Massive solar flare narrowly misses Earth, EMP disaster barely avoided -

Massive solar flare narrowly misses Earth, EMP disaster barely avoided - 



The earth barely missed taking a massive solar punch in the teeth two weeks ago, an "electromagnetic pulse" so big that it could have knocked out power, cars and iPhones throughout the United States.

Two EMP experts told Secrets that the EMP flashed through earth's typical orbit around the sun about two weeks before the planet got there.

"The world escaped an EMP catastrophe," said Henry Cooper, who lead strategic arms negotiations with the Soviet Union under President Reagan, and who now heads High Frontier, a group pushing for missile defense.

"There had been a near-miss about two weeks ago, a Carrington-class coronal mass ejection crossed the orbit of the Earth and basically just missed us," said Peter Vincent Pry, who served on the Congressional EMP Threat Commission from 2001-2008. He was referring to the 1859 EMP named after astronomer Richard Carrington that melted telegraph lines in Europe and North America.

"Basically this is a Russian roulette thing," added Pry. "We narrowly escape from a Carrington-class disaster."

Pry, Cooper, and former CIA Director James Woolsey have been recently demanding that Washington prepare the nation's electric grid for an EMP, either from the sun or an enemy's nuclear bomb. They want the 2,000-3,000 transformers in the grid protected with a high-tech metal box and spares ready to rebuild the system. Woolsey said knocking out just 20 would shut down electricity to parts of the nation "for a long time."

But Washington is giving them the cold shoulder, especially the administration. Woolsey told Secrets that some in Congress are interested in the issue, but the administration is just in the "beginnings" of paying attention.

Woolsey said that Air Force One and aircraft used by the Strategic Air Command to control nuclear-tipped missiles are hardened against an EMP.

The EMP effect is not rare. One occurred in Canada in 1989, knocking out Quebec's electric transmission system. And North Korea is reportedly testing a device to attack the U.S. with an EMP attack.

Read more - 

http://washingtonexaminer.com/massive-solar-flare-narrowly-misses-earth-emp-disaster-barely-avoided/article/2533727

'Microbeads' latest pollution threat to Great Lakes -

'Microbeads' latest pollution threat to Great Lakes - 



Tiny plastic beads from beauty products are showing up in North America's Great Lakes, and an environmental group is calling upon companies to stop using the plastic particles.

Scientists have already found the particles, known as microplastic, floating in the oceans but recently reported the same contamination in the largest surface freshwater system on the Earth. The particles are often less than a millimeter (0.04 inch).

A team of researchers with 5 Gyres Institute, a non-profit California-based environmental activist group, collected samples from lakes Erie, Superior and Huron last summer and found large quantities of round, plastic pellets.

"They matched the same size, color, texture and shape of the microbeads found in popular consumer products," said the group's executive director, Marcus Eriksen. He said the group plans to publish the research in a peer-reviewed journal later this year.

Microbeads are tiny plastic balls used in products like facial scrubs, body washes and toothpastes. They scrub away dead skin, similar to using a sponge, and are designed to wash down the drain.

Scientists captured the tiny samples using "manta trawl," a net system resembling a manta ray, which is towed behind the boat.

The organization presented their research to Proctor & Gamble Co and Johnson & Johnson, expecting a battle for urging them to stop using microbeads in their products.

A Johnson & Johnson spokeswoman said they have already begun the phase out of polyethylene microbeads in their existing products and are currently developing an environmentally friendly alternative for future products.

"We won without having to go through a legislative battle, which no one wants to do," Eriksen said.

Proctor & Gamble did not respond to requests for comment from Reuters. Eriksen said a company spokesperson told 5 Gyres they will phase out microbeads in products by 2017.

The pollution damage will continue in the meantime. The plastic particles are now added to an already long list of threats to the fish population, Eriksen said.

Microplastic is easily confused with natural food found in lakes. The beads can remain in fish and be ingested by humans, the group said.

"We don't know if the problem stops with the fish or if we eat the fish, the problems are with us now," said Lorena Rios-Mendoza, a chemist with the University of Wisconsin-Superior who was on the 5 Gyres boat expedition.

There is no practical way to remove the plastic debris already floating in the lakes, Eriksen said. Particles will float to shore, drift out to the ocean or absorb chemicals from the water, which weigh the particles down and cause them to sink to the bottom of the lakes.

The lifespan of microplastics is unknown so it can take years for it to completely leave the ocean or lake, if it ever does.

"Plastic doesn't biodegrade so once it's in the water, it doesn't just disappear," Rios-Mendoza said.

The scientists are expanding their search this summer to lakes Michigan and Ontario.

Read more - 

http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/2013/07/31/microbeads-latest-pollution-threat-to-great-lakes

US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew cooking the books on the national debt? - frozen at $16.699T for the last 70 days -

US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew cooking the books on the national debt? - frozen at $16.699T for the last 70 days - 



According to theDaily Treasury Statement for July 26, which the Treasury released this afternoon, the federal debt has been stuck at exactly $16,699,396,000,000.00 for 70 straight days.

That is approximately $25 million below the legal limit of $16,699,421,095,673.60 that Congress has imposed on the debt.

The portion of the federal debt subject to the legal limit set by Congress first hit $16,699,396,000,000.00 at the close of business on May 17. At the close of every business day since then, it has also been $16,699,396,000,000.00, according to the official accounting published by the Treasury Department.

If the debt had increased by even $30 million at any time during those 70 days, it would have exceeded the statutory limit. But, according to the Treasury, the debt did not do that. Instead, it remained precisely $16,699,396,000,000.00.

Even though the government's official accounting of the debt has not budged for 70 days, the Treasury has continued to sell bills, notes and bonds at a value that exceeds the value of the bills, notes and bonds it was redeeming.

