Sunday, January 31, 2016

ZIKA EXPLODES IN THE AMERICAS


Bogota: Colombia announced Saturday that more than 2,000 pregnant women in the South American country have been infected with the Zika virus, which is suspected of causing brain damage in newborns.
The National Health Institute reported that Colombia now has 20,297 cases of Zika infection, including 2,116 in pregnant women.
The latest numbers, reported in the institute’s epidemiological bulletin, would make Colombia the second most affected country in the region, after Brazil.
Although the mosquito-borne virus’s symptoms are relatively mild, it is believed to be linked to a surge in cases of microcephaly, a devastating condition in which a baby is born with an abnormally small head and brain.
Microcephaly is an untreatable disease that can cause permanent damage to the child’s motor and cognitive development.
The World Health Organization warned this week that the virus is “spreading explosively” in the Americas, with three million to four million cases expected this year.  ARTICLE

Friday, January 29, 2016

Intellectual Froglegs– Master Of The Game: Trump



FULL ARTICLE HERE

OK, NASA, PLZ STREAM BATTLESTAR GALACTICA B4 YOU DO THIS

The US space agency is considering ushering new humanoid robots that could offer astronauts a helping hand in future expeditions.

BOSTON: NASA is developing a six-feet tall humanoid robot that could assist astronauts in risky and extremely hazardous deep space missions to Mars and asteroids in the future. 

The US space agency is considering ushering new humanoid robots that could offer astronauts a helping hand in future expeditions. 

"NASA is counting on robots to setup and care for deep space exploration facilities and equipment pre-deployed ahead of astronauts," Sasha Congiu Ellis of NASA's Langley Research Centre, told Astrowatch.net. 

"Robots are also excellent precursors for conducting science missions ahead of human exploration," Ellis said. 

That is why the agency is developing a six-feet tall humanoid robot called R5, previously known as Valkyrie. The machine weighs about 131 kilogrammes. 

PERVATORY

Thursday, January 28, 2016

New York to London in 11 minutes



Imagine a 10-seater private jet that uses rocket boosters to take off, detaches these at an altitude of 12km, fires its supersonic engines to hit speeds of Mach 24 (20,000 km/h), and gets you from New York to London in 11 minutes.
That’s the idea behind the Antipode, a next-level concept jet by Canadian inventor and engineer, Charles Bombardier. The concept comes just months after Bombardier unveiled his designs for the Skreemr, a four-winged scramjet that could carry 75 passengers at speeds of up to Mach 10 - so, 10 times the speed of sound and five times faster than today’s Concorde jets.
Engineer proposes hypersonic jet that could fly from New York to London in 11 minutes
How's 20,000 km/h sound?
BEC CREW
27 JAN 2016

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

SPACE JUNK COULD PROVOKE WWIII

An artist’s impression from 2008 of the space debris in orbit around Earth.
The steady rise in space junk that is floating around the planet could provoke a political row and even armed conflict, according to scientists, who warn that even tiny pieces of debris have enough energy to damage or destroy military satellites.
Researchers said fragments of spent rockets and other hurtling hardware posed a “special political danger” because of the difficulty in confirming that an operational satellite had been struck by flying debris and had not fallen victim to an intentional attack by another nation.
Space agencies in the US and Russia track more than 23,000 pieces of space junk larger than 10cm, but estimates suggest there could be half a billion fragments ranging from one to 10cm, and trillions of even smaller particles.
The junk poses the greatest danger to satellites in low Earth orbit, where debris can slam into spacecraft at a combined speed of more than 30,000mph. This realm of space, which stretches from 100 to 1200 miles above the surface, is where most military satellites are deployed.
In a report to be published in the journal Acta Astronautica, Vitaly Adushkin at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow writes that impacts from space junk, especially on military satellites, posed a “special political danger” and “may provoke political or even armed conflict between space-faring nations. The owner of the impacted and destroyed satellite can hardly quickly determine the real cause of the accident.”

