The man behind the deadly siege of a cafe in Sydney this week had a gun license AND wasn't on a security watch list -

The man behind the deadly siege of a cafe in Sydney this week had a gun license AND wasn't on a security watch list - 



The man behind the deadly siege of a cafe in Sydney this week had a gun license and wasn't on a security watch list, Australia's Prime Minister says. And he wants to know why.
Tony Abbott said Wednesday that the system fell short.
"There's no doubt about that, and this is why we've got to constantly learn the lessons of everything that happens," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. "We've got to be constantly asking ourselves: Is this the best we can do?
"And frankly, we've got to always be better at this because if we aren't good at this, our people suffer. And the tragedy of this atrocity is that two delightful Australians, two very decent people, are dead. Others are injured. Others are traumatized because of a madman who was roaming our streets," the Prime Minister said.
His office announced that authorities will carry out an urgent review into the hostage taking and "what lessons can be learned from the events leading up to and surrounding the siege."
At a news conference later Wednesday, Abbott told Australians, "I will not rest until I am confident that you are as safe as any government can possibly make you."
A report on the conclusions of the review is due by the end of January.
 Photos: Sydney cafe siege Photos: Sydney cafe siege
 Australian Ambassador reacts to the Sydney siege Sydney victim 'shielded pregnant friend' Cameraman describes Sydney siege
Authorities have identified the gunman as Man Haron Monis, an Iranian-born refugee who was granted political asylum in Australia.
He seized control of the Lindt Chocolate Cafe in the heart of Sydney's central business district and held it for some 16 hours.
The siege ended when police stormed the cafe early Tuesday. The gunman was killed, but so were two hostages -- Katrina Dawson, a 38-year-old barrister and mother of three, and Tori Johnson, the manager of the cafe.

Read more - 

http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/16/world/asia/australia-sydney-hostage-situation/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Now it is the Beavers - Beavers blamed for Global Warming... -

Now it is the Beavers - Beavers blamed for Global Warming... - 



Beavers are contributing to climate change, adding an estimated 800 million kg of methane to the atmosphere every year, scientists have found.

Over the last century, there has been a worldwide conservation effort to save beavers from extinction. The fur trade between the 16th and 19th century almost led to the annihilation of beavers across the globe.

After trapping was limited and the creatures were reintroduced to their natural ranges, their numbers grew significantly, with scientists now estimating their population to have reached over 10 million worldwide.

However, the consequence of this has led to beavers building more ponds, creating conditions for climate changing methane gas to be generated in the shallow standing water. Beavers build dams in rivers to create standing ponds, with dams normally reaching no higher than 1.5m.

In their work published in the Springer journal AMBIO, experts note that carbon builds up in oxygen-poor pond bottoms like those created by beavers, and methane is generated. The gas cannot be dissolved and is released into the atmosphere.

Researchers at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada have found this methane release from beaver ponds is now 200 times higher than it was a century ago.

Read more - 

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/climate-change-beavers-boost-emissions-800-million-kg-methane-every-year-1479809

Here's why you might want to stop drinking out of cans -

Here's why you might want to stop drinking out of cans - 



Might want to make your next six-pack glass bottles. Cans and plastic bottles are lined with a controversial chemical called BPA, and while the CDC still says the chemical's health effects are unclear, research on chronic exposure has linked it to high blood pressure and heart rate issues.

To test the effects of drinking from cans, researchers in South Korea provided 60 adults over the age of 60 with soy milk either in a can or a glass bottle.

Urine tests showed that those who drank from cans saw BPA levels up to 1,600% higher than those who drank from bottles, according to a post at Eureka Alert.

What's more, both BPA and blood pressure rose significantly in can-drinkers within a matter of hours, the New York Times reports, noting that this is one of the first studies to illustrate the potential risks of a just one BPA exposure.

An isolated experience of high blood pressure may not be that dangerous, but people should think twice before drinking regularly from cans or plastic bottles, an expert tells the Times.

"A 5 mm Hg increase in systolic blood pressure by drinking two canned beverages may cause clinically significant problems, particularly in patients with heart disease or hypertension," says a researcher, noting that he hopes manufactures will come up with "healthy alternatives" to BPA-lined cans.

Read more - 

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/12/15/here-why-might-want-to-stop-drinking-out-cans/

Professor : 'Elf on the Shelf' conditions kids to accept surveillance state... -

Professor : 'Elf on the Shelf' conditions kids to accept surveillance state... - 



Could there be something more sinister behind the little elf sitting on the shelf who returns to the North Pole each night?

