From the Trenches World Report

Stanford – by BRUCE GOLDMAN

A brain region activated when people are asked to perform mathematical calculations in an experimental setting is similarly activated when they use numbers — or even imprecise quantitative terms, such as “more than”— in everyday conversation, according to a study by Stanford University School of Medicine scientists.

Using a novel method, the researchers collected the first solid evidence that the pattern of brain activity seen in someone performing a mathematical exercise under experimentally controlled conditions is very similar to that observed when the person engages in quantitative thought in the course of daily life.    Continue reading “Method of recording brain activity could lead to ‘mind-reading’ devices, scientists say”

GOP USA – by Washington Times DC

President Obama launched a marketing blitz this week in an attempt to get back some public support for his health care law and salvage his legacy. The problem with his plan is that Americans’ overwhelming dislike of Obamacare stems from finally finding out how big of a disaster it is for their families. No fancy public relations campaign can change reality.

The White House is planning a daily event from now until Christmas to sell the supposed benefits of Obamacare. The president wrongly thinks that the past two months of disastrous press and plummeting poll numbers were all a result of the broken Healthcare.gov website.   Continue reading “The lipstick-on-a-pig Obamacare tour”

Continue reading “Henry Rollins – I Beg Young People To Travel”

RT News

A recent maneuver out of the state attorney general’s office in Tennessee is being called unprecedented after officials there asked the Supreme Court for permission to execute 10 prisoners currently on death row.

Those ten inmates have been awaiting execution an average of more than 27 years, but the state put a hold on the practice of putting prisoners to death in 2011 after it was forced to surrender its supply of sodium thiopental, a sedative that had up until then been one of three components used in the lethal cocktail administered by executioners in Tennessee.   Continue reading “After acquiring necessary drug, Tennessee wants to execute 11 inmates”

RT News

The US Air Force is testing a large, top secret drone at Area 51, which outdoes the currently used unmanned aircrafts in terms of stealth and aerodynamic efficiency, US media report.

The new superior drone is scheduled to enter production and may be operational for the US Air Force as early as 2015, an exclusive report by Aviation Week magazine said.    Continue reading “US tests classified spy drone with ‘superior stealth, efficiency capabilities’”

RT News

Hundreds of protesters have broken into a Chevron site after the US oil giant resumed its search for shale gas in northeast Romania. RT’s Lucy Kafanov reports from the scene, where clashes ensued as riot police started streaming in.

Some 400 people gathered on Saturday in the village of Pungesti, according to local media.

RT’s Lucy Kafanov reports that the demonstration kicked off quite peacefully with the protesters chanting “Chevron go home.”   Continue reading “Anti-fracking clashes in Romania as activists break into Chevron site”

The Western Center for Journalism – by SUZANNE EOVALDI

Surfacing this week are two seemingly unrelated events, but both carry the glaring theme of the federal government’s gross intrusion into the private lives of families and into the workings of local and state governments nationwide.  The long tentacles of the US Department of Justice appear to be stifling parental dissent against Common Core, while the US Department of Fish and Wildlife continues to force predatory wolf packs into already inundated Western rural communities and wilderness areas.   Continue reading “Wolves Kill Female Hikers, Liberals Cover It Up”

MedScape – by Megan Brooks

Electrical stimulation of a specific brain region may help individuals anticipate a challenge and have the confidence and determination to overcome it, new research suggests.

The findings from this novel study conducted by investigators at Stanford University in California showing neuromodulation of the anterior midcingulate cortex (aMCC) evokes such a response may have potential clinical implications for psychopathologic conditions involving a reduced capacity to endure psychological or physical stress.   Continue reading “Brain Stimulation May Boost ‘Will to Persevere’”

Activist Post – by Catherine J. Frompovich

What kind of hornet’s nest was opened up for the GM industry in view of the retraction of the two year “Long term toxicity of a Roundup herbicide and a Roundup-tolerant genetically modified maize”, by G E Séralini et al, published in Food and Chemical Toxicology 2012, 50(11), 4221-31?

