Mount Etna Erupts Again, Send Lava Flying Through The Night Sky (RAW VIDEO)

Mirroring the social changes and awareness of the planet's population - or vice versa - the Earth Changes continue apace...

-----------------

Huffington Post

Mount Etna erupted for the second time this year early Thursday morning, spewing molten hot lava and clouds of ash into the sky.

The eruption, which can be seen in the raw video below, was most intense between midnight and 4 a.m. GMT, according to the BBC. The lava flow luckily only reached uninhabited areas, though the nearby town of Catania was forced to close its airport after it became covered in ash.

This is not the first time the Sicilian volcano has erupted this year however.

Before its January 13, 2011 eruption, Etna hadn't experienced major volcanic movement since 1992. The previous eruption also resulted in the airport's closure and caused little to no damage.

Organic versus Monsanto

UTNE

More than 270,000 organic farmers are taking on corporate agriculture giant Monsanto in a lawsuit filed March 30. Led by the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association, the family farmers are fighting for the right to keep a portion of the world food supply organic - and preemptively protecting themselves from accusations of stealing genetically modified seeds that drift on to their pristine crop fields.

Consumers are powerful. For more than a decade, a cultural shift has seen shoppers renounce the faster-fatter-bigger-cheaper mindset of factory farms, exposéd in the 2008 documentary Food, Inc. From heirloom tomatoes to heritage chickens, we want our food slow, sustainable, and local - healthy for the earth, healthy for animals, and healthy for our bodies.

But with patented seeds infiltrating the environment so fully, organic itself is at risk. Monsanto's widely used Genuity® Roundup Ready® canola seed has already turned heirloom canola oil into an extinct species. The suing farmers are seeking to prevent similar contamination of organic corn, soybeans, and a host of other crops. What's more, they're seeking to prevent Monsanto from accusing them of unlawfully using the very seeds they're trying to avoid. [...]

The Ruling Psychopaths Among Us

News Day

I always wondered why some people - particularly politicians - are cruel to the extent of committing genocide and wanting to inflict more pain on humanity until a friend introduced me to the term ponerology - a term coined by Polish psychiatrist Andrew Lobaczewski to describe the study of the causes of periods of social injustice.

Ponerology seeks to explain phenomena that include aggressive war, ethnic cleansing, genocide and police states (Wikipedia). Studies in this discipline have shown a tight link between social injustice and psychopathy - the ability to lie, steal, cause great harm or kill with virtually no remorse.

To understand what animal a psychopath is, Lobaczewski in Political Ponerology: A Science of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes says: "Imagine - if you can - not having a conscience, none at all, no feelings of guilt or remorse no matter what you do, no limiting sense of concern for the well-being of strangers, friends, or even family members.

"Imagine no struggles with shame, not a single one in your whole life, no matter what kind of selfish, lazy, harmful, or immoral action you had taken.

"And pretend that the concept of responsibility is unknown to you, except as a burden others seem to accept without question, like gullible fools.

"Now add to this strange fantasy the ability to conceal from other people that your psychological make-up is radically different from theirs. Since everyone simply assumes that conscience is universal among human beings, hiding the fact that you are conscience-free is nearly effortless.

"You are not held back from any of your desires by guilt or shame, and you are never confronted by others for your cold-bloodedness.

"The ice water in your veins is so bizarre, so completely outside of their personal experience that they seldom even guess at your condition.

"In other words, you are completely free of internal restraints, and your unhampered liberty to do just as you please, with no pangs of conscience, is conveniently invisible to the world.

"You can do anything at all, and still your strange advantage over the majority of people, who are kept in line by their consciences will most likely remain undiscovered."

NobleDreams.co.uk notes that psychopaths are part of the Dark Triad that includes narcissists and Machiavellians.

It says: "All three types share to varying degrees an unappealing, though sometimes well-concealed core: social malevolence and duplicity, self-centredness and aggression, and emotional coldness. Most people who fall into the Dark Triad do not qualify for a psychiatric diagnosis, though at their extremes they shade into mental illness or become outlaws - particularly psychopaths. But the far more common 'subclinical' variety lives among us, populating offices, schools, bars, and the routine byways of daily life."

Martha Stout in The Sociopath Next Door says what distinguishes these people from the rest of us is "an utterly empty hole in the psyche, where there should be the most evolved of all humanising functions".

This explains why these people behave in an alarmingly inhuman way, incarcerating and torturing innocent people, murdering people - including women and children en masse - and above all ruling by the gun.

Utah governor Gary Hebert in an article titled Utah's Love Affair with Political Psychopaths says: "Political psychopaths don't feel the same range of emotions that normal people experience. They can only experience fear, greed and the occasional elation when they find out they got away with another crime at the public expense.