Yes, says Laura Pinto, a digital technology professor at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology.

She recently published a paper titled “Who’s the Boss” on the doll, saying the idea of it reporting back to Santa each night on the child’s behavior “sets up children for dangerous, uncritical acceptance of power structures,” according to insideHalton.com.

From her paper:

When children enter the play world of The Elf on the Shelf, they accept a series of practices and rules associated with the larger story. This, of course, is not unique to The Elf on the Shelf. Many children’s games, including board games and video games, require children to participate while following a prescribed set of rules. The difference, however, is that in other games, the child role-plays a character, or the child imagines herself within a play-world of the game, but the role play does not enter the child’s real world as part of the game. As well, in most games, the time of play is delineated (while the game goes on), and the play to which the rules apply typically does not overlap with the child’s real world.

“You’re teaching (kids) a bigger lesson, which is that it’s OK for other people to spy on you and you’re not entitled to privacy,” she tells the Toronto Star.

She calls the elf “an external form of non-familial surveillance,” and says it’s potentially conditioning children to accept the state acting that way, too.

“If you grow up thinking it’s cool for the elves to watch me and report back to Santa, well, then it’s cool for the NSA to watch me and report back to the government,” according to Pinto.

Others concur with Pinto’s theory.

“It’s a little creepy, this idea that this elf is watching you all the time,” Emma Waverman, a blogger with Today’s Parent, tells the paper. She also doesn’t like that the story uses a threat – “nice” and “naughty” lists – to produce good behavior.

“It makes the motivation to behave something that’s external,” she says. “If I’m not around or if the elf is not around, do they act crazy?”

“Children potentially cater to The Elf on the Shelf as the ‘other,’ rather than engaging in and honing understandings of social relationships with peers, parents, teachers and ‘real life’ others,” Pinto writes.

“It’s worth noting that Pinto doesn’t object to the Elf on the Shelf’s Jewish counterpart, the Mensch on a Bench, which she characterized as ‘benign.’ Unlike the elf, the mensch doesn’t report to anyone at night but stays put, watching over the Hanukkah menorah,” the paper reports.

 According to the paper, 6 million “Elf on the Shelf” dolls and books have been sold in the last 8 years.

Read more - 

http://eagnews.org/prof-elf-on-the-shelf-conditions-kids-to-accept-surveillance-state/

Corporate America's Diversity Problem On Display At DealBook Conference - lack of women and people of color -

Corporate America's Diversity Problem On Display At DealBook Conference -  lack of women and people of color -  



It’s no secret that the leadership of corporate America, and Wall Street in particular, has a serious diversity problem. The lack of women and people of color in senior positions at the country’s largest businesses was on clear display at the New York Times DealBook conference on Thursday.

The theme of the conference, hosted by the paper’s finance and deal reporting site, was “Taking Stock of the Future: Rebuilding the Economy, Growth and Trust.”

Despite focusing on the future, the cast on stage looked a lot like the distant past.

Just three of the 20 people appearing on stage were women: Securities and Exchange Commission Chairwoman Mary Jo White, General Motors CEO Mary Barra, and Jessica Alba, the actress and co-founder of eco-friendly family products company The Honest Company. During her interview with DealBook founder Andrew Ross Sorkin, Alba was joined by Honest Company co-founder Brian Lee. Alba was the only executive who shared the stage with a colleague the entire day.

Only four of the 20 participants in the conference were people of color: Alba, who is Hispanic; American Express CEO Ken Chenault, who is African American; Lee, who is Korean American; and Jawbone co-founder and CEO Hosain Rahman, who is Pakistani American.

In a statement emailed to The Huffington Post, New York Times spokeswoman Stephanie Yera wrote: “Our DealBook conference is inclusive of innovators in business, finance, investment, retail, sports, media and tech, among other industries. We aimed to provide our audience with a diverse group of leaders, which included the first female C.E.O. of a major automaker, the first woman to be U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and our current chair of the S.E.C., and an entrepreneur who has found success as both an actress and a founder of a billion-dollar company."

The conference did manage to improve on corporate America’s standards of inclusion. Reuters reports that women account for 4 percent of CEOs at Fortune 500 companies, and a 2012 McKinsey study found that women make up only 14 percent of executive committees on corporate boards in the Fortune 500. The Center for American Progress found that a similarly tiny fraction of Fortune 500 CEOs, 4.2 percent, was made up of people of color.

