2012-05-24T01:18:54Z Sott.net tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-24:/:signsofthetimes tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-24:/articles/show/245835 2012-05-24T01:15:49Z

Brains that maintain healthy nerve connections as we age help keep us sharp in later life, new research funded by the charity Age UK has found Brains that maintain healthy nerve connections as we age help keep us sharp in later life, new research funded by the charity Age UK has found. Older people with robust brain 'wiring' - that is, the nerve fibres that connect different, distant brain areas - can process information quickly and that this makes them generally smarter, the study suggests. According to the findings, joining distant parts of the brain together with better wiring improves mental performance, suggesting that intelligence is not found in a single part of the brain. However a loss of condition of this wiring or 'white matter' - the billions of nerve fibres that transmit signals around the brain - can negatively affect our intelligence by altering these networks and slowing down our processing speed. The research by the University of Edinburgh shows for the first time that the deterioration of white matter with age is likely to be a significant cause of age-related cognitive decline. The research team used three different brain imaging techniques in compiling the results, including two that have never been used before in the study of intelligence. These techniques measure the amount of water in brain tissue, indicate structural loss in the brain, and show how well the nerve fibres are insulated.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-24:/articles/show/245834 2012-05-24T00:18:53Z

Milledgeville Man To Lose Leg Because Of Flesh-Eating Bacteria MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. -- Doctors are scheduled to amputate a Milledgeville man's leg because it's infected with the flesh-eating bacteria. That's according to the man's son, Mike Bales of Dacula. He said his dad, Paul Bales lives on Lake Sinclair near Milledgeville and injured his leg when he slipped and fell on his dock May 2. Paul Bales bandaged the cut and went golfing the next day but started feeling pain in his leg. He was admitted to the Oconee Regional Medical Center on May 5, then sent to the Medical Center of Central Georgia a week later. Comment: It's interesting to note that all four of these "unrelated" cases are clustered around the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245833 2012-05-23T21:58:23Z

Dog Expert Victoria Stilwell "Shocked" At Lennox's Health Condition Victoria Stilwell, celebrity dog trainer and presenter of hit TV show "It's Me Or The Dog" has openly spoken out in support of Lennox since hearing of his plight in 2010. After extensively studying all Lennox assessment videos Victoria also submitted her own report as an expert dog behaviorist to the Northern Ireland courts stating that Lennox poses no danger to public and that he clearly demonstrates amazing self control even while put under stressful circumstances, however as we now know Judge Rodgers in the September 2011 appeal hearing decided to ignore all expert evidence presented to him from such experts as Sarah Fisher, Victoria Stilwell and past evidence held on record by David Ryan, instead Judge Rodgers accepted the non expert evidence from Peter Tallack a retired police dog handler who admits not having any behavioral expertise. In the October 2011 edition of Victoria Stilwell's Positively Podcast the main topic was Lennox. In this edition Victoria spoke about many things regarding the Lennox case and she also expressed concern regarding Lennox's current skin condition after she had witnessed his poor fur condition and awful sores visible on his skin whilst she had been compiling her report from various assessment videos.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245832 2012-05-23T21:24:13Z

Iran's navy helped a U.S.-flagged cargo ship that was attacked by pirates off the United Arab Emirates, according to the vessel's owner, Maersk Line Ltd. The Iranian navy was the first to respond to the initial distress call from the Maersk Texas, Kevin Speers, senior director of marketing at Maersk Line, said by phone today. The vessel was attacked by several skiffs and armed guards on board returned fire, the company said in an earlier statement. The incident happened at about noon northeast of Fujairah, the biggest port in the Middle East for refueling oil tankers, Maersk said. Iran's navy provided guidance to the crew of the Maersk Texas by radio, Speers said, declining to comment further pending a debriefing.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245831 2012-05-23T18:31:14Z

Remember when police beat Tea Party activists with batons, raided homes without warrants, unjustly arrested and strip-searched Tea Party protesters, or attacked and intimidated journalists covering Tea Party rallies? Me neither. But then again, the Tea Party took to the streets in favor of higher profits and less regulations for the richest 1 percent, whose ranks they hope to but will never join. The media is more than happy to inflate their crowd estimates, and police are more than happy to let pro-status quo protests take to the streets undisturbed. The Tea Party has since phased out street protests to take over a major political party and make it bend to their every radical whim. While it hasn't yet taken over a major party, the Occupy movement has successfully exposed the oppressive, fascist police state that has reared its ugly head in the past year. If you want to see what tyranny looks like, consider what happened to the estimated 75,000 protesters who took on the military-industrial complex at last weekend's NATO summit in Chicago, after the mayor revoked protesters' attempts to lawfully assemble.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245830 2012-05-23T18:08:23Z

Greece's eurozone fate may now be in the hands of the 37-year-old political firebrand and his Syriza party "I don't believe in heroes or saviours," says Alexis Tsipras, "but I do believe in fighting for rights ... no one has the right to reduce a proud people to such a state of wretchedness and indignity." The man who holds the fate of the euro in his hands - as the leader of the Greek party willing to tear up the country's €130bn (£100bn) bailout agreement - says Greece is on the frontline of a war that is engulfing Europe. A long bombardment of "neo-liberal shock" - draconian tax rises and remorseless spending cuts - has left immense collateral damage. "We have never been in such a bad place," he says, sleeves rolled up, staring hard into the middle distance, from behind the desk that he shares in his small parliamentary office. "After two and a half years of catastrophe, Greeks are on their knees. The social state has collapsed, one in two youngsters is out of work, there are people leaving en masse, the climate psychologically is one of pessimism, depression, mass suicides."

