Society's ChildS


Cow

Beef prices soar after Midwest U.S. clobbered by blizzard

Jeff Wilson and Jen Skerritt
Bloomberg
Tue, 02 May 2017 14:05 UTC
Cattle in Kansas snow
© Farm Journal
Cattle futures extended a surge to a record and wholesale beef jumped to a 13-month high after a weekend blizzard hammered the Midwest, and a Kansas livestock group estimated the snowstorm may have killed thousands of animals, signaling tightening meat supplies.

More than half of U.S. feedlots are located in the region hit by the massive storm that dumped more than 12 inches (30 centimeters) of snow, blanketing an area from the Texas Panhandle to Nebraska, said Lee Reeve, principal at Reeve Cattle Co. in Garden City, Kansas, and president-elect of the Kansas Livestock Association. Losses were the highest among younger animals and a feedlot with 80,000 head of cattle north of Garden City lost more than 1,000 animals, he said in a telephone interview.

"The storm came on so fast, and it was the heaviest snow I've ever seen," said Reeve, who lost about 40 animals from his 43,000-head operation.

Cash cattle prices had seen big gains even before the storm, surging 40 percent since the middle of October as domestic and global beef demand rose. President Donald Trump declared success last month in gaining greater access to China for U.S. beefs suppliers following meetings with President Xi Jinping, and Brazil's beef exports may trail previous expectations after a probe into tainted meat last month led to temporary import bans by several countries.
Read More...
Bandaid

Top health officials to simulate response to potential global disease outbreak


Medical Express
Wed, 03 May 2017 14:51 UTC
Scientist
© AP/Branden Camp
Top health officials from the 20 leading and emerging economies are planning to simulate their response to a possible global disease outbreak.

A memo on the May 19-20 summit in Berlin states the meeting will include a four-hour "tabletop exercise" involving ministers and representatives from international organizations.

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the memo on Tuesday.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is scheduled to open the summit. She has emphasized the importance of responding quickly and efficiently to sudden global health crises such as a deadly pandemic.

Among those taking part in the summit are Margaret Chan, the head of the World Health Organization. The WHO has been criticized in the past for failures in its response to the 2009 flu pandemic and the Ebola outbreak four years later.
Read More...
Red Flag

Leading scientists across all disciplines see high probability of coming apocalypse

Phil Torres
Salon
Sun, 30 Apr 2017 20:08 UTC
stephen hawking apocalypse
© Getty/Everlite/Leon Neal/Photo Montage by Salon
While apocalyptic beliefs about the end of the world have, historically, been the subject of religious speculation, they are increasingly common among some of the leading scientists today. This is a worrisome fact, given that science is based not on faith and private revelation, but on observation and empirical evidence.

Perhaps the most prominent figure with an anxious outlook on humanity's future is Stephen Hawking. Last year, he wrote the following in a Guardian article:
Now, more than at any time in our history, our species needs to work together. We face awesome environmental challenges: climate change, food production, overpopulation, the decimation of other species, epidemic disease, acidification of the oceans. Together, they are a reminder that we are at the most dangerous moment in the development of humanity. We now have the technology to destroy the planet on which we live, but have not yet developed the ability to escape it.
There is not a single point here that is inaccurate or hyperbolic. For example, consider that the hottest 17 years on record have all occurred since 2000, with a single exception (namely, 1998), and with 2016 being the hottest ever. Although 2017 probably won't break last year's record, the UK's Met Office projects that it "will still rank among the hottest years on record." Studies also emphasize that there is a rapidly closing window for meaningful action on climate change. As the authors of one peer-reviewed paper put it:
The next few decades offer a brief window of opportunity to minimize large-scale and potentially catastrophic climate change that will extend longer than the entire history of human civilization thus far. Policy decisions made during this window are likely to result in changes to Earth's climate system measured in millennia rather than human lifespans, with associated socioeconomic and ecological impacts that will exacerbate the risks and damages to society and ecosystems that are projected for the twenty-first century and propagate into the future for many thousands of years.
Read More...
Eye 1

Peeping pervert: CCTV fitter hid cameras in customers' homes to spy on them having sex


RT
Wed, 03 May 2017 13:38 UTC
Stuart Wynne
© Kent Police
A man has been jailed for setting up CCTV cameras in people's homes to spy on them during "private acts" for his own sexual gratification.

Stuart Wynne, 50, was jailed for two-and-a-half years after reportedly using his professional skills to secretly install cameras in customers' homes so he could spy on them during intimate moments.

Wynne, from Kent, denied installing the cameras for the purpose of his own sexual gratification.
Read More...
Biohazard

WHO says mysterious Ebola-like illness kills 12 in Liberia


RT
Wed, 03 May 2017 13:13 UTC
medics carry sick patient
© Pascal Guyot / AFP
A mysterious illness with Ebola-like symptoms which appeared in southeast Liberia is now in the country's capital, local authorities say. Both the government and the World Health Organization (WHO) put the revised death toll from the illness at 12.

