop an atomic bomb, an allegation Iranian officials reject.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-21:/articles/show/241902 2012-02-21T22:56:31Z

Barack Obama will address the annual convention of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on March 4, a day before he and visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hold talks expected to focus on Iran, the White House announced Tuesday. With the Middle East peace process stalled, the president and his guest are likely to focus on the best way to confront Iran over its suspect nuclear program, as well as the response to Syria's bloody crackdown on opponents of President Bashar al-Assad's regime. The president's speech to the most powerful US pro-Israel lobby group could also have an election-year flavor: Republicans have tried to portray Obama as insufficiently supportive of Israel's security, a charge rejected by several high profile Israeli officials including Defense Minister Ehud Barak. The announcement came after Obama's national security adviser, Tom Donilon, paid a two-day visit to Israel.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-21:/articles/show/241900 2012-02-21T21:33:04Z

The Associated Press has revealed the New York City Police Department monitored Muslim college students at schools throughout the Northeast, including Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania. In one case, the NYPD sent an undercover agent on a whitewater rafting trip in upstate New York, where he recorded students' names and noted in police intelligence files how many times they prayed. We speak to one of the students on the trip, Jawad Rasul. He is the only student who was under surveillance to now publicly speak out about his experience. "[This is] hurting NYPD's try and attempt at finding homegrown terrorism, because these kind of tactics actually create more hatred towards them and the other law-enforcement agencies and really destroys the trust that any youth might have developed with the government," Rasul said. We're also joined by Mongi Dhaouadi, executive director of the Connecticut chapter of Council on American-Islamic Relations, which is calling for a state probe into the spying on Muslims.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-21:/articles/show/241899 2012-02-21T21:31:00Z

A New Hampshire man who fired his handgun into the ground to scare an alleged burglar he caught crawling out of a neighbor's window is now facing a felony charge -- and the same potential prison sentence as the man he stopped. Dennis Fleming, 61, of Farmington, was arrested for reckless conduct after the Saturday incident at his 19th century farmhouse. The single grandfather had returned home to find that his home had been burglarized and spotted Joseph Hebert, 27, climbing out of a window at a neighbor's home. Fleming said he yelled "Freeze!" before firing his gun into the ground, then held Hebert at gunpoint until police arrived. "I didn't think I could handle this guy physically, so I fired into the ground," Fleming told FoxNews.com. "He stopped. He knew I was serious. I was angry ... and I was worried that this guy was going to come after me." No one was injured in the incident, but when the police arrived, they made two arrests. Hebert was charged with two counts of burglary and drug possession. He faces up to seven years in prison if convicted. Fleming, meanwhile, is scheduled to be arraigned March 20 on a charge of reckless conduct, which could potentially land him a sentence similar to the one Hebert faces.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-21:/articles/show/241898 2012-02-21T21:25:50Z

A little while back, I sat Tucker Max -- one of the world's best-known self-proclaimed narcissists -- on my couch and revealed his psychological test results. Unsurprisingly, he scored high (31/40) on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI; you can take the test here). He scored the highest, though, on the exploitative dimension, which has items such as "I find it easy to manipulate people" and "I can read people like a book." I also gave him the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test, which assesses the ability to accurately perceive how someone is feeling based solely on looking at their eyes (you can take the test here). Consistent with his NPI scores, he scored extremely high on this test, getting 33 out of 36 correct. But then I noticed something else. On the Big Five personality test, he scored extremely low in Compassion, a dimension of Agreeableness. Of course, this will come to no surprise to his fans -- who like him for his humor, not his compassion. In his latest book "Hilarity Ensues", he states right in the acknowledgements, "I'm sure I'm forgetting a ton of people. What do you want from me, compassion and empathy? Have you read my book?" Fair enough. But at least I had empirical support.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-21:/articles/show/241897 2012-02-21T21:12:47Z