In fact, according to the Daily Treasury Statement for May 17, the Treasury had by then already redeemed approximately $4,776,995,000,000.00 since the beginning of the fiscal year (which started on Oct. 1, 2012). As of that same day, the Treasury had already sold $5,354,508,000.000.00 new bills, notes and bonds during the fiscal year. That represented a net increase in publicly circulating U.S. government debt instruments of $577,513,000,000.00 for the fiscal year.

As of July 26, according to the latest Treasury statement, the Treasury had already redeemed approximately $6,128,368,000,000.00 in bills, notes and bonds during this fiscal year. But, at the same time, according to the statement, the Treasury had sold an additional $6,759,148,000,000.00 bills, note and bonds--for a net increase of $630,780,000,000.00 for the year.

Thus, the value of U.S. Treasury debt instruments circulating in the public has increased $53.267 billion since May 17--even though the Treasury says the debt has remained exactly at $16,699,396,000,000.00 during that time.

How could the value of extant U.S. Treasury securities increase by $53.267 billion during a 70-day period when the federal government’s debt subject to the legal limit has remained constant at $16,699,396,000,000.00—just $25 million below the legal limit?

On May 17, the day the debt began its long stay at $16,699,396,000,000.00, Treasury Secretary Lew sent a letter to House Speaker John Boehner. In the letter, Lew said the Treasury would begin implementing what he called “the standard set of extraordinary measures” that allows the Treasury to continue to borrow and spend money even after it has hit the legal debt li


Read more - 

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/70-straight-days-treasury-says-debt-stuck-exactly-1669939600000000

Secret Sex Tape: Monica Lewinsky Caught On Explicit Recording Telling Bill Clinton, ‘I Could Take My Clothes Off…’ -

Secret Sex Tape: Monica Lewinsky Caught On Explicit Recording Telling Bill Clinton, ‘I Could Take My Clothes Off…’ - 



A sex tape that Monica Lewinsky recorded for Bill Clinton at the height of their scandalous affair has leaked, during which the former White House intern is heard planning a secret sexual rendezvous with the president and declaring she is “too cute and adorable” to be ignored.

On the audio tape obtained by The National Enquirer, Lewinsky at one point tries to seduce the commander in chief: “I could take my clothes off and start… well… I know you wouldn’t enjoy that? I hope to see you later and I hope you will follow my script and do what I want.”

Lewinsky, who turned 40 last week, made the three-minute, 47 second recording in November 1997 and addressed it to “handsome.”

Details of the sexually explicit tape are in the new issue of the Enquirer, which hits newsstands Thursday.

It was believed to have been destroyed years ago, but a copy was secretly made and has subsequently surfaced.

Lewinsky is the only voice heard.

On it, she tells the 42nd President: “Since I know you will be alone tomorrow evening, I have two proposals for you, neither of which is you not seeing me.”

Lewinsky then orders the leader of the free world to use his secretary, Betty Currie, as a go-between and plan the presidential schedule so they could covertly meet without a formal record of her visit.

“Now the first thing that has to happen is that you need to pre-plan with Betty that you will leave the office at, I don¹t know, at 7, 7:30 so that everyone else who hates me that causes me lots of trouble goes home,” she tells Clinton.

“Then you quickly sneak back and then in the meantime I quickly sneak over and then we can have a nice little visit for, you know, 15 minutes or half an hour. Whatever you want.”

Lewinsky also bemoans how their previous “60 seconds” encounter “was just not enough ­ even though you did look very handsome.”

“Maybe we could go over and watch a movie together and just have kind of, I don¹t know, boxed dinners or something like that,” she says.

“And then that way we don’t have to deal with the problem of me… of there being a record of me going upstairs and we can spend some time together and see a good movie.

“So I don’t know, those are two proposals and you can’t refuse me because I’m too cute and adorable and soon I won’t be here anymore to pop over.

“I’m hoping you will hear this and you will choose which one you want to do and go tell Betty and then she can call me and let me know so I don¹t have to stress out all day and I don¹t have to call her every two hours and bug her because, I know you will find this very hard to believe, but I can be a pain in the ass sometimes.

“I’m very persistent, but um… I really want to see you.”

According to The Enquirer, Lewinsky originally played the tape for Linda Tripp — the woman whose secret telephone tapes of Lewinsky ultimately led to Clinton’s impeachment — on Nov. 20, 1997.

The cassette was delivered to the Oval Office the next day, according to a report by the Office of Independent Counsel Ken Starr.

The tape and other racy mementoes, including love letters Lewinsky wrote to Clinton, were obtained by an individual who was hired as a “cleaner” by individuals close to Lewinsky.

The source kept the sensational material private for the past 15 years and the Clintons reportedly thought the evidence had been destroyed.

“First, I forgot to tell you that the Gingko Blowjoba, or whatever it’s called, was from me,” Lewinsky wrote in one romantic note to Clinton.

“I also included those new Zinc throat lozenges which are rumored to be great.”

In a series of pleading notes, a clearly distraught Lewinsky pestered Clinton to make time for her and begged him to explain why he ended their illicit romance.

The Enquirer reports the emergence of the tape could torpedo Hillary’s expected run for the White House.

“The Clintons thought this sex tape was dead and buried,” said one source. “If this tape and other material are surfacing now, imagine what else must be out there?

“This could be just the tip of theiceberg and the most embarrassing ‘bimbo eruption’ of all for the Clintons.”

