World News
Assange Arrest Imminent: Ecuadorian Embassy To Expel Him In “Hours To Days”
Zero Hedge – WikiLeaks has published an urgent statement to its official social media accounts, saying the Ecuadorian embassy in London is preparing to expel Julian Assange within “hours to days,” citing two “high level” Ecuadorian sources, and that the South American country “already has an agreement with the UK for his arrest.”
The statement published Thursday night grabbed headlines in US and UK press, with WikiLeaks supporters calling on crowds to gather outside the embassy in solidarity with Assange.
WikiLeaks said via Twitter, A high level source within the Ecuadorian state has told WikiLeaks that Julian Assange will be expelled within “hours to days” using the INA Papers offshore scandal as a pretext — and that it already has an agreement with the UK for his arrest.
BREAKING: A high level source within the Ecuadorian state has told @WikiLeaks that Julian Assange will be expelled within “hours to days” using the #INAPapers offshore scandal as a pretext–and that it already has an agreement with the UK for his arrest.https://t.co/adnJph79wq
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) April 4, 2019
UK police and surveillance teams have been camped outside the embassy 24/7 ever since he first entered the building in 2012 and was given asylum there while facing extradition to Sweden on assault charges, which many believe was a classic “honey trap” scenario orchestrated by the CIA or another western intelligence agency, so that he could eventually be transferred to US detention.
Cuba reduces newspaper length due to paper shortage
Fox – The Cuban government says a newsprint shortage is forcing at least six state-run newspapers to cut back on pages and circulation days in a potent sign of the cash shortage confronting the island.
The newspaper Granma said in Thursday editions that the Cuban Communist Party organ and several other papers are cutting back from 16 to eight pages on Wednesdays and Fridays. The changes take effect Friday. The newspaper of the Communist Youth League, Juventud Rebelde, will stop publishing on Saturdays.
Granma attributed the change to “difficulties in the availability of newsprint in the country.” The government has been suffering cash-flow problems forcing cutbacks in a wide range of imported products.
The last major cutback in newsprint was during the “special period” after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Scottish man is biking around the globe with stray cat by his side
Fox – A Scottish man set out on a journey to bike around the globe alone — until he met an unlikely friend he couldn’t leave behind.
Dean Nicholson, 31, said he quit his job as welder and decided he “wanted to see the world and see what state it’s in.”
He decided to travel via bike so he could get that outdoor experience, The Washington Post reported. While on his journey, he met a cat in the Balkans that just would not leave. He decided to name her Nala for one of the characters in “The Lion King.”
ince then, the two have been inseparable.
“If you’ve got a pet, you know what it’s like,” Nicholson said. “You’re never alone. It’s true companionship.”
A video shared by The Dodo showed footage of Nicholson making room on his bike for Nala so she can accompany him on his trip. Sometimes she perches on his back while he rides his bike.
Identical twins both ordered to pay child support after DNA tests fail to determine who baby’s father is
Independent – Male identical twins who allegedly tricked women by impersonating each other so they could sleep with as many people as possible must both pay maintenance for a child whose paternity could not be established, a Brazilian court has ruled.
The men had DNA tests but reportedly refused to say which of them was the father – in the mistaken belief they would escape the payments.
The tests proved inconclusive as the twins are so genetically similar.
Each has blamed the other, according to Brazilian news outlet Globo.
District judge Filipe Luís Peruca, at the Cachoeira Alta Court in the central state of Goias, said the brothers were denying the child the right to know her biological father.
He said both brothers must therefore be included on the girl’s birth certificate and ordered them each to pay maintenance of 30 per cent of the minimum wage – 230 reais (£45) a month.
Hong Kong artificial island plan to solve housing crisis
LA Times – Hong Kong is the world’s most expensive housing market, as well as one of the most densely populated and financially unequal cities in the world. On one end, mansions worth hundreds of millions of dollars stand perched on hilltops with sweeping views of the city. On the other, crammed illegal rooftop shacks and compartmentalized basements of industrial and residential buildings house more than 1.37 million people — 20% of the total population — below the poverty line.
