2 people dead after swarms of venomous spiders invade Indian town -

2 people dead after swarms of venomous spiders invade Indian town - 




A town in India has suddenly been overrun by swarms of venomous spiders, leaving two people dead after being bitten.
It may sound like a B-grade horror movie, but residents of the town of Sadiya, in Assam state, say that on the evening of May 8 as they were celebrating a Hindu festival swarms of spiders suddenly appeared and attacked them, The Times of India reported.
Over the next few days two people -- a man, Purnakanta Buragohain, and an unnamed school boy -- died after being bitten by the spiders. Scores more turned up at the town's hospital with spider bites.
Local resident Jintu Gogoi spent a day in the hospital complaining of excruciating pain and nausea after being bitten. He said weeks later his finger was still blackened and swollen.
District authorities are also panicking -- and they are considering spraying the town with the insecticide DDT.
Locals say the most terrifying aspect is that spiders appear in swarms and their behavior is highly aggressive.
"It leaps at anything that comes close. Some of the victims claimed the spider latched on to them after biting. If that is so, it needs to be dealt with carefully. The chelicerae and fangs of this critter are quite powerful," head of the department of life sciences at Dibrugarh University Dr. L.R. Saikia said.
Teams of Indian arachnid experts have flocked to the town, hoping to identify the species, but so far they have drawn a blank.




Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/06/03/2-people-dead-after-swarms-venomous-spiders-invade-indian-town/?test=latestnews

Cases of 'Truman Show' delusions on the rise as more people believe they're the stars of their own reality TV programs -

Cases of 'Truman Show' delusions on the rise as more people believe they're the stars of their own reality TV programs - 




Reality TV shows are making increasing numbers of people convinced that they're the stars of their own, unwanted television programs. 
Psychiatrists are treating more people for so-called 'Truman Show' delusions -- named after the 1998 movie starring Jim Carrey as a man who spends his entire life unwittingly at the center of a fictional world that's being broadcast to millions of homes.
The startling cases often afflict successful people who develop paranoid fantasies that they're being filmed at all times and that the world that's in front of them isn't real.



Their friends and loves ones are actors. The news they see on TV is made up to control the way they think. The things that happen to them are merely events staged for the amusement of others. 
The result can turn disturbing and even violent.



In 2009, Anthony Waterlow killed his father and his sister in Australia because he believed they were broadcasting his life to the world as part of a game show to either murder him or convince him to kill himself. 
During a psychological exam, he specially mentioned 'The Truman Show,' according to the Sydney Morning Herald.



In 2007, psychiatrist William Johns III allegedly assaulted a 2-year-old and his mother in New York City after he left his home in Florida because he 'had to get out of the Truman Show' that he believed was filming him in his home town, according to ABC News. 
Drs Joel and Ian Gold, researchers at New York University and McGill University in Montreal, respectively, recently published a series of case studies about suffers of 'Truman Show' delusions. 
Their article in the journal Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, followed five patients who believed their lives were the center of a secret TV show. 
One patient traveled to New York City and walked in a federal building and demanded to see 'the director.' He said he had to come to Manhattan because he believed the World Trade Center attacks had been faked for the TV show being filmed around him, according to BuzzFeed.
He said he had to see for himself whether the twin towers were still standing. If they weren't, he said, it would be final proof that he was the unwilling star of a reality TV program.




Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2153071/Cases-Truman-Show-delusions-rise-people-believe-theyre-stars-reality-TV-programs.html

Occupy Buffalo convinces city of Buffalo to withdraw $45 million from JPMorgan -

Occupy Buffalo convinces city of Buffalo to withdraw $45 million from JPMorgan - 


Buffalo City Comptroller Mark J.F. Schroeder announced on Thursday that the city would be pulling $45 million in funds from an account with JPMorgan Chase, following concerns raised by members of the Occupy Buffalo movement.


BuffaloNews.com reported that the Buffalo Sewer Authority funds will be deposited into a higher-yielding account with the local bank First Niagara. The new account will earn 0.30 percent interest. The account with JPMorgan had a 0.25 percent interest rate.


“Not only will the funds earn more interest with First Niagara, a major local employer headquartered in Buffalo, but it also sends a crystal clear message to JPMorgan Chase that the City of Buffalo is not happy with their business practices,” Schroeder said in a statement.


Members of the Occupy Buffalo movement and others had urged the Buffalo Common Council to withdrawal their funds from JPMorgan. The group of demonstrators have been critical of the major bank’s foreclosure practices.


Read more - 
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/05/31/occupy-buffalo-convinces-city-to-withdraw-funds-from-jpmorgan/

Falling sheep rain down on drivers after truck rollover in Australia -

Falling sheep rain down on drivers after truck rollover in Australia - 


A truck carrying around 400 livestock has overturned on a highway overpass in southern Australia, causing sheep to rain down on the freeway below.


Police say the sheep fell onto the Princess Highway outside Melbourne on Thursday night after the truck crashed and flipped over onto its side, causing it to hang precariously over the freeway.


