Month: April 2014

RT News

A 4,500-year-old Native American burial ground and village site was found in California, but the contents were eventually destroyed, reburied, and paved over for construction of multimillion-dollar homes, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Archaeologists say the 300-foot-long Coast Miwok site held 600 human burials as well as tools, rare hunting materials, musical instruments, game pieces, ritualistic stone objects, animal remains, the largest collection of bear bones found in a prehistoric site in the Bay Area, and even a ceremonial condor burial that suggested the bird was kept as a pet. The remnants were quietly examined and categorized but ultimately decimated and reburied at an undisclosed location, scientists say, ahead of construction on a $55 million home development in Larkspur, California.   Continue reading “Native American burial ground, village site destroyed for luxury California homes”

RT News

Russia’s Foreign minister Sergey Lavrov has lashed out at US Secretary of State John Kerry over his ‘prosecutorial’ remarks about RT.

“The US is trying to pervert everything that is going on in Ukraine. They accuse us of turning on – what was called by John Kerry in a prosecutorial tone – accuse us of switching on what they called the ‘Putin propaganda machine’ called RT,” said Lavrov during the press conference.   Continue reading “Lavrov: Kerry’s ‘prosecutorial’ RT assault unacceptable”

RT News

Ecuador has given a group of 20 US Defense Department employees until the end of the month to quit the country. President Rafael Correa had previously said the presence of the US military in Ecuador was “scandalous” and they had “infiltrated all sectors.”

Ecuador has officially requested that all 20 Defense Department employees in the US Embassy in Quito cease their activities and leave the country by the end of the month, embassy spokesman Jeffrey Weinshenker confirmed to AP. He said the embassy had received a formal letter dated April 7, alerting them to the imminent expulsion of the group.   Continue reading “‘Mutual distrust’: Ecuador ejects US military group”

Mail.com

BALI, Indonesia (AP) — A drunken passenger who caused a hijack scare on a Virgin Australia flight by trying to break into the cockpit was arrested Friday after the plane landed on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali, officials said.

The airport was closed for nearly two hours because of the incident, forcing several flights to be diverted, air force base commander Col. Sugiharto Prapto said. The Australian passenger acted aggressively and began pounding on the cockpit door before being handcuffed by the crew, police said. He was arrested for creating a disturbance and investigators said they were waiting for him to sober up before questioning him.   Continue reading “Drunken passenger causes hijack scare in Bali”

Breitbart – by Bob Price

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Oklahoma Field Office responded to Breitbart Texas about the so-called Red River “land grab” by emphasizing that parcels in question are already held in the public domain and BLM-managed.  The Bureau claims it is not they who are declaring the ownership but that settled case law long declared it to be government land.

BLM Public Relations Specialist Paul McGuire agreed to a one-on-one telephone interview with Breitbart Texas after reading the original report published earlier this week.  In contrast with the interview with Texas General Land Office Commissioner Jerry Patterson, McGuire expressed much more confidence about the ownership of the land and indicated little, if any, ambiguity about how or why the land should be under federal control.   Continue reading “BLM on Texas Land: Not a Land Grab, It’s Already Ours”

RT News

Kiev authorities say “the second stage” of the military operation in the eastern Ukrainian city of Slavyansk has been launched, which will “completely isolate” the anti-government stronghold. Self-defense forces are preparing for an assault.

Ukrainian troops were ordered to commence the next stage of the so-called ‘anti-terrorist operation’ around 12pm local time (10:00 GMT), according to coup-appointed acting head of presidential administration Sergey Pashinsky.    Continue reading “Ukraine army launches next stage of military op ‘to isolate Slavyansk’”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — Michelle Obama’s annual question-and-answer session with the children of Executive Office employees took a serious turn Thursday when a 10-year-old girl in the front row told the first lady that her dad had been out of work for three years. Then the girl popped up to hand the first lady his resume.

The first lady seemed a little taken aback but then explained to the other children, who might not have heard the girl’s comment, that the matter was “a little private, but she’s doing something for her dad.” Mrs. Obama promised to deal with the matter later.   Continue reading “First lady gets resume from girl with jobless dad”

Geek – by Ryan Whitwam

Chopping wood is hard, but it’s something modern society has largely freed us from as a daily activity. That’s nice, but consequently, if you ever do have to chop wood, you’re more than likely going to suck at it. Splitting a log requires a surprising amount of force, but Finnish inventor Heikki Kärnä has invented a new kind of axe that makes it much easier and safer.

