‘Mind-boggling’ breast cancer therapy can make tumors ‘disappear’ in 11 days, doctors say

A radiologist examines breast X-rays after a regular cancer prevention medical check-up at a radiology center in Nice. © Eric Gaillard / Reuters

A new breast cancer cure has reportedly made tumors vanish in 11 days, with UK medics describing the results as “staggering” and “unprecedented.” Of those treated, 87 per cent responded to the cure, while 11 percent saw tumors disappear completely.

During the recent European Breast Cancer Conference in Amsterdam, the UK team of doctors recently announced the results of experiments conducted at 23 British hospitals.

The initial goal of using two existing drugs (Tyverb and Herceptin) together was to shrink tumors before patients’ operations, but to doctors’ surprise, when they returned to remove lumps up to 3cm just under a fortnight later, some of them had disappeared.

“It was only when the pathologists were scratching around in the lab saying, “Where is the tumor?” that it became apparent there was no tumor at all,” said Professor David Cameron, oncologist at Edinburgh University, as cited by British media.

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The treatment was then tested on 127 participants with the HER2-positive form of breast cancer, one of the most aggressive forms of the disease.

The women were split into three groups: the first group was administered the two drugs, while the other two groups respectively received Herceptin and no treatment at all.

Nine in 10 women responded to the cure, with 17 percent seeing the tumors shrink dramatically, while in 11 percent of participants the lumps just disappeared.

“A large chunk of evolution is not about suddenly finding a new drug, it is about finding a new way to use the drugs we already have… We have found a group of people who respond exquisitely well,” Professor Nigel Bundred, a cancer surgeon who led the experiment, said.

The team says this result may mean a revolution in breast cancer treatment.

“For solid tumors to disappear in 11 days is unheard of. These are mind-boggling results,” Professor Bundred said.

For a moment, scientists didn’t believe their eyes, and had to “run another trial to prove [the results] are generalizable,” he added.

It also became evident that not only were tumors vanishing, but also an immune response was developed.

An advantage of the new treatment is that the two drugs cost about £1,500 (about $2,100) for an 11-day course.

Cancer charities have hailed the new cure, and emphasized that the results are “amazing,” making it possible for cancer patients to “avoid chemotherapy and its grueling side effects completely.”

“For others, their tumors may not shrink, but doctors will know either way very quickly, giving them the ability to rapidly decide on further treatment,” said Samia al Qadhi, chief executive at Breast Cancer Care, adding that although this was only an early study, it has “game-changing potential.”

Her reaction was echoed by fellow cancer charity colleague, Professor Arnie Purushotham of Cancer Research UK, which financed the study.

“These results are very promising if they stand up in the long run and could be the starting step of finding a new way to treat HER2 positive breast cancers. This could mean some women can avoid chemotherapy after their surgery,” she said.

Source : https://www.rt.com/news/335228-breast-cancer-therapy-breakthrough/

Muslim Refugee Warns: This Is the “Islamic Conquest of the West”

Written by  Selwyn Duke

He’s a Muslim refugee living in Europe. And he has a warning:

Keep the Muslim “refugees” out of Europe.

He’s Dr. Mudar Zahran, a Jordanian Palestinian academic and a leader of the Jordanian Opposition Coalition who is currently living in the United Kingdom, where he sought political asylum. Describing himself as an “orthodox Muslim,” he nonetheless says there’s a “genuine problem with Muslims in Europe” and calls the current wave of migrants entering the continent “the soft Islamic conquest of the West.”

Dr. Zahran issued these and more dire warnings on a Thursday segment of The Glazov Gang (video below). Zahran’s basic message is that the West is being manipulated, fooled, and played for suckers by migrants who by and large are not what they appear.

Many of us have heard the stories. German schoolgirls being told to wear “modest Sharia-compliant clothing … to avoid offending the Muslims”; migrants turning their free housing into a garbage dump, attacking medical staff, becoming enraged at having to pay for prescriptions, suing the German government for not paying benefits fast enough; and German schoolchildren asked to make beds and cook for able-bodied migrants. Then there were the Muslims in Budapest and France chanting the jihadist cry Allahu Akbar, and migrants on the Greece/Macedonia border refusing food and water parcels because they had the Red Cross on them.