The "toy car" is on display alongside toy dolls and whistles - all made out of stone - at the Mardin Museum [map]. Archaeologist Mesut Alp reports that the toy car is at least 7,500 years old - dating back to the late Stone Age. When speaking with the Cihan news agency and reporters with Todays Zaman, Alp insisted that the item is a toy car. Culture and Tourism Director of Mardin, Davut Beliktay, confirmed that the exhibit piece as a 7,500-year-old toy car. Beliktay said that the car is "like a copy" of cars today; adding that it also resembles a tractor. However, he didn't explain how a toy car could be 7,500 years old.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-21:/articles/show/241896 2012-02-21T21:02:07Z

A joint British, Danish, American and Jordanian team of archaeologists has discovered 20,000-year-old hut structures at the archaeological site of Kharaneh IV in eastern Jordan. According to the University of Cambridge, the discovery suggests that the area was once intensively occupied and that the origins of architecture in the region date back twenty millennia, before the emergence of agriculture. A paper, published in the journal PLoS-ONE, describes huts that hunter-gatherers used as long-term residences and suggests that many behaviors that have been associated with later cultures and communities, such as a growing attachment to a location and a far-reaching social network, existed up to 10,000 years earlier. "What we witness at the site of Kharaneh IV in the Jordanian desert is an enormous concentration of people in one place," said Dr. Jay Stock from the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, a co-author on the paper. "People lived here for considerable periods of time when these huts were built. They exchanged objects with other groups in the region and even buried their dead at the site. These activities precede the settlements associated with the emergence of agriculture, which replaced hunting and gathering later on. At Kharaneh IV we have been able to document similar behavior a full 10,000 years before agriculture appears on the scene."

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-21:/articles/show/241895 2012-02-21T20:47:54Z

Do you have a chronic degenerative disease? If so, have you been told, "It's all in your head?" Well, that might not be that far from the truth... the root cause of your illness may be in your mouth. There is a common dental procedure that nearly every dentist will tell you is completely safe, despite the fact that scientists have been warning of its dangers for more than 100 years. Every day in the United States alone, 41,000 of these dental procedures are performed on patients who believe they are safely and permanently fixing their problem. What is this dental procedure? The root canal. More than 25 million root canals are performed every year in this country. Root-canaled teeth are essentially "dead" teeth that can become silent incubators for highly toxic anaerobic bacteria that can, under certain conditions, make their way into your bloodstream to cause a number of serious medical conditions - many not appearing until decades later. Most of these toxic teeth feel and look fine for many years, which make their role in systemic disease even harder to trace back. Sadly, the vast majority of dentists are oblivious to the serious potential health risks they are exposing their patients to, risks that persist for the rest of their patients' lives.The American Dental Association claims root canals have been proven safe, but they have NO published data or actual research to substantiate this claim.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-21:/articles/show/241894 2012-02-21T20:46:13Z

An artist has asked Thanet Extra readers to help him solve a spooky mystery. Malcolm Baker contacted us after a spotting a figure dressed in white on a photo he took of Kingsgate Castle in Broadstairs. The figure is standing looking out to sea, close to chalets below the castle in Kingsgate Bay Road, on a day when Mr Baker insists there were very few people around. He is convinced the figure is that of a nurse in 1950s uniform, carrying a tray, although there have been reports of a ghostly nun, also dressed in white, on the beach below. Mr Baker said: "There might be a totally innocent explanation, but it was very strange. "It was a really horrible cold and wet day in December 2010, and I went to take the photos as I wanted to paint a picture of the castle. "I made a note of the fact that there was no-one around at all because of the weather. "I took three photos in very quick succession and the figure only appears in one. "If it had been someone standing outside the chalets, especially dressed in bright white clothing at that time of year, I am in no doubt I would have noticed, even if it was briefly. I didn't see anyone at the time, it was only recently when I got the photos out to start on the painting again. "There is a fence near the chalets but it appears that the figure is further forward."

