According to Healthline.com, there are an estimated 121 million people worldwide who suffer from depression, affecting as many as 1 in 10 Americans, and diagnoses are growing at an alarming rate. Depression is also shown to be correlated with higher rates of other negative health outcomes, including obesity, heart disease, and stroke, as well as social factors including higher rates of unemployment, divorce, sleep disorders, lack of education and lack of access to medical insurance.

Today on the SOTT Radio Network's Health and Wellness Show, we take a look at the latest research on depression including its causes and strategies on dealing with it. The mainstream view on depression is that it is a result of a "chemical imbalance" that can be rectified with medications. But is this really the whole picture? How do infections, toxic load, diet and social factors contribute to depression? What can an individual do for themselves or loved ones to try to get on top of this crippling condition?

Join us Fridays at 10 am EST for the Health and Wellness Show, where we expose the lies and emphasize the truth about health in our modern world. With us, as always, will be resident animal health expert Zoya, with her weekly Pet Health Segment.

Running Time: 01:59:00

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By now we've all heard what happened in Cologne, Germany, on New Year's Eve. A group of 1000 refugees allegedly caused mayhem in the city's main square, drinking heavily, launching firecrackers into the crowd, robbing people, and sexually assaulting over 100 women. According to Cologne police, over 200 cases of sexual assault have been registered. A climate of fear is the result, along with a backlash against authorities, from local police to Germany's leadership. It's "sexual terrorism" at its worst, proof that Germany's experiment in multiculturalism, and their open-arms policy to refugees from the Middle East and North Africa, have been utter failures. The coverage and reactions are unequivocal.

But is this narrative justified? Hardly. We don't even have a clear idea of exactly what happened in Cologne that night. The fact that all media outlets are in agreement - in a country where the media is controlled by the CIA - indicates the 'operational' and contrived nature of the coverage, and perhaps even the event itself.

So far, available video from the scene shows a large crowd of young people (mostly men) on the square, some obviously drinking, and several of them launching firecrackers into the sky and some into the crowd. Basically, a large group, or several smaller groups, of teens and twenty-somethings acting like teens and twenty-somethings do in most of the Western world: irresponsibly and "just having a bit of fun". What the videos don't show, but what certainly also occurred, was a series of sexual assaults on women in the area by an unknown number of these young men. Victims report being forced through groups of young men - of Middle Eastern or North African appearance - where they were repeatedly groped at, some robbed, and at least one or two reportedly raped.

A year of astonishing weather events and devastating natural disasters came to a dramatic end last month, ruining Christmas celebrations for many. Unusual atmospheric conditions and a severely looping northern jet stream brought record warmth to the Arctic and Western Europe, where back-to-back storms pummeled the UK, Ireland and Norway with record-breaking rainfall and hurricane-force winds. A similar situation developed on the opposite side of the globe, where, for the second year running, the most intense North Pacific storm ever recorded slammed into Alaska and brought intense flooding to the US Northwest.

December 2015 was a 'tale of two USAs', with the western half generally experiencing record cold, record snowfall, and ice storms, while the eastern states experienced record warmth, fatal tornado outbreaks and record flooding. Incredibly, it was warmer on Christmas Day in Boston and New York City than it was on July 4th. Severe flooding affected all continents, with over 100,000 people displaced in the capital of Congo, Kinshasa; another 160,000 displaced in central Latin America; and 300 killed by 'the worst flooding in over a century' in southern India.

There were also multiple volcanic eruptions last month, spectacular meteor fireball sightings, gaping sinkholes swallowing homes, and localized storms of such intensity that falling hail turned streets into rivers of ice in northern Argentina, while tornadoes touched down in New Zealand. The animal kingdom is also feeling the effects of global upheaval: mass fish kills continue apace; enormous whales continue washing up on sea shores; and, for the second time in 5 months, a giant squid was filmed coming up to the surface... Does something stir in the deep?

These were the signs of the times in December 2015.

I was surprised to learn that many Turkish people on social media have been supporting Turkey's President Erdoğan's actions and stance, whether it concerned the unlawful downing of a Russian jet, its cruel treatment of Kurdish civilians living in Turkey, or its oil dealings with terrorists. Some of them even go as far as rooting for a come-back of the Ottoman Empire. But how many of them know about the real recent history of the Late Ottoman Empire, and the many innocent people who died during that time?