Read more - 

http://radaronline.com/exclusives/2013/07/bill-clinton-sex-tape-monica-lewinsky/

44 Facts About The Death Of The Middle Class That Every American Should Know -

44 Facts About The Death Of The Middle Class That Every American Should Know - 



What is America going to look like when the middle class is dead?  Once upon a time, the United States has the largest and most vibrant middle class in the history of the world.  When I was growing up, it seemed like almost everyone was “middle class” and it was very rare to hear of someone that was out of work.  Of course life wasn’t perfect, but most families owned a home, most families had more than one vehicle, and most families could afford nice vacations and save for retirement at the same time.  Sadly, things have dramatically changed in America since that time.  There just aren’t as many “middle class jobs” as there used to be.  In fact, just six years ago there were about six million more full-time jobs in our economy than there are right now.  Those jobs are being replaced by part-time jobs and temp jobs.  The number one employer in America today is Wal-Mart and the number two employer in America today is a temp agency (Kelly Services).  But you can’t support a family on those kinds of jobs.  We live at a time when incomes are going down but the cost of living just keeps going up.  As a result, the middle class in America is being absolutely shredded and the ranks of the poor are steadily growing.  The following are 44 facts about the death of the middle class that every American should know…

1. According to one recent survey, “four out of five U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives”.

2. The growth rate of real disposable personal income is the lowest that it has been in decades.

3. Median household income (adjusted for inflation) has fallen by 7.8 percent since the year 2000.

4. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the middle class is taking home a smaller share of the overall income pie than has ever been recorded before.

5. The home ownership rate in the United States is the lowest that it has been in 18 years.

6. It is more expensive to rent a home in America than ever before.  In fact, median asking rent for vacant rental units just hit a brand new all-time record high.

7. According to one recent survey, 76 percent of all Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.

8. The U.S. economy actually lost 240,000 full-time jobs last month, and the number of full-time workers in the United States is now about 6 million below the old record that was set back in 2007.

9. The largest employer in the United States right now is Wal-Mart.  The second largest employer in the United States right now is a temp agency (Kelly Services).

10. One out of every ten jobs in the United States is now filled through a temp agency.

11. According to the Social Security Administration, 40 percent of all workers in the United States make less than $20,000 a year.

12. The ratio of wages and salaries to GDP is near an all-time record low.

13. The U.S. economy continues to trade good paying jobs for low paying jobs.  60 percent of the jobs lost during the last recession were mid-wage jobs, but 58 percent of the jobs created since then have been low wage jobs.

14. Back in 1980, less than 30% of all jobs in the United States were low income jobs.  Today, more than 40% of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs.

15. At this point, one out of every four American workers has a job that pays $10 an hour or less.

16. According to one study, between 1969 and 2009 the median wages earned by American men between the ages of 30 and 50 declined by 27 percent after you account for inflation.

17. In the year 2000, about 17 million Americans were employed in manufacturing.  Today, only about 12 million Americans are employed in manufacturing.

18. The United States has lost more than 56,000 manufacturing facilities since 2001.

19. The average number of hours worked per employed person per year has fallen by about 100 since the year 2000.

20. Back in the year 2000, more than 64 percent of all working age Americans had a job.  Today, only 58.7 percent of all working age Americans have a job.

21. When you total up all working age Americans that do not have a job, it comes to more than 100 million.

22. The average duration of unemployment in the United States isnearly three times as long as it was back in the year 2000.

23. The percentage of Americans that are self-employed has steadily declined over the past decade and is now at an all-time low.

24. Right now there are 20.2 million Americans that spend more than half of their incomes on housing.  That represents a 46 percent increase from 2001.

25. In 1989, the debt to income ratio of the average American family was about 58 percent.  Today it is up to 154 percent.

26. Total U.S. household debt grew from just 1.4 trillion dollars in 1980 to a whopping 13.7 trillion dollars in 2007.  This played a huge role in the financial crisis of 2008, and the problem still has not been solved.

27. The total amount of student loan debt in the United States recently surpassed the one trillion dollar mark.

28. Total home mortgage debt in the United States is now about 5 times larger than it was just 20 years ago.

29. Back in the year 2000, the mortgage delinquency rate was about 2 percent.  Today, it is nearly 10 percent.

30. Consumer debt in the United States has risen by a whopping1700% since 1971, and 46% of all Americans carry a credit card balance from month to month.

31. In 1999, 64.1 percent of all Americans were covered by employment-based health insurance.  Today, only 55.1 percent are covered by employment-based health insurance.

32. One study discovered that approximately 41 percent of all working age Americans either have medical bill problems or are currently paying off medical debt, and according to a report published in The American Journal of Medicine medical bills are a major factor inmore than 60 percent of all personal bankruptcies in the United States.

33. Each year, the average American must work 107 days just to make enough money to pay local, state and federal taxes.

34. Today, approximately 46.2 million Americans are living in poverty.

35. The number of Americans living in poverty has increased by more than 15 million since the year 2000.

36. Families that have a head of household under the age of 30 have a poverty rate of 37 percent.

37. At this point, approximately 25 million American adults are living with their parents.

38. In the year 2000, there were only 17 million Americans on food stamps.  Today, there are more than 47 million Americans on food stamps.

39. Back in the 1970s, about one out of every 50 Americans was on food stamps.  Today, about one out of every 6.5 Americans is on food stamps.

40. Right now, the number of Americans on food stamps exceeds the entire population of the nation of Spain.

41. According to one calculation, the number of Americans on food stamps now exceeds the combined populations of “Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.”

42. At this point, more than a million public school students in the United States are homeless.  This is the first time that has ever happened in our history.  That number has risen by 57 percent since the 2006-2007 school year.

43. According to U.S. Census data, 57 percent of all American children live in a home that is either considered to be “poor” or “low income”.

44. In the year 2000, the ratio of social welfare benefits to salaries and wages was approximately 21 percent.  Today, the ratio of social welfare benefits to salaries and wages is approximately 35 percent.

And not only is the middle class being systematically destroyed right now, we are also destroying the bright economic future that our children and our grandchildren were supposed to have by accumulating gigantic mountains of debt in their names.  The following is from a recent articleby Bill Bonner…

Today, the U.S. lumbers into the future with total debt equal to about 350% of GDP. In Britain and Japan, the total is over 500%. Debt, remember, is the homage that the future pays to the past. It has to be carried, serviced… and paid. It has to be reckoned with… one way or another.

