Month: October 2014

Reuters – by Grant McCool

U.S. lawmakers agreed to use $750 million in war funds to fight Ebola in West Africa and seven more people in Spain were admitted to the hospital where an infected nurse lay seriously ill on Friday, as global concern grew about the virus spreading.

Countries from Macedonia to the Czech Republic to Brazil dealt with a rash of unlikely cases while Europe, the United States and the United Nations focused on trying to contain Ebola, which has killed thousands in West Africa.   Continue reading “U.S. to free up Ebola funds as fears of global spread rise”

The Organic Prepper

Did you ever think about dipping your big toe into the waters of “prepping” but it just all sounded so “out there” that you weren’t quite sure it was something you wanted to be involved in? Then this is the guide for you.

Maybe it made sense in principle, but then you watched that guy and his wife filter and drink their own pee on Doomsday Preppers and you said, “Oh, heck no.”   Continue reading “How to be a Prepper…But Not One of Those Crazy Ones”

Olive Bio Diesel

Under the Obama National Security Agency, the rise of journalistic Statism is reminiscent of Stalinism. Journalists have 3 choices: 1) Write only what pleases the Obama NSA, 2) Stop writing entirely, or 3) prepare to be persecuted via 24/7/365 e-surveillance, e-harassment (including electrical surges destroying your TV and computer), possible prison sentences contrived and concocted and physical organized stalking. Those who write the truths are infected with Morgellons, poisoned with Campylobacter jejune, have their cars, careers, home life and health care sabotaged.   Continue reading “Obama, NSA, and the Rise of Statism”

All Gov – by Steve Straehley

The Distressed Asset Stabilization Program (DASP) is a federal program that was meant to take nonperforming mortgages off the banks’ books and move them to an entity that would make the terms of their loans easier for homeowners to live with. Instead, the program, run by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), has turned out to be a money-maker for big investors.

A report (pdf) by The Right to the City Alliance and The Center for Popular Democracy shows that the FHA has auctioned 98,100 mortgages from 2012 to the middle of this year. For-profit entities, primarily private equity firms, have bought 97% of them. Once the homes are foreclosed on, the equity firms then rent out the houses and even sell securities based on future rent receipts.   Continue reading “Government Housing Program Backfires, Helps Wall Street Instead”

The Guardian

The US government on Wednesday asked a federal judge in Manhattan to dismiss a private civil lawsuit against an Iran sanctions group on national security grounds without any public explanation for the reason.

If the judge agrees, it would mark the first time the government had invoked the state secrets privilege without publicly explaining its motivation for doing so.   Continue reading “US invokes secrets privilege to request civil lawsuit against Iran sanctions group be dropped”

Looks like the hawk was exercising his first and fourth and possibly his second amendment rights.

Fox News

Filmed over Magazine Beach Park in Cambridge, Massachusetts recently, a large hawk gave Amazon a reason to rethink the company’s Prime Air drone delivery initiative. YouTube user and software developer Christopher Schmidt has been taking his Phantom FC40 quadcopter drone out into public areas to fly it around the skies a couple times each week. To capture 1080p video during his weekly flights, Schmidt uses a GoPro Hero 3+ Black attached to his quadcopter drone.   Continue reading “Hawk takes out quadcopter drone, reclaims the sky”

Natural Society – by Paul Fassa

A study published by Mayo Clinic found that almost 70% of Americans are on at least one pharmaceutical; antibiotics top the list, followed by antidepressants, and opioid pain killers. This is a problem in of itself, as it the United States has transformed into a pill-popping, medication-dependent nation. What’s worse is that antibiotics in particular are doled out in copious, unnecessary amounts, so much so that bacteria are developing major resistance to this conventional treatment. This is now a potential danger of antibiotics, and a serious grand-scale side effect of antibiotic use.   Continue reading “Read This before You Pop Another Big Pharma Antibiotic”

The Weekly Standard – by Jeryl Bier

Clothes may not make the woman, but according to First Lady Michelle Obama, they don’t hurt. Mrs. Obama hosted a “Fashion Workshop” for students and fashion industry representatives at the White House Wednesday, something she said had been a “dream” of hers:

But I want to thank everyone here for making this dream — this was really a dream of mine in so many ways, to have this industry and all those who have supported me, who do so much for people to make us feel beautiful and ready to get out there.

Continue reading “Michelle Obama: ‘Fashion Plays an Important Role in my Confidence’”

RT

A US watchdog is asking why 16 planes bought for the Afghan Air Force, costing almost $500 million, were turned into scrap metal valued at just $32,000. The government wants to know why hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ money were wasted on the project.

The military transport planes had been sitting at Kabul International Airport for years, before they were sent for scrap. John Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), wants to know why the money was wasted. According to Reuters, he had asked Air Force Secretary Deborah James to keep a record of all decisions concerning the destruction of the 16 C-27J planes.   Continue reading “US planes worth $500mn sold for scrap in Afghanistan – for just $32,000”

RT

In what could be a major breakthrough for diabetes treatment, scientists have discovered a way to drastically alter human embryonic stem cells, transforming them into cells that produce and release insulin.

Developed by researchers at Harvard University, the innovative new technique involves essentially recreating the formation process of beta cells, which are located in the pancreas and secrete insulin. By stimulating certain genes in a certain order, the Boston Globe reports that scientists were able to charm embryonic stem cells – and even altered skin cells – into becoming beta cells.   Continue reading “Diabetes breakthrough: Human stem cells altered to make insulin”

NJ.com – by Matthew Stanmyre

It came without warning.

It would start with a howling noise from a senior football player at Sayreville War Memorial High School, and then the locker room lights were abruptly shut off.

In the darkness, a freshman football player would be pinned to the locker room floor, his arms and feet held down by multiple upperclassmen. Then, the victim would be lifted to his feet while a finger was forced into his rectum. Sometimes, the same finger was then shoved into the freshman player’s mouth.   Continue reading “Sayreville football parent reveals sexual nature of alleged locker room hazing ritual”

Mail.com

NEW YORK (AP) — Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella apologized Thursday night and said he was wrong for saying that women don’t need to ask for a raise and should just trust the system to pay them well.

Nadella was blasted on Twitter and in blog posts for his comments, which were made earlier Thursday at an event for women in computing. Tech companies hire many more men than women. And beyond the tech industry, women are typically paid less than men.   Continue reading “Microsoft CEO apologizes for comments on women”

LA Times – by David D. Savage

The U.S. Supreme Court late Thursday blocked Wisconsin from enforcing its strict voter identification law in November’s election.

By a 6-3 vote, the justices granted an emergency appeal from civil rights lawyers, who argued it was too late to put the rule into effect this year.

Lawyers for the ACLU noted that the state had already sent out thousands of absentee ballots without mentioning the need for voters to return a copy of their photo identification.   Continue reading “Wisconsin and Texas voter ID laws blocked by courts”