"[Professor of Modern History] Christian Gerlach ... claims that societies like the ones in the Late Ottoman Empire or in Nazi Germany are characterized by mass violence against numerous political, religious or ethnic groups instead of only one."
- Dominik J. Schaller and Jürgen Zimmerer

As the quote above suggests, the Young Turk era (1906-1918) of the late Ottoman Empire bore a lot of similarities to Hitler's Germany. In Late Ottoman Genocides, historians Schaller and Zimmerer write: "A new generation of historians working on World War II and the German war of extermination in Eastern Europe have ... shown that the Nazis' "struggle for Lebensraum" was not only directed against the Jews - though they held an out-standing position as ultimate arch enemies in Hitler's ideology - but also affected Poles, Russians, Roma and several other groups." In similar fashion, the Late Ottoman Empire, in its desire to create a homogenous empire consisting of only Turks, set out to exterminate different non-Turkish groups: Assyrians, Armenians, Greeks, and Kurds, among others.

The Young Turks leaders' systematic policy of violent 'turkification' first targeted the Greeks: "More than 100,000 Ottoman Greeks were expelled from the Aegean and Thrace to create living space for Muslim refugees who had themselves been brutally driven away from Crete and the Balkans. Hundreds of thousands of Greeks were deported from the coastal regions to the interior due to alleged strategic reasons during the war. Finally the anti-Greek campaign of the Young Turks found its continuation in [Turkey's first President] Mustafa Kemal's expulsion of the Ottoman Greeks. The burning of Smyrna [known today as İzmir, Turkey] and the slaughter of its Christian inhabitants in 1922 marked the symbolic end of Greek presence in Turkey." The massacres and forced deportations had cost the lives of up to one million Greeks.

Approximately 300,000 Assyrians residing in the Ottoman Empire were murdered; their villages were burned, and churches were destroyed. The number of Armenians who were targeted by the Young Turks' policy in 1915 however exceeded that of the others, with up to 1.5 million Armenians meeting their death by either being burned alive - sometimes in groups of only women and children - or dying from starvation and fatigue on the death marches leading to the Syrian desert. While some Kurds joined Ottoman soldiers in murdering, raping and looting Armenians, some Kurdish groups such as the Alevis from Dersim [today Tunceli Provence, Turkey] gave refuge to Armenians. As a result, they too were not exempted from the Young Turks' brutality. During World War I, up to 700,000 Kurds - including the perpetrators - were forcibly removed with approximately half of the displaced perishing.

This week on Behind the Headlines, we're interviewing - for the second time - freelance journalist and human rights activist Eva Bartlett, who was on this show two months ago. Bartlett was aboard the Dignity, one of five Free Gaza relief operations to successfully sail to the Gaza Strip in 2008. She ended up staying in Gaza for some time, reporting from there during Israeli Operations 'Cast Lead' in 08/09, and 'Pillar of Defense' in 2012.

In the last couple of years, Bartlett has been one of the few Western journalists to report truthfully on the situation in Syria, a country she has visited several times, including independently on a journalist visa. Bartlett recently returned from spending 8 days over Christmas in the war-torn country, where she attended conferences, visited recently liberated districts, and met Syrian officials, religious and community leaders.

Listeners can find Eva's writings on Syria and Palestine at her blog, InGaza.wordpress.com, and support her continuing work as a voice for the voiceless through SyriaSolidarityMovement.org.

We hope you'll join us from 2-4pm EST / 8-10pm CET, this Sunday 10th January 2016, for an account of life in Syria you won't hear anywhere else.

Running Time: 01:32:00

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A headline, from today, on the British Guardian newspaper's web site:

Murder in Istanbul: Kremlin's hand suspected in shooting of Chechen

'Oh, those terrible Russians and that ruthless Putin are up to their old extrajudicial murder tricks again! Will they never learn about real democracy! At least we, the great Western public (and therefore representatives of the 'global community'), are holding them to account as best we can by imposing 'sanctions' and hysterically demonizing them every time they fly a plane near Scotland.'

The above reflects, more or less, the thoughts that would have rattled around the, largely empty, vessel that is the cranium of the average Western citizen, as he or she read the above Guardian headline. And what else can we expect when such pernicious propaganda is catapulted at them on a daily basis?

