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Too much inequality could lead the West to a Roman Empire-style fall says NASA

Alex Brown
National Journal
Tue, 18 Mar 2014 10:42 UTC
Image
© AFP/Getty Images
Few think Western civilization is on the brink of collapse - but it's also doubtful the Romans and Mesopotamians saw their own demise coming either.

If we're to avoid their fate, we'll need policies to reduce economic inequality and preserve natural resources, according to a NASA-funded study that looked at the collapses of previous societies.

"Two important features seem to appear across societies that have collapsed," reads the study. "The stretching of resources due to the strain placed on the ecological carrying capacity and the economic stratification of society into Elites and Masses."

In unequal societies, researchers said, "collapse is difficult to avoid.... Elites grow and consume too much, resulting in a famine among Commoners that eventually causes the collapse of society."
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Snowflake Cold

Extreme winter weather drives up food prices in U.S.

William Whitson
WMBF News
Tue, 18 Mar 2014 10:30 UTC
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Wild winter weather hasn't just had an effect on crops here in the Palmetto State, but all over the country, and that means your wallet could be feeling the chill at your grocery store's checkout aisle.

"It's been wet and rainy everywhere," said IGA manager Keith Skipper. "Then the cold came in."

Skipper says cold weather has hit South Carolina farmers hard, and harsh winters in the Midwest have had a huge effect on beef prices.

"Steers, in cold weather won't eat," he said. "They end up having to take the cow to market before its time."

Across the country and on every grocery item, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates prices have risen 1.4 percent in the past year, and could go as high as 3.5% by the end of the year.

Other items seeing a spike in prices include wheat and coffee, due in part to major drought in parts of the US as well as South America.
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Light Saber

Josie the Outlaw: Supporting the Troops

Josie Outlaw
You Tube
Tue, 11 Mar 2014 10:05 UTC
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"Counting Lives Lost, Making Tangible an Abstract Measure of Grief"
How I support the troops.
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TV

YouTube using 200 'super flaggers' to hunt down offending content

Trevor Mogg
Digital Trends
Tue, 18 Mar 2014 09:46 UTC
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With 100 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute, it's impossible for the site's employees to keep tabs on the mass of content continuously pouring in. While most of it is innocuous enough, some prohibited material slips through the net, including pornography, gratuitous violence, and abuse of various forms.

In a bid to catch such material more quickly, Google-owned YouTube has hired around 200 individuals and organizations to flag any material they deem to be in contravention of the video-sharing site's guidelines, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

A person with knowledge of the matter told the Journal that most of those in the "flagger program" are individuals, though some are said to be "government agencies or non-governmental organizations such as anti-hate and child-safety groups."

While the site already allows users to report videos containing possibly suspect content, it's likely the material highlighted by those in the flagger program is fast-tracked to the YouTube team for evaluation. In addition, the Web giant has reportedly set up the system so that the flaggers can highlight content "at scale," instead of selecting one video at a time.
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Stormtrooper

Alabama police shot unarmed U.S. airman as he lay on ground following traffic accident

Travis Gettys
The Raw Story
Wed, 12 Mar 2014 09:19 UTC
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© RawStory
Police shot a 20-year-old airman as he lay on the ground following a traffic accident along Interstate 85 in Alabama, the man's family said.

Air Force Airman 1st Class Michael Davidson was traveling Thursday evening from Texas to Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, near Goldsboro, N.C., in a 2004 GMC Envoy when he changed lanes and clipped a semi-truck with his driver's side mirror, according to police.

Davidson stopped and got out of his SUV to exchange insurance information with the semi's driver, the airman's father told the Opelika-Auburn News.

"He said he didn't get that far," said Billy Davidson. "When (he was walking) to the truck, he said he heard something but couldn't tell what it was. There was a lot of noise, but (he) could see the reflection of the lights off the truck - the police lights. Then he did what I told him to do. I told my boys if you see police lights (to) stop, put your hands up and turn around."

The elder Davidson said his son held up his arms, holding his wallet in one hand.

"The next thing I know I was on the ground," Michael Davidson told his father. "That's when they shot me. I didn't realize he shot me. I didn't know what happened. It was so fast. They couldn't have been there three or four seconds when I was shot."
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Airplane

CNN's Don Lemon: 'Is it preposterous' to think a black hole caused Flight 370 to go missing? (He was serious!)‏

Josh Feldman
Mediaite
Wed, 19 Mar 2014 11:31 UTC
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© CNN
CNN's Don Lemon has been entertaining all sorts of theories about the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, including the chance something "supernatural" happened, but on Wednesday night, he actually asked panelists about the possibility a black hole was involved.

Lemon brought this up along with other "conspiracy theories" people have been floating on Twitter, including people noting the eerie parallels to Lost and The Twilight Zone, and wondered, "is it preposterous" to consider a black hole as a possibility?