ITALY COVERS NAKED STATUES BANS WINE WHEN IRANIAN PRESIDENT VISITS


Hassan Rouhani
“Italy covers up naked statues and bans wine for visit of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani,” by Umberto Bacchi, International Business Times, January 25, 2016:
Italian authorities covered up naked statues exhibited at a world-famous museum in Rome for an official visit of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, a decision that has caused a stir in the country.
Rouhani toured the Musei Capitolini (Capitoline Museums) – which hosts a huge collection of artefacts from the ancient, medieval and renaissance periods – accompanied by Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on 25 January.
However, the Iranian leader could not admire some of the museum’s masterpieces, as all marbles depicting naked scenes had been carefully hid behind large white panels.
The vast censorship effort was reportedly implemented as a show of respect to the reformist president, out of fears that the exposed private parts of ancient Roman gods could offend Iranian sensitivity. Wine was also banned from official receptions.
The move angered many Italians, who have accused authorities of betraying the country’s cultural heritage in the name of political correctness and business interests. Hundreds of people voiced their displeasure online, with some posting photos of unclothed icons online under the hashtag ‘statuenude’ (naked statues) in protest.
The Capitoline Museums, located on the iconic Capitoline hill, are managed by the local council. However, a spokesperson said all aspects of Rouhani’s visit were attended to by the government. IBTimes UK asked Renzi’s office for comment but had received no reply at the time of publishing….

DISCRIMINATION AGAINST THE POOR AND ILLITERATE

Police Superintendent William Taylor/City of Lowell Photo

The City of Lowell, Massachusetts has an approximate population of 110,000 and lies 35 miles north of Boston. They overwhelming elect democrats. So the following should come as no surprise. It is complete NONSENSE.
The commies in charge have enacted a new law that requires residents applying for a license to carry handguns to write “an essay” and pay upwards of $1,100 for training.
Fox News reports that this was pushed by Police Superintendent William Taylor and passed by the City Council. The law requires applicants for unrestricted handgun licenses to state in writing why they should receive such a license.Taylor has sole discretion for approving or denying the applications.
Jim Wallace, executive director of Gun Owners Action League of Massachusetts, is not mincing words. He said, “It is absurd that people should have to write an essay to the town to explain why they should be able to exercise their constitutional rights. We already have a very strict set of gun laws in the state, but this is way over the top.”

GIRLS KICKED OUT OF THEIR LEAGUE FOR BEING TOO GOOD

girls basketball

A girls’ basketball team in Minnesota claims they have been told they can no longer play in their local league because they are ‘too talented’. The Rogers Area Youth Basketball Association (RAYBA) girls’ high school team say they were told by the North West Suburban Basketball League that they would be no longer welcome to play matches due to their ‘skill level’.
The Daily Mail reports that the team says the news came in a letter just the day before they were due to play in a showcase tournament and while the girls were on a three game winning streak.
It read: ‘The Northwest Suburban Basketball League decided RAYBA does not fit into the league. The main reason they made this decision is because other teams do not want to play RAYBA due to the skill level.’
The team’s coach, Jason Hanauska, says he is mad that banning his team means the league will stop talent from developing. He told Fox 9: ‘We found out on Friday they were not going to be allowed because according to the league our girls were too talented. Three teams were threatening to I guess either forfeit the games against us or flat out quit the league. So for some reason they kicked us out.’

