Culiacan - Mexican authorities are searching for a meteorite that fell to earth in a rural area in the northwestern part of the country, which was sighted in the region but about which there are as yet few details, officials said Friday.

The alarm sounded when inhabitants of a mountainous region of Sinaloa state near the border with Chihuahua were startled by the approach of a luminous object in the night sky.

NASA and Mexican emergency services agencies confirmed that the object was a meteorite, whose dimensions and exact place of impact are unknown.

Some witnesses believed it could have crashed to earth between the Gustavo Diaz Ordaz Dam and the town of San Jose de Gracia.

After hours of searching by air and land, an official of the Sinaloa municipality of Sinaloa, Marcial Alvarez, told Efe that the meteorite is believed to have impacted next door in Chihuahua state.

This Saturday observers will fly over the area in search of the meteorite.

It would not be the first time Sinaloa has seen a phenomenon like this. In 1871 a meteorite fell on the settlement of Bacubirito, which with a weight of 22 tons is considered one of the biggest in the world.

The global economy could withstand widespread disruption from a natural disaster or attack by militants for only a week as governments and businesses are not sufficiently prepared to deal with unexpected events, a report by a respected think-tank said.

Events such as the 2010 volcanic ash cloud, which grounded flights in Europe, Japan's earthquake and tsunami and Thailand's floods last year, have showed that key sectors and businesses can be severely affected if disruption to production or transport goes on for more than a week.

"One week seems to be the maximum tolerance of the 'just-in-time' global economy," said the report by Chatham House, the London-based policy institute for international affairs.

The current fragile state of the world's economy leaves it particularly vulnerable to unforeseen shocks. Up to 30 percent of developed countries' gross domestic product could be directly threatened by crises, especially in the manufacturing and tourism sectors, according to the think-tank.

It is estimated that the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in Asia cost businesses $60 billion, or about 2 percent of east Asian GDP, the report said.

Over the course of the past few years, we have been gathering studies from the US National Library of Medicine on the adverse, unintended health effects of vaccination, in an attempt to offset the one-sided propaganda foisted upon the public, namely, that all vaccines are unequivocally "safe" and "effective," a priori.

Along the way, we happened upon a 2010 study published in the Journal of Pediatric Infections & Diseases which has been shared more than any other article on our database, and which suggests that breastfeeding should be delayed in order to prevent immune factors within breast milk from inactivating vaccine-associated antibody titer elevations and "vaccine potency." The authors concluded the study with the following statement:

"INTERPRETATION: The lower immunogenicity and efficacy of rotavirus vaccines in poor developing countries could be explained, in part, by higher titers of IgA and neutralizing activity in breast milk consumed by their infants at the time of immunization that could effectively reduce the potency of the vaccine. Strategies to overcome this negative effect, such as delaying breast-feeding at the time of immunization, should be evaluated."

It is not difficult to comprehend what caused the flurry of interest in this study. Readers were obviously disturbed by the suggestion that women in the underdeveloped world temporarily stop breast feeding (often the only source of infant nutrition) in order to increase the vaccine's purported "efficacy." Are we to assume that these breast milk deprived infants should consume formula* in the interim? And to what end? So that the vaccine can generate a temporary spike in antibody production, which is no measure of real-world effectiveness?

*Note: Infant formula has been linked to 48 adverse effects, including increased mortality.

Transcript of an interview between Jim Puplava and Gerald Celente.

Jim: Joining me from Trends Research is Gerald Celente. And Gerald we have been covering a few stories of the implications of MF Global, of course the story about how Ann Barnhardt closing down her account because the system doesn't work. You had an experience that was not very pleasant. And you found out that even though you didn't have an account with MF Global in reality you did. Why don't you share that with our listeners?

Gerald: Yes. About two weeks ago on Monday and I have been trading gold now since 1978 was my first buy. And what I do I have a very simple strategy. It is just kind of like going to a store and buying something on layaway and that is the way I buy gold. I buy gold in very different ways; I buy coins, I buy bouillon and one of the ways I do it is I buy it through the commodities futures exchange. And what I do is I build up my account until l am ready to take delivery, just like a layaway. And all of a sudden you go to pick up whatever you bought at the store and the store is no longer there. And basically that is what has happened to me.

So I got a call two weeks ago on a Monday and I got it from my broker and he wanted a margin call. I said what are you out of your mind a margin call!?! I said I have plenty of money in my account. I am taking delivery at the end of the month. What margin call? And then he told me I had an account MF Global, I thought I had it with Lind-Waldock. And I hadn't paid attention they had been bought out because every time they would answer the phone it was Lind-Waldock and it just kind of registers in your mind like that. Then I found out they took all of my money - all of my money - out of my account and put it in the hands of a trustee. I said who decided this? He said the CME group and other parties. I said you mean Meyer Lansky and Al Capone decided to take my money, they are making up these rules and giving it to a trustee? I mean who is their trustee? What member of the crime family has my money.