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245829 2012-05-23T17:40:06Z

This week, Julian Assange talks to the President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa. Correa is a left wing populist who has changed the face of Ecuador. But unlike his predecessors he holds a Ph.D. in economics. According to US embassy cables, Correa is the most popular President in Ecuador's democratic history. But in 2010 he was taken hostage in an attempted coup d'etat. He blames the coup attempt on corrupt media and has launched a controversial counter-offensive. Correa says the media defines what reforms are possible. Assange tries to figure out is Ecuadorian president justified and what is his vision for Latin America.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245828 2012-05-23T16:53:01Z

After the active ingredient in most birth control pills has done its duty preventing pregnancy, it begins a second life as a pollutant that can harm wildlife in waterways. Not only is ethinyl estradiol quite potent - creating "intersex" fish and amphibians - but it is very difficult to remove from wastewater, which carries it into natural waterways. Since women around the planet take the pill, this is a global problem. The European Union is the first entity to seriously consider mandating the removal of ethinyl estradiol, also known as EE2, from wastewater. However, as researchers pointed out in Thursday's (May 24) issue of the journal Nature, the question of whether to remove the pollutant is not simple. The dilemma The problem is effectively removing ethinyl estradiol can be quite costly. Governmental estimates put the cost of upgrading about 1,360 wastewater treatment plants across England and Wales so they can comply with a proposed limit at between $41 billion and $47 billion (€32 billion and €37 billion), according to Richard Owen, a professor at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom. "The big question is, 'Are we willing to pay this as a society?'" Owen told LiveScience. "Or, alternatively, 'would we prefer to live with the environmental impact?'" In their Nature commentary, Owen and Susan Jobling, an ecotoxicologist at the University of Brunel, write that more public debate is needed on the proposed regulation. They intended to draw attention to this environmental dilemma, not to suggest that women should not have access to birth control, Owen told LiveScience.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245827 2012-05-23T16:45:20Z

Babies may be sponges for learning new information, but they are indeed active sponges, with new research showing that babies as young as 7 months are able to parse out the too-complex and downright boring, homing in on situations with just the right amount of "wow, how interesting" learning potential. The study results, detailed this week online in the open-access journal PLoS ONE, provide evidence for an idea about baby cognition that makes intuitive sense, said lead study author Celeste Kidd, a doctoral candidate in brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester. The thinking goes that babies organize their search for information in the world in a way that makes the most sense for efficient learning. If a baby looks at something and it seems too simple, suggesting there's not much learning value, he or she won't pay attention to that situation or object, Kidd told LiveScience during a phone interview. The same seems to play out for stuff that's too complex, which would seemingly hold a trove of learning potential, but which is actually not an efficient use of their brain time.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245826 2012-05-23T16:40:55Z

It only takes a two minute stroll down Syria Street to see why so many people are so worried about what might happen next in Lebanon. A hole punched through the wall of the local mosque by a rocket or mortar shell, smoke blackened masonry, shops and apartments bearing the pock marks of fierce gun battles. Syria Street is the aptly named thorough-fare that separates rival factions in Lebanon's second city. For much of the past week, the two sides have been waging a mini-civil war. It is a direct spill over from the chaos in neighboring Syria. One side of the street is home to a hard-line Sunni Muslim militia who run guns to rebels across the border. Comment: ...guns, tanks and other weapons which originate in the US and Israel and end up in the hands of 'rebels' flown into Syria after serving NATO in Libya. "President Assad is trying to destroy us," says Sheik Bilal Masri, by way of explanation. "They cause trouble here to take the pressure of[f] them in Damascus."

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245825 2012-05-23T16:32:19Z

When Men in Black 3 opens everywhere over Memorial Day weekend, most moviegoers will just be hoping this sequel matches the original for popcorn-munching fun. But there are many people who say they've been victimized by and live in fear of real MIBs. And those stories, told for decades, are just as terrifying as they are detailed. Ever since the early 1950s, long before the first "Men in Black" movie hit the silver screen in 1997, men dressed in identical black suits, hats and sunglasses, claiming to be government agents, have reportedly shown up in black cars at the homes or offices of people who reported UFO sightings. According to those who were paid these unwelcome visits, the MIBs threatened or harassed the eyewitnesses into staying quiet about their UFO encounters. Watch some reported Men in Black encounters:

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245824 2012-05-23T16:21:53Z

You likely don't agree that we should eat more sugar. Neither do I. Then why is the gluten-free industry promoting foods that are worse than table sugar? Gluten-free foods are made with: Rice starch (or brown rice starch) Tapioca starch Cornstarch Potato starch in place of wheat and gluten. People go gluten-free because of some real or perceived sensitivity to gluten, and they replace wheat and gluten with gluten-free foods. Big mistake. These gluten-free ingredients: Send blood sugar sky-high. From a blood sugar standpoint, wheat is bad. Few foods are worse for blood sugar than wheat - except for gluten-free foods made with these junk carbohydrate ingredients. Cause insulin resistance - the fundamental process that leads to diabetes. Grow abdominal visceral fat - the inflamed fat, expressed on the surface as a "muffin top," that causes hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Trigger high triglycerides - which thereby leads to formation of small LDL particles that cause heart attack. Trigger the phenomena of glycation, i.e., glucose modification of proteins, that leads to cataracts, knee and hip arthritis, hypertension, and heart disease.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245823 2012-05-23T16:11:55Z

The earthquake that struck northern Italy will affect production and export of some of the area's most internationally famous culinary delicacies - Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano cheeses. National farmers' group Coldiretti has estimated damage to agriculture in the area, one of Italy's most fertile and productive zones, at more than 200 million euros. Some of the worst damage was to the production of Parmigiano Reggiano, also called Parmesan cheese, and its eternal rival, Grana Padano. Both of the very hard seasoned cheeses are grated over pasta dishes, thinly sliced on salads or served in small, irregular pieces at fashionable parties worldwide. Their respective passionate devotees can be compared to fans supporting different sports teams in the same town.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245822 2012-05-23T16:07:23Z