Several cars on the Princess Highway were damaged by the falling sheep and several people were injured. Allan Eade, a paramedic, says there were “a large number of deceased and injured” sheep.


Robert Leardi, who was driving a car damaged by the livestock, says he was lucky that he was not seriously hurt. He says he was driving on the highway when “all of a sudden these sheep are falling down from the top of an overpass.”


Read more - 
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1204048--falling-sheep-rain-down-on-drivers-after-truck-rollover-in-australia

Dumb and Dumber - median grade level for Congressional speeches has dropped a grade from eleventh to tenth grade -

Dumb and Dumber - median grade level for Congressional speeches has dropped a grade from eleventh to tenth grade - 


You're not imagining things. Congress is dumb and getting dumber. 


According to the Sunlight Foundation, the median grade level for Congressional proceedings and speeches has dropped nearly a full grade level from eleventh to tenth grade. 


The result of studying the Congressional Record for the past seven years, the Foundation's data also suggests that both conservatives and new congressmen are responsible for dumbing the entire legislative body down.


But I don't know if I buy that when you consider that Republicans own both ends of the scale. 


For example, Rep. Rick Mulvaney , R-SC, speaks at an average grade level of 7.9 while Rep. Dan Lungren, R-CA, uses speech consistent with a college senior.


What I do find very interesting is that the majority of "sophisticated" speakers are only sophisticated when using prepared notes. 


The Sunlight data tells us when the majority of our leaders have to speak extemporaneously -a five dollar word in itself- they appear just as "dumb" as the rest of us. 


Maybe this explains why our leaders say so much yet actually communicate so very little.


Take the last 67 p residential addresses for instance. They were given at an average grade level of 10.7. 


Meanwhile, all of President Obama's State of the Union addresses have tallied at a level you'd expect of an eighth grader, according to the University of Minnesota's Smart Politics.


Dumbing Down the Message


I actually think there is something else at work here. It's sound bites. 


Our leaders are now trained to talk in them because they know that's what gets them re-elected and what sells in the nightly news. As a result, most politicians can't put together a string of intelligent sentences even if they wanted to.


Again, is this simply a matter of language? .... Or does it hide a bigger underlying issue? 




I suspect it's a little of both, which is why our leaders can't get their minds around the global financial crisis, our debt, the Eurozone, China or any of half a dozen other important issues facing our world today. 


They simply may not understand anything beyond the sound bites or what is needed to pander to their base on either side of the aisle. 


Perhaps I'm being too harsh. 


Maybe it's just that Congress isn't prepared to a) speak without a prompter and b) without properly prepared briefings. Our president certainly doesn't appear to be. 


Making things more readable or understandable isn't a new concept. 


In the 1880s, for instance, sentences had become 54% shorter at 23 words than they were in the Elizabethan era, when the average sentence was 50 words, according to Professor L.A. Sherman. 


Today the average sentence length is between 14-20 words. Perhaps cavemen were on to something with a simple "uhhh." Perhaps these days our politicians would be better served with "duuhh." 


Speaking of which, there may be another explanation here -- "vocabulary frequency."


Most people would never give this a second thought, but any language is really a series of building blocks. What this suggests is that the use of certain vocabulary and the frequency of its use can be tied to specific levels of intellectual development. 


Before computers, educators used to spend significant amounts of time matching students with appropriate reading materials using huge lists of "building block words" that were measured and ranked by how often they appeared. 


In early 2000, researchers working for the School Renaissance Institute and Touchstone Applied Science Associates took this a step further. They determined that three variables matter most when it comes to reading ease: words per sentence, the average grade level of the words themselves, and the number of characters per word.


This sounds very obvious, but in reality it's tremendously difficult to get right, especially for people who must speak and present their thinking to broad audiences. 


Read more - 
http://moneymorning.com/2012/06/01/dumb-and-dumber-congress-the-language-and-the-facebook-fiasco/

Wells Fargo Seizes Stockton, California City Hall - AND three city parking garages -

Wells Fargo Seizes Stockton, California City Hall - AND three city parking garages - 


The Stockton City Council announced Wednesday that they will look at bankruptcy contingency plans after Wells Fargo seized the new city hall building.


The city paid $35 million to buy the 8-story building, but was not able to move in because of its money problems, and recently stopped making debt payments all together. This is the fourth building that was repossessed by Wells Fargo; the bank seized three city parking garages for the same reason.


Just wait to financial problems start to put a squeeze on state governments. California and Illinois are high up on the list. They might be able to scrape by for another year or two, but that's it. 


Read more - 
http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2012/05/wells-fargo-seizes-stockton-california.html

Obama Flies Special Barber To the White House Every Two Weeks -

Obama Flies Special Barber To the White House Every Two Weeks - 




Reports have surfaced that President Barack Obama is very loyal to his barber. The President is a man of the common people, the report tells its listeners. He hangs out with regular folks, like his barber for example.  The President has been using the same Chicago based barber, who goes by the name Zariff, for the past 17 years.   According to German Public Radio, the President flies Zariff from Chicago to DC for a trim every two weeks.  The president allegedly personally funds these trips. President Obama obviously also does not care much about the massive carbon footprint his haircuts are leaving on our planet which, we are told, is tipping precariously. 