And the cost of carrying debt is going up! Over the last few weeks, interest rates have moved up by about 15% — an astounding increase for the sluggish debt market. How long will it be before long-term borrowing rates are back to “normal”?

At 5% interest, a debt that measures 3.5 times your revenue will cost about one-sixth of your income. Before taxes. After tax, you will have to work about one day a week to keep up with it (to say nothing of paying it off!).

That’s a heavy burden. It is especially disagreeable when someone else ran up the debt. Then you are a debt slave. That is the situation of young people today. They must face their parents’ debt. Even serfs in the Dark Ages had it better. They had to work only one day out of 10 for their lords and masters.

We were handed the keys to the greatest economic machine in the history of the planet and we wrecked it.

As young people realize that their futures have been destroyed, many of them are going to totally lose hope and give in to despair.

And desperate people do desperate things.  As our economy continues to crumble, we are going to see crime greatly increase as people do what they feel they need to do in order to survive.  In fact, we are already starting to see this happen.  Just this week, CNBC reported on the raging epidemic of copper theft that we are seeing all over the nation right now…

Copper is such a hot commodity that thieves are going after the metal anywhere they can find it: an electrical power station in Wichita, Kan., or half a dozen middle-class homes in Morris Township, N.J.Even on a Utah highway construction site, crooks managed to abscond with six miles of copper wire.

Those are just a handful of recent targets across the U.S. in the $1 billion business of copper theft.

“There’s no question the theft has gotten much, much worse,” said Mike Adelizzi, president of theAmerican Supply Association, a nonprofit group representing distributors and suppliers in the plumbing, heating, cooling and industrial pipe industries.

The United States once had the greatest middle class in the history of the world, but now it it dying.

This is causing a tremendous amount of anger and frustration to build in this nation, and when the next major wave of the economic collapse strikes, a lot of that anger and frustration will likely be unleashed.

The American people don’t understand that these problems have taken decades to develop.  They just want someone to fix things.  They just want things to go back to the way that they used to be.

Unfortunately, the great economic storm that is coming is not going to be averted.

Get ready while you still can.  Time is running out.

Read more - 

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/44-facts-about-the-death-of-the-middle-class-that-every-american-should-know

Doctor claims patients can someday be revived 24 hours after death -

Doctor claims patients can someday be revived 24 hours after death - 



Bringing the dead back to life may soon be a medical reality, with claims people may be able to be resuscitated up to 24 hours after their death.
Critical care physician Sam Parnia makes the claim in his book Erasing Death, saying resuscitation research is on the cusp of a major breakthrough within the next 20 years.
"With today's medicine, we can bring people back to life up to one, maybe two hours, sometimes even longer, after their heart stopped beating and they have thus died by circulatory failure. In the future, we will likely get better at reversing death," he told Germany's Spiegel magazine. "It is possible that in 20 years, we may be able to restore people to life 12 hours or maybe even 24 hours after they have died. You could call that resurrection, if you will. But I still call it resuscitation science."
Currently the average resuscitation rates for cardiac arrest patients in the US is 18 percent, while in the U.K. it is 16 percent. But at Parnia's research base in New York that rate is between 33 percent and 38 percent.
"Most, but not all of our patients, get discharged with no neurological damage whatsoever," he said.
Parnia said it is a "widely-held misconception, even among doctors", that the brain suffers massive oxygen-deprived damage after three to five minutes after the heart stops.


Read more: -

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/07/31/dead-can-someday-be-revived-24-hours-later-doctor-claims/?test=latestnews

Mega Advertising Corps Creating Database Comparable to the NSA -

Mega Advertising Corps Creating Database Comparable to the NSA - 



Privacy experts think that the merger of the world’s two biggest advertising agencies could create a massive database of information about consumers. The database would be similar to what the National Security Agency is amassing about phone and internet usage, and it could be used to greatly restrict your rights.

Omnicom Group and Publicis Groupe are two giant holding companies that own dozens of advertising agencies and marketing firms. The two companies have decided to merge into one titanic holding company. Part of this company’s holdings will be a giant database about consumer habits.

The database contains e-scores, or consumer valuation. This is information that retailers, credit card companies, search engines, and other organizations collect about you every time you visit a website or make a transaction.

BIG BUSINESS KNOWS ALL ABOUT YOUR LIFESTYLE

The problem is that such e-scores are increasingly being used to analyze your lifestyle and make decisions about you. A health insurance company might check the e-score to see if you eat at McDonald’s or buy liquor or cigarettes before writing you a policy. A bank might check to see if you gamble or go to casinos before writing you a loan. The bank might also check to see if you visit online casinos or have even purchased airline tickets to Las Vegas in the past.

In other words, these institutions know a lot about your personal lives. They track everything you do online and every purchase you make with your debit or credit or card.

A TOOL FOR DISCRIMINATION
That means they know what books you buy from Amazon, what videos you stream from Netflix, and what websites you visit. It wouldn’t be that hard to discern your political or religious beliefs from such metadata. The data could be used to discriminate against people that hold certain beliefs.

For example, bureaucrats could screen applicants to determine which ones would be more likely to question authority or criticize a government policy. They might not hire somebody who regularly visits The Guardian’s website because it often contains stories that contradict the official line coming out of Washington. Let alone an alternative news website like Storyleak.

Particularly bothersome is the fact that data is now sold in automated trading platforms for everybody to buy. The combined Omnicom and Publicis will be able to make a fortune selling this data.

Controls need to be placed on the kind of data companies can collect and how they sell it. Such private data mining is as big a threat to our privacy as the data mining done by agencies like the NSA.

Read more - 

http://www.storyleak.com/advertising-corps-creating-database-comparable-to-nsa/

14 month old toddler accidentally buys car on dad's smartphone -

14 month old toddler accidentally buys car on dad's smartphone - 



How old do you have to be to buy a car? Old enough to tap a button.