But Dr. Zahran has a bit more of the inside story. He told show host Jamie Glazov that while most Muslim migrants claim to be Syrian so they can get refugee status, what we’re witnessing is an “influx of all kinds of refugees from the Middle East.” He continued:

Seventy-five percent of those arriving from Syria come from safe area[s]; actually, the ones in disaster areas cannot … leave. So, actually, as much as there’s a disaster in Syria, most of those people arriving do in fact do not need the protection; they arrive from Turkey, they arrive from Jordan, they arrive from other places which are safe. In addition, those people are … bypassing poor European countries, they’re going to Turkey, Hungary, and other places like Bulgaria and settling in Germany, where there is a rich nation with a generous welfare system.

And Germany is right now on the front line. The Montana-sized nation expects 1.5 million Muslim migrants this year alone; this is 50 percent more than the total population of Montana. And these migrants will enter a land where churches are already being converted into mosques.

Dr. Zahran also warns that this “is only the beginning. We are looking at at least … another 20 to 30 million Muslim/Arab migrants during the next 3 to 5 years.…This is a big issue; this is going to change Europe’s culture.”

Yet there’s another big issue. If a nation admits one million Muslims and only one-tenth of one percent constitutes terrorists, that’s 1,000 violent jihadists. But Zahran says it isn’t hypothetical because, he states, “I can authoritively [sic] confirm — I have photos, I have images, I have pictures, I have names of terrorists who actually are already in Europe posting their photos in Europe on Facebook.”

And then there’s the face of Europe, which will be “affected deeply,” warns Zahran. He explained:

[W]e do have a genuine problem with Muslims in Europe … in most cases they don’t seem to fully integrate in the country. Not to mention the cases where there are people who want to turn Europe into a Muslim state in 30 or 40 or 50 years through producing children and depending on welfare through the children. In short, I think there is a very major problem to Europe’s identity…. What we see with many Muslims in Europe are people marching in London, Berlin, and elsewhere demanding Sharia law.

Note, recent polls show that even in the United States a majority of Muslims prefer Sharia law to American law, and 60 percent of Muslim Americans under age 30 say they’re more loyal to Islam than to our nation.

So Dr. Zahran seems to believe that the migrants represent a vanguard in what he calls “the soft Islamic conquest of the West.” He also says that in his opinion, half the Syrian male migrants “have actually held weapons and fought in the Syrian war.” And while they’re rough and ready to fulfill what he terms “the Islamic … dreams of fascism of some,” Europe is playing the doormat. What Muslims “couldn’t do in the last 20 years,” says Zahran, “now the West is doing for us for free — and even paying for it.” Moreover, Zahran had this shocking news about the “invasion”: “I have to be honest,” he said, “you read Arab magazines and Arab newspapers; they are talking about, ‘Good job! Now we’re going to conquest [sic] Europe.’ So it’s not even a secret.”

Of course, many Westerners welcome the Muslims in the name of “diversity,” but, interestingly, rich Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Dubai don’t welcome the “diversity” of their co-religionists. Why not? Because, according to Zahran, most “Muslim states … have zero history of human respect and human rights.”

The irony of the diversity argument, however, is that diversity doesn’t long exist where Islam takes hold, and much of Europe’s history involved defensive warfare to keep Muslims out. Note that Christianity was the dominant religion in the Mideast and North Africa until Muslim armies seized the territory after Islam’s birth in 622 A.D.; Muslims also occupied Spain for 650 years, once came within 125 miles of Paris, and twice reached the gates of Vienna.

Dr. Zahran blames this conversion-by-the-sword mentality on the influence of the Hadith, an Islamic canonical book written hundreds of years after Mohammed’s death; in fact, he frankly said that the Hadith is “basically ISIS.” Yet while 21 percent of the book is devoted to jihad, when Islam’s other two canonical volumes — the Koran and the Sira — are factored in, that figure rises to 31 percent. In contrast, as I wrote in February, “5.6 percent of the Old Testament and 0 percent of the New Testament are devoted to political violence. In terms of word count, this works out to 0 in the latter and 34,039 in the Hebrew Bible.” And the Islamic canon? It comes in at 327,547 — 9.6 times greater than the Old Testament. Moreover, as one expert put it, “The political violence of the Bible was for that particular historical time and place.… The political violence of the Koran is eternal and universal.”

In the face of this, Dr. Zahran has a politically incorrect prescription. He said to Glazov, “We need to send those people [the Muslim migrants] home. I’m not talking only about those yet to come; I’m talking about those who are already there [in Europe] — they can always be sent home.… I am completely against making this situation permanent.”

And that is the point. As I wrote in “The Refugee Scam,” “If a stranger in need happens by your area and you’re a charitable sort, you may take him in for a time, feed him and provide other basic necessities. You don’t generally make him an official part of your family and empower him to help decide on finances, what products to buy, how your kids will be educated and what values will prevail within your home.” The modern West operates on an unquestioned ahistorical supposition that refugee status must be conflated with citizenship. And with this standard, refugees can eventually turn the West into a place of no refuge at all.