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-21:/articles/show/241893 2012-02-21T20:25:06Z

The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson Feeling "grounded" is an increasingly uncommon experience in this day and age, and it should be, considering we no longer regularly touch the ground with our bare feet, as nature intended. It is no great mystery that the human foot was designed, over countless millenia, to be in direct contact with the Earth, the literal and symbolic ground of our being. And the Earth is no inert substance, but rather a living and breathing entity (of which we are but a mere part) capable of infusing us with its life, 'singing the body electric,' as Walt Whitman once mused. Indeed, the Earth breathes life into us through a continual stream of free electrons... It is well established, though not widely known, that the surface of the earth possesses a limitless and continuously renewed supply of free or mobile electrons as a consequence of a global atmospheric electron circuit. Wearing shoes with insulating soles and/or sleeping in beds that are isolated from the electrical ground plane of the earth have disconnected most people from the earth's electrical rhythms and free electrons to flow from the earth to the body. - James L Oschman, Can electrons act as antioxidants? A review and commentary.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-21:/articles/show/241892 2012-02-21T20:16:51Z

It's like something out of a fairy tale. A tiny town in a country with nearly 23% unemployment receives a huge, sudden windfall and every resident becomes a near millionaire overnight. Of course, if fairy tales have taught us anything, it's that stories like this rarely end well. Sodeto, a village of 250 people in an inhospitable region of northern Spain has won the lottery -- or part of it anyway. According to Der Spiegel, the town won 17% of the country's annual Christmas lottery's biggest prize, "El Gordo," totaling 700 million euros ($910 million). The village itself took 120 million euros ($158 million). The rest of the prize money was paid out in other towns in Sodeto's province of Huesca but Sodeto was the only village where every family won. Its luck can be primarily traced back to the local housewives' club, which spent weeks convincing residents to buy lotto tickets. Since their win, many around Spain have viewed the village as a potential cash cow. Salesmen sit in the local bar all day, hoping to sell new cars, homes or investments. On their end, many residents claim that they want to use the money to improve the town and draw people back to it -- it's been shrinking for years. Some see the money as a way to improve the area's agricultural infrastructure.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-21:/articles/show/241891 2012-02-21T20:13:49Z

In an exciting act of grassroots resistance to Monsanto and their GMOs that are ravaging the planet, activist Adam Eidinger has infiltrated a Monsanto shareholder meeting and posted the video up on Youtube. Eidinger discusses the negative impact of GMO crops, Roundup, and other Monsanto creations on human health and the environment. As a result, a shocked Monsanto spokesman (identified as CEO Hugh Grant by Eidinger) does his best to brush off the concerns and assure the activist that the company - the same company that has been found to be running slave rings on their GMO crop fields - cares very much about the concerns of their shareholders.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-21:/articles/show/241890 2012-02-21T19:57:08Z

Languages in which nouns are given male or female status are linked to gender inequality, according to a new study that compares languages and equality across the globe. Surprisingly, though, languages with no gender at all - where even "he" and "she" are represented by the same word - are associated with the most gender inequality, perhaps because people automatically categorize gender-neutral references as male. "These are aspects of language that seem very mundane and seem like they wouldn't make a difference," said study researcher Jennifer Prewitt-Freilino, a psychologist at the Rhode Island School of Design. "But more and more research that is starting to come out looking at grammatical gender and language suggests that it has more of an impact than you would think."

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-21:/articles/show/241889 2012-02-21T19:50:24Z

Tens of thousands of Pakistanis protest continued assassinations and airstrikes on Pakistan soil that have left thousands of innocent bystanders dead. Massive rallies were held today in Pakistan in response to over 2,000 soldiers being killed by NATO forces and constant drone strikes that leave innocent woman and children dead. The protests also denounced the U.S. assassination attacks by U.S. military forces on Pakistani soil. The sparking point for the rallies began when a U.S airstrike killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November. Since the U.S. has repeatedly ignored requests to end or coordinate them with Pakistani intelligence in order to prevent so-called collateral damage. While it may be hard to imagine the anger of Pakistani citizens given all of the one-sided reporting and anti-terrorism propaganda reported in the corporate media, anyone who objectively questions the morality situation can clearly understand there anger. As reported some time ago, 1 in 7 U.S. drone strikes worldwide kills a child. In Pakistan those statistics are worse, were in 1 in 3 drone strikes kills a child. See this- Report: "1 in 3 Pakistan Drone Strikes and 1in 7 of all CIA Drone Strikes Kills a Child." Furthermore, just imagine Russia or Iranian special forces conducting raids every day to assassinate people here inside the U.S. Also imagine, when every a target is assassinated any innocent bystander, be they a man, women or child, who is unfortunate to be in the surrounding area is also killed as part of collateral damage.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-21:/articles/show/241888 2012-02-21T19:45:01Z