Sorella Stoute, 14 months old, was playing with her father’s smartphone at their Oregon home recently. After a few screen taps she wound up on eBay’s web app — and bought a 1962 Austin-Healey Sprite.

Her father, Paul Stoute, had no idea what she’d done until a confirmed email from eBay appeared in his inbox, congratulating him on his purchase.

Stoute told CBS News “my initial thought was panic.”

Fortunately, Sorella, who can’t even say “car” yet, is a shrewd bidder and scored the classic roadster for just $225, so he decided to keep it.

He intends to restore the scuffed-up car for her 16th birthday as a present she’ll never forget.

And yes, he has since added password protection to his phone to make sure she doesn’t accidentally buy him a Bugatti.

Read more -

http://www.wheels.ca/news/baby-accidentally-buys-vintage-car-on-dads-smartphone/

Dog Eats Paralyzed Man's Testicle -

Dog Eats Paralyzed Man's Testicle - 



A dog is supposed to be man's best friend, but you wouldn't wish this pooch on your worst enemy.

The dog's owner, a paralyzed man in Trumann, Ark., recently adopted the "small white fluffy" stray in hopes of having a loving animal companion, according to KAIT8.com.

Instead, the dog had to be euthanized after it bit off one of the man's testicles while he was asleep on Monday morning.

The man, who told police he has no feeling from the waist down, woke up with a "burning pain" in his mid-section.

He looked down and found that his newly adopted dog between his legs, according to KAIT8.com.

The 39-year-old victim told police he sleeps in the nude and noticed his dog had blood on its feet and muzzle.

That's when he also realized that the dog had eaten one of his testicles, WMC-TV reported.

The man was taken to an area hospital to be treated for his injuries, according to a police report obtained by The Huffington Post.

Read more -

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/30/dog-eats-testicle_n_3678211.html?ref=topbar

Mercedes-Benz integrating Google Glass into its cars -

Mercedes-Benz integrating Google Glass into its cars - 



Google Glass may be the must have accessory for nerds of the moment, but it could play the same role for luxury car owners soon.
The Silicon Valley Business Journal reports that Mercedes-Benz is working to integrate the wearable computer with its in-car infotainment systems.
The primary goal, according to the report, is to create a navigation system that seamlessly moves with the wearer from inside to outside the car.
The idea is that you enter a destination when you leave home which then automatically transfers to the car’s built in system as you drive and back to the Glass when you get out of the car, allowing for walking directions to your final destination.
Glass currently offers navigation when tethered to a smartphone, but using it requires that you wear the device the entire time.
The Mercedes-Benz still a few years away from the real world, as Google Glass itself is still under development and not even generally available to consumers yet, but Mercedes Benz is clearly aiming to be ready if it catches on with its customers.
In the meantime, to prove its agnosticism when it comes to technology, the automaker is also working on a suite of applications that work with Apple’s Siri voice command system, because there’s no telling what those successful nerds of the future will be into.


Read more: - 

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2013/07/30/mercedes-benz-intergrating-google-glass-into-its-cars/

American Men Almost 6x More Likely Than Women to Be Killed by Lightning -

American Men Almost 6x More Likely Than Women to Be Killed by Lightning - 

Lightning strikes in the United States are almost six times more likely to kill a man than a woman, according to recently released data from the federal Centers for Disease Control.

The CDC did not explain why males are so much more likely than females to be killed by lightning.

The CDC looked at deaths by lightning in the 43 years from 1968 through 2010. It found that during that period the annual number of Americans killed by lightning was on a downward trend, with the annual number of men being killed declining 78.6 percent and the annual number of women being killed declining 70.6 percent.

However, over the 1968-2010 period, 85 percent of the Americans killed by lightning were male and 15 percent were female. That means American males were 5.66 times more likely to be killed by lightning than American females.

During the period, according to the CDC, a total of 3,389 Americans were killed by lightning, for an average of 79 a year. The greatest number was 131 in 1969; the lowest 29 in 2008 and 2010.

The ratio of 5.66 American males being killed by lightning for each female killed by lightning has been fairly steady over time—despite the overall decrease in the annual number of Americans killed by lightning.

Back in 1998, the CDC published an earlier report, looking at lightning deaths in the United States between 1980 and 1995. In that shorter time frame, 1,318 Americans were killed by lightning for an average of 82 per year. Of those 1,318 lightning victims, 1,125 (or 85 percent) were male.

That 1998 CDC report also said lightning was more likely to kill younger, as opposed to older, males. While 85 percent of all Americans killed by lightning from 1980-1995 were males, 68 percent were males aged 15 to 44.

The CDC also said that in the 1980-1995 period deaths by lightning happened more frequently in certain states. “The greatest number of deaths attributable to lightning occurred in Florida and Texas (145 and 91, respectively), but New Mexico, Arizona, Arkansas, and Mississippi had the highest rates (10.0, 9.0, 9.0, and 9.0, respectively),” said the CDC.

Read more - 

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/american-men-almost-6x-more-likely-women-be-killed-lightning

Detroit home priced at $1 sits on the market for 519 days... - and still for sale -

Detroit home priced at $1 sits on the market for 519 days... - and still for sale - 



It may not look particularly attractive, but as just $1 this family home is a complete bargain.
However, despite being on the market for the drop-down price since February last year, the Detroit property is astonishingly still for sale.
It is one of a number of run-down properties lying in the suburbs of Michigan's largest city, which earlier this month filed for bankruptcy, crippled by enormous debts.

Built in 1915, the property on Saint-Clair Street has been listed for sale since May 2011. 
After initially being placed on the market for $900, its price was dramatically reduced to just $1 in February last year.
A description of the property on the Zillow website describes it as a 'Multi Family home featuring 2 units, hardwood floors, basement, and much more!'