A four-metre square sinkhole opened up in a major downtown Montreal street just hours after a massive student protest had marched over it. The protest, which attracted tens of thousands of people, had already passed and gone down another street when the four-metre-deep sinkhole opened up late Tuesday afternoon. Denis Roy, an operations chief with the Montreal fire department, said there were no injuries to any passersby. Public works officials are attempting to determine the cause of the collapse. The sinkhole is located not far from McGill University on Sherbrooke Street, one of Montreal's key east-west arteries. The collapse, which happened around rush hour, added to the headaches of drivers already dealing with detours because of the huge student protest over tuition fee hikes and a special law to limit demonstrations. Source: The Canadian Press

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245821 2012-05-23T16:07:15Z

Prince William County, Virginia - The Virginia Department of Transportation is working to repair a massive sinkhole in Prince William County. The hole opened up in the middle of Aden Road early Tuesday morning. VDOT says this was one of three sinkholes to open up within the last 24 hours in Prince William County. VDOT believes heavy rain and flooding may be to blame.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245820 2012-05-23T16:06:08Z

A moon of Saturn that looks like a cosmic wet sponge is in fact covered in ices, both of water and carbon dioxide, images from a NASA spacecraft show. Hyperion, with an irregular potato-like shape and honeycomb surface, is the subject of a new analysis of images taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft in September 2005, ScienceNews.org reported Wednesday. Hydrocarbons and iron-containing compounds mixed in with the ice give the moon a reddish appearance, researchers said. Writing in the planetary science journal Icarus, scientists say Hyperion shows similarities to some comets, suggesting the possibility the moon formed elsewhere before being captured by Saturn.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245819 2012-05-23T15:59:47Z

An estimated 5,000 people participated on Tuesday in a "walk of unity" to Joplin, Missouri, along the path of a deadly tornado that tore through the city one year ago, killing 161 people. The anniversary of the tragedy also was marked by President Barack Obama, who traveled to Joplin to give the commencement address for graduating high school seniors whose school building was obliterated by the EF-5 tornado, the strongest on a rating scale for twisters. "Just as you have learned the goodness of people, so have you learned the power of community," Obama said. He also honored two classmates of the graduates who died in the May 22, 2011, storm. The tornado killed 161 people and damaged or destroyed 7,500 homes. It was the deadliest U.S. tornado in more than six decades.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245818 2012-05-23T15:52:13Z

An earthquake of a magnitude of 5.7 to 5.9 struck the Bulgarian city of Pernik, 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) northwest of the capital Sofia. The quake, the worst in the Sofia area since 1917, shook the country at 2:58 a.m. local time, causing walls and roofs to collapse in Pernik and chimneys and plaster to fall in Sofia, Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said on the ministry's website today. There were no casualties, Prime Minister Boiko Borissov said in an interview with Nova Television station. The capital city's airport, railways and subway are working and no damage to infrastructure in the country has been reported, Construction Minister Liliana Pavlova told reporters in Sofia. In Pernik, which was worst affected by the quake, the heating utility was shut down and schools were closed for today and tomorrow.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245817 2012-05-23T14:30:29Z

A suit has been filed by Facebook shareholders against Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook, Morgan Stanley and others. It's based on a very simple concept: when internal analysts learned that Facebook's numbers were going to be worse than expected, the company and its bankers didn't tell everyone, but just "selectively disclosed" information to a small group of "preferred investors." Henry Blodget, who unfortunately should know about these things, gave a good summary of it all on CBS This Morning: I was on the phone last night with a former hedge fund CEO who was talking about this. "Facebook," he said, "is a colossal example of a complete clusterfuck where everybody wins except the ordinary investor." His point was that virtually every week now we see stories like this that hint at a kind of two-tiered market system - in which most of the real action takes place inside an unregulated black-box network of connected insiders who don't disclose their relationships or their interests, while everyone else, i.e. the regular suckers, live in the more tightly-policed world of prospectuses and quarterly reporting and so on.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245816 2012-05-23T14:04:20Z

Scientists on Wednesday reported that they have for the first time taken skin cells from heart attacks patients and turned them into healthy heart tissue that could hopefully be used to one day repair damaged heart muscle. The healthy, beating heart tissue was grown successfully in the lab from human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs), and while scientists said they were not safe enough to put back into human patients, they appeared to work well with other cells when implanted into rats. HiPSCs are a recently discovered source far less controversial than use of embryonic stem cells. And, because the transplanted hiPSCs come from the individual, it could resolve the problems seen with tissue and organ rejection. While the technique has shown promise in rats, the scientists say there are numerous obstacles to overcome and it could take up to ten years or longer before clinical trials could be available for humans. Even so, it is a significant advance in the quest for replacement cell therapy for heart failure patients. "More people are surviving following a heart attack than ever before and therefore the number of people living with a damaged heart and heart failure is increasing," Nicholas Mills, a consultant cardiologist at Edinburgh University, told The Guardian. "Unfortunately, the body has only very limited capacity to repair the heart following a heart attack. There is therefore an urgent need to develop effective and safe treatments to regenerate the heart." Recent research has shown that hiPSCs could be derived from young and healthy people and are capable of transforming into heart cells. However, researchers have not been able to obtain those cells from elderly and diseased patients. And until now, researchers have not been able to show that heart cells created from hiPSCs could integrate with existing heart tissue. "What is new and exciting about our research is that we have shown that it's possible to take skin cells from an elderly patient with advanced heart failure and end up with his own beating cells in a laboratory dish that are healthy and young - the equivalent to the stage of his heart cells when he was just born," said lead researcher Professor Lior Gepstein, of Sohnis Research Laboratory for Cardiac Electrophysiology and Regenerative Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, Israel.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245815 2012-05-23T13:57:14Z