SECRET SITES PIXELATED BY GOOGLE EARTH

This enormous blurred area in the Siberian Tundra region is rumoured to hide one of Russia’s ‘secret cities’
THERE are countless sites around the world deemed so classified that they are pixelated or blacked out by Google Earth.
Some are understandable, like some military sites, royal residences and say, the whole of North Korea. Others may surprise you. Pretty much all of them are the subject of conspiracy theories.
PACIFIC NORTHWEST, USA
This site is home to the highly controversial operation known as HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program) and is located near the Washington-Oregon border.
Rumours HAARP works in conjunction with FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) have led to speculation about hidden agendas.
The conspiracy-minded believe HAARP is a secret weapon for weather modification and have blamed it triggering floods, droughts, major power outages and even earthquakes in Iran.
HAARP — the High FrequencyActive Auroral Research Program is hiding under the green rectangle
HAARP — the High FrequencyActive Auroral Research Program is hiding under the green rectangle
SZAZHALOMBATTA OIL REFINERY, HUNGARY
This Hungarian oil facility requested to be rendered green, with its buildings and grounds deleted, and nobody understands why.
Even more bizarre is the rumour that the only thing the green block is protecting is a field of grass. Which begs the question: what’s underneath the grass?
This is not a very well-maintained sportsground but the site of the Szazhalombatta Oil Refinery in Hungary
This is not a very well-maintained sportsground but the site of the Szazhalombatta Oil Refinery in Hungary
KEOWEE DAM, USA
This Christmas tree-shaped man-made reservoir in South Carolina has been heavily blurred by Google. While authorities have never confirmed it, it is believed the dam helps run the Oconee Nuclear Station. The paranoid often refer to the site as “America’s Fukushima”.
America’s Fukushima? Keowee Dam in South Carolina
America’s Fukushima? Keowee Dam in South Carolina
UNKNOWN AREA IN SIBERIAN TUNDRA, RUSSIA
This one is pretty chilling. Not only is there something dodgy about the blur itself compared to say the Minecraft-esque pixelation of the Volkel Air Base in The Netherland (see further down), but there’s a sinister story behind it.
The site is in the Siberian Tundra and the closest Russian city is believed to Egvekinot, which neighbours Alaska across the Bering Strait. In 1986, authorities sealed off dozens of cities and towns, many of them with populations of more than a million.
Some had mysterious numbers attached to their names including Krasnoyarsk-26, Tomsk-7 and Arzamas-16 — the latter believed to have been home to a colony of nuclear engineers who put an end to America’s nuclear monopoly.
Some believe that this site could be one of the mysterious secret cities taken over by the government during the Cold War era. Others say it’s either a radar station or missile
interceptor.
Several netizens have commented that the area surrounding the blur appears to have been cut and pasted from another part of the country.
Is there a secret city lurking underneath that thick blurry smudge in the Siberian Tundra?
Is there a secret city lurking underneath that thick blurry smudge in the Siberian Tundra?
THE FAROE ISLANDS, DENMARK
The Faroe Islands are located halfway between Norway and Iceland in the North Atlantic Ocean but are controlled by Denmark. Islanders are known as Faroese and known for their proficiency in music. Nobody knows why sections of the archipelago have been blurred but its possible (at a stretch) that it has something to do with fishing rights.
No idea what’s so secret about the Faroe Islands
No idea what’s so secret about the Faroe Islands
OF COURSE THIS ONLY SERVES TO DRAW MORE ATTENTION TO THE PIXELATED AREAS

Monday, January 25, 2016

SWEDES HAVE ENOUGH

GRAND JURY INDITES PP PRO-LIFE INVESTIGATORS INSTEAD OF PP

The entrance to a Planned Parenthood clinic is pictured in Oklahoma City. (Associated Press)

- Associated Press - Updated: 5:37 p.m. on Monday, January 25, 2016
AUSTIN, Texas — A Houston grand jury investigating undercover footage of Planned Parenthood found no wrongdoing Monday by the abortion provider but instead indicted anti-abortion activists involved in making the videos that provoked outrage among Republican leaders nationwide.
David Daleiden, founder of the Center for Medical Progress, was indicted on a felony charge of tampering with a governmental record and a misdemeanor count related to purchasing human organs. Another activist, Sandra Merritt, was also indicted on a charge of tampering with a governmental record.

ARE THE GERMANS MAD???



Berlin: German villages and small towns could hold the key to socially integrating a mass influx of refugees who would in turn help revitalise dwindling rural populations, experts say.
“The rural regions are a laboratory of integration,” said Karl-Friedrich Thoene from the infrastructure and agriculture ministry of the eastern state of Thuringia.
Unlike in densely populated big cities, “there can be no parallel societies in rural areas,” he said. “The village community is the ideal chance for integration.”
The lower cost of living, cheaper rents and tight-knit communities in the countryside are main “factors of success” for integrating the newcomers, said Gudrun Kirchhoff, an expert on refugee issues at the German Institute of Urban Affairs.
Social life in small communities is typically held together by clubs and associations in which most villagers take part, experts point out.
Germany has taken in more than 1.5 million asylum seekers since 2014, from war-torn Syria to Balkan countries. On arrival, they are allocated accommodation across the country, with cities, towns and villages all expected to take their share.
– Dwindling rural populations –
Wolfgang Borst, major of the Bavarian village of Hofheim, population 5,000, is among those who see the influx as an opportunity.
“We are very satisfied. We are gaining a lot more villagers,” said Borst, who has long been concerned about Hofheim’s dwindling population.
Of four young Syrians living in Hofheim who have just obtained refugee status, “one will leave, the other three will stay,” he said.
Borst was speaking at the Gruene Woche (Green Week) agricultural fair in Berlin, which ran until January 24 and where the refugee issue was the subject of many round-table and panel discussions.
Some regard the mass arrivals as a huge challenge, but others see it as a chance.
And for the refugees themselves, frequently traumatised by the war and destruction they escaped, the peace and quiet of the open countryside can be a godsend.
Hofheim and six nearby communities have taken in a total of 224 migrants and housed them in 19 homes. Their joint “asylum support group” organises German language courses, traffic safety classes and sporting activities.
That is not to say that life in remote and isolated communities is free of problems.
Dwellings are frequently far apart, public transport networks are threadbare and people often have to travel long distances to see a doctor or attend a language class.
There are also entrenched social structures, very clear ideas about societal norms and often a “latent racism” and distrust of outsiders, said Kirchhoff.
More prosaically, Internet connections are often slow and few supermarkets stock the staple foodstuffs that the refugees are used to.