The home is symbolic of the entire city, which earlier this month filed for bankruptcy. It is one of a number of homes across Detroit on the market for $1.
After standing empty for so long, the houses are often ransacked by thieves who strip them of everything, including water tanks and pipes.


Read more: -

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2381283/Going-going-going-Detroit-family-home-sale-519-days-despite-market-just-1.html

Breastfeeding linked to child’s intelligence later in life -

Breastfeeding linked to child’s intelligence later in life - 



Mothers faced with the decision of whether or not to breastfeed now have new evidence to consider: skipping formula in favor of breast milk could affect a child’s intelligence later in life.
In a new study published in JAMA Pediatrics, lead author Dr. Mandy Belfort, of the Boston Children’s Hospital, sought to examine the link between the breastfeeding and a child’s cognitive function as they develop.
Belfort and her colleagues gathered data from 1,312 mothers and children in the United States, tracking everything from the mother’s frequency of breastfeeding to other factors including the mother’s intelligence, the mother and father’s education levels, measures of the home environment, the mother’s employment and the type of childcare the baby received.
While the link between breastfeeding and cognition had been previously explored, many earlier studies did not control for these additional factors.
“Many previous studies have been criticized because any link you might observe between breastfeeding and childhood intelligence could be explained by those other factors,” Belfort told FoxNews.com.
Belfort then performed a series of tests measuring the children’s cognitive development after infancy.  At age 3, the children underwent the higher Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, a measure of receptive language, or how well a child understands language.
“A child’s receptive language is highly correlated with general intelligence as measured by more typical IQ tests,” Belfort said.
After analyzing the data, researchers discovered that for each additional month that a child was breastfed, through a year, their language score was .2 points higher – a statistically significant finding.
Then, at age 7, the same children were assessed using the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test, a measure of the child’s IQ. For this test, each additional month that a child was breastfed through a year was correlated with an increase in IQ score by a third of a point – another statistically significant discovery.

However, when children took the Wide Range Assessment of Memory and Learning, which specifically tests memory and learning capabilities, the difference between children who were breastfed and those who weren’t was not significant.  
The study authors were also interested in exploring whether or not there was a link between a mother’s consumption of fish and the intelligence of children who were breastfed – though they did not find any significant effect there either.
“I would say that it is reassuring, it didn’t seem like eating fish is harmful, because of concerns about mercury in fish,” Belfort said. 
Though researchers were able to distinguish a small but clear link between breastfeeding and cognitive development, they remain uncertain as to why breast milk appears to be superior to infant formula.
“Formula is designed to be as close to breast milk as possible…but it is definitely possible that there are nutrients or non-nutrient factors in breast milk not in formula that may benefit baby’s brain,” Belfort said
Overall, Belfort noted that the study’s findings support national recommendations urging women to breastfeed exclusively through age 6 months and to continue at least partial breastfeeding through 1 year of age.
However, many factors go into a woman’s decision to breastfeed including whether or not she produces enough milk, how quickly she needs to return to work and how friendly her workplace is to breastfeeding.
“There are certainly many factors people have to weigh into making that decision,” Belfort said. “The cognitive advantage is relatively small so people need to weigh many, many different factors in making this decision.”
Overall, Belfort emphasizes that women should do what is best for them and their child – and if a woman chooses not to breastfeed, there are many other things she can do to ensure her child develops normally.
“There are so many things people can do to optimize a baby’s development, this is but one,” Belfort said. “Turn off the TV, talk to your baby, read to your baby, play with your baby. Those are really important ways to stimulate baby’s development.”


Read more: -

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/07/30/breastfeeding-linked-to-childs-intelligence-later-in-life/?test=latestnews

Baby girl weighing 13.47 pounds born naturally in Germany -

Baby girl weighing 13.47 pounds born naturally in Germany - 



A baby weighing 13.47 pounds was born without the aid of a cesarean section in Germany, making her the country’s largest newborn ever.
Baby girl Jasleen was born on July 26 at University Hospital in Leipzig, Germany, the Herald Sun reported.  Jasleen’s mother only arrived at the hospital on the day of the birth, and doctors discovered that she had suffered from an undiagnosed case of gestational diabetes, a condition that can cause excessive birth weight in the newborn child.
Both mom and daughter are doing well after the birth, doctors said, and Jasleen remains in the neonatal care unit.


Read more: -

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/07/30/baby-girl-weighing-1347-pounds-born-naturally-in-germany/?intcmp=trending

Scientists have grown rudimentary teeth out of the most unlikely of sources, human urine -

Scientists have grown rudimentary teeth out of the most unlikely of sources, human urine - 



The results, published in Cell Regeneration Journal, showed that urine could be used as a source of stem cells that in turn could be grown into tiny tooth-like structures.

The team from China hopes the technique could be developed into a way of replacing lost teeth.

Other stem cell researchers caution that that goal faces many challenges.

Teams of researchers around the world are looking for ways of growing new teeth to replace those lost with age and poor dental hygiene.

Stem cells - the master cells which can grow into any type of tissue - are a popular area of research.

The group at the Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health used urine as the starting point.

Cells which are normally passed from the body, such as those from the lining of the body's waterworks, are harvested in the laboratory. These collected cells are then coaxed into becoming stem cells.

A mix of these cells and other material from a mouse was implanted into the animals.

The researchers said that after three weeks the bundle of cells started to resemble a tooth: "The tooth-like structure contained dental pulp, dentin, enamel space and enamel organ."

However, the "teeth" were not as hard as natural teeth.

This piece of research is not immediately going to lead to new options for the dentist, but the researchers say it could lead to further studies towards "the final dream of total regeneration of human teeth for clinical therapy".