According to Liberian Health Ministry spokesman Sorbor George "the illness has entered the capital," with the WHO saying the total number of cases has risen to 25.

Cases began being registered just over a week ago, on April 23, and the illness's symptoms include fever, vomiting, headaches and diarrhea. It has been linked to the funeral of a religious leader in Greenville, Sinoe County.

"A man came from Sinoe to attend a funeral in Monrovia and he got sick. He shows the same symptoms, later on he died. After he died his girlfriend got sick showing the same symptoms, she died also," the Health Ministry spokesman said, as cited by AFP.

The "majority" of the deaths so far were connected with the funeral, the WHO reported.
Read More...
Bad Guys

Justice Department rejects extradition request by Russian pilot kidnapped & tortured by US government


RT
Wed, 03 May 2017 12:42 UTC
Konstantin Yaroshenko
© Sputnik
The plea of extradition to Russia that Konstantin Yaroshenko had filed over "cruel and humiliating" conditions in the Fort Dix Prison has been rejected by US officials.

Yaroshenko told daily Izvestia that in late April he received the reply from the US Department of Justice reading that the deportation plea had been rejected due to seriousness of charges that led to the pilot's conviction.

The prisoner told reporters that the chances of his return to Russia had been practically exhausted, but he still hoped that Russian lawyers and diplomats would take his case to the International Criminal Court or the United Nations over the fact that the US prison authorities supposedly knowingly violate the international conventions against torture and cruel and unusual punishment.
Read More...
Attention

Chinese Embassy urges citizens in N. Korea to return home

Ko Dong-hwan
The Korea Times
Wed, 03 May 2017 12:22 UTC
North Korean soldiers carry the Korean People's Army flag
© AP-YonhapNorth Korean soldiers carry the Korean People's Army flag as they walk past residential buildings along Ryomyong street in Pyongyang, North Korea, Apr. 13.
The Chinese Embassy in North Korea has advised Korean-Chinese residents to return home amid concern that the North's military provocations may trigger a U.S. attack on the North, according to a source.

The embassy began sending the message on Apr. 20, five days before the North celebrated the 85th anniversary of the Korean People's Army with a show of military power, Radio Free Asia said Tuesday.

The U.S.-based station specializes in North Korea.

The station cited a Korean-Chinese living in the North's capital, who said he left for China late last month after the embassy contacted him.
Read More...
Bomb

Eight killed in Kabul suicide blast targeting NATO vehicles


RT
Wed, 03 May 2017 12:14 UTC
Afghan security force
© Omar Sobhani / Reuters A member of the Afghan security force keeps watch at the site of a suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan May 3, 2017.
Eight people have been killed and 28 more injured as a reported suicide bomb blast targeting a NATO convoy hit the Afghan capital, Kabul, not far from the US Embassy. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The first images from the scene appear to show a car on fire and damaged armored vehicles.

At least eight civilians were killed in the blast, broadcaster TOLOnews reports citing the Afghan Interior Ministry. At least 28 people were injured. The casualties included those traveling in vehicles next to the blast site.
Read More...
Alarm Clock

Hysteria: 'Armed person' lockdown at New York university turns out to be art student with glue gun

Victor Skinner
EAG News
Tue, 02 May 2017 18:54 UTC
Colgate University
© Colgate University
An "armed person" who caused a "dangerous situation" at Colgate University on Monday that triggered a campus lockdown turned out to be a student using a glue gun for an art project.

At 8:05 p.m. on Monday Colgate University's official Twitter account posted "Colgate Alert: Because of a dangerous situation in the Coop, everyone is advised to leave the building."

Fifteen minutes later: "Colgate Alert: There is an armed person at the Coop. Find a safe space and remain indoors. If you are off-campus, stay away."

Campus officials called in law enforcement to sweep the schools O'Connor Campus Center, known as the Coop, and soon learned that what some students reported as a person armed with a weapon was actually just a student with a glue gun, according to The Washington Post.

The upstate New York liberal arts college eventually explained the situation - at 1 a.m. Tuesday.
Read More...
Moon

Paradise lost: Hawaii is home to one of the World's dirtiest beaches


Sputnik
Tue, 02 May 2017 17:31 UTC
Hawaii sunset
© Pixabay
The tropical islands of Hawaii are known for its beautiful white beaches and crystal clear blue waters. It's hard to imagine that one of these picturesque far-flung holiday destinations is also considered to have one of the dirtiest beaches in the world.

Kamilo Point, a beach in the rural Ka'u district of the Big Island of Hawaii, is a wasteland according to experts. Despite its pockets of lava rock and beautiful natural wildlife, the ocean's currents are so powerful that the winds deposit thousands of pounds of man-made trash on the beach every year.

Kamilo, also known as "plastic beach," has been know to host hair brushes, cigarette lighters, shards of plastic as well as water bottles, all of which wash up on the beach every week.
Read More...