Israeli archaeologists have unearthed a 2,700-year-old clay seal with the name of Bethlehem, showing that the town existed centuries before it was revered as Jesus' birthplace. Discovered during the sifting‭ ‬of‭ debris ‬removed‭ ‬from archaeological excavations near the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, the coin-sized clay seal, or bulla, was imprinted with three lines in ancient Hebrew script: "in the seventh," "Bethlehem," and "to the king." "It seems that in the seventh year of the reign of a king ‭(‬it is unclear if the king referred to is Hezekiah,‭ ‬Manasseh or Josiah‭)‬,‭ ‬a shipment was‭ ‬dispatched from Bethlehem to the king in Jerusalem," Eli Shukron, director of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, said in a statement on Wednesday. Belonging to the group of‭ "fiscal‭" ‬bullae‭, ‬ the clay seal was likely placed on a tax shipment of silver or agricultural produce such as wine or wheat which was sent from Bethlehem to the King of Judah in Jerusalem in the 8th or 7th century BC.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245814 2012-05-23T13:12:55Z

Sexual misconduct by male correctional staff toward inmates at Alabama's Tutwiler Prison for Women is "commonplace" and has resulted in numerous women becoming pregnant while incarcerated, a complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Justice alleges. Equal Justice Initiative, a private nonprofit organization, filed the complaint about the all-female prison in Wetumpka, Ala., Tuesday after receiving dozens of claims of sexual misconduct involving male staff between 2004 and 2011. In interviews with more than 50 women incarcerated at the prison, EJI said it discovered "frequent and severe officer-on-inmate sexual violence," ranging from women being coerced into performing sexual favors in exchange for contraband goods to rape by a male correctional staff member while another male officer served as a lookout. Even in instances in which abuse was confirmed, perpetrators received little more than a slap on the wrist, EJI Executive Director Bryan Stevenson told msnbc.com.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245813 2012-05-23T12:28:58Z

It was early in the morning, perhaps 2 a.m., when gunfire awoke 14-year-old Rafiullah. He looked outside the house he'd been sleeping in with his grandmother, an aunt, two cousins and his sister, and he saw a man with a weapon walk to a shed that housed the family cow and open fire, shooting the animal dead. "I told the women inside our room: 'Let's run! Let's get out of here,' " recalled Rafiullah, who like many Afghans goes by only one name. In the next compound, a short distance from the house where Rafiullah had been sleeping, Haji Mohammad Naim awoke to the sound of dogs barking wildly in the street. "Then there was shooting, and the dogs stopped barking," said Naim, who's in his 50s.Shortly afterward, there was pandemonium at Naim's front door as Rafiullah and a handful of terrified women and children poured into his yard, seeking shelter. Minutes later, another woman and a young girl emerged from the darkness. "She was screaming and crying," Naim said of the woman. "She said, 'My husband has been martyred,' " meaning that he'd been killed. Suddenly a silhouette appeared, moving rapidly behind a bright light. Naim thought that U.S. forces were raiding his village, and he expected a squad of soldiers to arrive. Instead, he saw just one man. "He got closer, and then he started shooting at me," Naim said.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245812 2012-05-23T12:02:46Z

US, California - A Silicon Valley software executive has been charged with four felony counts of burglary after allegedly printing his own discount bar codes and pasting them on Lego toys he would later resell online. Thomas Langenbach, 46, declined Tuesday to enter a plea when he was formally charged. A hearing was scheduled for June 20. "In his house, we found hundreds of boxes of unopened Lego sets," Mountain View police spokesman Liz Wylie told the San Jose Mercury News. Langenbach and his partner Maggie Hoang lived in a $1.8 million house on Sudan Lane in San Carlos, Calif., near the Palo Alto offices of German software giant SAP (Systems, Applications and Products), where he had worked since 1988. Langenbach allegedly sold 2,100 Lego toys on eBay over the last 13 months for $30,000, police said. "I don't think it's money," said Supervising Deputy District Attorney Cindy Hendrickson, who is prosecuting Langenbach. "Money might have been a part of what brought him pleasure, but I think all indications are there's something way more complex here," Hendrickson was quoted by the San Jose Mercury News. "Remember, he's going out and paying for these things. This is something that he did in a painstaking way, and it took time, it took effort and it took expense. I don't think you do that just for the money. There had to be something else. Beating the system? An element of compulsion?"

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245811 2012-05-23T11:56:44Z

Several small groups of Secret Service employees separately visited clubs, bars and brothels in Colombia prior to a visit by President Barack Obama last month and engaged in reckless, "morally repugnant" behavior, Sen. Susan Collins says. She says the employees' actions during the stunning prostitution scandal could have provided a foreign intelligence service, drug cartels or other criminals with opportunities for blackmail or coercion that could have threatened the president's safety. In remarks prepared for the first congressional hearing on the matter Wednesday, Collins, R-Maine, also challenged early assurances that the scandal in Colombia appeared to be an isolated incident. She noted that two participants were Secret Service supervisors - one with 21 years of service and the other with 22 years - and both were married. Their involvement "surely sends a message to the rank and file that this kind of activity is tolerated on the road," Collins said. "This was not a one-time event," said Collins, the senior Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. "The circumstances unfortunately suggest an issue of culture." Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, the committee's chairman, said, "I want to hear what the Secret Service is doing to encourage people to report egregious behavior when they see it."