"Absent are normal emotions like remorse, shame, and the feeling of accomplishment that awaits those that know they put more into public service than they took out."

This explains the egocentric and idiosyncratic nature of political psychopaths and their insatiable appetite for murder, plunder and torture we see in many rulers and their acolytes..

Kevin Barrett in Twilight of the Psychopaths describes these anti-social characters as people who:

• Use lies and brainwashing to create an army of controlled, systematic mass murderers;
• Use that army to enslave large numbers of people by seizing control of their labour and its fruits;
• And use that slave labour power to improve the brainwashing process (by using the economic surplus to employ scribes, priests and PR men). Then go back and repeat the process.

Psychopaths, according to the Wikipedia, "lack a sense of guilt or remorse for any harm they may have caused others, instead rationalising the behaviour, blaming someone else, or denying it outright".

They are masters at denial.

The most painful thing above all is that such people do not only live among us, but most of them constitute the greatest number of the ruling elite in the world.

We are in for a torrid time. 

The Globalist Imperial Network, As Explained by a Globalist

Activist Post

Bangkok, Thailand July 30, 2011 - The mechanics of world empire, in particular the current corporate-financier oligarchy has been examined in great detail. The US State Department, supporting NGOs funded directly by both US taxpayers' money as well as funds from the Fortune 500 corporations they serve, alone constitute a global-spanning, incessantly meddling homogeneous network working to undermine both personal and national sovereignty while replacing national governments around the world.

Photo: Globalist warmongering degenerate Anne-Marie Slaughter makes her rounds at the Fortune 500-funded Chatham House. She is the author of the book "A New World Order" and believes foreign policy should be shifted into the unelected, unaccountable hands of corporations, foundations, and NGOs.

This is far from a conspiracy theory - it is stated fact admitted to by the US State Department itself who regularly announces its funding of subversive activities around the globe from training, equipping, and funding hordes of youth activists years before the "Arab Spring" unfolded, to helping dupes in China circumvent national cyber defenses, to forming brigades of youth fodder to take to the streets in Belarus and Malaysia, to propping up pro-globalist propaganda outlets like Prachatai in Thailand.

Perhaps sensing that the secrecy and public ignorance the global elite have been operating behind for decades is now fading, globalist footstool and degenerate warmonger Anne-Marie Slaughter has written a sweeping essay openly admitting "foreign policy" is moving beyond governments and being put into the hands of unelected organizations, corporations, NGOs, and "social movements." By social movements, Slaughter cites and apparently is referring to the "Arab Spring" which is on record the result of US meddling and organizing, and nothing close to resembling true grassroots activism. It is merely the latest trick out of the social engineering, human exploitation, propagandist playbook.

Slaughter's admissions should send shivers down the spines of anyone who believes in
a constitutional representative government, personal and national sovereignty, and freedom in general - for the world Slaughter proposes is one run by unaccountable, self-appointed arbiters, the likes of which have been covered ad nauseum within these pages. Self-serving hypocrisy has already rendered contrived institutions like the International Criminal Court illegitimate, as it turns its head at documented war crimes committed by Libyan rebels while pursuing in earnest cases against Libya's Qaddafi based on evidence not even collected within the nation itself.

As we peel back the layers of Slaughter's vision of the "new foreign policy frontier," we see nearly every institution, organization, NGO, or consortium mentioned lined with Fortune 500 corporate sponsors and representatives pursing an agenda of global economic and military hegemony. No one would suggest that manipulating people on a massive scale, leveraging legitimate ideals such as democracy, human rights, or freedom to further a corporate-financier oligarchy's agenda constitutes anything progressive, nonetheless, Slaughter seems to believe this is not only the future of foreign policy, but an appropriate future at that.



Image: The cover of globalist, degenerate warmonger Anne-Marie Slaughter's book "A New World Order." Slaughter believes the future belongs to "global networks" which upon closer examination are all chaired, funded, and directed by the Fortune 500.  ....
It should be noted that Slaughter has sat upon the boards of Fortune 500 corporations McDonald's and Citigroup as well as a Council on Foreign Relations board member. She is the author of a book literally titled, "A New World Order" whose catch line is "Global governance is here." In it she argues that such governance is done through "a complex global web of government networks." Upon examination it is obvious to anyone who looks into these "networks" that they represent the Fortune 500, answer to no one, and apply the rule of law as an arbitrary reflection of their self-serving interests subject to change upon a political whim. Despite Slaughter's enthusiasm for a "New World Order," in reality it is the recipe for a corporate fascist planetary regime and constitutes the greatest threat to humanity.