Mary Schiavo, a former Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Transportation, said, "A small black hole would suck in our entire universe, so we know it's not that."

Here's another theory I'll just throw out there: what about the plane entered a wormhole into another dimension? I don't know if that's how the science works, though.
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Stock Up

Food price hikes in U.S. last month were highest since November 2003

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Thu, 20 Mar 2014 07:25 UTC
Just a month ago we warned that food inflation was on its way. Today we got the first confirmation that problems are on their way. While headline data washes away the nuance of what eating, sleeping, energy-using human-beings are paying month-in and month-out, the fact, as WSJ reports, that beef prices surged by almost 5% in February - the biggest change since Nov 2003 - means pinching consumers and companies pocketbooks that are still grappling with a sluggish economic recovery. "Things are definitely more expensive," exclaimed on mother of three, "I can't believe how much milk is. Chicken is crazy right now, and beef - I paid $5 a pound for beef!" Just don't tell the Fed!

Via WSJ,

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© wsj.com
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Sheriff

Another Philadelphia cop charged: Officer roughed up Iraq vet who recorded his outburst with phone

Travis Gettys
The Raw Story
Wed, 12 Mar 2014 14:54 UTC
Image
© RawStory
Officer Kevin Corcoran
A Philadelphia police officer was charged Wednesday in connection with an incident last year involving an Iraq War veteran.

Officer Kevin Corcoran, 33, was patrolling Center City about 2 a.m. last March 31 when a group of pedestrians yelled that he had made an illegal turn.

Corcoran, a nine-year veteran, got out of his police SUV and began arguing with the pedestrians, and several onlookers began recording him on their cell phones.

The officer is accused of slapping a phone from Roderick King's hands and cursing at him, saying, "Don't f*cking touch me."

He continued walking toward King, who investigators said kept his hands in front of him and never touched the officer.

Corcoran shoved the Iraq veteran against the side of his SUV, handcuffed him, and threw him into the back of his cruiser.

The officer told King he had been arrested for public intoxication, but prosecutors said Corcoran hadn't prepared any of the required paperwork for the arrest and had no evidence he was intoxicated.

Comment:
Police Brutality: Police union defends Philadelphia cop who punched woman
Philadelphia teen suffers ruptured testicle during police 'patdown'
Off-duty Philadelphia cop shoots man over dog poo dispute

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Eye 1

Land of the free: Michigan man charged with felony after speaking too long at public meeting

Brad Devereaux
MLive
Tue, 18 Mar 2014 00:06 UTC
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Mark A. Adams
A Bridgeport man faces a felony charge after he was arrested by police at a township board meeting when he refused to stop talking past a three-minute time limit for public comment.

Mark A. Adams, 59, was arraigned Friday, March 14, by Saginaw County District Judge A.T. Frank on a felony charge of resisting and obstructing a police officer and a misdemeanor charge of disturbing the peace.

Adams was arrested during a March 4 Bridgeport Township meeting by three Bridgeport Township police officers after violating the township's three-minute time limit set for people making public comments and refusing to stop talking when township officials told him to.

The arrest was on Adams' 59th birthday, according to public records.

Adams handed a four-page document to members of the board and offered it to others at the meeting before he spoke. The document, typed with an Adams Oil logo and Adams' contact information at the top, outlines 21 grievances against Bridgeport Township officials and other government officials.
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Compass

'Most Botched Aircraft Investigation in History'- assessment by airline industry insider

Athena Yenko
International Business Times
Tue, 18 Mar 2014 21:42 UTC
On Monday, Prime Minister Tony Abbott confirmed accepting Malaysia's request for Australia to lead the search on the southern Indian Ocean.

"In light of developments in the investigation, he requested that Australia assumes responsibility in coordinating that part of the search efforts that is focusing on the southern Indian Ocean. I told Prime Minister (Datuk Seri) Najib (Razak) that Australia stands with Malaysia at this very difficult time and would be pleased to take on this additional responsibility," Mr Abbott said during the press conference.

Geoffrey Thomas

Geoffrey Thomas
However, in the opinion of Geoffrey Thomas, editor of the Web site airlineratings.com, Australian officials should tell Malaysia point blank that Malaysia is not competent to conducts its own search investigations.

Mr Thomas was Australasian Aviation Journalist (AAJ) of the Year in 2001, 2002, 2009 and 2011, Aviation Editor for The West Australian newspaper and Airlines Editor for Australian Aviation.

Speaking with The World Today, Mr Thomas said that with Malaysia handling its own search of the missing MH370, it became "one of the most botched aircraft investigations in modern history."

"Unfortunately we have not been told by the Malaysians in a timely fashion about the shutting off of the ACARS, the shutting off of the transponder, the plane going to the west. Millions of dollars has been wasted, days have been wasted searching in the wrong area. I think this is without doubt one of the most botched aircraft investigations in modern history," Mr Thomas said.
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