Source : http://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/item/21772-muslim-refugee-warns-this-is-the-islamic-conquest-of-the-west

FBI: Hitler Didn’t Die, Fled To Argentina – Stunning Admission

The unbelievable truth is hidden in plain sight. Hitler fled to Argentina after World War 2, and all of the details are available to view on the FBI’s own website.

The FBI.gov website reveals the following:

And as if that news wasn’t bizarre enough, a photo has emerged recently which purports to show an elderly 95-year-old Hitler posing with his girlfriend in Brazil in 1984.

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Red Flag News reports:

Newly declassified FBI documents prove that the government knew Hitler was alive and well, and living in the Andes Mountains long after World War II.

On April 30 1945, Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his underground bunker. His body was later discovered and identified by the Soviets before being rushed back to Russia. Is it really possible that the Soviets have been lying all this time, and that history has purposely been rewritten?

No one thought so until the release of the FBI documents. It seems that it is possible that the most hated man in history escaped war torn Germany and lived a bucolic and peaceful life in the beautiful foothills of the Andes Mountains.

The Intelligence Community Knew.

Recently released FBI documents are beginning to show that not only was Hitler and Eva Braun’s suicide faked, the infamous pair might have had help from the director of the OSS himself, Allen Dulles.

In one FBI document from Los Angles, it is revealed that the agency was well aware of a mysterious submarine making its way up the Argentinian coast dropping off high level Nazi officials. What is even more astonishing is the fact that the FBI knew he was in fact living in the foothills of the Andes.

Who is the Mysterious Informant?

In a Los Angeles letter to the Bureau in August of 1945, an unidentified informant agreed to exchange information for political asylum. What he told agents was stunning.

The informant not only knew Hitler was in Argentina, he was one of the confirmed four men who had met the German submarine. Apparently, two submarines had landed on the Argentinian coast, and Hitler with Eva Braun was on board the second.

The Argentinian government not only welcomed the former German dictator, but also aided in his hiding. The informant went on to not only give detailed directions to the villages that Hitler and his party had passed through, but also credible physical details concerning Hitler.

While for obvious reasons the informant is never named in the FBI papers, he was credible enough to be believed by some agents.

The FBI Tried to Hide Hitler’s Whereabouts.

Even with a detailed physical description and directions the FBI still did not follow up on these new leads. Even with evidence placing the German sub U-530 on the Argentinian coast shortly before finally surrounding, and plenty of eye witness accounts of German official being dropped off, no one investigated.

Even More Evidence is Found:

Along with the FBI documents detailing an eye witness account of Hitler’s whereabouts in Argentina, more evidence is coming to light to help prove that Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun did not die in that bunker.

In 1945, the Naval Attaché in Buenos Aires informed Washington there was a high probability that Hitler and Eva Braun had just arrived in Argentina. This coincides with the sightings of the submarine U-530. Added proof comes in the form of newspaper articles detailing the construction of a Bavarian styled mansion in the foothills of the Andes Mountains.

Further proof comes in the form of architect Alejandro Bustillo who wrote about his design and construction of Hitler’s new home which was financed by earlier wealthy German immigrants.

Irrefutable Evidence that Hitler Escaped:

Perhaps the most damming evidence that Hitler did survive the fall of Germany lies in Russia. With the Soviet occupation of Germany, Hitler’s supposed remains were quickly hidden and sent off to Russia, never to be seen again. That is until 2009, when an archeologist from Connecticut State, Nicholas Bellatoni was allowed to perform DNA testing on one of the skull fragments recovered.

What he discovered set off a reaction through the intelligence and scholarly communities. Not only did the DNA not match any recorded samples thought to be Hitler’s, they did not match Eva Braun’s familiar DNA either. So the question is, what did the Soviets discover in the bunker, and where is Hitler?

Even former general and President Dwight D. Eisenhower wrote to Washington.

It was not only General Eisenhower who was concerned over Hitler’s compete disappearance, Stalin also expressed his concerns. In 1945, the Stars and Stripes newspaper quoted then General Eisenhower as believing that the real possibility existed of Hitler living safely and comfortably in Argentina.

Is it Possible?

With all of the new found evidence coming to light, it is possible and even likely that not only did Hitler escape from Germany; he had the help of the international intelligence community. Released FBI documents prove that they were not only aware of Hitler’s presence in Argentina; they were also helping to cover it up.