To help cope with the crisis, Hong Kong’s government recently announced a plan to build 4,200 acres of artificial islands in the South China Sea, between the existing Hong Kong and Lantau islands.
The first island would create 2,471 acres of space for a new business district and up to 260,000 flats, authorities said, of which 70% would be public housing. Called Lantau Tomorrow Vision, construction would cost $80 billion — more than half of Hong Kong’s total fiscal reserves — including funds for some of the transport networks around it.
Hong Kong has previously used land reclamation for projects including Hong Kong Disneyland, Hong Kong International Airport and the 18.6-mile Macau-Hong Kong-Zhuhai bridge, which was completed last year after nine years of construction.
Land reclamation typically involves digging up marine mud from the seabed, filling up that area with sand and building on top of it. Aside from disturbing the marine habitat, there’s a risk that the dredged-up mud may be contaminated. Authorities have said they’ll minimize the environmental impact by using methods that don’t involve digging up seabed.
One alternative that has gained public support is repurposing existing former agricultural land — contaminated by industrial pollution and then turned into car parks, storage facilities and recycling sites — for housing.
Environmental and land advocacy groups say Hong Kong’s rural New Territories have 2,545 acres of available former farmland known as brownfields. Developing just half as public housing would cost $33.3 billion, one-fourth the cost of the reclamation project, according to the local chapter of Greenpeace, and would provide 139,000 housing units.
But private landowners operate profitable businesses on the sites that the government says would be difficult to shutter, because the business owners would demand compensation and relocation. “They are an important component of our production chain and it will be unrealistic to expect all of them to disappear from Hong Kong in the future,” the government wrote in a legislative brief.
Those businesses include “more than 50 illegal e-waste dismantling sites, importing toxic e-waste from foreign countries to pollute the environment,” said Andy Chu Kong, a Greenpeace senior campaigner in Hong Kong.
At this point, the government has said that it is already developing more than 800 acres of brownfields, but that it has only limited planning resources and can’t be expected to pursue all options at the same time. Brownfields and Lantau Tomorrow Vision are both part of a “multi-pronged approach” to tackle land supply, according to official statements.
AP PHOTOS: As the sun sets, Venezuela’s capital empties
AP – When the sun goes down in Venezuela’s capital of Caracas, the once-thriving metropolis empties under darkness.
Many street lights don’t work. Residents avoid stepping outside their homes due to crime — or for lack of anything to spend — as a creeping economic collapse has accelerated amid a political battle between socialist President Nicolas Maduro and his foes at home and abroad. A string of devastating nationwide blackouts last month dramatized the decay.
Even under the light of day, billboards often have nothing to promote, their skeletal framework bare long after the wind has ripped away old advertising.
As dusk falls, many storefronts are just graffiti-scrawled security doors chained shut. Often just a single business along a city block is able to stay open, awaiting sparse customers. Others close earlier, like a beauty salon, its few remaining clients forced to decide between the simple luxury of haircut or buying food.
Caracas’ La Mercedes neighborhood, famous for its upscale shopping and nightlife, hasn’t been spared. Many of its pubs and fancy restaurants are devoid of waiters and customers. A shopping mall keeps it lights on, but the doors lock hours earlier than they did before, when they teemed with life.
High-rise buildings stand unfinished, the workers having long ago abandoned their jobs. Windows are covered over with cardboard rather than finished with glass.
Residents desperate for cash transform patches of sidewalk into their impromptu shops, laying out old shoes or second-hand shirts as merchandise.
The poor and hungry scour through household trash, scattering it across street corners before it’s collected, grabbing anything they can use or eat.
President Nicolas Maduro blames his domestic political opponents and the increasing grip of U.S. economic sanctions he says are part of a coup aimed at toppling his socialist government.
The opposition, led by lawmaker Juan Guaidó, blames years of corrupt leadership, lack of investment and economic bungling that has left the country dependent on a collapsing oil sector and on remittances sent home by the millions who have fled the growing hardship.