Read more -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-23492425

Documentarian Claims Secret Service Agent Was ‘Second Shooter’ in JFK Assassination -

Documentarian Claims Secret Service Agent Was ‘Second Shooter’ in JFK Assassination - 



A new documentary alleges that a Secret Service agent was the second (and accidental) shooter in the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

At the Television Critics Association press tour in Los Angeles on Sunday, producers and investigators behind Reelz Channel's new documentary "JFK: The Smoking Gun" made the claim that George Hickey, a Secret Service agent riding in the car behind Kennedy, accidentally shot the president on Nov. 22, 1963. The film follows veteran police detective Colin McLaren in his four-year investigation of the assassination and points at Hickey, who died two years ago.

McLaren's research built on the work of Howard Donahue, who spent 20 years studying the assassination and had his findings documented in Bonar Menninger’s book Mortal Error: The Shot That Killed JFK. McLaren and Menninger were on hand Sunday to take questions about their film, which the network billed in press notes as a "docudrama."

Addressing the crowd, McLaren claimed that Hickey and other Secret Service agents were out partying the night before Kennedy's fatal motorcade drive through Dallas. Based on his painstaking investigation, McLaren said, evidence suggests Hickey was not qualified to use the weapon he was holding the morning of the shooting.

"It was his first time in the follow car, his first time holding the assault weapon he was using," McLaren said. Producers said the film's theory is that shots rang out, and Hickey grabbed his weapon to return fire. When his car stopped suddenly, Hickey accidentally discharged his weapon -- making him the second shooter, the film's investigators and producers alleged.

McLaren said he believes that Hickey's weapon had hollow-point rounds -- different from the ammunition for the weapon used by Lee Harvey Oswald, whom the Warren Commission declared in 1964 was the lone gunman in the case. Menninger and McLaren said that based on their review of the forensics in the case, they believe that Kennedy was also struck by a hollow-point round.

Oswald was killed before he could stand trial, but the case has continued to inspire various theories around just how the tragedy occurred. Books and films have advanced different ideas -- including a second shooter theory.

"We're not saying this was intentional," Menninger said Sunday. "This was a tragic accident in the heat of the moment."

"We don't suggest he was in any way involved in a conspiracy," Menninger added.

Donahue wrote about his theory decades ago, but McLaren said it's taken decades -- and the release of thousands of JFK-related documents during the Clinton administration -- for a proper review of all the evidence and information related to the case. The authors acknowledged Sunday that there are many other books and films on the assassination, but said theirs is unique because it is based on a new review of the documents released during the 1990s.

McLaren and Menninger also alleged that the government -- including Robert F. Kennedy -- covered up the involvement of the Secret Service and Hickey.

The producers were pressed on how the alleged involvement of the Secret Service could be covered up for 50 years.

"Nobody was going to gain" from having this out there, Menninger said.

"We're not here to blacken the name" of Hickey or any other individual, or the modern-day Secret Service, McLaren said.

Read more - 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/28/jfk-second-shooter-documentary_n_3667317.html?utm_hp_ref=weird-news&ir=Weird%20News

Surge in handcuff mishaps blamed on 50 Shades of Grey... -

Surge in handcuff mishaps blamed on 50 Shades of Grey... - 



London firefighters say they have freed hundreds of people with body parts trapped in household objects in the last three years, including 18 children with heads stuck in potties or toilet seats and 79 people trapped in handcuffs.

The London Fire Brigade speculated that the popularity of erotic novel "Fifty Shades of Grey" may account for a rise in handcuffs-related emergencies.

"I don't know whether it's the 'Fifty Shades' effect, but the number of incidents involving items like handcuffs seems to have gone up," said Third Officer Dave Brown.

Since 2010, London firefighters have treated almost 500 people with rings stuck on their fingers, nine with rings stuck on their penises, and one man with his penis stuck in a toaster.

Rescue crews also helped five people with hands stuck in shredders and 17 children with their hands trapped in toys.

The brigade released the list of incidents Monday to encourage people to be more careful. It advised people to exercise common sense — and always to keep the keys nearby when using handcuffs.



Read more: -

http://www.myfoxny.com/Story/22956040/fire-brigade-to-handcuffs-users-dont-get-stuck

Secret letter reveals Lockerbie bomber release linked to arms deal... -

Secret letter reveals Lockerbie bomber release linked to arms deal... - 



The release of the Lockerbie bomber was linked by the Government to a £400 million arms-export deal to Libya, according to secret correspondence obtained by The Sunday Telegraph.

An email sent by the then British ambassador in Tripoli details how a prisoner transfer agreement would be signed once Libya “fulfils its promise” to buy an air defence system.
The disclosure is embarrassing for members of the then Labour government, which always insisted that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi’s release was not linked to commercial deals.
The email, which contained a briefing on the UK’s relations with Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s regime, was sent on June 8 2008 by Sir Vincent Fean, the then UK ambassador, to Tony Blair’s private office, ahead of a visit soon after he stepped down as prime minister.
Mr Blair flew to Tripoli to meet Gaddafi on June 10, in a private jet provided by the dictator, one of at least six visits Mr Blair made to Libya after quitting Downing Street.
The briefing, which runs to 1,300 words, contains revealing details about how keen Britain was to do deals with Gaddafi. It also suggests that:
• the UK made it a key objective for Libya to invest its £80  billion sovereign wealth fund through the City of London
• the UK was privately critical of then President George Bush for “shooting the US in the foot” by continuing to put a block on Libyan assets in America, in the process scuppering business deals
• the Department for International Development was eager to use another Libyan fund worth £130 million to pay for schemes in Sierra Leone and other poverty-stricken countries.
The release of Megrahi in August 2009 caused a huge furore, with the Government insisting he had been released on compassionate grounds because he was suffering from terminal cancer, and that the decision was taken solely by the Scottish government.
Megrahi had been convicted in 2001 of the murder of 270 people when PanAm flight 103 from London to New York blew up over Lockerbie in Scotland in 1988. It remains Britain’s single worst terrorist atrocity.
Libya had been putting pressure on the UK to release Megrahi and in May 2007, just before he left Downing Street, Mr Blair travelled to Sirte to meet Gaddafi and Al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi, Libya’s then prime minister.
At that meeting, according to Sir Vincent’s email, Mr Blair and Mr Baghdadi agreed that Libya would buy the missile defence system from MBDA, a weapons manufacturer part-owned by BAE Systems. The pair also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for a prisoner transfer agreement (PTA), which the Libyans believed would pave the way for Megrahi’s release.
The British government initially intended the agreement to explicitly exclude Megrahi. However, ministers relented under pressure from Libya.
In December 2007, Jack Straw, then justice secretary, told his Scottish counterpart that he had been unable to secure an exclusion, but said any application to transfer Megrahi under the agreement would still have to be signed off by Scottish ministers.
With Mr Blair returning in June 2008 — as a guest of Gaddafi on his private jet — the government appears to have used the chance to press its case for the arms deal to be sealed. At the time, Britain was on the brink of an economic and banking crisis, and Libya, through the Libyan Investment Authority, had billions of pounds in reserves.
Sir Vincent gave Mr Blair’s office a briefing on the state of relations with Libya. The email suggests that Mr Blair was being used as a conduit.