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245810 2012-05-23T11:53:35Z

U.S. missiles launched from a terror drone killed four people in northwest Pakistan on Wednesday, officials said. A drone targeted a compound near Miranshah, the main town of the tribal district of Pakistan. "The drone fired two missiles on a house in the Tabai area near Miranshah," one of the security officials told AFP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, adding that four suspected militants were killed. "It is not immediately known if an important target is among those killed," he said. The area is a stronghold of the Haqqani network -- Afghan insurgents blamed for a series of spectacular attacks on Western targets in Kabul -- and Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud. Islamabad denies any support for Haqqani activities.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245809 2012-05-23T11:43:42Z

German police arrested an armed 14-year-old boy after he opened fire in his school with a handgun, threatening to "shoot them all". The boy was arrested in the Bavarian town of Memmingen following a stand-off with dozens of heavily armed police officers during which he fired at least 20 shots and threatened to shoot himself. He had earlier caused panic at his school when he produced two pistols, telling one boy that if anything bothered him today he would "shoot them all". He also threatened a teacher and fired a shot into the ground. As news of the gunman spread through the school around 280 teachers and pupils locked themselves in classrooms, and waited for the police. The incident triggered painful memories of the 2009 Winnenden massacre in Germany when 17-year-old Tim Kretschmer shot 16 children dead at his old school before turning his gun on himself.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245808 2012-05-23T11:33:05Z

Cairo, Egypt - More than 15 months after autocratic leader Hosni Mubarak's ouster, Egyptians streamed to polling stations Wednesday to freely choose a president for the first time in generations. Waiting hours in line, some debated to the last minute over their vote in a historic election pitting old regime figures against ascending Islamists. A sense of amazement at having a choice pervaded the crowds in line, along with fervent expectation over where a new leader will take a country that has been in turmoil ever since its ruler for nearly 30 years was toppled by mass protests. Some backed Mubarak-era veterans, believing they can bring stability after months of rising crime, a crumbling economy and bloody riots. Others were horrified by the thought, believing the "feloul" - or "remnants" of the regime - will keep Egypt locked in dictatorship and thwart democracy. Islamists, particularly the Muslim Brotherhood, saw their chance to lead a country where they were repressed for decades and to implement their version of Islamic law. Their critics recoiled, fearing theocracy. "You can't tell me, 'Vote for this or else you're a sinner!"' Wael Ramadan argued with another man in line at a polling station in the impoverished Cairo neighbourhood of Basateen. "We never said that," protested the man. "Yes, you did," Ramadan shot back. "The revolution changed a lot. Good things and bad things," Ramadan, a 40-year-old employee at a mobile phone company, said afterward. "The good thing is all this freedom. We are here and putting up with the trouble of waiting in line for electing a president. My vote matters. It is now a right ... Now we want a president that has a vision." A field of 13 candidates is running in the voting Wednesday and Thursday. The two-day first run is not expected to produce an outright winner, so a runoff between the two top vote-getters will be held June 16-17. The winner will be announced June 21. Around 50 million people are eligible to vote.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245807 2012-05-23T11:15:13Z

French President Francois Hollande, standing firm in the face of stiff German opposition, said on Wednesday that European leaders should broach the possibility of jointly-issued euro bonds and that no option to resolve the bloc's crisis should be taboo. Hollande, due to join other European Union leaders later on Wednesday for talks over dinner, said all options should be put on the table because the gathering was about exchanging views before a decision-making summit at the end of June. "This is not about entering into conflict with others," the Socialist president told a news conference in Paris. "Everyone should go into this in the best spirit." Hollande, who held the news conference jointly with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy after the two met, reiterated that he was committed to debt and deficit reduction but that helping economic growth was a necessary part of that objective. He said he would raise a panoply of ideas including the role of the European Central Bank and the European Financial Stability Fund on the one hand as well as euro bonds.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245806 2012-05-23T11:04:21Z

Date-Time Wednesday, May 23, 2012 at 15:02:25 UTC Thursday, May 24, 2012 at 12:02:25 AM at epicenter Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones Location 41.378°N, 142.073°E Depth 40.7 km (25.3 miles) Region HOKKAIDO, JAPAN REGION Distances 107 km (66 miles) NNE of Hachinohe, Honshu, Japan 119 km (73 miles) ESE of Hakodate, Hokkaido, Japan 127 km (78 miles) ENE of Aomori, Honshu, Japan 663 km (411 miles) NNE of TOKYO, Japan

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245805 2012-05-23T10:58:28Z

Amateur video of Israeli soldiers appearing to watch idly as settlers opened fire on Palestinians throwing stones has emphasized the growing power of "citizen journalism" in the occupied West Bank. Shaky footage, captured on Saturday from two angles by residents of Aseera al-Qibliya village, shows bearded residents from the nearby settlement of Yitzhar aiming a hand gun and assault rifle at the crowd, followed by sounds of gunfire. A bloodied youth shot in the face was shown being carried away on the shoulders of fellow villagers. The video was soon posted on the Internet. Teacher Ibrahim Makhlouf, who filmed the incident, lives by the brush scorched in the clashes on the village's edge, beneath the gaze of the prefabricated suburbs of Yitzhar, which lie outside the official settlement boundary. "We want the whole world to see what Israel and the settlers do to us. They steal our land and they attack us, and the world said we were the terrorists and criminals," he said. "Now we can make it clear who's the aggressor and who's attacking whom. The truth contradicts their claims about our situation."

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245804 2012-05-23T10:41:07Z

Canada, Montreal - Montreal police brought the hammer down on student demonstrators Tuesday night, enforcing a controversial law that brought tens of thousands into the streets in a protest earlier in the day that drew international support. By the end of a cat-and-mouse operation that marked the fourth straight night of clashes, police spokesman Simon Delorme said that at least 100 people had been arrested and two police officers had been injured. Four other people were taken to hospital but the extent of their injuries was not immediately known. It is believed to be the first time Bill 78 and the city's new anti-mask bylaw were used by police although Sherbrooke police used the provincial law on Monday to round up 36 protesters in that city. While the atmosphere during the day in Montreal was almost carnival-like, the mood in the evening soon turned as dark as the night that enveloped the march. Projectiles were thrown at police and gusts of pepper spray tinged the air as riot equipped police sent people scattering.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245803 2012-05-23T10:22:56Z

