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Ambulance

University of Chicago student's body found decomposing in dorm


abc7chicago.com
Mon, 17 Feb 2014 12:47 UTC
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Nicholas Brastins Barnes, a third-year student, was found dead in his dorm room at University of Chicago, school officials said. Police say he had been dead for some time.

Police found the 20-year-old's body on Saturday afternoon after other students in the International House complained of a smell. The last time he used his keycard to enter the dorm was on February 7.

"I don't understand how the people that live next door, and the people who were responsible for his well-being could have not seen that he has been gone for a week," said International House resident Jordan Ginsburg.
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Light Saber

The Babbila reconciliation: A light at the end of Syria's dark tunnel

Erets Zen
Syrian Free Press Network
Wed, 19 Feb 2014 04:13 UTC
Syrian reconciliation
© Erets Zen Channel
The Syrian government's efforts in promoting reconciliation and amnesty to Syrian militants who took up arms against it has paid off. Babbila, Yalda, and Beit Sahem are three towns in the Damascus countryside that recently had reconciliation between their militants and the Syrian Army.

These deals included agreements on ceasefire, lifting of siege, allowing food and aid to get in, and the giving up of weapons - in most cases - in exchange for the residents raising the Syrian flag.

In Babbila, videos of the armed Islamist militants standing side by side with the Syrian Army might have seemed strange a week ago; however, today, this presents a sliver of hope that there might actually be a way out of this conflict, if all Syrians work together to get their country back.

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Ambulance

9 die in fire destroying Argentine bank archives


The Washington Post
Tue, 18 Feb 2014 22:12 UTC
Argentina archives
© Associated Press
Buenos Aires, Argentina - Nine first-responders were killed and seven others injured as they battled a fire of unknown origin that destroyed an archive of corporate and banking industry documents in Argentina's capital on Wednesday.

The fire at the Iron Mountain warehouse took hours to control and at least half of the sprawling building was ruined despite the efforts of at least 10 squads of firefighters.

The nine firefighters and civil defense workers were crushed when a brick wall collapsed on top of a large group of first-responders on the sidewalk and street outside. Tearful rescuers removed rubble by hand to reach their comrades.

"It took them completely by surprise," said Argentina's Security Secretary Sergio Berni said. "Some of the injured are fighting for their lives."
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Cow Skull

15 reasons why your food bill is going to start soaring

Michael Snyder
theeconomiccollapseblog.com
Sun, 16 Feb 2014 19:38 UTC
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Did you know that the U.S. state that produces the most vegetables is going through the worst drought it has ever experienced and that the size of the total U.S. cattle herd is now the smallest that it has been since 1951? Just the other day, a CBS News article boldly declared that "food prices soar as incomes stand still", but the truth is that this is only just the beginning. If the drought that has been devastating farmers and ranchers out west continues, we are going to see prices for meat, fruits and vegetables soar into the stratosphere. Already, the federal government has declared portions of 11 states to be "disaster areas", and California farmers are going to leave half a million acres sitting idle this year because of the extremely dry conditions. Sadly, experts are telling us that things are probably going to get worse before they get better (if they ever do). As you will read about below, one expert recently told National Geographic that throughout history it has been quite common for that region of North America to experience severe droughts that last for decades. In fact, one drought actually lasted for about 200 years. So there is the possibility that the drought that has begun in the state of California may not end during your entire lifetime.
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Shopping Bag

Food prices soar as U.S. government says there's no inflation

Dan Weil
Moneynews.com
Sat, 15 Feb 2014 19:13 UTC
Food Inflation 'Far Greater' Than Government Admits
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Wages aren't keeping up with food inflation, creating a problem for American families.

While consumer prices overall have risen 6.4 percent since 2011, chicken has jumped 18.4 percent, ground beef 16.8 percent and bacon 22.8 percent, CBS News reports.

"Food inflation is far greater than the government thinks it is," ConvergEx market strategist Nick Colas told CBS.

At the same time, median income has gained only 1 percent a year, CBS reports. That makes it difficult for parents to save for their children's college expenses. College tuition has increased 6 to 8 percent a year for the last five decades, according to CBS.

While some economists see the overall economy in fine shape, "middle-class families are quietly struggling," writes CBS correspondent Michelle Miller.

Comment: WHEW! That's coming from a psychopath who is way up there in the responsibility stakes for creating the very same "gaping income inequality"...

Are we feeling the pinch yet?

Additional examples of soaring food prices around the world:

World food prices near crisis levels

India: Inflation dips but food prices soar

Rising food prices - not just your imagination

Higher energy, food prices are hurting most Americans

Rising food prices, climate change and global 'unrest'

World Food Crisis Looms as Prices Soar to Record High

Misery for UK households as food prices soar at twice the EU average

Rising Food Prices Continue to Climb, with Prices Up 10% in July Alone

Steak to become 'luxury item' as UK food prices predicted to soar in 2014

Indonesia's food prices hiked by a whopping 12.9%, inflation at 22-month high

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Card - MC

How the credit card gravy train is running over you

Ellen Brown
Web of Debt
Fri, 14 Feb 2014 19:15 UTC
credit cards
© Adam Gault / OJO Images / Getty Images
The credit card business is now the banking industry's biggest cash cow, and it's largely due to lucrative hidden fees.