Psychopaths Caused the Financial Crisis

Bloomberg notes:

The "corporate psychopaths" at the helm of our financial institutions are to blame [for the financial crisis].

Clive R. Boddy, most recently a professor at the Nottingham Business School at Nottingham Trent University, says psychopaths are the 1 percent of "people who, perhaps due to physical factors to do with abnormal brain connectivity and chemistry" lack a "conscience, have few emotions and display an inability to have any feelings, sympathy or empathy for other people."

As a result, Boddy argues in a recent issue of the Journal of Business Ethics, such people are "extraordinarily cold, much more calculating and ruthless towards others than most people are and therefore a menace to the companies they work for and to society."

How do people with such obvious personality flaws make it to the top of seemingly successful corporations? Boddy says psychopaths take advantage of the "relative chaotic nature of the modern corporation," including "rapid change, constant renewal" and high turnover of "key personnel." Such circumstances allow them to ascend through a combination of "charm" and "charisma," which makes "their behaviour invisible" and "makes them appear normal and even to be ideal leaders."

George Galloway, speaking at Stop the War Coalition's public meeting 'Don't Attack Iran' on Monday 5th December 2011 in Conway Hall, London.

I'm torn between the pleasure of having just read a brilliant and moving first-person stream-of-consciousness account of a true story of one woman's childhood, and the deep sadness that comes from learning about the absolutely horrific hell that this woman is extremely lucky to have survived - a hell that many others have known and will know, despite the ease with which it might be prevented.

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: "These novels will give way, by and by, to diaries or autobiographies - captivating books, if only a man knew how to choose among what he calls his experiences that which is really his experience, and how to record truth truly." Set aside the old-fashioned metaphysical vocabulary and the sexism. Factor in the world-changing force now developing called self-publishing. Emerson is being proved right, and there is no better example than This Girl's Life: Being the Child of a War Veteran, by Michelle Brown.

Brown begins her masterpiece thus:

"I lived a rough life with my dad. He abused us physically all the time. There were four of us who lived in our home, my brothers and sisters, along with my mom and dad. My older sister had already left home. She'd had enough. My dad took a lot of my life from me, and I still have nightmares about the things that went on in that home. We were afraid to tell anyone, afraid of what would happen to us. My dad was a war veteran and we really did not know how to treat someone like that."

I never thought I would have to write this: but - incredibly - Congress has now passed the National Defense Appropriations Act, with Amendment 1031, which allows for the military detention of American citizens. The amendment is so loosely worded that any American citizen could be held without due process. The language of this bill can be read to assure Americans that they can challenge their detention - but most people do not realize what this means: at Guantanamo and in other military prisons, one's lawyer's calls are monitored, witnesses for one's defense are not allowed to testify, and one can be forced into nudity and isolation. Incredibly, ninety-three Senators voted to support this bill and now most of Congress: a roster of names that will live in infamy in the history of our nation, and never be expunged from the dark column of the history books.

They may have supported this bill because - although it's hard to believe - they think the military will only arrest active members of Al Qaida; or maybe, less naively, they believe that 'at most', low-level dissenting figures, activists, or troublesome protesters might be subjected to military arrest. But they are forgetting something critical: history shows that those who signed this bill will soon be subject to arrest themselves

Is it possible to thrive without antipsychotics, high-powered painkillers, and statin drugs?

More importantly, are natural alternatives really as 'dangerous' as mainstream health officials claim?

Sure, there have been some great advancements in the field of medical science, but profit mongering and a blatant disregard for public health has driven big pharma giants to throw science to the wind and unleash a variety of harmful yet profitable pharmaceuticals.

It is thanks to this motive that pharmaceuticals have now led to more deaths than traffic fatalities in the United States.

Killing at least 37,485 people nationwide in 2009, the mainstream medical structure continues to not only ignore natural alternatives but actually goes as far as to label them 'dangerous' and completely deny their effectiveness. Vitamin D, which can be obtained by simply stepping outside, has been found to slash your risk of cancer, obesity, and the flu. Of course, unless you are supplementing thousands of times over the safe limit of vitamin D, there are virtually zero side effects to accompany these benefits.

New research has found that elderly people with higher levels of several vitamins and omega 3 fatty acids in their blood had better performance on mental acuity tests and less of the brain shrinkage typical of Alzheimer's disease - while "junk food" diets produced just the opposite result.

The study was among the first of its type to specifically measure a wide range of blood nutrient levels instead of basing findings on less precise data such as food questionnaires, and found positive effects of high levels of vitamins B, C, D, E and the healthy oils most commonly found in fish.

The research was done by scientists from the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, Ore., and the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University. It was published today in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

"This approach clearly shows the biological and neurological activity that's associated with actual nutrient levels, both good and bad," said Maret Traber, a principal investigator with the Linus Pauling Institute and co-author on the study.