Bedbugs infest city buses in Detroit... -

Bedbugs infest city buses in Detroit... - 



It’s a situation that is really bugging bus riders — and creating a potentially itchy, scratchy ride in Detroit. Just when riders thought the problem-riddled transit system couldn’t get any worse, there’s reportedly a bed bug situation.
Detroit Councilwoman Brenda Jones brought up the issue of bedbugs on city buses during a recent meeting. She said she’d been told by a young lady that they’re a problem, and wanted to know what’s being done to solve the problem.
D-DOT Director Dan Dirks says many systems nationwide have had to deal with this dilemma — and Detroit’s buses are sprayed periodically.
“I can’t tell you exactly, I know it’s done periodically,” Dirks told WWJ’s Vickie Thomas. “When we get a request in, we’ll do it that day.”
Detroit City Council and D-DOT are working together to address the problem, he added.
He added it’s not an uncommon problem in a transit system.
“If customers find a problem with the bus, just call the station … and we’ll take care of it,” Dirks said.
This isn’t the first time this has come up in Detroit’s transit system; in 2012, about 50 drivers reported that they had been bitten.
The National Pest Management Association describes bed bugs as “hitchhikers” who latch onto suitcases, clothing, beds and other dark spaces, and emerge to feed on human blood.

Read more - 

http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2014/07/09/bedbugs-on-detroit-buses-councilwoman-reports-the-problem/

Police kill a family pet in the USA every 98 minutes... -

Police kill a family pet in the USA every 98 minutes... - 



A rash of animal shootings by police officers nationwide has law-enforcement agencies running for cover amid growing public outrage that could force state legislatures to require greater accountability from men and women in uniform.

Police in Utah shot a family’s dog while searching for a lost boy, prompting hundreds of pet owners to protest June 28 in front of the Salt Lake City Police Department headquarters. They carried signs demanding “justice for Geist,” a 110-pound Weimaraner shot by a city cop within the dog’s fenced-in back yard. The “missing” boy was later found sleeping in his home.

State police in West Virginia shot a family’s dog June 24 as it was reportedly running away from them during a search for a suspect on adjoining property. Shots rang out even as the dog’s owner was screaming for officers to hold their fire and let her put her dog inside.

In Maryland, two Baltimore police officers were charged last week with animal cruelty after one of them allegedly held down Nala, a 7-year-old Shar-Pei, while the other slit the dog’s throat.

Richard Bruce Rosenthal, general counsel and co-founder of New York-based the Lexus Project, said police across the country are trending toward less tolerance and less respect for people’s pets, which he sees as part of a larger trend toward more aggressive policing tactics in America.

A pet is a person’s property, which should not be summarily executed for doing what dogs naturally do, which is to investigate unknown people or other dogs who approach their territory, he asserted.

“It is a growing problem and part of it is, post 9/11, our judicial system has basically trashed the Constitution under the mantle of security, and personal rights cease to exist,” Rosenthal told WND.

“All over the country we have cops shooting dogs for no other reason than they can. And our courts and our elected officials, rather than protecting the citizens and the Constitution, simply see it as a way to take more power and more money. I think it’s a civil-rights violation. I think it’s a constitutional violation.”

The West Virginia incident happened June 24 in a rural area of Mason County. A paramilitary unit scoured the woods bordering the property of 32-year-old Ginger Sweat. Her dog, a 6-year-old beagle-basset hound named Willy Pete, woke up from an afternoon snooze on his porch to the sound of eight officers coming out of the adjacent woods. Willy Pete scampered off to investigate. Sweat, who was putting one of her two young children down for a nap, looked out the window and saw an officer with a police dog on a leash emerge from the woods and ran out outside pleading with the officers not to shoot her dog, begging them to let her bring it inside.

The officer shot once, missing Willy Pete but sending the dog, which had arthritis in its back legs, running back toward Sweat, she told the Charleston Daily Mail. Three more shots were fired in the dog’s direction, toward Sweat and the home where her two children were sleeping, Sweat told the local newspaper. Willy Pete was hit three times and fell dead in a pool of blood behind her mobile home.