One of the most often quoted, yet least understood, tenets of physics is the uncertainty principle. Formulated by German physicist Werner Heisenberg in 1927, the rule states that the more precisely you measure a particle's position, the less precisely you will be able to determine its momentum, and vice versa. The principle is often invoked outside the realm of physics to describe how the act of observing something changes the thing being observed, or to point out that there's a limit to how well we can ever really understand the universe. While the subtleties of the uncertainty principle are often lost on nonphysicists, it turns out the idea is frequently misunderstood by experts, too. But a recent experiment shed new light on the maxim and led to a novel formula describing how the uncertainty principle really works.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-21:/articles/show/241887 2012-02-21T19:17:13Z

When Paula Symons joined the U.S. workforce in 1972, typewriters in her office clacked nonstop, people answered the telephones and the hot new technology revolutionizing communication was the fax machine. Symons, fresh out of college, entered this brave new world thinking she'd do pretty much what her parents' generation did: Work for just one or two companies over about 45 years before bidding farewell to co-workers at a retirement party and heading off into her sunset years with a pension. Forty years into that run, the 60-year-old communications specialist for a Wisconsin-based insurance company has worked more than a half-dozen jobs. She's been laid off, downsized and seen the pension disappear with only a few thousand dollars accrued when it was frozen. So, five years from the age when people once retired, she laughs when she describes her future plans. "I'll probably just work until I drop," she says, a sentiment expressed, with varying degrees of humor, by numerous members of her age group.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-21:/articles/show/241886 2012-02-21T19:06:00Z

Alarming rise in bacteria resistant to antibiotics, Government report finds Britain is facing a "massive" rise in antibiotic-resistant blood poisoning caused by the bacterium E.coli - bringing closer the spectre of diseases that are impossible to treat. Experts say the growth of antibiotic resistance now poses as great a threat to global health as the emergence of new diseases such as Aids and pandemic flu. Professor Peter Hawkey, a clinical microbiologist and chair of the Government's antibiotic-resistance working group, said that antibiotic resistance had become medicine's equivalent of climate change. The "slow but insidious growth" of resistant organisms was threatening to turn common infections into untreatable diseases, he said. Already, an estimated 25,000 people die each year in the European Union from antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-21:/articles/show/241885 2012-02-21T18:50:12Z

The 2012 race turned to God, Satan and religion when Franklin Graham said he's surer that Rick Santorum is a Christian than President Obama and a 2008 Santorum speech surfaced in which the top GOP candidate told a religious audience that Satan is attacking U.S. institutions. Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham, said on MSNBC Tuesday that he could not verify that President Obama is a Christian. "I just have to assume that he is," Graham said. But he has no question about Rick Santorum. "His values are so clear on moral issues. No question about it. ... I think he's a man of faith." Santorum's faith was in the news for another reason, too. The Pennsylvania Republican said in 2008, two years after losing his Senate seat and four years before seeking the presidency, that Satan was attacking U.S. institutions in government and religion. The comments, not before mentioned during the 2012 election cycle, were the lead item on the Drudge Report Tuesday. Santorum has surged to even or even ahead of Mitt Romney in opinion polls, including in Romney's home state of Michigan, where Republican voters cast their preference for the GOP nominee next Tuesday.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-21:/articles/show/241884 2012-02-21T18:36:22Z