The New Foreign Policy Frontier

Slaughter begins a recent Atlantic article titled "The New Foreign Policy Frontier" by citing "corporations, foundations, NGOs, universities, think tanks, churches, civic groups, political activists, Facebook groups, and others" as the new frontier of foreign policy. She then goes on to state that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton "insists that 21st century diplomacy must not only be government to government, but also government to society and society to society, in a process facilitated and legitimated by government." Slaughter continues by saying, "that much broader concept opens the door to a do-it-yourself foreign policy, in which individuals and groups can invent and execute an idea -- for good or ill -- that can affect their own and other countries in ways that once only governments could."

And it is through this door Slaughter describes that "groups," or more specifically corporations, along with their myriad of contrived, disingenuous NGOs, foundations, "charities," and media outfits go about circumventing both domestic and foreign national laws as well as the will of people across the planet to execute their agenda, including free trade and wars of aggression.

Slaughter mentions a myriad of these corporate-funded entities including the Council on Foreign Relations, Google Ideas, US State Department's Movements.org, and the corporate-funded Personal Democracy Forum. She also mentions Jared Cohen, utterly unfazed by the monumental conflict of interest represented by his revolving in and out of the US State Department, Fortune 500 corporations like Google, and fringe organizations like Movements.org that criminally combine corporate agendas with US taxpayers' money to meddle in the sovereign affairs of foreign nations. While Slaughter maintains that these unelected corporate funded organizations are more efficient than governments, she fails to highlight that they are unelected and unaccountable. She also fails to mention what motivates corporations to expend resources on circumventing elected governments to pursue "society to society" efforts.

Slaughter goes on to use the "Arab Spring" as proof positive the new foreign policy paradigm is effective. She mentions her two days spent at the corporate-funded Personal Democracy Forum, which included bloggers and organizers from the contrived "Arab Spring." She notes that other participants included "government officials, corporate executives, and the civic sector." She claims the six months of unrest in the streets as a result of this "new foreign policy" has accomplished more than 30 years of traditional "foreign policy."

Why do corporations like Google, Pepsi, British Petroleum, Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Exxon, Bank of America, and Goldman Sachs care about "democracy" in the Middle East? Slaughter never seems to get around to answering this question. A thorough examination of the "Arab Spring," its sponsorship, and the resulting mayhem and wall-to-wall exploitation being attempted clears up any doubt as to the summation of Slaughter's acclaimed "New World Order." It is a parasitic modern day empire spreading its influence, consolidating its power, and deposing all competition to its existence. It is the logical progression of the British Empire and American "Manifest Destiny" combined in a modern day transatlantic, corporate-financier oligarchy.

Arab Spring: New Foreign Policy/Neo-Imperialism in Action

Slaughter's legitimacy stumbles not only because she is a degenerate warmongering corporate fascist who has spent a lifetime in the service of a global corporate-financier oligarchy, it stumbles also because of her poor choice of examples used to sell her concept of "global governance." She believes that "Build Local, Go Global and Change the World" represents the new 21st century activist mantra - however when foreign money representing nefarious corporate agendas are doing the building locally, using their vast media empire to spread it globally and "change the world" it would be difficult to label it as an "activist mantra." It more clearly resembles an imperialist mantra of using duped activists.

Take for example the Egyptian April 6 Movement. It was in New York City as early as 2008 receiving training and an opportunity to "network" at the US State Department sponsored Alliance for Youth Movements (AYM) summit. In 2009, the April 6 Movement then attended training at the US-created CANVAS organization in Serbia before returning to Egypt to partake in the year-long run up to the revolution led by International Crisis Group trustee Mohamed ElBaradei and his "National Front for Change." In fact, April 6 Movement members attempted to welcome ElBaradei when he first returned to Egypt back in February, 2010, almost a full year before the "Arab Spring" would even begin.

Image: Alliance for Youth Movements boasts major corporate support, as well as a partnership with the US State Department. The organization was contrived solely to foment unrest throughout target nations.

The US State Department backed by Fortune 500 corporations literally held the Egyptian opposition's hand for years walking them through their "revolution." With an overt US stooge, Mohamed ElBaradei leading them and still to this day attempting to worm his way into Egypt's presidency, the victory is neither the "Egyptian people's" nor "democracy's," but rather the victory of corporations and their interests within the strategically located, 80 million strong nation. Nothing could be more damning of the Egyptian revolution and its final results than the victory lap John McCain, chairman of the International Republican Institute cited by the New York Times as being instrumental in executing the "Arab Spring," conducted with Fortune 500 industry magnates at his side. The June 2010 trip served as an opportunity for these corporate interests, the chief sponsors behind the training and organizing of ElBaradei's army of dupes, to size up assets they soon hope to roll into their financial empires as well as to promote "private sector growth."