It would not be the first time the OSS helped a high ranking Nazi official to escape punishment and capture. Look at the story of Adolf Eichmann who was located in Argentina in the 1960’s.

Did Hitler escape to Argentina? The answer is yes.

Source:  http://yournewswire.com/fbi-hitler-didnt-die-fled-to-argentina-stunning-admission/

‘Palcohol,’ the Powdered Alcohol, Was Just Approved for Sale in the US

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By Kaleigh Rogers

America’s first powdered alcohol has been approved. Again.

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) has given the greenlight to Palcohol, a powdered alcohol that you mix with water to make, well, liquid alcohol. The TTB had already approved the product for sa​le last year but almost immediately backtracked on that decision, saying the approval had been “issued in error.”

TTB spokesperson Tom Hogue today said the approval is only based on whether or not the label on the product matches what’s actually inside, accord​ing to the Associated Press. Palcohol sorted out the labelling issues since last year and so four flavors of Palcohol are now approved for legal sale.

“Potential for abuse isn’t grounds for us to deny a label,” Hogue told the AP.

And since alcohol is legal, there was no other reason for the agency to deny the approval.

Palcohol’s inventor, Mark Phillips, wrote on the company​ blog that he hopes the product will be available as early as this summer.

However, states can choose to outlaw powdered alcohol, and some are working to do so before the product even hits the shelves. Alaska, Delaware, Michigan, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Vermont have already banned powdered alcohol, accor​ding to the National Conference of State Legislatures, and Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, and Ohio have considered it.

The main concerns are around the safety of the product. Will peo​ple snort it? Will it be easier to spike drinks or for kids to get their hands on?

But Phillips refutes all of the worries and has said he believes Palcohol is actually safer than liquid alcohol. He doubts anyone would snort it, at least not more than once.

“It’s painful to snort due to the alcohol,” Phillips wrote on the company blog. “Second, it’s impractical. It takes approximately 60 minutes to snort the equivalent of one shot of vodka. Why would anyone do that when they can do a shot of liquid vodka in two seconds?”

As for sneaking it in, he says the large packaging is no easier to sneak into an event than a small bottle of booze and besides, “Alcohol in any format is subject to abuse if someone is determined to do so,” he says, which is pretty true.

Spiking a drink, while a pretty easy feat with liquid alcohol, would actually not work too well with Palcohol since you need to shake or stir the powder for a good minute before it dissolves, Phillips says.

The Kool-Aid like flavored powders might be appealing to kids and teens, but Phillips argues that it is no easier to access than regular alcohol since it will be sold and regulated in the same way. And powdered alcohols are already on the market in Europe without any real panic.

Still, state legislatures seem set on not even giving Palcohol a chance to fail and the race is on for Phillips to get the product on the market before lawmakers outlaw it. He envisions lots of potential uses for his powdered alcohol, from partying to using it to make easily-transportable medical antiseptics—Phillips says he’s had medical personnel touch base about the need for lightweight antiseptic in remote locations where it’s hard to transport supplies.

But if local legislators have their way, the party will be over before it even begins.

 

Source:  http://motherboard.vice.com/read/did-somebody-say-powderita

Six countries where Americans can study at universities, in English, for free (or almost free)

By  eisegesis at ATS.

Considering how little I gave a crap about school and my choice to follow a “higher” education, if you catch my drift, I managed to pass through as an A/B student. College seemed like the obvious next step in securing my future and possibly raising a family.

Fast forward thirteen years and here I am still, no college diploma. I have seen friends of mine go through the grind and pursue what they thought was a sure thing only to be left with massive debt and nothing to show for it. Ironically, I make more than many of them. Hard work, the willingness to learn and a good attitude has been my secret to success.

But what if college was free here in America? Surely, if we weren’t spending $337 million per day on fruitless endeavors as pointed out by another poster on this site, we could easily fund the entire American school system. In fact, all it would take is less than seventy billion dollars a year!

Here’s Exactly How Much the Government Would Have to Spend to Make Public College Tuition-Free

Instead, the increase in costs to operate our colleges and universities has been repeatedly shifted onto those seeking to further their education as tuition fees have surged over 500% since 1985.

Our education has devolved into another parallel system of rich entrepreneurs and a slave class who could barely afford to work underneath them. Public schools fund nearly 75% of undergrads and those remaining 25% will be your future masters.

The conspiracy is why we all aren’t given a fair opportunity to become something more. Those in power would never swim in a pond with all the same size fish. They would eventually starve and succumb to the same cold plate of food the rest of us Americans have a hard time swallowing. There would be greater competition and less domination, overall producing a better product and societal outcome.