Under the terms of the 50-state mortgage foreclosure settlement, US taxpayers could end up paying billions in penalties that were supposed to be paid by the banks. That's the gist of a front-page story which appeared in the Financial Times on Thursday, February 17. The widely-cited article by Shahien Nasiripour notes that the 5 banks that will be effected by the settlement - Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Ally Financial - will be able to use Obama's mortgage modification program (HAMP) to reduce loan balances and "receive cash payments of up to 63 cents on the dollar for every dollar of loan principal forgiven." And that's not all. If borrowers stay current on their payments after their loans are restructured, the banks could qualify for additional government funds which (according to the FT) "could then turn a profit for the banks according to people familiar with the settlement terms." How do you like them apples? Leave it to the bank-friendly Obama administration to turn a penalty into a windfall. In effect, the settlement will help the banks avoid losses on mortgages that are vastly overpriced on their books and which were probably headed into foreclosure anyway. Taxpayers will stump up the money for the principle writedowns that will allow the banks to extract even more tribute from underwater homeowners. What kind of penalty is that?

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-21:/articles/show/241883 2012-02-21T16:55:51Z

The Pill Establishment has run out of patience with people who are given prescription drugs and don't do a good enough job of taking their pills as they are told. Last year, USA Today reported that: Americans may waste as much as $258 billion a year by not taking prescribed medications because the missed doses lead to emergency room visits, doctors' visits and in-patient hospitalizations, according to a study by Express Scripts, an independent prescription- filling company. ..."Drugs don't work if you don't take them, and people often don't take them the way they're supposed to," said Bob Nease, chief scientist at Express Scripts.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-21:/articles/show/241882 2012-02-21T16:55:42Z

We have no ways to directly observe molecules and what they do -- Drew Berry wants to change that. At TEDxSydney he shows his scientifically accurate (and entertaining!) animations that help researchers see unseeable processes within our own cells. The movie is available to view with subtitles in 17 languages HERE.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-21:/articles/show/241881 2012-02-21T16:29:57Z

Fine atmospheric particles - smaller than one-thirtieth of the diameter of a human hair - were identified more than 20 years ago as the most lethal of the widely dispersed air pollutants in the United States. Linked to both heart and lung disease, they kill an estimated 50,000 Americans each year. But more recently, scientists have been puzzled to learn that a subset of these particles, called secondary organic aerosols, has a greater total mass, and is thus more dangerous, than previously understood. A batch of new scientific findings is helping sort out the discrepancy, including, most recently, a study led by scientists at the University of California, Irvine, and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., that is scheduled to be released on Tuesday. It indicates that the compounds' persistence in the atmosphere was under-represented in older scientific models. "If the authors' analysis is correct, the public is now facing a false sense of security in knowing whether the air they breathe is indeed safe," said Bill Becker, of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-21:/articles/show/241880 2012-02-21T16:18:39Z

Icelanders who pelted parliament with rocks in 2009 demanding their leaders and bankers answer for the country's economic and financial collapse are reaping the benefits of their anger. Since the end of 2008, the island's banks have forgiven loans equivalent to 13 percent of gross domestic product, easing the debt burdens of more than a quarter of the population, according to a report published this month by the Icelandic Financial Services Association. "You could safely say that Iceland holds the world record in household debt relief," said Lars Christensen, chief emerging markets economist at Danske Bank A/S in Copenhagen. "Iceland followed the textbook example of what is required in a crisis. Any economist would agree with that."

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-21:/articles/show/241879 2012-02-21T16:16:06Z