Yes, axes have existed since time immemorial, but apparently there’s still room for improvement.   Continue reading “Physics-exploiting axe splits wood in record time”

The Weather Channel – by Stephen Neslage

It’s hard to image a city of 105,000 running out of water, but that’s the reality in Wichita Falls, Texas. A crippling four-year drought has taken this community to a place they’ve never been before.

“It’s been awful here. We’re entering our worst drought on record,” said Russell Schreiber, the city’s public works director, and the force behind one of the most controversial plans in Texas: The use of treated wastewater for public consumption. It’s a bold move — and a tough sell.   Continue reading “Texas Drought Forces Wichita Falls Residents to Take Desperate Measures to Keep Water Flowing”

Tech Dirt – by Tim Cushing

As we recently covered, Jim Ardis, the absurdly thin-skinned mayor of Peoria, IL, got the boys in blue to raid a house over a parody Twitter account that portrayed him as a.) a possible drug user, b.) a possible patron of the world’s oldest profession and c.) “trill as fuck.” Peoria’s Finest have never been finer, deploying seven plainclothes officers to nail a dangerous tweeter whose Ardis-mocking account had been shut down by Twitter weeks before. Bonus: drugs were discovered during the raid, which meant the cops could at least declare victory over marijuana use, if not the internet itself.    Continue reading “Mayor Ardis Defends Police Raid, Complains That Parody Twitter Account Used Up All The Free Speech”

MassPrivateI

Along with other humanitarian organizations and UN agencies, one key advocate and user of big data is the UN Global Pulse, launched in 2009 in recognition of the need for more timely information to track and monitor the impacts of global and local socio-economic crises. 

UN Global Pulse clearly identified the privacy concerns linked to their use of big data and the impact of privacy in “Big Data for Development: Challenges & Opportunities” and have adopted Privacy and Data Protection Principles. Given the increasingly complex web of actors concerned, the expanding scope of their work, the growing amount of data that can be collected on individuals, and the poor legal protections in place.   Continue reading “The U.N. is using ‘Global Pulse’ to spy on people in every country”

Infowars- by Paul Joseph Watson

Critics of the newly proposed ‘Hate Crime Reporting Act of 2014′ have slammed the bill as a “dangerous” threat to free speech, warning that the legislation would hand an obscure federal agency “chilling” powers to restrict the First Amendment.

Introduced earlier this week by Senator Ed Markey (D-MA), the ‘Hate Crime Reporting Act of 2014′ (S.2219), along with its companion bill in the House, H.R. 3878, would task the National Telecommunications and Information Administration with filing reports on Internet, radio and television content that seeks “to advocate and encourage violent acts and the commission of crimes of hate”.   Continue reading “‘Hate Crime Reporting Act’ a “Dangerous” Threat to Free Speech”

Tech Dirt – by Tim Cushing

Good news, Americans! The former “top watchdog” for the Department of Homeland Security, Charles K. Edwards, was an incredibly perverse blend of crooked and spineless and yet we still managed to avoid being terrorized to death during his run as Inspector General (2011-2013). That’s the resilience of the American public. Even while the agency was being bumblefucked into (even greater) uselessness, those who hate us for our way of life (which now includes drone strikes, neverending military ‘interventions’ and the constant watching of damn near everybody) were unable to find a way to maneuver around the “security” “provided” by the DHS.     Continue reading “Former DHS Watchdog, A Tyrant, Failure And Alleged Felon, ‘Punished’ With Transfer To Another Government Agency”

Yahoo News – by STEPHEN OHLEMACHER

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Internal Revenue Service has paid more than $2.8 million in bonuses to employees with recent disciplinary problems, including $1 million to workers who owed back taxes, a government investigator said Tuesday.

More than 2,800 workers got bonuses despite facing a disciplinary action in the previous year, including 1,150 who owed back taxes, said a report by J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration. The bonuses were awarded from October 2010 through December 2012.    Continue reading “IRS awards bonuses to 1,100 who owe back taxes”

Philly.com – by Serena Gordon, HealthDay News