U.S. News, Politics & Government
Mexican Official Starts Stammering After Tucker Asks Why Mexico Won’t Let Migrants Remain There
Information Liberation – This is good comedy.
From The Daily Caller:
Things got awkward fast when Tucker Carlson asked a Mexican official why Central Americans migrating through Mexico shouldn’t be allowed to remain there.
Speaking with Guanajuato Secretary of Migration Juan Hernandez on Wednesday night’s edition of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” the Fox News host began by asking why Hernandez’s own words from the past wouldn’t constitute a “hostile act” against the United States.
“I want to read three quotes from a Mexican government official, and these are direct quotes,” Carlson said. “‘We are betting Mexican-Americans will think ‘Mexico first,’ even unto the seventh generation. Mexican immigrants to the United States are going to keep one foot in Mexico. They are not going to assimilate in the sense of not being Mexican,’ and final quote, ‘We recognize the Mexican population is 100 million in Mexico and 23 million who live in the United States. We are a united nation.’”
“Those quotes are from you,” Carlson told Hernandez. “And I wonder if a government takes that position, that it’s sending foreign nationals to your country. That is a hostile act. So why are we sending money to a country committing hostile acts against us?”
[…]Carlson asked why, if the migrants are “very good people,” that Mexico doesn’t “let them stay forever and vote in your elections, but remain Guatemalans and Hondurans ‘unto the seventh generation,’ as you said about your own people, about Mexican citizens?”
After a pause, Hernandez awkwardly pivoted again by stating the immigrants are just “looking for a better life.”
Tucker ended the segment by pointing out, once again, that Mexico is a “hostile power that is seeking to undermine our country and sovereignty.”
The Number Of Americans With “No Religion” Has Increased By 266% Over The Last 3 Decades
Endoftheamericandream – Over the last 30 years, there has been a mass exodus out of organized religion in the United States. Each year the needle has only moved a little bit, but over the long-term what we have witnessed has been nothing short of a seismic shift. Never before in American history have we seen such dramatic movement away from the Christian faith, and this has enormous implications for the future of our nation. According to a survey that was just released, the percentage of Americans that claim to have “no religion” has increased by 266 percent since 1991…
The number of Americans who identify as having no religion has risen 266 percent since 1991, to now tie statistically with the number of Catholics and Evangelicals, according to a new survey.
People with no religion – known as ‘nones’ among statisticians – account for 23.1 percent of the U.S. population, while Catholics make up 23 percent and Evangelicals account for 22.5 percent, according to the General Social Survey.
In other words, the “nones” are now officially the largest religious group in the United States.
At one time it would have been extremely difficult to imagine that one day the “nones” would someday surpass evangelical Christians, but it has actually happened.
And the biggest movement that we have seen has been among our young people. According to a different survey, two-thirds of Christian young adults say that they stopped going to church at some point between the ages of 18 and 22…
Large numbers of young adults who frequently attended Protestant worship services in high school are dropping out of church.
Two-thirds of young people say they stopped regularly going to church for at least a year between the ages of 18 and 22, a new LifeWay Research survey shows.
These are the exact same patterns that we saw happen in Europe, and now most of those countries are considered to be “post-Christian societies”.
The young adults of today are going to be the leaders of tomorrow, and they have a much higher percentage of “nones” than the population as a whole. According to a study that was conducted a while back by PRRI, 39 percent of our young adults are “religiously unaffiliated” at this point…
Today, nearly four in ten (39%) young adults (ages 18-29) are religiously unaffiliated—three times the unaffiliated rate (13%) among seniors (ages 65 and older). While previous generations were also more likely to be religiously unaffiliated in their twenties, young adults today are nearly four times as likely as young adults a generation ago to identify as religiously unaffiliated. In 1986, for example, only 10% of young adults claimed no religious affiliation.
Judge considers whether terror watchlist is unconstitutional
Fox – A federal judge says he will rule in the near future on the constitutionality of a government watchlist that includes more than 1 million people the FBI considers to be “known or suspected terrorists.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations sued in 2016 to challenge the watchlist on behalf of Muslim Americans who say they were wrongly placed on it and suffered negative consequences as a result.