You pay off your credit card balance every month, thinking you are taking advantage of the "interest-free grace period" and getting free credit. You may even use your credit card when you could have used cash, just to get the free frequent flier or cash-back rewards. But those popular features are misleading. Even when the balance is paid on time every month, credit card use imposes a huge hidden cost on users - hidden because the cost is deducted from what the merchant receives, then passed on to you in the form of higher prices.

Visa and MasterCard charge merchants about 2% of the value of every credit card transaction, and American Express charges even more. That may not sound like much. But consider that for balances that are paid off monthly (meaning most of them), the banks make 2% or more on a loan averaging only about 25 days (depending on when in the month the charge was made and when in the grace period it was paid). Two percent interest for 25 days works out to a 33.5% return annually (1.02^(365/25) - 1), and that figure may be conservative.

Merchant fees were originally designed as a way to avoid usury and Truth-in-Lending laws. Visa and MasterCard are independent entities, but they were set up by big Wall Street banks, and the card-issuing banks get about 80% of the fees. The annual returns not only fall in the usurious category, but they are returns on other people's money - usually the borrower's own money! Here is how it works . . . .
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Horse

Amish buggy horse killed in drive-by shooting, man charged


The Smoking Gun
Wed, 12 Feb 2014 18:49 UTC
amish horse shooting 1

Timothy Antonio Diggs, 22
Horse killed by bullet fired on Pennsylvania roadway

Timothy Antonio Diggs, 22, is facing seven misdemeanor counts, including reckless endangerment, cruelty to animals, and firing into an occupied vehicle, according to the East Lampeter Township Police Department.

The horse was pulling a buggy with five family members around 9 PM on November 24 when "an unknown type car traveling north passed the buggy."

The buggy's occupants, a married couple and their three young children, told investigators that they heard "a loud noise, described as sounding like a firecracker" as the vehicle passed.

Upon returning to their farm, the family discovered that the horse had been shot in the chest. The animal died before a veterinarian reached the family's residence.

Diggs, seen in the above mug shot, has been jailed since cops executed a search warrant at his home in early-December. During that raid, officers located handguns and a motorcycle that had been stolen in two separate burglaries.
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Take 2

Funnyman Sid Caesar dead at 91

Todd Leopold
CNN
Wed, 12 Feb 2014 10:26 UTC
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© Unknown
Sid Caesar, whose clever, anarchic comedy on such programs as "Your Show of Shows" and "Caesar's Hour" helped define the 1950s "Golden Age of Television," has died. He was 91.

A friend of the family, actor Rudy De Luca, did not know the exact cause of death, but said Caesar had respiratory problems and other health problems for several years.

Caesar became famous for "Your Show of Shows," which went on the air in 1950. It lasted four years and was followed by "Caesar's Hour," which combined sketches, musical revues and situation comedy.

Both shows featured writers who became famous in their own right, including Neil Simon, Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, Mel Tolkin, Lucille Kallen and Larry Gelbart. Woody Allen also contributed to Caesar's comedy as a writer for one of his specials.

Brooks visited Caesar last night to say goodbye, De Luca told CNN.

"Sid Caesar was a giant-maybe the best comedian who ever practiced the trade & I was privileged to be one of his writers & one of his friends," Brooks tweeted Wednesday.

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Bad Guys

Endure exploding natural gas well, earn free pizza! (Some restrictions apply)


philly.com
Mon, 17 Feb 2014 12:02 UTC
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Last Tuesday, the residents of the small rural community of Bobtown in the far southwestern corner of Pennsylvania woke up to a horrible shock -- the sound of a massive explosion in their backyards. The source of the blast and the intensely hot fire that followed was a Chevron fracking well that had been set to begin production, but instead shot orange flames high into the air and gave off loud hissing sounds that could be heard hundreds of yards away.

John Kuis, 57, of nearby Dilliner told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that at 6:45 a.m., his dog growled, then the earth rumbled, and finally: "Then the house just sort of shook and there was a big loud bang." Another neighbor told the paper that the fracking explosion "sounded like a jet engine going 5 feet above your house."

It was a horrific event on every level. One worker at the rig was not found and is presumed dead. The fire -- who posed enormous risks to rescue workers and to the surrounding community -- burned intensely for five days before it was finally extinguished. Despite reassurances, neighbors surely worried whether toxins were released in the fiery aftermath.
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Cow Skull

'Wild-life protector' Prince Harry in 'trophy kill' water buffalo photo


UK Mirror
Tue, 18 Feb 2014 12:04 UTC
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Hypocrite. Harry bags a water buffalo to save the animals.
Prince Harry's pledge to protect wildlife has been dealt a blow over this picture of the royal crouching over the body of water buffalo he shot dead on a hunting trip.

The photo has emerged in the week he pledged to do all he could to save animals threatened with extinction in Africa.

And it also follows worldwide condemnation of another royal hunting trip just ten days ago when Prince William went boar shooting in Spain.

The picture was taken in November 2004, when the-then 20-year-old was on a gap year trip to Argentina shortly before he enrolled at Sandhurst military academy.
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