Let’s take a look at the surprising and very cheap alternatives there are to pricey American college degrees. Below are seven countries that offer American courses for little or no cost at all. As a note, relocating and trying to keep your sanity in a foreign land does have it’s difficulties. Where there is will, there is a way.

Germany

Germany’s higher education landscape primarily consists of internationally well-ranked public universities, some of which receive special funding because the government deems them “excellent institutions.” What’s more, Americans can earn a German undergraduate or graduate degree without speaking a word of German and without having to pay a single dollar of tuition fees: About 900 undergraduate or graduate degrees are offered exclusively in English, with courses ranging from engineering to social sciences. For some German degrees, you don’t even have to formally apply.

Finland

This northern European country charges no tuition fees, and it offers a large number of university programs in English. However, the Finnish government amiably reminds interested foreigners that they “are expected to independently cover all everyday living expenses.” In other words: Finland will finance your education, but not your afternoon coffee break.

France

There are at least 76 English-language undergraduate programs in France, but many are offered by private universities and are expensive. Many more graduate-level courses, however, are designed for English-speaking students, and one out of every three French doctoral degrees is awarded to a foreign student.

“It is no longer needed to be fluent in French to study in France,” according to the government agency Campus France. The website studyportals.eu provides a comprehensive list of the available courses in France and other European countries.

Public university programs charge only a small tuition fee of about 200 dollars for most programs. Other, more elite institutions have adopted a model that requires students to pay fees that are based on the income of their parents. Children of unemployed parents can study for free, while more privileged families have to pay more. This rule is only valid for citizens of the European Union, but even the maximum fees (about $14,000 per year) are often much lower than U.S. tuition fees. Some universities, such as Sciences Po Paris, offer dual degrees with U.S. colleges

Sweden

This Scandinavian country is among the world’s wealthiest, and its beautiful landscape beckons. It also offers some of the world’s most cost-efficient college degrees. More than 900 listed programs in 35 universities are taught in English. However, only Ph.D programs are tuition-free.

Norway

Norwegian universities do not charge tuition fees for international students. The Norwegian higher education system is similar to the one in the United States: Class sizes are small and professors are easily approachable. Many Norwegian universities offer programs taught in English. American students, for example, could choose “Advanced Studies for Solo Instrumentalists or Chamber Music Ensembles” or “Development Geography.”

But don’t expect to save money in Norway, which has one of the world’s highest costs of living for expats. And be careful where you decide to study. “Winters in general are quite different in different parts of the country, with the north having hard, arctic winters, and the southwest mostly having mild, wet average European winters,” the Norwegian Center for International Cooperation in Education notes.

Slovenia

About 150 English programs are available, and foreign nationals only pay an insignificant registration fee when they enroll. Slovenia borders Italy and Croatia, among Europe’s most popular vacation destinations. However, Times Higher Education, a weekly magazine based in London, did not list one Slovenian university in its recent World University Ranking.

SOURCE:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/10/29/7-countries-where-americans-can-study-at-universities-in-english-for-free-or-almost-free/

Japan Releases Plans For Futuristic Underwater Cities By 2030

 

December 1, 2014 – Do you think it’s possible for people to live in underwater cities? Although it may sound like an idea for a sequel to Christopher Nolan’s hit sci-fi film Interstellar, a Japanese construction firm says it could be a reality by 2030.

The Japanese construction company Shimizu Corpannounced a $25-$26 billion underwater eco-city plan called “Ocean Spiral” of 5,000 people that draws its energy from the seabed thousands of metres below.

Shimizu Corp revealed a blueprint for the city of the future in Tokyo last week, claiming that Ocean Spiral will “capitaliseon the infinite possibilities of the deep sea” to accommodate human life, as rising sea levels endanger the survival of island communities.

The blueprint shows a vast research and residential station some 10 miles in length that begins just below the sea’s surface and burrows beneath the ocean floor.

The Shimizu spokesman Hideo Imamura told the Guardian:

“This is a real goal, not a pipe dream. The Astro Boy cartoon character had a mobile phone long before they were actually invented – in the same way, the technology and knowhow we need for this project will become available.”

Because of the extensive technology needed to build the structure and to sustain life below the surface of the ocean, the project will be ready no sooner than 15 years from now. If successfully completed, it would offer a truly unique view to underwater life.

According to Shimizu’s officials, the project, which has the support of a myriad of research firms and Japanese government agencies, visualizes a spiral-shaped structure comprised of three major sections.

The project’s officials are looking forward to securing funding from private industry and the government as it’s also supported by experts from Tokyo University.