This is surely not what the Egyptian youth had in mind - surely it is not in their best interest to be exposed to the parasitic corporate fascists currently bankrupting every nation from North America to Europe. However their ignorance, short-sightedness, and immense naivety allowed this nefarious global network to manipulate and mislead them, their nation, their entire future into the shackles of modern day imperialism.

Conclusion

This nefarious global network is precisely what Slaughter is promoting in her writings, constituting what she admittedly calls a "New World Order" for enabling global governance. For those that take the time to examine who is behind the "NGOs, universities, think tanks, churches, civic groups, political activists, Facebook groups" Slaughter refers to, they will find corporations like Exxon, Dyncorp, Goldman Sachs, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, Rothschild, Halliburton, Bechtel, BP, and many others.

Could anyone seriously accept corporations that are responsible for the worst chapters in modern human history as the architects of a system of global governance and ultimately our future? With the power and wealth they wield, how would they be held accountable? They have the ability to literally buy politicians on both sides of every election from one side of the planet to the other with bottom-lines that eclipse many national GDPs - they do so in a process that is streamlined with the creation of supranational entities like the European Union, North American Union, ASEAN and others. Already the EU is proclaiming dictates each member state is beholden to, with supranational law superseding national and local laws.

It is a bleak future indeed, one where true freedom is replaced with the mere illusion of it. Pragmatism and self-reliance is replaced with trips to the ballot box to pick from a variety of bought-off, ineffectual, self-serving crooks serving a degenerate global oligarchy.

Policy is already being produced not by the people but by corporate-funded think-tanks that then market it to the public through their control of the mainstream media. Their system is refined down to a science - their system is now merely being replicated, nation to nation. The solution to this problem is obvious. If the power truly lies with these corporations, the very foundation upon which Slaughter's "New World Order" rests, undermining these corporations through full-spectrum boycotts and the systematic replacement of their goods and services on a local level shifts that power back into the people's hands - pragmatically, not politically. It is a solution as elegant as it is simple, and one that is impossible to commandeer as the globalists have done with so many attempted political solutions in the past.

There is no doubt now, with daily affirmations coming from the global elite themselves that their "New World Order" is coming. There is no doubt, as exemplified in Libya, that they are willing to murder on vast scales to eliminate any obstruction to their designs. There is no doubt, after the corporate-financiers have just helped themselves to trillions of taxpayer dollars to cover their collapsing pyramid schemes that they are far from the progressive "international order" they claim to represent. There is no doubt that now is the time to act. There is absolutely no justification for buying another Pepsi, Coke, Big Mac, or Starbucks and further empowering this modern day empire. What we have been taught are the features of a civilized society are in fact the padded, gilded shackles of our enslavement. There is absolutely nothing the global corporatocracy can do that people can't do better locally. The only barrier is ambition, education, and a shift in our collective paradigm to see ourselves, not some elected savior, as the ultimate solution to our problems.

The fulfillment of Slaughter's depraved vision of the future rests entirely in our hands. It will be determined day by day, depending on how we choose to spend our resources, time, attention, and energy. The simple decision to buy or produce locally rather than patronize Wal-Mart, Starbucks, or any number of other globalist consumer feeding troughs as an individual may seem futile, but a shift in our collective actions and paradigm will undoubtedly derail this ignoble future that awaits us.

For more on the illegitimate parasites that constitute the "international community" and how to remove them, please read the follow:

Globalists' Australian Nexus
Big Oil's Tree Huggers: Harvard's Belfer Center
Naming Names: Your Real Government
Wisdom from the Orient: Self-Sufficiency
Self-Sufficiency: A Universal Solution to the Globalist Problem

Tony Cartalucci's articles have appeared on many alternative media websites, including his own at 
Land Destroyer Report.   

Tell Gov to ban Nanoparticles in food and pesticides

Food Freedom

Nanoparticles cross the blood-brain barrier, posing a significant threat to human DNA and that of other life forms. Currently, the US Food and Drug Administration and the US Environmental Protection Agency allow nanoparticles in pesticides and in the food supply, with no regulation whatsoever.

Tell the federal government to ban these particles under the precautionary principle until they are proven safe: http://www.regulations.gov/#!submitComment;D=EPA-HQ-OPP-2010-0197-0031

NanoAction advises, “Nanotechnology is a powerful new platform technology for taking apart and reconstructing nature at the atomic and molecular level. Just as the size and chemical characteristics of manufactured nanoparticles can give them unique properties, those same new properties–tiny size, vastly increased surface area to volume ratio, high reactivity–can also create unique and unpredictable human health and environmental risks.”[...]