According to the article published December 5, 2013 in the Ecologist,    Continue reading “105 Scientists Slam GMO-Rat-Study Retraction”

Fars News

Saudi Intelligence Chief Prince Bandar Bin Sultan in a recent meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin has asked him to help Riyadh construct a nuclear power plant, the Arab-language al-Qods al-Arabi newspaper quoted informed diplomatic sources in the Persian Gulf Arab littoral states as saying.

According to the report, Prince Bandar has told Putin that if Russia declares readiness in this regard, Saudi Arabia can provide Moscow with preliminary studies that it has conducted since six years ago.   Continue reading “Report: Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Asks for Moscow’s Nuclear Aid”

Huffington Post

Officer Frankie Salazar of Texas’ Olmos Park Police Department is charged with aggravated assault after a plan to spice up his sex life went horribly, horribly wrong, News 4 San Antonio reports.

Salazar, 29, and his 33-year-old friend, Jesus Edward Guitron, hatched a “wife swap” plan months ago to switch sexual partners, according to the San Antonio Express News. On Saturday evening, Guitron and his wife went over to Salazar’s place, and after some drinks, Salazar started kissing the woman.   Continue reading “Officer Frankie Salazar Allegedly Shoots Friend, Jesus Guitron, After ‘Wife Swap’ Goes Horribly Wrong”

Before It’s News – by Mort Amsel

Scary. Insane. Ridiculous. Invasive. Wrong. The Washington Post reports that the FBI has had the ability to secretly activate a computer’s camera “without triggering the light that lets users know it is recording” for years now. What in the hell is going on? What kind of world do we live in?   Continue reading “FBI Can Secretly Turn On Laptop Cameras Without The Indicator Light”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

It was inevitable that a few short days after Wall Street lovingly embraced Bitcoin as their own, with analysts from Bank of America, Citigroup and others, not to mention the clueless momentum-chasing, peanut gallery vocally flip-flopping on the “currency” after hating it at $200 only to love it at $1200 that Bitcoin… would promptly crash. And crash it did: overnight, following previously reported news that China’s Baidu would follow the PBOC in halting acceptance of Bitcoin payment, Bitcoin tumbled from a recent high of $1155 to an almost electronically destined “half-off” touching $576 hours ago, exactly 50% lower, on very heave volume, before a dead cat bounce levitated the currency back to the $800 range, where it may or may not stay much longer, especially if all those who jumped on the bandwagon at over $1000 on “get rich quick” hopes and dreams, only to see massive losses in their P&Ls decide they have had enough.   Continue reading “Bitcoin Crashes, Loses Half Of Its Value In Two Days”

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Tech Crunch – by Alex Wilhelm

Today the National Security Agency (NSA) discussed its program that collects billions of cellphone location records each day. The NSA targets foreign phones but also absorbs data on the phones of American citizens.

“The NSA does not target Americans’ location data by design, but the agency acquires a substantial amount of information on the whereabouts of domestic cellphones ‘incidentally,’” according to the Washington Post, which broke the story concerning program based on documents provided by Edward Snowden.   Continue reading “NSA Claims Collecting Cellphone Location Data Is Legal Under Executive Order — From 1981”

Slash Dot – by Kevin Fogarty

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have passed a milestone on the road to maturity of any new digital technology: they can now be hacked and taken over by strangers while still carrying markers that make it look as if they’re operating under directions from their proper owners.

Convicted hacker Sammy Kamkar announced on his personal blog Dec. 2 that he’d programmed a Parrot AR.Drone 2 WiFi-controlled quadricopter to patrol an area autonomously, searching for other drones, then hack and take over their control software using a battery of tools installed on a Raspberry Pi Kamkar installed on the drone.   Continue reading “Hacker Posts Drone-Hijacking App as Freeware”