Peshawar, Pakistan - A Pakistani doctor who helped the U.S. track down Osama bin Laden was convicted of high treason Wednesday and sentenced to 33 years in prison, officials said, a verdict that is likely to further strain the country's relationship with Washington. Shakil Afridi ran a vaccination program for the CIA to collect DNA and verify bin Laden's presence at the compound in the town of Abbottabad where U.S. commandos killed the al-Qaida chief last May. The operation outraged Pakistani officials because they were not told about it beforehand. Senior U.S. officials have called for Afridi to be released, saying his work served Pakistani and American interests. His conviction comes at a sensitive time because the U.S. is already frustrated by Pakistan's refusal to reopen NATO supply routes to Afghanistan. The supply routes were closed six months ago in retaliation for American airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. Afridi also was ordered to pay a fine of about $3,500 and will spend an additional three and half years in prison if he does not, said Nasir Khan, a government official in the Khyber tribal area, where the doctor was arrested and tried.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245802 2012-05-23T10:13:38Z

Israeli archaeologists said on Wednesday they had discovered the first physical evidence supporting Old Testament accounts of Bethlehem's existence centuries before the town became revered as the birthplace of Jesus. The proof came, they said, in a clay seal unearthed near the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem and imprinted with three lines of ancient Hebrew script that include the word "Bethlehem". Eli Shukron, who directed the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, said the seal apparently had been placed on a tax shipment of silver or agricultural produce sent from Bethlehem to the King of Judah in nearby Jerusalem in the 8th or 7th century BC.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245801 2012-05-23T10:03:41Z

An abused New Zealand child is among at least 12 removed from harm as a result of a global online child pornography investigation sparked by the Department of Internal Affairs. The operation, code-named Operation Laminar and spanning 20 countries, has targeted 55 key suspects in the worldwide distribution of child sexual abuse pictures. Some were involved in the actual sexual abuse of the children depicted. At least 12 abused children have been identified and removed from harm including one in New Zealand who is now in the custody of Child Youth and Family.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245800 2012-05-23T09:58:31Z

A sonic boom has been blamed for tremors that were felt by residents across the north of Scotland. The strange vibrations were phoned into police late on Tuesday night by people in Cults, Inverbervie, Aberdeen, Stonehaven, Cove, and even Arbroath. A spokesman for Grampian Police confirmed the reports and said the force had received around a dozen calls between 8.45pm and 11.15pm on Tuesday. He said: "Grampian Police can confirm that following the numerous reports from members of the public who felt 'tremors' during the evening of Tuesday, May 22, the British Geological Survey have reported no significant seismic activity. No reports of injuries or damage have been received. "The Ministry of Defence have confirmed that they regularly conduct supersonic flight over sea around the whole of the UK, when aircraft do fly at such speeds a sonic boom is created that could be mistaken for an explosion or a tremor.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245799 2012-05-23T09:51:25Z

Researchers have discovered New Zealand's earthquake-prone landscape is even more unstable than previously thought, recording deep tremors lasting up to 30 minutes on its biggest fault line. Scientists measured the so-called "creeping earthquakes" when they investigated a puzzling lack of major seismic jolts along a section of the Alpine Fault, which runs the length of the South Island. The quakes, which caused no surface damage, occurred 20-45 kilometres (12-28 miles) beneath the Earth's crust and continued for as long as half an hour, much longer than ordinary earthquakes. In contrast, the 6.3-magnitude quake that killed 185 people in the South island city of Christchurch in February last year lasted just 37 seconds and struck at a depth of about five kilometres. The quakes could not be measured by regular seismic monitoring devices and researchers from Wellington's Victoria University had to place sensors in boreholes 100 metres deep to pick them up. Seismologist Aaron Wech said the research showed the Alpine Fault, regarded as New Zealand's most hazardous, did not remain still between major earthquakes but was constantly shifting.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245798 2012-05-23T09:47:45Z

Cholesterol in the body is carried around the bloodstream in the form of what are called 'lipoproteins'. The two main lipoproteins are so-called low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-cholesterol) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-cholesterol). Conventional wisdom tells us that HDL-C is a marker for cholesterol being cleared from the inside of the arteries, while LDL-C has the capacity to deposit itself in the artery wall. Because of this, HDL-C and LDL-C are often dubbed 'good' and 'bad' cholesterol respectively. Many doctors have been encouraged to focus on LDL-C, and ensure that their patients' levels of this substance remain below a predetermined set point. However, the fact remains that no studies have ever tested the effect of treating LDL-C levels (with medication and/or diet) to below a certain point. It will seem far-fetched to some that the core strategy used in cholesterol management has not been adequately tested, and things get even more unbelievable when it turns out that LDL-C is not even a particularly good marker for heart disease.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245797 2012-05-23T09:00:00Z

An 'unprecedented' clean-up operation has been launched in Alaska after it became swamped by debris from last year's devastating Japanese tsunami. Workers plan to spend 12 days clearing the beach on Montague Island, which is covered in items including balls, buoys, beer crates, Styrofoam and lunch boxes. And they can expect to repeat this process in the future because an estimated 1.5million tons of flotsam and jetsam is yet complete the 3,500-mile journey to Alaska and elsewhere in North America. Montague, which is the largest uninhabited U.S. island and lies 120 miles southeast of state capital Anchorage, is likely to receive another equally large quantity by the time the year has ended. 'The debris found on initial surveys of the island showed an absolutely unprecedented amount of buoys, Styrofoam and other high floating debris, Patrick Chandler of the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies told Fox News.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245796 2012-05-23T03:35:52Z

For decades, scientists believed that a spine with multiple segments was an exclusive feature of land-dwelling animals. But the discovery of the same anatomical feature in a 345-million-year-old eel suggests that this complex anatomy arose separately from - and perhaps before - the first species to walk on land. Tarrasius problematicus was an eel-like fish that lived in shallow bodies of water in what is now Scotland, in the Carboniferous period between 359 million and 318 million years ago. Like many fish, Tarrasius was thought to have a vertebral column divided simply into body and tail segments. But in a new description of Tarrasius published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Lauren Sallan describes a five-segment column much more similar to the spinal anatomy of land-dwelling animals called tetrapods, including humans. The surprising find argues against a common assumption paleontologists use to determine from fossils whether an ancient species lived on land or in water. "It's the last trait to fall," said Sallan, a graduate student in the Program in Integrative Biology at the University of Chicago Biological Sciences. "First, limbs were thought to show that a species was on land and walking, and now the vertebral morphology doesn't mean that they're on land either. So a lot of the things we associate with tetrapods actually arose first in fishes, and this is another example of that."