The family created a Facebook page called “Justice for Willy Pete,” which as of June 30 had 5,642 “likes” and hundreds of comments expressing sympathy and outrage.

The West Virginia State Police released a detailed statement late Monday night apologizing to the Sweat family but providing a conflicting version of what led up to the shooting of their dog. From the agency’s perspective, Willy Pete was given a chance to back off but “growled and bared his teeth” at the officers. That’s when Sgt. S.T. Harper, a 14-year veteran of the force, shot him, said spokesman Lt. Michael Baylous.

Baylous previously told WND that anytime an officer discharges his weapon, the incident comes under routine investigation.

He could not say how many times the department’s officers have shot and killed someone’s pet over the past year.

“It’s so rare; I can’t think of the last time it happened,” Baylous said. “I have no knowledge of what is happening nationwide, but it’s not a regular occurrence with the West Virginia State Police. We shoot far less animals than we do people who are a threat.”

But State House Delegate Mike Manypenny, D-Taylor, said he believes it would be a mistake to view the killing of Willy Pete as an isolated incident in West Virginia. He said it happens more often than most people realize, but most cases go unreported in the media. He’s launched an investigation and is pushing for new rules that would hold officers accountable. He sent an email to the State Police seeking more information on the June 24 incident in Mason County.

If he doesn’t get the answers he is seeking, Manypenny said he’s prepared to take the next step.

“I hope we can get some answers because we do need to find out what happened so we can make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Manypenny told WND. “I’m asking them to introduce a rule on nonlethal methods that can be used against domesticated animals, and if they won’t do it voluntarily, we need the legislature to require them to introduce a rule for nonlethal action.”

Manypenny said he believes that if the story told by the Sweat family is accurate, the police overreacted.

“I don’t know how far we’d want to go to put provisions in the law requiring unpaid leave or dismissal of an officer if they’re found to put people’s pets in endangerment, but yeah, I think it was totally uncalled for,” he sad. “But I want to call for an investigation rather than just shoot from the hip when we don’t have all of the details of what went on. So far, I’ve put in an email requesting some more transparency from the police.”

Read more - 

http://www.wnd.com/2014/07/police-take-horrific-action-every-98-minutes/

Alaska bear falls through skylight into party, eats all the cupcakes -

Alaska bear falls through skylight into party, eats all the cupcakes - 



A young bear fell through an Alaska couple's skylight while they were preparing to celebrate their child's birthday, sending the humans scurrying out the room while he feasted on cupcakes.

A wildlife management co-ordinator said on Wednesday the bear that fell through the skylight of the couple's home in Juneau is believed to have been a juvenile male weighing about 82 kilograms.

"There probably isn't a neighbourhood or place where we have homes where the potential isn't there for you to run into a bear or observe a bear," said Ryan Scott of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. "There is really no place where the potential isn't there."

The couple's home sits along a mountainside that overlooks downtown Juneau, and Scott said those types of neighbourhoods closer to trees see more bears. "Bears are extremely curious and will stake out any source of food they can find," he said.

The home owners, Alicia Bishop and Glenn Merrill, told the Juneau Empire the bear landed in their living room.

"I was literally in the room, and I heard this cracking," Merrill told the paper, describing the sound of the skylight's plexiglass creaking under the bear. "And the next thing you know, there's this bear that, I mean, literally, fell right from (the skylight). It was like one metre away from me."

Merrill told the paper he fled into an adjoining room and closed the door behind him, and Bishop said the animal feasted on her infant son's birthday cupcakes.

Bishop told the paper that she opened a door from the living room that led to the backyard and that the couple yelled at the animal until it casually walked out of their residence.

Read more - 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/alaska-bear-falls-through-skylight-into-party-eats-all-the-cupcakes-1.2688030

Bill Clinton Confessed He’s NOT Chelsea Clinton’s Real Father, Claims Ex-Aide -

Bill Clinton Confessed He’s NOT Chelsea Clinton’s Real Father, Claims Ex-Aide - 



It’s the secret that could ruin Hillary Clinton’s prospective bid for The White House.