Sunday, January 24, 2016

Now Dutch right-wingers give women pepper spray laced with red paint

Europe in crisis over migrants: Now Dutch right-wingers give women pepper spray laced with red paint to protect themselves from 'Islamic testosterone bombs' 

  • Geert Wilders handed out the pepper spray to supporters in Spijkenisse
  • He vowed to close the borders to all asylum seekers immediately if elected
  • Wilders' Freedom Party is currently top of the opinion polls in Holland 
  • Political scientists said right wingers are benefiting from the refugee crisis
  • See more news on the migrant crisis at www.dailymail.co.uk/migrantcrisis


Firebrand Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders talks to a TV reporters as he hands out "self-defense sprays" to women fearful of being attacked by migrants in the wake of the New Year's Eve sexual assaults in Cologne, in the center of Spijkenisse, near Rotterdam, Netherlands, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016. Saturday¿s event was a trademark headline-grabbing foray into the Dutch public by the leader of the Freedom Party. Such publicity stunts have landed him atop Dutch opinion polls a year away from parliamentary elections in the Netherlands. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)


He said if he was elected Prime Minister next year, he would 'close the borders immediately and have no more asylum seekers'. 

He said: 'We just cannot afford to have more. The Dutch people in a big majority don't want it and we cannot afford it and it makes our people and women only more unsafe.'
Wilders' party currently holds 12 seats in the 150-member lower house, but a poll by Ipsos on Thursday suggested the Freedom Party would win 32 seats now. 
The Prime Minister Mark Rutte's Liberals were second with 26 seats, down from its current tally of 40. The online survey of 1,061 voters had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percent. Other polls have Wilders even further ahead.


Dutch authorities prosecuted Wilders in 2011 on hate speech charges after comparing Islam to fascism and demanding a ban on the Koran. He was acquitted at the time, but he is still facing further charges over his highly controversial comments.
Wilders extreme views are being replicated in other European nations, with Marine Le Pen's National Front in France also receiving a surge in popularity.  
Leontine Maris was one of the first women to get a spray from Wilders on Saturday.

The 53-year-old said she votes for him though she disagrees with some of his more extreme comments. She said she was afraid not just of migrants, but also Dutch men.
She said: 'The whole society is going down the drain.' 
University of Amsterdam political science professor Wouter van der Brug: 'The tendencies across Europe are very similar. Across Europe, right-wing populist parties are picking up support as a result of the asylum crisis that we're facing now, and also as a result of terrorist attacks.
'Wilders is getting support across different layers of society.' 
However, Wilders' opponents are confident the controversial politician's support will collapse when the Dutch people cast their ballots next year. 
Lodewijk Asscher, Deputy Prime Minister and a Labor Party member said: 'It is hard to talk about a tipping point because we have seen this phenomenon in the polls before. Geert Wilders has lost the last three elections. That is something we tend to forget.' 


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3413385/Europe-crisis-migrants-Dutch-right-winger-hands-red-paint-spray-women-protect-Islamic-testosterone-bombs.html#ixzz3yDYBjc5R
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Saturday, January 23, 2016

SUCCESSFUL LAWYER


A very successful American lawyer parked his brand new Porsche 911 Turbo in front of his office, ready to show it off to his colleagues.  As he was getting out, a truck came barreling down the road, drifted right and completely tore off the driver's door.

Fortunately, a cop was close enough to see the accident and pulled up behind the now door-less Porsche with his lights flashing.

Before the cop had a chance to ask any questions, the lawyer started screaming hysterically about how his precious Porsche, which he had just purchased the day before, was completely ruined and no matter how any car body shop tried to make it new again, it would never be the same.

Being a lawyer, he was going to sue the truck driver, his employer, and even the driver's education teacher!