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245795 2012-05-23T03:11:33Z

The problem of fish dying in large numbers has come to the fore of the banks of the Mula-Mutha (Bheema) rivers again. Fish have been found dead along the banks of the Mula-Mutha because of rising pollution and the latest in the series was recorded at Hatvalan near the Pune-Daund border last week. Since last week, thousands of Mozambique Tilapia fishes were found dead on the river banks at Hatvalan in Daund division, about 76 km from Pune. The fish apparently died because of thick blackish water flowing in the river bed. Ironically, Mozambique Tilapia is considered as one of the most resilient species of fish, known to withstand unfriendly environmental conditions. To make matters worse, the same dead fish were taken to market to be sold by local fishermen. Pune and Mumbai are the primary markets for these fish. According to experts, in May freshwater springs that open into the river dry up, and hence the dissolving factor of oxygen in the water changes accordingly. This increases the pollution level, causing the fish to die. A study conducted by Jal Biradari and Maharashtra Vikas Kendra last year had shown that the nitrate level in the Bheema river was 10-50 mg per litre, whereas the permissible limit specified by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is 45 mg/litre. The natural nitrate level should be less than 1 mg/litre, but due to pollutants, the level has shot up.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245794 2012-05-23T03:06:36Z

An earthquake that ruptured this week off the coast of Japan was one of the largest recent aftershocks to affect an area that, more than a year after one of the most powerful earthquakes on record, is still experiencing a steady stream of seismic jolts. So far, 5,229 aftershocks have rattled the tectonic boundary that ruptured off the coast of Japan's Tohoku region in March 2011. The magnitude-9.0 earthquake was the fifth largest earthquake ever recorded. The Sunday (May 20) quake is listed as both magnitude 6.0 and 6.4. If it proves to be the latter, it would be the largest aftershock since March 14, when a magnitude-6.9 earthquake hit the region. Magnitude-6.0 quakes can cause serious damage if they hit near populated areas, yet the bulk of Japan's significant aftershocks have hit out at sea, many miles from land, and have caused relatively few problems. This recent quake caused only light shaking for residents of northern Japan, according to U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) data. It occurred beneath the Pacific Ocean, about 60 miles (96 kilometers) east of Miyako, a coastal town devastated by the deadly tsunami that followed the March 2011 earthquake. "With an earthquake this big, you can have aftershocks for months and years," said Paul Earle, a seismologist with the USGS. You can't say when or where they'll happen, he told OurAmazingPlanet, but they tend to decrease in number exponentially.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245793 2012-05-23T02:48:56Z

The US Food & Drug Admin. just approved a drug made from genetically modified carrots to treat Gaucher, a rare disease found mostly among Ashkenazi Jews. Out of a global population of 6.8 billion, an estimated range of 60-100,000 people carry the recessive gene for it, though not all are symptomatic. The incidence of Gaucher is so rare, in fact, that to approve a GMO carrot for this purpose makes no sense, raising the specter of some unstated plan. As expected when humans ingest active foreign DNA, one of the side effects of the FDA-approved drug, Elelyso®, is anaphylactic shock, among other allergic reactions. Gaucher develops in offspring of parents who both carry and pass on a recessive gene that prevents development of an enzyme that allows "harmful substances to build up in the liver, spleen, bones, and bone marrow," explains the A.D.A.M. Medical Encyclopedia. "The substances prevent cells and organs from working properly." The recessive gene only appears in 6-10 percent of Ashkenazi Jews, who number just over 10 million today. Several rare genetic diseases are linked to Ashkenazi Jews, who account for 80 percent of all Jews, reports the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, "including Tay-Sachs, Gaucher disease, Bloom syndrome, Idiopathic torsion dystonia, Familial dysautonomia, Factor XI deficiency, and more. For many of these disorders in which a causative gene has been identified, a specific mutation was found to be the cause of most cases of the disease in Ashkenazi Jews." Dr. Mercola reacted with shock to the news, writing, "I don't even want to think about the potential ramifications of this decision. Many may not know this, but Monsanto, well-known as the leader in biotechnology and genetically engineered foods, is also invested in the medical industry."

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245792 2012-05-23T02:37:18Z

Street lighting is changing bug communities and that is affecting everything from the songs birds sing to the makeup of people. A new study found that scavenger and predator insects both collect near the lights. It also shows for the first time that their composition is affected by the lighting. The study is published in the latest Biology Letters. In fact, streetlights and other forms of artificial lighting may affect all ecosystem members, from bugs to humans. "The range of effects of light pollution are really very diverse," lead author Thomas Davies told Discovery News. "They can affect reproductive successes in sea turtles, the timings of bird songs and even the physiology of humans." He and his colleagues believe that "we are facing an insect biodiversity crisis," which merits our attention because "insects provide crucial services to humans, such as pollination and decomposition to organic matter." Davies is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Exeter's Environment and Sustainability Institute. He and colleagues Jonathan Bennie and Kevin Gaston deployed several insect traps on grassy vegetation under and between streetlights in Helston, Cornwall, UK. The traps were left in place for three days and nights and analyzed 30 minutes prior to sunrise and sunset.The amount of vegetation in an area was taken into account.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-23:/articles/show/245791 2012-05-23T02:30:27Z