A paper published by the American Medical Association's Virtual Mentor is concerned that current enrollment in vaccine trials is extremely low.[1] The proposed solution? Creating a federal law that would force each individual to make a "mandated choice" to participate in vaccine trials. Such a law would give drug companies a more or less guaranteed supply of human guinea pigs. According to the featured paper: "... The lack of animal models that can reliably predict vaccine efficacy means that development still unavoidably relies on testing of novel vaccines in healthy individuals... In recent decades there has been a distressing decline in the numbers of healthy volunteers who participate in clinical trials, a decline that has the potential to become a key rate-limiting factor in vaccine development. ... The modest financial remuneration commonly provided often means that students and the unemployed make up the bulk of volunteers. As a result, the risks of developing a health intervention that would benefit the whole population are carried disproportionately by some of society's most poor and vulnerable. This is a situation few would judge to be fair or ethical. Compulsory involvement in vaccine studies is one alternative solution that is not as outlandish as it might seem on first consideration. Many societies already mandate that citizens undertake activities for the good of society; in several European countries registration for organ-donation has switched from "opt-in" (the current U.S. system) to "opt-out" systems... and most societies expect citizens to undertake jury service when called upon... Mandatory involvement in vaccine trials is... perhaps more akin to military conscription... In both conscription and obligatory trial participation, individuals have little or no choice regarding involvement and face inherent risks over which they have no control, all for the greater good of society."

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-21:/articles/show/241878 2012-02-21T16:14:20Z

While ordinary people fret about austerity and jobs, the eurozone's corridors of power have been undergoing a remarkable transformation. The ascension of Mario Monti to the Italian prime ministership is remarkable for more reasons than it is possible to count. By replacing the scandal-surfing Silvio Berlusconi, Italy has dislodged the undislodgeable. By imposing rule by unelected technocrats, it has suspended the normal rules of democracy, and maybe democracy itself. And by putting a senior adviser at Goldman Sachs in charge of a Western nation, it has taken to new heights the political power of an investment bank that you might have thought was prohibitively politically toxic. This is the most remarkable thing of all: a giant leap forward for, or perhaps even the successful culmination of, the Goldman Sachs Project. It is not just Mr Monti. The European Central Bank, another crucial player in the sovereign debt drama, is under ex-Goldman management, and the investment bank's alumni hold sway in the corridors of power in almost every European nation, as they have done in the US throughout the financial crisis. Until Wednesday, the International Monetary Fund's European division was also run by a Goldman man, Antonio Borges, who just resigned for personal reasons. Even before the upheaval in Italy, there was no sign of Goldman Sachs living down its nickname as "the Vampire Squid", and now that its tentacles reach to the top of the eurozone, sceptical voices are raising questions over its influence. The political decisions taken in the coming weeks will determine if the eurozone can and will pay its debts - and Goldman's interests are intricately tied up with the answer to that question.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-21:/articles/show/241877 2012-02-21T16:07:35Z

Games organisers accused of risking health of Londoners by banning ambulances without blue lights on from 'Games lanes' Sick and vulnerable NHS patients will be left stranded in ambulances in traffic jams while dignitaries and sponsors race past in a fleet of expensive cars on specially designated lanes during the Olympics, healthcare providers fear. Games organisers have been accused of risking people's health by banning the routine use by ambulances of the "Games lanes" introduced to ensure that VIPs can travel quickly to events. The decision to reject a request for access from NHS London, the capital's strategic health authority, has led to a storm of anger. Medical Services, an independent business that transports patients for the health service, and whose clients include the hospitals closest to the Olympic stadium, says it fears that the ill, including those on dialysis, will be trapped in vehicles as London suffers unprecedented congestion, with traffic on key routes expected to slow to a crawl.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-21:/articles/show/241876 2012-02-21T15:58:48Z

The West is losing the heroin war in Afghanistan - ten years after Tony Blair pledged that wiping out the drug was one of the main reasons for invading the country. Despite spending £18billion and a conflict which has so far cost the lives of almost 400 British troops, production of the class-A drug by Afghan farmers rose between 2001 and 2011 from just 185 tons to a staggering 5,800 tons. It increased by 61 per cent last year alone. Such has been the failure to combat the problem that more than 90 per cent of the heroin sold on Britain's streets is still made using opium from Afghanistan. The United Nations yesterday warned that the situation was out of control.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-21:/articles/show/241875 2012-02-21T15:57:35Z