Masaki Takeuchi, the manager of the project reportedly said to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper:

“It would be great if research institutions and governments become interested in our project.”

The 3 Parts of Ocean Spiral:

1. The first part is the floating surface, which will be topped by a 500-meter sphere.
2. According to the blueprint, the central part is a spiral 15km long with room for business zones, apartments, residential areas and hotel rooms for 5000 people.
3. At the very bottom at about 3000 to 4000 thousand meters under the sea the spiral will be linked to an “earth-factory” – a research center for developing energy sources.

The Shimizu spokesman told the Wall Street Journal:

“This is just a blueprint by our company, but we are aiming to develop the technology that would enable us to build an underwater living space.”

The assistant professor in the urban studies department at Tokyo University, Christian Dimmer, claimed that these “techno-utopias” such as Ocean Spiral came as a reaction to other crises like climate change and rising sea levels. He reportedly told The Guardian:

“We had this in Japan in the 1980s, when the same corporations were proposing underground and ‘swimming’ cities and 1km-high towers as part of the rush to development during the height of the bubble economy. It’s good that many creative minds are picking their brains as to how to deal with climate change, rising sea levels and the creation of resilient societies – but I hope we don’t forget to think about more open and democratic urban futures in which citizens can take an active role in their creation, rather than being mere passengers in a corporation’s sealed vision of utopia.”

According to the Guardian:

“The idea of creating communities in the sea resonates in Japan, where land-based communities are at risk from large earthquakes and tsunamis.”

The company also revealed that the spiral structure would descend as much as 9 miles to the seabed, where an “earth factory” would produce methane from carbon dioxide by using micro-organisms.

Experts say that the ocean water temperature differentials between the various parts of the structure would help to generate power; this temperature difference between sea water at varying depths is the secret behind getting the power. This concept is also known as ocean thermal energy conversion.

Previously, Shimizu was involved in unveiling plans for a floating metropolis (see more in the following video) and a250-mile wide “belt” of solar panels around the Moon.

Shimizu has been working on its new project, Ocean Spiral, with the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology and Tokyo University.

Source:  http://www.disclose.tv/news/Japan_Releases_Plans_For_Futuristic_Underwater_Cities_By_2030/111572

Plague – Madagascar

BUBONIC PLAGUE: WIPED OUT A THIRD OF EUROPE IN THE 14TH CENTURY

Troubled times: A town crier calls for the dead to be bought out in this drawing of London from 1665

 

On 4 November 2014, WHO was notified by the Ministry of Health of Madagascar of an outbreak of plague. The first case, a male from Soamahatamana village in the district of Tsiroanomandidy, was identified on 31 August. The patient died on 3 September.

As of 16 November, a total of 119 cases of plague have been confirmed, including 40 deaths. Only 2% of reported cases are of the pneumonic form.

Cases have been reported in 16 districts of seven regions. Antananarivo, the capital and largest city in Madagascar, has also been affected with 2 recorded cases of plague, including 1 death. There is now a risk of a rapid spread of the disease due to the city’s high population density and the weakness of the healthcare system. The situation is further complicated by the high level of resistance to deltamethrin (an insecticide used to control fleas) that has been observed in the country.

 

Full story at: http://www.who.int/csr/don/21-november-2014-plague/en/

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A fact sheet on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Web site notes that if someone with “advanced knowledge and technology” were somehow able to aerosolize the bacterium, it could cause damage.

“Yersinia pestis used in an aerosol attack could cause cases of the pneumonic form of plague,” the CDC says. “One to six days after becoming infected with the bacteria, people would develop pneumonic plague. Once people have the disease, the bacteria can spread to others who have close contact with them. Because of the delay between being exposed to the bacteria and becoming sick, people could travel over a large area before becoming contagious and possibly infecting others. Controlling the disease would then be more difficult.”

Pneumonic plague differs from bubonic plague in its symptoms and the fact that it can be spread through the air rather than just by contact.

Unlike bubonic plague, pneumonic plague can be spread from person to person. According to the CDC, “Pneumonic plague affects the lungs and is transmitted when a person breathes in Y. pestis particles in the air.”

 

Related:

Outbreak of bubonic plague in Madagascar has claimed 47 victims – and is spreading to island’s capital

National Bar Association Lawyers Release Statement Indicating Ferguson Prosecutor Corruption

Parts of the report said:

“It looks like he wanted to create the appearance that there had been a public trial when in fact there hadn’t been,” said Harvard Law School professor Noah Feldman, in an interview with The New York Times.”