Read more - 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10206659/Lockerbie-bomber-release-linked-to-arms-deal-according-to-secret-letter.html

The Coming Shortage Of Physical Gold That Will Change Everything -

The Coming Shortage Of Physical Gold That Will Change Everything - 



Is the paper gold scam about to be brutally crushed by a crippling shortage of physical gold?  If so, what will that do to global financial markets?  According to the Reserve Bank of India, “the traded amount of ‘paper linked to gold’ exceeds by far the actual supply of physical gold: the volume on the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) OTC market and the major Futures and Options Exchanges was OVER 92 TIMES that of the underlying Physical Market.”  In other words, there is a massive amount of paper out there, but very little actual physical gold to back it up.  And right now, we are witnessing voracious hoarding of physical gold all over the globe.  This is especially true in Asia.  Just see this article and this article.  All of this hoarding is putting a tremendous amount of pressure on those that have made all of these “paper promises”, because the truth is that there really isn’t all that much physical gold on the planet.  In fact, Warren Buffett once estimated that if all of the gold in the entire world was brought into one place, it could be formed into a cube that would only be 69 feet long by 69 feet high by 69 feet wide.

As the emerging shortage of physical gold becomes increasingly apparent, the massive Ponzi scheme that the bullion banks have been running for decades is going to completely fall apart.  The following is what Egon von Greyerz told King World News the other day…

Governments and central banks have, for decades, leased or sold their gold to the bullion banks.  So they are very likely to own very little of the 23,000 tons that Western central banks are said to hold.

But now bullion banks also have a problem:  They tried to replenish their (physical gold) coffers during the massive manipulative selling that we’ve seen over the last few months in the paper market.  Although they took the price down, most of the physical (gold) that was released by selling from ETFs and hedge funds was absorbed by Asia.

 So the bullion banks are still massively short of physical gold.

Right now there simply is not enough physical gold out there and the bullion banks and the central planners are starting to panic.  One of the individuals that really has his hand on the pulse of what is going on is billionaire Eric Sprott…

We have seen the COMEX inventories decline rapidly. We know that all of the dealer inventory on the COMEX has already been spoken for by delivery notices, so essentially there will be zero (inventory) if they ever make the delivery.

And the central planners (also) went to India and said, ‘Look, you’ve got to do something about all of this gold buying in India.’ So we’ve had ten different steps by the Indian government to try to curb demand — a 2% tax, a 4% tax, a 6% tax, an 8% tax, and a ruling that banks couldn’t lend money for people to buy gold.

They also convinced the Jewelers Association that as of July 1st they couldn’t sell gold bars and coins. Just last week there was a new rule implemented that if you are importing gold you have to prove that a certain amount is being re-exported. We’ve probably had ten or twelve things (restrictions) happen in six months, all of which is a huge attempt to get the second biggest buyer of gold in the world, after China, to decrease consumption because the gold isn’t around.

The central planners have arranged all of these things. I think it’s just been one big scheme to try to get people dissuaded from owning gold and to cause supply to come out. As you mentioned, because of it (central planner actions) we have the gold forward rates (for gold) being negative, backwardation, and inventories plunging, all of which have been manifested because there is a shortage of gold.

Already the emerging shortage of physical gold is starting to cause some very unusual things to happen in the financial markets.  A recent article by Reg Howe did a good job of explaining what we have been witnessing lately…

By undercutting normal gold lease rates, these super low interest rates have forced central banks to reduce their lease rates to nonsensical levels in order to prevent gold futures from going into overt backwardation. Recall that GOFO, the gold forward rate, is the interest rate for a given maturity less the lease rate for that maturity, and that a negative GOFO represents backwardation. See Gold Derivatives: GLD and Ass Backwardation (5/24/2010); Gold Derivatives: The Tide Turns (5/25/2009). Passing the argument that widely reported premiums for spot physical delivery represent a form of backwardation, figures from the LBMA have now shown a negative GOFO at the shorter maturities for almost three weeks (July 8 through July 25) due to a surge in lease rates, which still remain below more normal historical levels.

Indeed, this unusual event has attracted considerable attention even from those outside the narrow world of gold. See, e.g., J. Skoyles, Backwardation, negative GOFO and the gold price, The Real Asset Co. (July 24, 2013); M. Kentz, Gold futures hiccup indicates demand outpacing supply, Reuters (July 19, 2013); G. Williams, What If, Things that Make You Go Hmmm, Mauldin Economics (July 15, 2013).

The bottom line is that there is a very serious shortage of physical gold, and as this becomes increasingly apparent to the rest of the world, this is likely to cause a tremendous amount of instability in the financial markets in the months ahead.

Read more - 

http://www.blacklistednews.com/The_Coming_Shortage_Of_Physical_Gold_That_Will_Change_Everything/27698/0/38/38/Y/M.html