After the lawyer finally wound down from his rant, the cop shook his head in disbelief. "I can't believe how materialistic you lawyers are!" he said.  "You are so focused on your possessions that you neglect the most important things in life."

"How can you say such a thing?" asked the lawyer.

The cop replied, "Don't you even realize that your left arm is missing?  It was severed when the truck hit you!"

"Oh sh**!" screamed the lawyer. . .

"My Rolex!"

"CLINTON'S SERVER" "ILLEGAL" "FBI INVESTIGATION" ALL COMMON WORDS HEARD LATELY

Hillary's "beyond top secret" emails

Remember Hillary Clinton's email problems? They are gettingmuch, much worse(link is external):
Intelligence officials have discovered sensitive national security information on Hillary Clinton’s server that goes beyond the “top secret” level, the intelligence community inspector general told lawmakers in a letter last week.
In a copy of the Jan. 14 correspondence obtained by POLITICO, Intelligence Community Inspector General I. Charles McCullough III told both the Senate Intelligence and Senate Foreign Relations committees that intelligence agencies found messages relating to what are known as “special access programs,” or SAP. That’s an even more restricted subcategory of sensitive compartmented information, or SCI, top secret national security information derived from sensitive intelligence sources.
The FBI, meanwhile, is still investigating whether Clinton’s server put national security at risk and whether top State staffers sent around classified information via unclassified means, which is in many cases illegal.
Funny how the words "Clinton's server" and "illegal" keep appearing together as the FBI investigation rolls along.

OBAMANOMICS STEERING US TOWARD ANOTHER MORTGAGE COLLAPSE



Remember a few years ago, when the American housing market collapsed as a direct result of government policies that—in the name of racial justice—pressured banks to approve mortgage loans for massive numbers of underqualified nonwhite applicants? Remember how that collapse set in motion the financial crisis that then-presidential candidate Barack Obama repeatedly called “the worst economy since the Great Depression”? And remember how Obama—who had long been a leading proponent of precisely the policies that had triggered the crisis—cast himself as the savior who was going to restore fiscal sanity and untangle the whole big mess?

Well, now Savior Obama and his White House are excitedly introducing Americans to their latest brainchild, the “HomeReady” mortgage program—offered through Fannie Mae and designed to help borrowers in “low-income” and “high-minority” census tracts. “For the first time,” boasts Fannie Mae, “income from a non-borrower household member [e.g., a roommate or family member] can be considered to determine an applicable debt-to-income ratio for the loan.” And if those combined incomes aren't enough to qualify an applicant for a mortgage loan, HomeReady comes with additional built-in “flexibilities” like “allowing income from non-occupant borrowers, such as parents.” In other words, just keep rounding up everyone you know, until you can scrape together a 3% down payment and show acombined income that's high enough to qualify for an individual loan. This makes the slipshod lending standards that caused the crisis of 2008 look exacting by comparison.

What about minority applicants with bad credit? No problem there, either! As Investor's Business Daily notes, “You can qualify with a FICO credit score as low as 620, which is subprime.” In fact, even the term “subprime loan”—meaning a loan that has a high interest rate and less favorable terms in order to compensate the lender for the high credit risk incurred—has received a thorough makeover from Obama & Company. From now on, such transactions are going to be called “alternative loans.” See? No more “subprime” crises—ever again! Ain't it grand?

The government policies that led to the housing market collapse of 2008 initially emerged in the mid-1970s, when Democrats in Congress began a campaign to help low-income minorities become homeowners. This led to the passage, in 1977, of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), a mandate for banks to make special efforts to seek out and lend to borrowers of meager means. Founded on the premise that government intervention is necessary to counteract the fundamentally racist and inequitable nature of American society and the free market, the CRA was eventually transformed from an outreach effort into a strict quota system by the Clinton administration. Under the new arrangement, if a bank failed to meet its quota for loans to low-income minorities, it ran the risk of getting a low CRA rating from the FDIC. This, in turn, could derail the bank's efforts to expand, relocate, merge, etc.  From a practical standpoint, then, banks had no recourse but to drastically lower their standards on down-payments and underwriting, and to approve many loans even to borrowers with weak credit credentials. As Hoover Institution Fellow Thomas Sowell explains, this led to “skyrocketing rates of mortgage delinquencies and defaults,” and the rest is history.

OBAMANOMICS IN CATASTROPHIC ACTION

How Obama's new mortgage program is steering America toward another housing-market collapse.