” McCulloch gave Wilson’s case special treatment. He turned it over to the grand jury, a rarity itself, and then used the investigation as a document dump, an approach that is virtually without precedent in the law of Missouri or anywhere else. Buried underneath every scrap of evidence McCulloch could find, the grand jury threw up its hands and said that a crime could not be proved. This is the opposite of the customary ham-sandwich approach, in which the jurors are explicitly steered to the prosecutor’s preferred conclusion.”

“The National Bar Association is questioning how the Grand Jury, considering the evidence before them, could reach the conclusion that Darren Wilson should not be indicted and tried for the shooting death of Michael Brown. National Bar Association President Pamela J. Meanes expresses her sincere disappointment with the outcome of the Grand Jury’s decision but has made it abundantly clear that the National Bar Association stands firm and will be calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to pursue federal charges against officer Darren Wilson. “We will not rest until Michael Brown and his family has justice” states Pamela Meanes, President of the National Bar Association.

President Meanes is requesting that the citizens of Ferguson, Missouri not allow this decision to cause an unnecessary uproar in the community that could lead to arrests, injuries or even deaths of innocent people. “I am asking for everyone to remain as calm as possible and to join in solidarity as we continue to support the family of Michael Brown and put our legal plan into full effect” says President Meanes  “I feel the  magnitude of the grand jury’s ruling as Ferguson, Missouri is only minutes from where I reside”, adds President Meanes.

Over the last couple of months, the National Bar Association has  hosted Town Hall meetings informing  attendees of their Fourth Amendment (Search & Seizure) constitutional rights, whether it is legal to record police activity, and how citizens should behave/respond if and when they interface with police officers. “The death of Michael Brown was the last straw and the catalyst for addressing issues of inequality and racial bias in policing, the justice system, and violence against members of minority communities,” states Pamela Meanes.

The family of Michael Brown requested that District Attorney McCullough step aside and allow a special prosecutor be assigned to the investigation to give the community confidence that the grand jury would conduct a complete and thorough investigation into the tragic shooting death of 18 year old Michael Brown. The grand jury’s decision confirms the fear that many expressed months ago — that a fair and impartial investigation would not happen.

“The National Bar Association is adamant about our desire for transformative justice. While we are disappointed with the grand jury’s ruling, we are promoting peace on every street corner around the world. The only way to foster systemic change is to organize, educate, and mobilize. We are imploring everyone to fight against the injustice in Ferguson, Missouri and throughout the United States by banding together and working within the confines of the law,” states President Meanes.”

(Article by Moreh B.D.K.)

Full story at :  http://countercurrentnews.com/2014/11/national-bar-association-lawyers-release-statement-indicating-ferguson-prosecutor-corruption/#

Alleged plot included bombing Arch, killing St. Louis County prosecutor, Ferguson chief

By Christine Byers

ST. LOUIS • Two men indicted last week on federal weapons charges allegedly had plans to bomb the Gateway Arch — and to kill St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch and Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson — the Post-Dispatch has learned.

Sources close to the investigation were uncertain whether the men had the capability to carry out the plans, although the two allegedly did buy what they thought was a pipe bomb in an undercover law enforcement sting.

The men wanted to acquire two more bombs, the sources said, but could not afford to do it until one suspect’s girlfriend’s Electronic Benefit Transfer card was replenished.

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An indictment, with no mention of bombs or killings, was returned in federal court here Nov. 19 and unsealed Friday upon the arrest of Brandon Orlando Baldwin and Olajuwon Ali Davis. Their addresses and Baldwin’s age were not available; Davis is 22.

The arrest came three days before McCulloch revealed that a grand jury would not indict Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson in the controversial killing of Michael Brown. The announcement triggered looting and multiple arsons in Ferguson.

The charges say that between Nov. 1 and Nov. 13, at the Cabela’s store in Hazelwood, Baldwin claimed to be buying two Hi-Point .45-caliber pistols for himself when they were really for another person. Brandon also is known as Brandon Muhammad, according to court documents, and Davis now goes by the last name Ali, his attorney said. Each faces a charge of aiding and abetting the making of a false written statement made in connection with a firearms purchase.

The sources said additional charges, reflecting the plot, were expected to be filed. They said Davis was considered the leader of the plot, which police documented on hidden video.

The firearm charges and arrests were reported by the Post-Dispatch on Friday night. Some national news outlets reported, with no detail, that there had been a bomb plot.

One of the defendants’ plans, the sources said, included planting a bomb inside the observation deck at the top of the Arch. It was not clear how they could have gotten a bomb past airport-style security screening for rides up.