McKinsey came to the numerically incontrovertible conclusion that in corporate America, “the top circles of leadership remain male bastions.” It is also incontrovertible that executive America remains a white male bastion. Unfortunately, the stage at the DealBook conference was like a refrigeration unit at a weisswurst factory: full of white sausage.

Read more - 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/12/corporate-diversity-lack_n_6315664.html

Pope Francis says dogs can go to heaven - "Paradise is open to all of God's creatures." -

Pope Francis says dogs can go to heaven - "Paradise is open to all of God's creatures." - 



Pope Francis continues to show he's anything but traditional. During a recent public appearance, Francis comforted a boy whose dog had died, noting, "One day, we will see our animals again in the eternity of Christ. Paradise is open to all of God's creatures."

Theologians say Francis — who took his papal name from the patron saint of animals, St. Francis of Assisi — was only speaking conversationally.

But the remark is being seen by some as a reversal of conservative Catholic theology that states because they are soulless, animals can't go to heaven,The New York Times reports.

In 1990, Pope John Paul II said animals have souls, but his successor, Pope Benedict XVI, gave a 2008 sermon that seemed to say the opposite.

Francis' comment has now sparked a new debate on the subject, and the Humane Society says it has been flooded with e-mails. If Francis does, in fact, believe animals have souls, "then we ought to seriously consider how we treat them," a rep says. "We have to admit that these are sentient beings, and they mean something to God."

PETA is also running with Francis' remark, suggesting Catholics should move toward a vegan lifestyle.

Animal souls aside, a recent Pew survey finds Francis has a 60% approval rating worldwide and 78% approval in the US, the Washington Post reports.

China may be growing fond of the pontiff, too, considering he allegedly refused a meeting with the Dalai Lama because, as the Dalai Lama reportedly said, "It might create inconveniences," the Times reports.

Read more - 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2014/12/12/pope-francis-dogs-can-go-to-heaven/20296955/

Rats like Sexy Underwear too! Rodents prefer females clad in BRAS compared to their naked counterparts, study reveals -

Rats like Sexy Underwear too! Rodents prefer females clad in BRAS compared to their naked counterparts, study reveals - 



When it comes to sex, it seems that rats - like men - get turned on by sexy lingerie.
In a bizarre study, 12 virgin male rats were given the chance to have sex with female rats wearing special rodent 'bras.'
When the rats were allowed to mate for a second time, the creatures chose to have sex with female rats wearing lingerie, rather than those who were naked.

The study, by Concordia University in Montreal, suggests that, like men, male rats can learn to associate sex with clothing.
Male rats learn that 'each time my partner wears lingerie [a jacket], I'm going to have sex,' co-author Gonzalo R. Quintana Zunino told Tanya Lewis at Live Science.

Professor Zunino explained that when a male rat attempts to have sex, it approaches the female from behind, which causes the female to do a 'wiggling dance'.
The study found that if the female rat was wearing the lingerie, the male rat would feel it with his whiskers.

In a second test, virgin males were exposed to both sexually receptive females wearing the jackets and non-sexually receptive females not wearing jackets.
These males were then exposed to two sexually-aroused female rats, one in a 'bra' and one naked, at the same time. 
More of the males ejaculated sooner when mating with the female rats wearing the sexy lingerie.
After they conducted the study, the researchers injected a dye into the rats' brains to show the inner workings.
They found that the males trained to find bra-wearing females attractive showed more neural activity in the pleasure centre of the brain.
The same research team had previously carried out a study with the use of scents, and found they could train rats to prefer to mate with females wearing perfume.
'We have the same brain structure and neurochemistry as our rats,' Dr Jim Pfaus, a professor in the psychology department at the university, told Ed Mazza at the Huffington Post.
'We can see this in studies of brain activation in humans and rats, even though our patterns of copulation appear utterly different.'
The study was presented last month at the Society for Neuroscience's annual meeting in Washington.