President Bill Clinton once came clean that he was NOT in fact the biological father of the political pair’s only child, Chelsea Clinton. Even more shocking, he allegedly said the real father is the former mayor of Little Rock, Ark., Webster Hubbell, who’s also Hillary’s one-time law partner, claims former Clinton aide Larry Nichols.

This comes at quite a sensitive time given that Hillary will soon announce whether she will run for president in 2016 and her daughter is pregnant with her first child with her husband, 36-year-old Marc Mezvinsky.

But this isn’t the first time the rumor mill has circulated around the 34-year-old former First Daughter’s father.

The New Yorker on June 2 cited anti-Clinton blogger Robert Morrow’s claims that Hillary and Webster engaged in an affair in 1984 at the Governor’s Mansion during Bill’s second term.

At the same time, Bill – who later admitted to numerous affairs with Gennifer Flowers and Monica Lewinsky – was involved in a paternity scandal of his own. There were rumors abound that the 67-year-old got a local woman pregnant.

“We were discussing this woman’s claims that Bill had knocked her up and what we should do about it,” said Nichols. “But he denied that he could have gotten her pregnant. He said he had measles as a kid and that rendered him sterile.

“His exact words were, ‘I shoot blanks.’ Stunned by what I’d just heard, I asked him, ‘Then what about Chelsea?’ And he said, ‘Oh, Webb (Hubbell) sired her.’”

In an interview with The National ENQUIRER, blogger Morrow says the alleged scandal raises “character questions about Hillary.”

“Chelsea is a dead ringer for Webb,” he said of the former Associate Attorney General, who Bill appointed when he became Commander-In-Chief. “But Hillary initially kept the pregnancy secret from Bill!

“If your wife becomes pregnant, the husband is usually the second person to know,” he added. “But I find it very odd that Bill initially didn’t find out about his wife becoming pregnant – and had to learn that fact from a newspaper.

“According to well-respected author Edward Klein’s (2005) book, The Truth about Hillary, Bill discovered his wife was pregnant by reading it in the ‘Arkansas Gazette,’ Morrow continued.

“It’s unfortunate, sad really, that Chelsea has no real relationship with Hubbell – who I believe to be her real biological father – when he’s alive and kicking and living in North Carolina.

“But it could be she’s in denial, despite overwhelming proof that Webb is her real dad.”

As the governor of Arkansas, Bill appointed Hubbell as Chief Justice of the Arkansas State Supreme Court, but 10 years later he resigned just before pleading guilty to federal mail fraud and tax evasion for overbilling clients and served 15 months in prison.

The close Clinton family friend, author and lecturer has four kids of his own with wife Suzy and resides in Charlotte, N.C.

Paternity questions aside, Nichols said Bill was a great “father.”

“Whatever Chelsea does or doesn’t know about her paternity, I’m sure she considers Bill her real dad — despite there being no blood ties,” Nichols said. “I saw firsthand what a doting, loving father he was to his little girl.

“He always treated her as if she was his own – which in his heart, I believe she’s always been – from day one.”

Read more - 

http://radaronline.com/exclusives/2014/06/bill-clinton-hillary-chelsea-president-paternity-biological-father-webster-hubbell/

Pope Francis Halts his Motorcade To Bless Disabled Young Woman -

Pope Francis Halts his Motorcade To Bless Disabled Young Woman - 



Pope Francis immediately halted his motorcade when a group of people with signs caught his attention.

The banners read, "Please Pope stop here to see an angel who has been waiting for you," and, "Please come and bless little Roberta."

Read more - 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/24/pope-francis-disabled-woman-roberta_n_5525877.html

STUDY: Negative people are more efficient at their jobs... -

STUDY: Negative people are more efficient at their jobs... - 



Everyone hates a hater. They’re the ones who hate the sun because it's too hot, and the breeze because it's too cold.

The rest of us, then, can take comfort in the fact that haters may not want to get involved in as many activities as the rest of us. 

But in a twist of irony, that grumpy person you know may actually be better at their job since they spend so much time on fewer activities.

This, according to U.S. research, gives them the opportunity to hone their skills in specific tasks more so than people with a sunny disposition.