The German NDR reporter says: ‘The barber never says a word about what they discuss. Perhaps that’s also a reason why Obama feels comfortable being around him. Otherwise he would not fly his barber in from Chicago to Washington every ten to 14 days.’






Read more: http://nation.foxnews.com/barack-obama/2012/05/30/report-obama-flies-special-barber-wh-every-two-weeks

Mitt Romney wanted to change America and he has succeeded. . . with his new iPhone app slogan “A Better Amercia.” -

Mitt Romney wanted to change America and he has succeeded. . . with his new iPhone app slogan “A Better Amercia.” - 




Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney wanted to change America and he has succeeded. . . with his new iPhone app displaying the slogan “A Better Amercia.”


Yes, “Amercia.”


The newly released “With Mitt” app allows users to add their choice of 14 pro-Romney phrases to photographs and share them via social media. Examples include “I’m a Mom for Mitt,” “American Greatness,” “Day One Job One” and “Obama Isn’t Working.”


And of course the misspelled: “A better Amercia.”


That typo sent the Internet into spasms of joy on Tuesday night, spawning Twitter hashtag 



#Amercia and a tumblr titled “Amercia is with Mitt.”


The Romney campaign has not commented publicly about the typo. CNN reports that an update to the app was submitted to Apple Wednesday morning and is waiting for approval. Meanwhile the app in its original form is still available in the iTunes store.


The typo isn’t the only part of the app that Internet jokesters have shown affection for. As Vanity Fair points out, the slogans also work well with a photo of a bottle of white wine.


Read more - 
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/uselection/article/1202852--mitt-romney-iphone-app-stands-for-a-better-amercia-spawns-internet-meme?bn=1

Cyber-attack concerns raised over Boeing 787 chip's 'back door' - has built-in function that could let in hackers -

Cyber-attack concerns raised over Boeing 787 chip's 'back door' - has built-in function that could let in hackers - 




Two Cambridge experts have discovered a "back door" in a computer chip used in military systems and aircraft such as the Boeing 787 that could allow the chip to be taken over via the internet.


The discovery will heighten concerns about the risks of cyber-attacks on sensitive installations, coming on the heels of the discovery this week of the 'Flamer' virus which has been attacking computer systems in Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia.


In a paper that has been published in draft form online and seen by the Guardian, researchers Sergei Skorobogatov of Cambridge University and Chris Woods of Quo Vadis Labs say that they have discovered a method that a hacker can use to connect to the internals of a chip made by Actel, a US manufacturer.


"An attacker can disable all the security on the chip, reprogram cryptographic and access keys … or permanently damage the device," they noted.


Woods told the Guardian that they have offered all the necessary information about how the hack can be done to government agencies – but that their response is classified.


"The real issue is the level of security that can be compromised through any back door, and how easy they are to find and exploit," Woods said.


The back door may have been inserted by Actel itself, whose ProASIC3 chip is used in medical, automotive, communications and consumer products, as well as military use.


Woods said that "a back door is an additional undocumented featured deliberately inserted into a device for extra functionality" – in effect, a secret way to get into the chip and control it.


Crucially, in this case it exists as part of the design of the silicon chip – meaning that it cannot be removed because it is inherent in how the chip reacts to certain inputs. He suggested that it may have been put there by design by Actel, because there are some traces of the existence of such a back door in the system files of Actel development software.


But, he said, that creates serious risks: "The great danger comes from the fact that such a back door undermines the high level of security in the chip making it exposed to various attacks. Although Actel makes a big claim that their devices are extremely secure because there is no physical path for the configuration data to be read to the outside world, a back door was added with a special key to circumnavigate all the security set by themselves or one of their users."


Connecting to the chips would be comparatively easy over the internet if the chip is wired to an internet-enabled controller, he said. Normally a special cryptographic key would be needed, but the back door does not need an encrypted channel.


Read more - 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/may/29/cyber-attack-concerns-boeing-chip

You know its bad when... - The Rockefellers and The Rothschilds announce they are uniting under a common group -

You know its bad when... - The Rockefellers and The Rothschilds announce they are uniting under a common group - 

You know its bad when... two of the largest and best-known 'familia' in Europe and the US come together. As the FT reports, The Rockefellers and The Rothschilds are uniting under a common group as Rothschild Investment Trust and Rockefeller Financial Services become one. The patriarchs (David Rockefeller 96, and Lord Rothschild 76) have been 'connected' for five decades. Between the Rothschild's 'sprawling' multi-century banking empire across Europe and the Rockefeller's roots in 1882 Oil-money, we can only imagine the Illuminati, Freemasons, Templars, and Central Bankers of the world are quaking in their boots at this new global force for change - The Rothsellers or is it The Rockchilds. What next? It seems only Soros is left to complete the holy trinity...


Read more - 
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/end-nigh-rockefellers-and-rothschilds-merge