Read more - 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2871303/Rats-like-sexy-underwear-Rodents-prefer-females-clad-BRAS-compared-naked-counterparts-study-reveals.html

Presenting The $303 Trillion In Derivatives That US Taxpayers Are Now On The Hook For -

Presenting The $303 Trillion In Derivatives That US Taxpayers Are Now On The Hook For - 



Courtesy of the Cronybus(sic) last minute passage, government was provided a quid-pro-quo $1.1 trillion spending allowance with Wall Street's blessing in exchange for assuring banks that taxpayers would be on the hook for yet another bailout, as a result of the swaps push-out provision, after incorporating explicit Citigroup language that allows financial institutions to trade certain financial derivatives from subsidiaries that are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, explicitly putting taxpayers on the hook for losses caused by these contracts. Recall:

Five years after the Wall Street coup of 2008, it appears the U.S. House of Representatives is as bought and paid for as ever. We heard about the Citigroup crafted legislation currently being pushed through Congress back in May when Mother Jones reported on it. Fortunately, they included the following image in their article:

Screen Shot 2014-12-05 at 3.32.12 PM
 

Unsurprisingly, the main backer of the bill is notorious Wall Street lackey Jim Himes (D-Conn.), a former Goldman Sachs employee who has discovered lobbyist payoffs can be just as lucrative as a career in financial services. 
We say explicitly, of course, because taxpayers have always been on the hook implicitly for the next Wall Street meltdown.

Why?

Exhibit A: US banks are the proud owners of $303 trillion in derivatives (and spare us the whole "but.. but... net exposure" cluelessness - read here why that is absolutely irrelevant when even one counterpaty fails):




Exhibit B: Here are the four banks that are in complete control of the US "republic."







At least we now know with certainty that to a clear majority in Congress - one consisting of republicans and democrats - the future viability of Wall Street is far more important than the well-being of their constituents. Which also, implicitly, was made clear when Hank Paulson was waving a three-page "blank check" term sheet, and when Congress voted through the biggest bailout of banks in US history back in 2008.

The only question is when the next multi-trillion (or perhaps quadrillion now that all global central banks are all in?) bailout takes place.

Read more- 

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-12-12/presenting-303-trillion-derivatives-us-taxpayers-are-now-hook

Poor semen quality in young men may predict future health issues, study says -

Poor semen quality in young men may predict future health issues, study says - 



Young men with fertility issues may face other health problems later in life, research published Wednesday in the journal Fertility and Sterility suggests.

Vascular, heart and skin disease, as well as hypertension, are among the ailments linked to poor semen quality in the Stanford University study, which analyzed nearly 9,400 men, ages 30 to 50, who visited a fertility clinic.

“This could be a great opportunity for young men to get a window into their future health,” study author Barry Behr, professor of OBGYN at Stanford University, and lab director of Stanford Medicine Fertility and Reproductive Health, told FoxNews.com. “Sperm cells move and are large, and we can quantify them. If this pans out to be true— which we believe it will— your sperm condition is a great surrogate marker for your overall health.”

Previous research suggests that obesity, smoking and cancer can impact fertility. In this study, scientists wanted to explore whether other conditions were linked with trends in sperm production.

Among the study participants, with a median age of 38, 44 percent attended the fertility clinic between 1994 and 2011 for a health problem unrelated to fertility.

After studying these men’s medical records, researchers observed that hypertensive disease, peripheral vascular, cerebrovascular disease and nonischemic heart disease displayed higher rates of semen abnormalities. For example, 56 percent of men without hypertensive disease had normal semen quality, but only 45 percent of men with hypertension had normal semen quality.

Poor semen quality was also linked to higher rates of skin disease— the association that Behr found most surprising. Despite the significance of hypertension and cardiovascular disease, those findings made sense, he said, because poor blood flow has been shown to influence sperm production.

“We’ve all seen this along the side of the road: When you see a line of trees, and maybe the tree at the end of the irrigation system isn’t nourished or fed with water as much as the rest will show lower viability. If you have increased pressure due to hypertension or vascular constriction, or issues with getting appropriate blood supply to the testicles, it’s analogous to not allowing the tree or the cells to get their full supply of nutrients to flourish.”

The study authors noted that although a link between semen quality and other health issues exists, knowing definitively whether semen quality is influencing the conditions— or whether the medications or conditions themselves are impairing sperm production— is unclear.

“Infertile men have lower testosterone levels than fertile men,” study author Michael Eisenberg, director of male reproductive medicine and surgery at Stanford University, told FoxNews.com. “Testosterone is important— it’s a biomarker for health. Maybe these men are on a different trajectory because of this impaired testicular function.”

Eisenberg noted that 10 to 15 percent of the DNA in a man’s body is devoted to reproduction, and most of these genes also have diverse functions in other bodily systems.