Crop Circle Wiltshire (July 29, 2011)

 CROP CIRCLE Wiltshire. Reported 29th July West Woodhay Down, Nr Inkpen (HD) 

 

US debt: 'Satan sandwich' bill passed to Senate

Prelude to the meltdown...
----------------
Telegraph

As the House of Representatives passed a last minute bill to raise the US borrowing limit while cutting spending by $2.4 trillion, Left-wingers felt betrayed by the White House, saying the price paid to win Republican support had been much too high.  The legislation is due to be approved by the Senate on Tuesday, just hours before the US was due default on its obligations for the first time in its history. It was approved by 269 votes to 161 votes as both discontented liberals and Tea Party Republicans who wanted even more spending cuts voted against. 

Representative Emanuel Cleaver, a Missouri Democrat, said: "This deal is a sugar-coated Satan sandwich. If you lift the bun, you will not like what you see." Another, Cedric Richmond from New Orleans, said he feared it would have a "devastating impact" on working and middle class families, whom he said would bear the brunt of the cuts. The agreement reached by the White House and party leaders in the House and Senate during tense talks over the weekend will allow Mr Obama to borrow the same amount, $2.4 trillion, to allow the government to meet its debt obligations into 2013. But it came with considerable strings attached to cut the ballooning $14.3 trillion national debt. About $1 trillion will be cut immediately from government spending, with a further $1.4 trillion to be agreed by the end of the year.  

Liberals who once lionized Mr Obama were enraged that the White House failed to twist Republicans' arms in Congress and include revenue increases in the deal, through closing tax loopholes for oil companies and removing various tax deductions that benefit the wealthy. The savings are made up entirely of spending cuts, though conservatives have had to swallow unwanted savings on the military. The left-leaning grassroots organisation MoveOn described the deal as "grotesquely immoral". "Our members are wondering, 'What in God's name is going on in D.C.?'" said Justin Ruben, executive director of the group, which claims five million members. "The country needs jobs, and Washington is debating what vital programme needs to be cut."" Michael Tomasky, a leading liberal commentator, wrote: "This is the lowest moment of Obama's presidency." 

While George W Bush wrecked the country "through rank incompetence", Mr Obama "is simply handing the Republicans the keys to the house and saying 'take what you want'," he said in the Daily Beast. 

 In the New Republic, Jonathan Chait said: "There's a limit to how much faith one can place in a man who has so badly misjudged his political opponents time and time again." Robert Borosage, co-director of the Campaign for American Future, a liberal think tank, accused Mr Obama of yielding to "the Tea Party terrorists - the extremist faction willing to hold the economy hostage to get their way". The cuts would not improve the slow recovery, which would in turn affect Mr Obama's prospects of a second term, he claimed.

Figures revealed yesterday showed that US manufacturing grew at its slowest pace in two years in July as new orders contracted. "I think he is in increasing danger. The whole argument against him that he has been there four years and there are no jobs, that he has failed, will be an increasingly strong argument," said Mr Borosage. Without a major push to create jobs, the alliance of young voters, African Americans , Latinos and single women that elected Mr Obama in 2008 may well not turn out to vote next time, he added. 

"Right now, his base is all he has left from 2008. The independents and working-class Democrats have begun to flee," said Ed Morrissey on the Hot Air blog. "This deal won't bring those voters back, and his source of organization and funding may largely give up on him." 

The White House defended the deal, saying it was "not the case that Democrats "got nothing".

"We think the president's leadership has been essential to this process," said Jay Carney, the White House press secretary. 

Bury Data, Kill Japan

Urban Survival

While the US MainStreamMedia continues sleeping through the aftereffects of the Fukushima disaster, if you click over to this YouTube video, just out, and hit the 'closed caption' button, you'll soon learn that what the MSM corpmedia is burying is that the Japan mess has about the same radiation release as 20 Hiroshima-sized bombs and that whereas radiation from a bomb drops to 1/1000th of initial levels in one year, the radiation from the power plan disaster will only decrease to 1/10th in a year.

 

So when we say we're Fuk'ed, we're not just talking about the power plants, we're talking the corporate-controlled media which is hiding the grim & ugly dirty secret about long term radiation impacts.

 

'Course if we're all dead anyway, I don't suppose it matters... [...]