Rep. Bob Morris is accusing Girl Scouts of being "radicalized organization" that supports abortion and promotes homosexuality. A lawmaker has sent a letter to fellow Republican members of the Indiana House saying he will not support a resolution celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scouts because he believes it is a "radicalized organization" that supports abortion and promotes homosexuality. In a letter obtained by The Journal-Gazette of Fort Wayne on Monday, Rep. Bob Morris of Fort Wayne said he did some research on the Internet and found allegations that the Girl Scouts are a tactical arm of Planned Parenthood, allow transgender females to join and encourage sex. "After talking to some well-informed constituents, I did a small amount of web-based research, and what I found is disturbing," Morris wrote in his letter, which also accused the group of promoting "homosexual lifestyles." Morris sent the letter to House Republicans on Saturday.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-21:/articles/show/241874 2012-02-21T15:50:08Z

East Prairie - Residents got an early morning jolt Tuesday after an earthquake rumbled at least nine states, causing minor damage and a big stir in the town of East Prairie, near the quake's epicenter. "I live on a main highway and five miles from the reported epicenter," Rhonda Brack, a manager at Tasters Restaurant in East Prairie, told msnbc.com. "It sounded like a semi-truck and it rattled my windows and it rattled my house." She said the magnitude 4.0 earthquake has been the hot topic of conversation since the popular breakfast and coffee house opened up at 5:30 a.m. Tuesday. "We're no strangers to quakes, but this one was different," Brack said. "We had one four years ago and that one rolled. This one was straight underneath us and lasted for 30 seconds or so. It reminded you of lightning." U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist John Bellini said the rural farming community of East Prairie is known for its seismic activity.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-21:/articles/show/241873 2012-02-21T14:26:48Z

In a remarkable feat of micro-engineering, UNSW [University of New South Wales] physicists have created a working transistor consisting of a single atom placed precisely in a silicon crystal. The tiny electronic device, described today in a paper published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, uses as its active component an individual phosphorus atom patterned between atomic-scale electrodes and electrostatic control gates. This unprecedented atomic accuracy may yield the elementary building block for a future quantum computer with unparalleled computational efficiency. Until now, single-atom transistors have been realized only by chance, where researchers either have had to search through many devices or tune multi-atom devices to isolate one that works. "But this device is perfect", says Professor Michelle Simmons, group leader and director of the ARC Centre for Quantum Computation and Communication at UNSW. "This is the first time anyone has shown control of a single atom in a substrate with this level of precise accuracy."

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-21:/articles/show/241872 2012-02-21T13:51:41Z

At least 20 people suffered slight injuries on their toes and fingers when they were attacked by carnivorous fish as they were bathing in a river in southern Brazil, authorities reported Monday. The attack occurred Sunday afternoon at two different spots on the Toropi river, which runs through the central part of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul. The bathers were attacked by a school of "palometas", a species of carnivorous fish native to South America's Southern Cone.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-21:/articles/show/241871 2012-02-21T13:46:45Z

A murder mystery that is haunting Long Island has taken a new twist with the discovery of more human remains, bringing to at least 11 the number of possible slaying victims found since a woman's disappearance in May 2010 indicated a serial killer was on the loose. The remains of the missing woman, Shannan Gilbert, a prostitute who advertised on Craigslist, were discovered in December in a marshy area of Long Island near Oak Beach, where she was last seen alive. Police eventually concluded she probably was not murdered but drowned after falling into a swamp, perhaps while fleeing in the dark from her last customer. The months of searching for her remains, however, uncovered several other bodies or parts of bodies, and police speculate that one or more serial killers-- have for years used the woods, dunes and other isolated areas of eastern Long Island to dump victims.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-02-21:/articles/show/241870 2012-02-21T12:36:52Z

Note to sky watchers: Put on your winter coats. What you're about to read might make you feel an uncontrollable urge to dash outside. The brightest planets in the solar system are lining up in the evening sky, and you can see the formation - some of it at least - tonight. Go out at sunset and look west. Venus and Jupiter pop out of the twilight even before the sky fades completely black. The two brilliant planets surrounded by evening blue is a beautiful sight.