Look at that headline again: "Murder". Well, right there you have the judgement... MURDER! And who did? The KREMLIN! Who else! And the victim? A CHECHEN! Oh dear Lord! Those poor chech-y people who have, for decades, if I vaguely remember, been trying to tear themselves away from the greedy grasp of the new Russian/Soviet Empire! There's no need to read any further, we have all the information we need!

Broadcasting from deep in the heart of the American Empire, join your host Harrison Koehli, and fellow Sott.net editors, as they discuss everything from current events and the latest machinations and manipulations of the global elite to history, science, and religion, and how it all fits together.

2016 hasn't had an auspicious start, from the New Year's Eve assaults in Cologne, Germany, to the DOW's worst first week in nearly a decade. In Cologne reports say a 1000-strong mob of 'migrants' caused mayhem, sexually assaulting at least 100 women in the streets. What does this event mean, and what does it portend for the future? Join us as we discuss this and other news from the new year.

The Truth Perspective is brought to you by the SOTT Radio Network and SOTT.net, your one-stop source for independent, unbiased, alternative news and commentary on world events.

Live every Saturday from 2-4pm EST / 11am-1pm PST / 8-10pm CET.

Running Time: 01:07:00

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While growing up in Elizabeth, New Jersey, just a short train ride away from New York City, I always heard tales of my distant cousin, Frank Serpico "the Cop", from my father, my aunt, and my grandmother. From what I understood, he is my grandmother's third cousin, and all I knew as a kid was that he stood up to corruption among police and got shot in the face for it.

As a kid I didn't quite understand his importance yet, but when I grew up and started questioning the world around me, particularly my religious upbringing and then the government, I began to see all of the evil and corruption at the heart of society - I soon realized what a great man Frank truly is. I eventually became more interested in Frank after seeing the movie "Serpico" (1973) starring Al Pacino (based on a biography also titled Serpico written by Peter Maas) and it dawned on me how questioning authority and exposing corruption might just run in my blood. Although semi-famous, I found that hardly anyone of my generation knew who he was, let alone what he did and how important it is. I've never actually met Frank, although I would certainly like to - so if you're reading this, Serpico, don't hesitate to reach out!

With the increasing militarization of police departments, rampant police brutality across the country, the sparking of the Black Lives Matter movement, and roughly 1000 people killed by police officers in 2015 alone (well over 1000 according to killedbypolice.net), we are dealing with something serious in this country. I feel now is more important than ever for more people (particularly those of my generation) to be aware of who Frank Serpico is, what he did at great risk to his own life, and why it's important. We must all speak out about militarization of police, police brutality, and other instances of corruption in law enforcement, and it is especially important for the few remaining good cops, those who truly want to change the oppressive atmosphere within the police force that Serpico endured, to also speak out.

SOTT.net last looked in detail at the frequency of meteor fireballs in 2013, using the data garnered by the American Meteor Society (AMS). SOTT.net pointed out the increasing frequency of fireballs¹, and asked the question: "What does 2014 have in store?"

Well, the results are in, and the answer is simple: comparing 2014 to 2013, the frequency of fireballs increased by 120%. Comparing 2015 to 2014, fireballs increased by 20%. That is a significant increase, and it should be generating a lot of attention. If it is, then it's being done very quietly behind closed doors.

Since October 2013, the web site spaceweather.com has published daily data from NASA's All-Sky Fireball Network, which observes, and daily reports, fireball activity over the US.²

I have collated both sets of data - from NASA and the AMS - to produce the following graphs, taking into account that each dataset relies on different definitions of 'meteor fireball'. Click on the graphs to view them at full size.

Despite the fact that there are many people who are doing good work in the intricacies of exploring the ideal diet for humanity, it often seems there are missing pieces of the puzzle as far as having a solid foundational understanding of the ponerized world we live in. Likewise, some who do a great job of exploring the playground of the psychopaths in which we live, looking into the corruption, violence and complete lack of logic in which we're embedded, yet don't seem to have a clue about the importance of getting the human machine into an optimal state of health.

Our question stands: does anyone out there have the whole banana? Can looking into the minutiae of dietary knowledge act as a distraction from a wider view of the world in which we live? Or can we get lost in the big picture and forget about the importance of working on ourselves?

Join us on Fridays at 10 am EST as we discuss this subject and more on the SOTT Radio Network's Health and Wellness Show. With us as always will be resident animal health expert Zoya with her weekly Pet Health Segment.

Running Time: 01:46:00

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