The US-Al Qaeda Alliance: Bosnia, Kosovo and Now Libya. Washington’s On-Going Collusion with Terrorists

Global Research

[...] The pattern of U.S. collaboration with Muslim fundamentalists against more secular enemies is not new. It dates back to at least 1953, when the CIA recruited right-wing mullahs to overthrow Prime Minister Mossadeq in Iran, and also began to cooperate with the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood.3 But in Libya in 2011 we see a more complex marriage of convenience between US and al-Qaeda elements: one which repeats a pattern seen in Bosnia in 1992-95, and Kosovo in 1997-98. In those countries America responded to a local conflict in the name of a humanitarian intervention to restrain the side committing atrocities. But in all three cases both sides committed atrocities, and American intervention in fact favored the side allied with al-Qaeda.

The cause of intervention was fostered in all three cases by blatant manipulation and falsification of the facts. What a historian has noted of the Bosnian conflict was true also of Kosovo and is being echoed today in Libya: though attacks were “perpetrated by Serbs and Muslims alike,” the pattern in western media was “that killings of Muslims were newsworthy, while the deaths of non-Muslims were not.”4 Reports of mass rapes in the thousands proved to be wildly exaggerated: a French journalist “uncovered only four women willing to back up the story.”5 Meanwhile in 1994 the French intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy (BHL) traveled to Bosnia and fervently endorsed the case for intervention in Bosnia; in 2011 February BHL traveled to Benghazi and reprised his interventionist role for Libya.6 [...]

The Truth About The Debt Deal: It’s Pretty Much Meaningless

What a "joke". The US is heading for much more than a "default."

--------------

Business Insider

The “historic, bipartisan compromise” reached to raise the debt limit does not end the struggle to reign in the federal deficit — in fact, it pushes the most difficult decisions off into the future. More surprising, the debt deal actually cuts almost nothing now–it just promises future cuts that may or may not materialize.

There are very few specific cuts in the deal — and the $1 trillion in immediate cuts are almost entirely constituted of caps on future spending. And those caps are not required to be honored by future congresses.

The “real” spending cuts to current programs will come out of a bipartisan committee of Representatives and Senators, which is charged with finding an additional $1.5 trillion in savings from the federal deficit.But White House and Republican leaders appear split on exactly what the so-called “Super Committee” can do.

In a presentation to his caucus, Speaker of the House John Boehner said it would “be effectively…impossible for [the] Joint Committee to increase taxes,” even though it could consider reforming the tax code. [...]

Today's mind-controlled, mind-reading technologies

Network World

It sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but for the past few years, researchers have tapped into brain waves to control everything from video games to wheelchairs. They are beginning to use computers to decipher our thoughts, too.

I received an e-mail yesterday from a reader named Brad asking me for more details on an item listed in my recent story 10 technologies that will change the world in the next 10 years.

The story listed the most important items that Cisco chief futurist Dave Evans predicts will impact us in the decade to come. Brad was interested in item No. 9 which I called “Yes, there’s a cure for that” The story said, “Today we have mind-controlled video games and wheelchairs, software by Intel that can scan the brain and tell what you are thinking and tools that can actually predict what you are going to do before you do it.”

[...] I’ve written about mind-controlled software and games a little bit. It’s based on a technology called electroencephalogram (EEG) and the most well known commercial producer of a headset that uses EEG is a company called Emotive. [...]

Tepco Says Highest Radiation Yet Is Detected at Fukushima Dai-Ichi

Bloomberg

Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, said it detected the highest radiation to date at the site. 

Geiger counters, used to detect radioactivity, registered more than 10 sieverts an hour, the highest reading the devices are able to record, Junichi Matsumoto, a general manager at the utility, said today. The measurements were taken at the base of the main ventilation stack for reactors No. 1 and No. 2. [...]

Israel suffers summer of economic discontent

BBC News

It is hot on August afternoons in Tel Aviv and even beneath the shade of the trees that line the elegant Boulevard Rothschild the air is sultry and still. But something is stirring in the summer heat. 

A tented village of protest now stretches up the narrow strip of land than runs between the two lines of traffic on the busy street. 

There are angry placards denouncing the government and complaining about the price of housing, of student life and of the most basic foods. 

The atmosphere is Tahrir Square protests meets Woodstock, meets last-year's-camping holiday in the South of France. 

A young man looks up from a group conducting a sing-song led by a bare-chested protestor playing a lyrical folksong on the balalaika. 

"Welcome to the Revolution," he shouts. [...]

10 Things we can ALL do to fight the Global Power Elite

Adrian Salbuchi

Adrian Salbuchi, Founder of the Second Republic Project describes ten things that we can all do to fight the Global Power Elite and invites all free-thinking people to join the growing Second Republic Project.