Researchers at the University of Illinois and University of Pennsylvania found that people who had a positive attitude were likely to get involved in more activities. 

Meanwhile people who ‘hate’, do very few things with their time.

In two studies, participants reported all of their activities over a one-week period and also completed a measure of attitudes.

Nearly 15 per cent of the differences in how many activities people took part in over a week was associated with being a hater versus a 'liker'.

Haters and likers didn’t differ in how much time they spent doing activities throughout the week; they merely differed in the number of activities that they did.

Haters could be characterised as less active because they do fewer things as people with a positive attitude.

But they could also be characterised as more focused because they spend more time on the small number of tasks.

‘The present results demonstrate that patterns of general action may occur for reasons other than the desire to be active versus inactive,’ the researchers wrote.

‘Indeed, some people may be more active than others not because they want to be active per se, but because they identify a large number of specific behaviours in which they want to engage.’

The findings may have implications for understanding the development of skills and expertise.

For example, likers may adopt a jack-of-all-trades approach to life, investing small amounts of time in a wide variety of activities. This means they never have expertise in one activity.

In contrast, when haters find an activity they actually like, they may invest a larger amount of time in that task, allowing them to develop a higher level of skill.

Read more - 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2663805/Haters-gonna-hate-makes-better-job-Grumpy-negative-people-efficient-happy-colleagues.html

China Must Import More Water Than The US Imports Oil -

China Must Import More Water Than The US Imports Oil - 



In one of the most comprehensive studies ever conducted of China’s bubblicious property market, Professor Gan Li at Texas A&M University estimates that there are a whopping 49 million vacant homes in China right now.

As a percentage, this is twice the vacancy rate that the US housing market experienced at the peak of its recent bubble… suggesting that China has a rather painful housing collapse in store.

This should be a brutal blow to the economy given that housing comprised 15% of GDP last year. And the slowdown is already apparent.

In fact, China’s president Xi Jinping uncharacteristically announced a ‘new normal’ recently, declaring the heady days of 10% GDP growth to be over. His vision of China is moderate growth and less stimulus.

But I’ve identified a far greater problem for China… one that few people are talking about. And frankly I’m not sure they can fix it.

We discussed earlier that China does not have the capacity to feed itself. By the estimates of one state official, the country’s agricultural imports require more land to grow than the entire land mass of California.

The reasons are simple. For one, China doesn’t have enough fertile land in production to support its population’s growing food demand.

Theoretically this is fixable. With a bit of time, patience, and technology, barren soil can be rehabilitated In other words, China doesn’t have enough enough productive land capacity to support its population.

But the far greater issue is China’s massive freshwater deficiency.

Chief Economist Qian Keming of China’s Agriculture Ministry summed it up by telling the audience at the Third China International Agribusiness Forum:

“Fresh water resources are only 2100 cubic meters per capita, which is only 28% of the world’s average level.”

and

“The shortage of [water for agricultural irrigation] each year is about 30 billion cubic meters. China imported about 148.6 billion cubic meters of water in 2013, which was equivalent to 38% of China’s agricultural water.”
Here’s that number in perspective: China water imports of 148.6 billion cubic meters last year handily exceeded the 569 MILLION (0.569 billion) cubic meters of oil that the United States imported.

Water is THE critical resource in agriculture. Without it, you’re not producing. This makes China’s deficiency a long-term headwind to their food production dilemma.

It’s not something they can import their way out of either, because all of this comes at a time of flat (and even declining) yields, particularly from the world’s largest food exporter… which just happens to be the United States of America.

After decades of growth, grain yields in the US have topped out. Farmers have managed to extract all that the earth is capable of providing.

Many developing markets are no help either. Most people don’t realize that Africa, despite its legendary agricultural potential, is actually a net importer of food.

So between the supply constraints and the constantly growing demand, it’s clear where this trend is going.

The BEST possible scenario to unfold is rising food prices. The worst case could be shortages.

All of this is potentially destabilizing. History shows that while human beings will put up with a lot of sacrifices at the behest of their governments, starvation is not one of them.