In their paper, researchers write that future studies may examine how treatments for hypertension and heart disease can be changed to improve male fertility. Analyzing whether treatments for cardiovascular disease themselves may impair semen production may also be beneficial. Cancer treatments such as radiation and chemotherapy can impact sperm production, Eisenberg noted.

However, the researchers’ findings still suggest that men who experience fertility issues may see their future health benefit by making dietary or fitness changes.

“I think that for a man who feels or seems otherwise healthy and has aberrant semen parameters,” Behr said, “it may provide additional motivation for the individual to drill more into their health assessment to make sure they don’t harbor a condition later in life that they may be able to change their lifestyle for.”

Read more -

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/12/11/poor-semen-quality-in-young-men-may-predict-future-health-issues-study-says/?intcmp=latestnews

'Driving While Black' smartphone app alerts users of Racist Cops... -

'Driving While Black' smartphone app alerts users of Racist Cops... - 



Though the developers of the soon-to-be released "Driving While Black" smartphone application want motorists to download their product, there is a time when they definitely don't want users searching for it.
"Do not reach for your phone when you are talking to police," stressed Melvin Oden-Orr, one of two Portland lawyers creating the app.
Avoiding moves that could make police think you're reaching for a gun is just one tip included in the app that educates drivers about how to safely deal with police during traffic stops.
Despite its attention-grabbing name, Oden-Orr said the app due for release in late December will provide common sense advice to motorists of all races and outline what civil rights you have during a stop. With the phone hopefully in a hands-free device, the app allows drivers to send an alert to friends and family that they have been pulled over. There's also a recording function to document the interaction with an officer.
The app is coming to market as protesters around the country keep attention on instances of deadly encounters with police in Ferguson, Missouri, and New York City. Similar apps also are aimed at helping people navigate interactions with police.
Three Georgia teenagers created "Five-O," an app released this summer that lets people rate their interactions with law enforcement. And last month, American Civil Liberties Union affiliates in four states unveiled "Mobile Justice," an app that allows users to take video of police encounters and upload the video to the ACLU. It's modeled on "Stop and Frisk Watch," an app released for New Yorkers in 2012.
"It's obviously in the forefront of everybody's mind; the police know they are being recorded and people in public know they can record," said Sarah Rossi, director of advocacy and policy for the ACLU Missouri affiliate. "I think the benefit of this app (Mobile Justice) specifically is it goes straight to the ACLU and we can review it for any due-process violations."
The apps also include a "Know Your Rights" section that informs people about their rights when contacted by police.
Portland attorney Mariann Hyland got the idea for "Driving While Black" after learning of an app for drivers suspected of drunken driving. She approached Oden-Orr in April, and the two have been working on the app since summer with software developer James Pritchett.
The term "driving while black," perhaps unfamiliar to some, is common among African-Americans. A Justice Department report released last year, based on a survey of those stopped by police in 2011, suggests blacks are more likely than whites to be pulled over and have their cars searched. Moreover, African-Americans are much more likely to believe a traffic stop is not legitimate.
The issue has been on Hyland's radar since motorist Rodney King was beaten by Los Angeles police in 1991. Another key event hit closer to home. In 2003, a 21-year-old black woman was fatally shot by Portland police after she jumped from the backseat to the driver's seat during a traffic stop and tried to drive away.
Oden-Orr hosted a forum after the death, and Hyland attended. Afterward, Hyland promised she would do something to educate black youth on handling traffic stops. For years, she didn't keep that promise, and it bothered her.
The app is her attempt at rectifying the situation. Hyland and Oden-Orr say the key to surviving a traffic stop is to remain calm, keep your hands on the wheel, be respectful and make no false moves.
It doesn't sound difficult, but such encounters can be dangerous for police — putting them on heightened alert — and a driver might find it difficult to relax when convinced the stop is based on skin color.
"They describe a pattern of getting pulled over by the police, and they find it to be very frustrating and sometimes that frustration can lead to anger," Hyland said. "You have to always be mindful to check the anger."
The app will include a directory of lawyers for drivers who believe they were wrongfully stopped or searched. The app itself won't provide legal advice, such as telling users how to beat a traffic ticket.
"It's about being safe during a traffic stop so that everyone goes home alive," Oden-Orr said.

Read more- 

http://www.breitbart.com/system/wire/ap_cc5dcefeda674767843dbaf4f8f97735