Follow the Money

xymphora

Raimondo makes the following two points:

1. Where did Breivik's money come from?
2. What the hell was Pamela Geller doing when she aided the mystery poster from Norway, who threatened terrorism, and who sure sounds like Breivik, in hiding his identity?  By the way, Raimondo writes 'Swedish' when he must mean 'Norwegian'.

Curiously, Breivik was almost immediately described in the media as a self-made millionaire (buying into Breivik's own explanation without question), explaining the problem of his not having sufficient legitimate funds to pay for the terrorism, and allowing the usual 'lone nut' story to stand. This explanation was a lie. Was it spread by the media as part of a conspiracy, or was it just the usual incompetence?  Who provided the money?

It appears that Breivik was led on his way by, and probably financed by, that mysterious group that met in London in 2002.  He would have been one of a number of 'sleepers' whose legend was prepared for when they were needed (they would also have set up the complicated legal structure to hide the source of financing). That is what authorities should be looking at (but of course won't, as they tend to shy away from real power).

Once you get over the 'lone nut' lie, anybody could have been using Breivik to accomplish their wicked ends.  That's when we start to look at motive, and ask the very reasonable question of which group which tends to use covert means and false flag attacks had a big motive to send a violent message to the Norwegian political class at this time. 

Taser Death Lawsuit Results in $10M Award

aboutlawsuits.com

A North Carolina jury has awarded $10 million in a wrongful death lawsuit against Taser International, Inc., which was filed by the family of a teen who died after being shocked with a Taser stun gun.  

The complaint was brought by Devoid Turner and Tammy Lou Fontenot, the parents of Darryl Turner, who was 17 when he died in a supermarket in Charlotte after being shot in the chest by a Taser Model X26 electronic control device on March 20, 2008. 

According to the Taser death lawsuit, the manufacturer was negligent in failing to warn law enforcement that shooting their stun gun weapons into the chest of a subject could cause cardiac arrest.

Following trial in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, a federal jury awarded $10 million in damages. [...]

'Future is up to us': Israel protest gathers 150,000

RT

Thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets in seven cities across Israel, and their social slogans are rapidly being replaced by the calls for the government to step down. The biggest rally is underway in Tel Aviv with around 150,000 people having gathered at the "Tahrir Square of Israel." Police have arrested several activists who were blocking roads in the centre of Tel Aviv, calling for Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu to quit over government policies.

Experts Baffled by Mysterious Underground Chambers

Der Spiegel

 

Beate Greithanner, a dairy farmer, is barefoot as she walks up the lush meadows of the Doblberg, a mountain in Bavaria set against a backdrop of snow-capped Alpine peaks. She stops and points to a hole in the ground. "This is where the cow was grazing," she says. 

"Suddenly she fell in, up to her hips."

A crater had opened up beneath the unfortunate cow.

On the day after the bovine mishap, Greithanner's husband Rudi examined the hole. He was curious, so he poked his head inside and craned his neck to peer into the darkness. Could it be a hiding place for some sort of treasure, he wondered? As he climbed into the hole to investigate, it turned out to be a narrow, damp tunnel that led diagonally into the earth, like the bowels of some giant dinosaur.

Suddenly the farmer could no longer hear anything from above. He panicked when he realized that it was getting difficult to breathe the stifling air -- and quickly ended his brief exploration.

The Greithanners, from the town of Glonn near Munich, are the owners of a strange subterranean landmark. A labyrinth of vaults known as an "Erdstall" runs underneath their property. It is at least 25 meters (82 feet) long and likely stems from the Middle Ages. Some believe that it was built as a dwelling for helpful goblins.

The geologists and land surveyors who appeared on Greithanner's property at the end of June were determined to get to the bottom of the mystery. Three members of a group called the "Working Group for Erdstall Research," wearing red protective suits and helmets, dragged the heavy concrete plate away from the entrance and disappeared into the depths.

Their leader, Dieter Ahlborn, began by crawling through a passageway only about 70 centimeters (2 foot 3 inches) high. His colleague Andreas Mittermüller had to return to the surface when the lack of oxygen in the tunnel gave him a headache. Ahlborn continued crawling into the space until his lamp revealed a decayed piece of wood.

He picked it up as if it were a precious stone, knowing that it could offer an important clue about the age of the manmade cave.

Meanwhile, in the meadow above, a group from the State Office of Historic Preservation in Munich had marked off the site with colored tape. Then they rolled a three-wheeled cart equipped with ground-penetrating radar across the grass. "The gallery has collapsed at the back," one member of the group explains. "We're figuring out its actual size."