This approaching ‘food crunch’ is the reason why agriculture is THE investment for the next decade and beyond.

But more importantly, it’s another gigantic nail in the coffin for the status quo. And there are plenty more.

Nearly every ‘developed’ western nation is bankrupt. Most major central banks are insolvent… and they’ve created bubbles everywhere. The century-old monetary experiment is starting to draw to a hasty, inevitable conclusion.

Meanwhile apathy is at high tide. You can see it in voting booths and streetside revolutions around the world– people are sick and tired of the status quo… of thieving politicians… of war… of getting spied on… of being told what they can/cannot put in their bodies.

They’re finally now starting to wake up and demand real changes– not just changing the players in charge, but changing the game itself.

Politicians will fight with every resource they have to maintain the status quo. But in conjunction with the fundamentals of food, the confluence of all these forces together is more than any system can possibly withstand.

It might not be today. It might not be this decade. But at some point in our future, there will be a complete reset in the way society organizes and governs itself.

Just make sure you’re wearing your seat belt.

Read more - 

http://www.sovereignman.com/trends/fubar-ii-china-must-import-more-water-than-the-us-imports-oil-14590/

U.S. patent office cancels Redskins trademark registration - does not permit trademarks that "may disparage" -

U.S. patent office cancels Redskins trademark registration - does not permit trademarks that "may disparage" - 



The United States Patent and Trademark Office has canceled the Washington Redskins trademark registration, calling the football team's name "disparaging to Native Americans." The landmark case, which appeared before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, was filed on behalf of five Native Americans. 

Federal trademark law does not permit registration of trademarks that "may disparage" individuals or groups or "bring them into contempt or disrepute." The ruling pertains to six different trademarks associated with the team, each containing the word "Redskin." 

Read more - 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/us-patent-office-cancels-redskins-trademark-registration-says-name-is-disparaging/2014/06/18/e7737bb8-f6ee-11e3-8aa9-dad2ec039789_story.html?hpid=z1

The Sunni-Shiite Divide Explained In 100 Seconds -

The Sunni-Shiite Divide Explained In 100 Seconds -



The battle between Islam's two major branches began over 1400 years ago when the Islamic prophet Mohammad died and the two sides clashed over who should succeed him. This centuries old 'war' is once again threatening Iraq's (and indeed the Middle East - and thus the world's) stability. The Washington Post's senior national security correspondent Karen DeYoung explains in 100 seconds just how we got here...

Fukushima's Giant Ice Wall Can't Get Cold Enough to Freeze -

Fukushima's Giant Ice Wall Can't Get Cold Enough to Freeze - 



Remember how Japan decided to build that crazy ice wall to contain the Fukushima nuclear plant's radioactive water leaks? Well, its construction is behind schedule—because its engineers can't achieve temperatures low enough to freeze the ice.

The ice wall was to be constructed by driving vertical pipes, spaced about a meter apart, between 20 and 40 meters into the ground. Then, coolant was to be pumped through them, effectively creating a barrier of permafrost around the affected buildings, keeping the contaminated water in and groundwater out.

But now, the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) has admitted that an initial, smaller inner ice wall—a proof-of-concept, if you like—is proving difficult to construct. A TEPCO spokesperson has explained that:

"We have yet to form the ice stopper because we can't make the temperature low enough to freeze water. We are behind schedule but have already taken additional measures, including putting in more pipes, so that we can remove contaminated water from the trench starting next month."
The engineers involved with the project are using a calcium chloride coolant, chilled down to -30C, or -22F. While that's been enough to create smaller versions of these permafrost walls elsewhere in the past, the same isn't true at Fukushima. Indeed, the project had already been greet with skepticism by some engineers and scientists who—perhaps now correctly—pointed out that the project may struggle to work at such scales and time spans.

The huge amounts of water leaking from the Fukushima site continue to be a real and growing problem, then. Let's hope the engineers can find something more effective than their calcium chloride coolant. 

Read more - 

http://gizmodo.com/fukushimas-giant-ice-wall-cant-get-cold-enough-to-freez-1591881083/+jcondliffe