It also wasn’t clear, the sources said, whether the men intended to use bombs as the means to kill McCulloch and Jackson. Both officials became targets of national criticism and protests after Brown’s killing.

Local and federal authorities have served search warrants at two buildings, one in the 2500 block of Hampton Avenue in St. Louis and the other in the 1500 block of Reale Avenue in north St. Louis County, but the associated documents were sealed.

Baldwin and Davis pleaded not guilty in a hearing Tuesday. At a second hearing, prosecutors were prepared to argue that both should be held in jail until trial. An FBI agent was present, and photographic or video evidence was ready to play. But both defendants waived their right to make a case for bail, so the hearing did not proceed.

Bill Woods, special agent in charge of the FBI office in St. Louis, peeked into court at one point, but there were no available seats. The room was full with family and supporters of Davis and Baldwin.

After the hearing, prosecutors referred a reporter to U.S. Attorney Richard Callahan, who referred questions to Marc Raimondi, spokesman for the Justice Department’s National Security Division. Raimondi declined to comment on “anything beyond what was in the public document available through the court.”

Asked for comment after the hearing, a female relative of Davis, who refused to give her name, said the case consisted of “Lies, lies and more lies.”

Davis’ attorney, John Lynch, said that he had waived the detention hearing because, “This particular case involves serious issues, especially in light of the Ferguson matter. My client is entitled to a patient analysis and due process like anybody else, and he looks forward to a vigorous defense.”

Lynch said that Davis was “particularly bright” and had been associated with the Young Artists for Justice and Peace, which works to take back streets from drug dealers. He said prosecutors were accusing Davis of a “pretty serious” gun charge, “with other charges potentially looming in the distance.”

Davis and his wife were expecting a child Dec. 5, but the child was born over the weekend, after she fainted at another court appearance Friday.

Baldwin’s public defender declined to comment, as did relatives of Baldwin contacted by a reporter. He appeared in court in a neck brace, reportedly because of a car accident.

Law enforcement sources and neighbors of McCulloch and Jackson said police had been closely guarding both their homes.

Davis spoke at a New Black Panther rally at Greater St. Mark Family Church in Ferguson last month about the police shooting of Brown, and was identified there as the Missouri chapter’s “minister of law.”

“This is not the first Mike Brown, and it won’t be the last, if we do not unite,” Davis told the crowd then. “Divided, we lose brothers and sisters. If you do not unite, put aside your difference and unite, you can expect no changes in the future. We must change our minds, our systems and ourselves.”

 

Full story at :  http://m.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/alleged-plot-included-bombing-gateway-arch-killing-prosecutor/article_69ddd938-e763-55c1-9c1c-3306725f941e.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&mobile_touch=true

Elon Musk worries Skynet is only five years off

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO voices fears that artificial intelligence could become dangerous by the end of the decade.

By Eric Mack

 

Musk, he worry. CBS

For several months now, we’ve been reporting on tech iconoclast Elon Musk‘s public warnings about the dangers of artificial intelligence. What we hadn’t heard was just how soon AI might become a threat.

Turns out Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, is worried that “the risk of something seriously dangerous happening is in the five year time frame. 10 years at most.”

Or so Musk wrote in a comment that followed an essay by virtual godfather Jaron Lanier titled “The Myth of A.I.” on Edge.org last week. A number of comments from notable personalities including XPrize Foundation founder Peter Diamandis, technology editor Kevin Kelly and author George Dyson also appeared alongside the essay. Musk’s comment was quickly removed but not before it was noticed by Mashable and other outlets.

In his original comment, as preserved on Reddit, Musk cited his involvement as an early investor in the British artificial intelligence company DeepMind, now a part of Google, for evidence.

“The pace of progress in artificial intelligence (I’m not referring to narrow AI) is incredibly fast,” Musk wrote. “Unless you have direct exposure to groups like DeepMind, you have no idea how fast-it is growing at a pace close to exponential.”

Musk adds that leading AI companies “recognize the danger” and are working to control “bad” superintelligences “from escaping into the Internet.”

It’s also worth considering, as Leonid Bershidsky does here, that Musk’s comments about AI this year could be about hyping the industry as much as anything else. Musk, however, wrote in his comment that “this is not a case of crying wolf about something I don’t understand.” He hinted further at his concerns this week, retweeting a 2009 video of DeepMind co-founder Shane Legg discussing the possibility of unsafe AI being given access to supercomputers.

Apparently, Musk had meant for his comment on Lanier’s essay to be private, and it was removed from Edge.com.

 

Full story at:  http://www.cnet.com/news/elon-musk-worries-skynet-is-only-five-years-off/#ftag