The exploration of the site is a pioneering activity, marking the first time an archeological agency in Germany is showing an interest in an extremely unusual ancient phenomenon. Similar small underground labyrinths have been found across Europe, from Hungary to Spain, but no one knows why they were built. [...]

Ten Years Ago Portugal Legalized All Drugs -- What Happened Next?

Alternet

The government in Portugal has no plans to back down. Although the Netherlands is the European country most associated with liberal drug laws, it has already been ten years since Portugal became the first European nation to take the brave step of decriminalizing possession of all drugs within its borders - from marijuana to heroin, and everything in between. This controversial move went into effect in June of 2001, in response to the country's spiraling HIV/AIDS statistics. While many critics in the poor and largely conservative country attacked the sea change in drug policy, fearing it would lead to drug tourism while simultaneously worsening the country's already shockingly high rate of hard drug use, a report published in 2009 by the Cato Institute tells a different story. Glenn Greenwald, the attorney and author who conducted the research, told Time: "Judging by every metric, drug decriminalization in Portugal has been a resounding success. It has enabled the Portuguese government to manage and control the drug problem far better than virtually every other Western country."

Back in 2001, Portugal had the highest rate of HIV among injecting drug users in the European Union - an incredible 2,000 new cases a year, in a country with a population of just 10 million. Despite the predictable controversy the move stirred up at home and abroad, the Portuguese government felt there was no other way they could effectively quell this ballooning problem. While here in the U.S. calls for full drug decriminalization are still dismissed as something of a fringe concern, the Portuguese decided to do it, and have been quietly getting on with it now for a decade. Surprisingly, most credible reports appear to show that decriminalization has been a staggering success. [...]

Greece debt crisis: The 'we won't pay' anti-austerity revolt

Guardian

Among the chic bars along Thessaloniki's historic waterfront, one restaurant stands out. "We want our money!" reads a banner dangling from the terrace of an American-themed diner and grill. Inside, 12 staff have changed the locks, are serving cans of supermarket beer to supporters and taking it in turns to sleep nights on the restaurant floor in protest at months of unpaid wages and the restaurant's sudden closure. This is the new symbol of Greece's spiralling debt crisis: a waiters' squat.

Margarita Koutalaki, 37, a softly spoken waitress, divorced with an 11-year-old daughter, worked here part-time for eight years, earning about €6.50 (£5.70) an hour. Now she is taking turns to sleep on an inflatable mattress in an upstairs room, guarding the squat, while her parents babysit her child.

"I'm owed about €3,000 in unpaid wages," she says, warning her plight is shared by legions of workers all over Greece who are waiting for months for outstanding pay from struggling business owners. "At first we were told we'd be paid the following month, then the pay stopped completely and we were told by phone that the restaurant was closing. We're still working, we're keeping the place going, providing food and drinks to our supporters. We've got more clients than before. This protest is all we can do. It comes naturally." [...]

HSBC expected to shed 30,000 jobs in cost-cutting drive

Guardian

At least 30,000 jobs are expected to be axed at HSBC over three years as the UK's largest bank cuts costs in an effort to bolster returns to shareholders.

As he presents the first-half figures on Monday, HSBC's chief executive, Stuart Gulliver, is braced for questions about how many roles will be shed from the bank's 300,000-strong global workforce.

Even before the results were published, he tried to demonstrate that he was pressing ahead with his strategic goals announced in May by unveiling the sale on Sunday of 195 US branches, largely in upstate New York, to enable the bank to focus on commercial and retail banking.

The $1bn sale to First Niagara Bank, which has been growing through acquisitions of rivals, leaves HSBC with 265 branches in the US, mostly in New York. [...]

War on Libya planned to control strategic interests

All Africa

The invasion was planned. In the case of the US involvement, as far back as George Bush Junior's 'war on the axis of evil'. In the case of the French, active planning may have been since October 2010. The planning most likely included ensuring that weapons and forces were ready in Benghazi when the moment came. This is why the civil protest in Benghazi, which started in a similar manner as the Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings of unarmed civilians, turned into an armed rebellion in two days, and in less than a month, the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation)/French invasion had began. This incredible speed of events is far from spontaneous.

The air bombardments were initiated in the false expectation that once bombs started falling in Tripoli, Libyans in Tripoli would rise up against Gaddafi and in this murky situation the armed group would march in from Benghazi and take power. As time goes by, the strategy gets desperate. It has now become 'anything to kill or oust Gaddafi and his sons will do'. This is reminiscent of the 1960s when the same actors used not so dissimilar tactics to overthrow governments they didn't like. The plan failed, which is why four months into the carnage, Gaddafi still pops out of the hole he is hiding in to scream insults at his invaders.  [...]