Article In Saudi Daily: U.S. Planned, Carried Out 9/11 Attacks – But Blames Others For Them
May 24th, 2016Via: The Middle East Media Research Institute:
…what happened in the [Twin] Towers was a purely American action, planned and carried out within the U.S. Proof of this is the sequence of continuous explosions that dramatically ripped through both buildings… Expert structural engineers demolished them with explosives, while the planes crashing [into them] only gave the green light for the detonation – they were not the reason for the collapse. But the U.S. still spreads blame in all directions.
Robot Ranchers Monitor Animals on Giant Australian Farms
May 24th, 2016Via: New Scientist:
A two-year trial, which starts next month, will train a “farmbot” to herd livestock, keep an eye on their health, and check they have enough pasture to graze on.
Sick and injured animals will be identified using thermal and vision sensors that detect changes in body temperature and walking gait, says Salah Sukkarieh of the University of Sydney, who will carry out the trial on several farms in central New South Wales.
“You’ve also got colour, texture and shape sensors looking down at the ground to check pasture quality,” he says.
The robot, which has not yet been named, is a more sophisticated version of an earlier model, Shrimp, which was designed to herd groups of 20 to 150 dairy cows.
Cardiologist on Dietary Guidelines Promoting Low-Fat Foods: ‘Perhaps the Biggest Mistake in Modern Medical History, Resulting in Devastating Consequences for Public Health’
May 24th, 2016And billions of dollars in profits for the ghouls behind the scam.
Via: Guardian:
Prof David Haslam, chairman of the National Obesity Forum, said: “As a clinician, treating patients all day every day, I quickly realised that guidelines from on high, suggesting high-carbohydrate, low-fat diets were the universal panacea, were deeply flawed.
“Current efforts have failed – the proof being that obesity levels are higher than they have ever been, and show no chance of reducing despite the best efforts of government and scientists.”
Dr Aseem Malhotra, consultant cardiologist and founding member of the Public Health Collaboration, a group of medics, said dietary guidelines promoting low-fat foods were “perhaps the biggest mistake in modern medical history, resulting in devastating consequences for public health”.
“Sadly this unhelpful advice continues to be perpetuated. The current Eatwell Guide from Public Health England is in my view more like a metabolic timebomb than a dietary pattern conducive for good health. We must urgently change the message to the public to reverse obesity and type 2 diabetes.
“Eat fat to get slim. Don’t fear fat. Fat is your friend. It’s now truly time to bring back the fat.”
Prof Iain Broom, from Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, said: “The continuation of a food policy recommending high-carbohydrate, low-fat, low-calorie intakes as ‘healthy eating’ is fatally flawed.
“Our populations for almost 40 years have been subjected to an uncontrolled global experiment that has gone drastically wrong.”
Price of Corn Flour in Venezuela Soars 900 Percent
May 24th, 2016Via: AFP:
Venezuelans on Tuesday woke up to discover that the government-controlled price of corn flour — used to make corn patty arepas, a staple of local cuisine — has risen 900 percent.
The socialist government of President Nicolas Maduro had kept the price of corn flour frozen for 15 months at 19 bolivares a kilogram (two pounds).
But late Monday the government’s Superintendent of Fair Prices increased the price to 190 bolivares a kilo, or $19 at the government rate used for imports such as medicine and scarce food.
Flour is one of the most scarce food basics, and the Venezuelan Association of Corn Flour Industrialists has been asking for a price increase, arguing that the low government-set price does not cover the cost of production.
The Superintendent also said that the price of chicken would rise, up 13 times from 65 bolivares a kilo to 850 bolivares.
The price of chicken had also been frozen since February 2015.
Venezuela is enduring the world’s highest inflation rate: 180 percent in 2015, and a projected 700 percent for 2016.
How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds – from a Magician and Google’s Design Ethicist
May 20th, 2016Via: Medium:
Western Culture is built around ideals of individual choice and freedom. Millions of us fiercely defend our right to make “free” choices, while we ignore how we’re manipulated upstream by limited menus we didn’t choose.
This is exactly what magicians do. They give people the illusion of free choice while architecting the menu so that they win, no matter what you choose. I can’t emphasize how deep this insight is.
Lake Mead Declines to Lowest Level in History
May 20th, 2016Via: Desert Sun:
The nation’s largest reservoir has broken a record, declining to the lowest level since it was filled in the 1930s.
Lake Mead reached the new all-time low on Wednesday night, slipping below a previous record set in June 2015.
A Third of Cash Is Owned by 5 U.S. Companies
May 20th, 2016Via: USA Today:
The rising cash holdings of U.S. corporations is increasingly in the hands of a few U.S. companies, with just five tech firms having grabbed a third of it. And nearly three-quarters of cash held by non-financial U.S. companies is stashed overseas, outside the long arm of Uncle Sam.
Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Alphabet (GOOGL), Cisco Systems (CSCO) and Oracle (ORCL) are sitting on $504 billion, or 30%, of the $1.7 trillion in cash and cash equivalents held by U.S. non-financial companies in 2015, according to an analysis released Friday by ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service. That’s even more cash concentration than in previous years, as these five companies held 27% of cash in 2014 and 25% in 2013. Apple alone is holding more cash and investments than eight of the 10 entire industry sectors.
Portugal Runs on Wind, Solar and Hydro-Generated Electricity Alone for Four Days
May 19th, 2016Via: Guardian:
Portugal kept its lights on with renewable energy alone for four consecutive days last week in a clean energy milestone revealed by data analysis of national energy network figures.
Electricity consumption in the country was fully covered by solar, wind and hydro power in an extraordinary 107-hour run that lasted from 6.45am on Saturday 7 May until 5.45pm the following Wednesday, the analysis says.
News of the zero emissions landmark comes just days after Germany announced that clean energy had powered almost all its electricity needs on Sunday 15 May, with power prices turning negative at several times in the day – effectively paying consumers to use it.
Two-Thirds of U.S. Would Struggle to Cover $1,000 Crisis
May 19th, 2016Via: AP:
Two-thirds of Americans would have difficulty coming up with the money to cover a $1,000 emergency, according to an exclusive poll released Thursday, a signal that despite years of recovery from the Great Recession, Americans’ financial conditions remain precarious as ever.
These financial difficulties span all income levels, according to the poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Seventy-five percent of people in households making less than $50,000 a year would have difficulty coming up with $1,000 to cover an unexpected bill. But when income rose to between $50,000 and $100,000, the difficulty decreased only modestly to 67 percent.
Even for the country’s wealthiest 20 percent — households making more than $100,000 a year — 38 percent say they would have at least some difficulty coming up with $1,000.
“The more we learn about the balance sheets of Americans, it becomes quite alarming,” said Caroline Ratcliffe, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute focusing on poverty and emergency savings issues.
‘If you have pigs with partly human brains…’
May 18th, 2016Am I reading the news, or the new D&D Monster Manual?
—
Also, as my sons reminded me: Minecraft Zombie Pigman:
Via: NPR:
“If you have pigs with partly human brains you would have animals that might actually have consciousness like a human,” Newman says. “It might have human-type needs. We don’t really know.”
That possibility raises new questions about the morality of using the animals for experimentation. Another concern is that the stem cells could form human sperm and human eggs in the chimeras.
“If a male chimeric pig mated with a female chimeric pig, the result could be a human fetus developing in the uterus of that female chimera,” Newman says. Another possibility is the animals could give birth to some kind of part-human, part-pig creature.