Earth is entering a high-speed solar wind stream, and this is causing geomagnetic activity at high latitudes. First contact with the stream on May 22nd turned the sky over Cumbria, United Kingdom, deep purple: "The sky was bright because of twilight, but we could still see these faint auroras," says photographer Jon Cooper. So far the solar wind has not caused a full-fledged geomagnetic storm, but this could change during the next 24 hours. NOAA forecasters estimate a 15% to 20% chance of storms around the poles as the solar wind continues to blow.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-22:/articles/show/245790 2012-05-22T22:40:49Z

A Utah high school is learning the hard way that the government is serious about nudging students away from food it doesn't want them to consume. Davis High School in the Salt Lake City area is having to fork over a whopping $15,000 in fines to the Feds because it accidentally sold soda through a vending machine during lunch. Federal law requires the school to turn off its soda machines during the lunch period, which is 47 minutes a day. And Davis High school did turn off the machines in the lunch room. However, the school didn't realize that there was another machine in the school bookstore that wasn't being turned off. And when the food police realized it, the school was hit with a $0.75 fine per student for the duration of the offense. Now the school is going to have to cut money to fine arts programs to make up the cost.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-22:/articles/show/245789 2012-05-22T22:31:54Z

In the span of only a year, CNN lost 50 percent of its total viewers and many are wondering why audiences are abandoning major news outlets in droves. Many big name anchors are paid millions of dollars to deliver the news, but the corporations blame the on-air talent for the decline in ratings. Meanwhile, critics believe the disconnect of content found online compared to whats being talked about on TV is the reason viewers are turning off their televisions. Christopher Chambers, journalism professor at Georgetown University, joins us with more.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-22:/articles/show/245788 2012-05-22T22:20:46Z

Over the past decade, research in the field of epigenetics has revealed that chemically modified bases are abundant components of the human genome and has forced us to abandon the notion we've had since high school genetics that DNA consists of only four bases. Now, researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College have made a discovery that once again forces us to rewrite our textbooks. This time, however, the findings pertain to RNA, which like DNA carries information about our genes and how they are expressed. The researchers have identified a novel base modification in RNA which they say will revolutionize our understanding of gene expression. Their report, published May 17 in the journal Cell, shows that messenger RNA (mRNA), long thought to be a simple blueprint for protein production, is often chemically modified by addition of a methyl group to one of its bases, adenine. Although mRNA was thought to contain only four nucleobases, their discovery shows that a fifth base, N6-methyladenosine (m6A), pervades the transcriptome. The researchers found that up to 20 percent of human mRNA is routinely methylated. Over 5,000 different mRNA molecules contain m6A, which means that this modification is likely to have widespread effects on how genes are expressed.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-22:/articles/show/245787 2012-05-22T22:10:32Z

As the country's big wars on the Eurasian continent wind down, American war-making and war preparations fly ever more regularly under the radar. There has, for instance, been much discussion about the Obama administration's policy "pivot" to Asia -- the only warlike act in the region so far has, however, been a little noted drone strike in the Philippines. At the same time, remarkably little attention has been paid to a massive build-up of U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf, and -- though both seem to be underway (and connected) -- who talks about the "pivot" to the Western Indian Ocean or the "pivot" to Africa? For those keeping a careful eye out, U.S. drone (and air) bases in the region have been proliferating -- in the Seychelles Islands, in Ethiopia, and at an unidentified site on the Arabian peninsula, among other places. Recently, however, Wired's Danger Room website reported that an Italian blogger had put the pieces together and offered impressive evidence of a larger war-making effort in the region, involving not only drones but F-15E fighter jets, possibly being used to bomb Yemen. Meanwhile, there are U.S. drone strikes in Yemen almost daily and at least 20 special forces operatives are reportedly now on the ground there, helping direct some of the fighting and even taking casualties. Meanwhile, the U.S. Africa Command (Africom), set up in 2007, has been gaining clout. In 2011, 100 special operations troops, mainly Green Berets, were moved into Central Africa, officially to aid in the hunting down of Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord's Resistance Army.

tag:en.sott.net,2012-05-22:/articles/show/245786 2012-05-22T21:26:59Z

Moms and cancer survivors parked their strollers in front of the U.S. Capitol today as part of the "Stroller Brigade" to demand that Congress take action to help regulate toxic chemicals that are found in everyday items used by children. The group called on Congress to pass Sen. Frank Lautenberg's, D-N.J., Safe Chemicals Act, a bill to overhaul old laws governing toxic chemicals. "As a consumer I am woefully unequipped to protect my family," said Polly Schlaff, whose son was born with a urological birth defect caused by prenatal exposure to environmental estrogen. "Worse yet, because of the utter failure of federal laws, I must rely on the chemical industry to protect my family from the hidden dangers of the more than 800,000 chemicals they produce and manufacture." Out of 800,000 chemicals in the nation, only 200 have been reviewed for safety. Five percent of pediatric cancers are caused by exposure of toxic chemicals, while 10 percent of neurological disorders and 30 percent of childhood asthma cases are associated with hazardous chemicals from hundreds of every day products including detergents, household cleaners and baby bottles. The Lautenberg bill would require chemical makers to prove their products are safe before they end up in children's bodies. "Our current law allows too many untested chemicals on the market," Lautenberg said at the rally today. "We want to have a responsible oversight and regulation of the chemical industry giving the EPA the authority....so that chemical companies will be required to tell what is in the chemical and what testing has been done." Lautenberg is pushing for a vote on his bill in the Senate Environment and Public Works committee and if it gets out of that committee it could go the full Senate for a vote.