The plaintiffs argued Thursday at a hearing in Alexandria that the list is disseminated so broadly that those listed face not only travel woes at airports and border crossings but also difficulty completing financial transactions and interacting with police. They also say the standard for inclusion is overbroad and innocent Muslims are routinely listed by mistake.
Government lawyers say the list is a necessary tool to fight terrorism and that plaintiffs exaggerate the consequences of inclusion.
The watchlist, also known as the Terrorist Screening Database, is maintained by the FBI and shared with a variety of federal agencies. Customs officers have access to the list to check people coming into the country at border crossings, and aviation officials use the database to help form the government’s no-fly list.
The watchlist has grown significantly in size over the years. As of June 2017, approximately 1.16 million people were included on the watchlist, according to government documents filed in the lawsuit. In 2013, the number was only 680,000. The vast majority are foreigners, but according to the government, there are roughly 4,600 U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents on the watchlist as well as of 2017.
CAIR lawyer Gadeir Abbas said the intrusions imposed on those listed are all for naught; he argued that the list is worthless in terms of preventing terrorism. He noted that Omar Mateen, the man who shot and killed 49 people at an Orlando nightclub in 2016, was at one time on the list but was later removed from it. Others who have committed terrorist acts have never even been included on the watchlist.
“The government cannot know who among the innocent will become a terrorist in the future,” Abbas said. Because the government has no good standard for inclusion on the list, it falls back to stereotypes and routinely imposes the burden of watchlisting on innocent Muslims.
MD raises smoking age to 21 — except for troops
Military Times – The Maryland General Assembly passed a bill Wednesday that will raise the legal age to purchase tobacco products to 21.
The legislation, set to go into effect Oct. 1 if approved by Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, would make Maryland the ninth U.S. state to begin the process of raising the age requirement — up from 18 years old — for buying tobacco and nicotine products, the Baltimore Sun reported.
And while the bill is designed to protect teens from the damaging effects of smoking, one under-21 demographic was made exempt to the policy change: military personnel.
Sen. Michael Hough originally proposed the exemption for service members who present a military ID as a means to help get the bill approved by Republican voters who were opposing the policy change and labeling it as an example of government overstepping.
“To say that people in the military, if they’re 19 or 20, can’t smoke a cigarette or a cigar, to me was an affront,” Hough told the Baltimore Sun.
In doing so, Michael Hough, perhaps unknowingly, became a hero to tobacco-craving members of the E-3 mafia — especially in Maryland — by pitying the hardships of the junior enlisted.
Long are the days toiling in the hot sun at the motor pool for weekly vehicle maintenance.
Fierce is the pressure to pass field day inspections with the fate of vital weekend liberty hanging in the balance.
Pelosi announces lawsuit to block Trump’s emergency declaration
The Hill – Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced Thursday that the House will file a lawsuit to block President Trump‘s national emergency declaration to build a wall along the southern border.
The move marks the latest effort by House Democrats to push back against Trump’s use of federal money to construct a wall after lawmakers denied him those funds.
“The President’s action clearly violates the Appropriations Clause by stealing from appropriated funds, an action that was not authorized by constitutional or statutory authority,” Pelosi said in a statement. “Congress, as Article I – the first branch, co-equal to the other branches – must reassert its exclusive responsibilities reserved by the text of the Constitution and protect our system of checks and balances.”
Congress passed a resolution to terminate Trump’s emergency declaration, but the House last week failed to meet the necessary two-thirds threshold to override the president’s veto, the first of his presidency. Fourteen Republicans, mostly centrists, voted with Democrats in the veto override attempt.
Democrats are now turning to the judicial system.
“The House will once again defend our Democracy and our Constitution, this time in the courts,” Pelosi said. “No one is above the law or the Constitution, not even the President.”
The Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group — an entity compromised of congressional leadership that oversees the House general counsel’s office — voted Thursday to authorize the lawsuit on behalf of House Democrats.
Man caught transporting invasive stingrays, exotic fish at Texas airport
Fox – One man is in hot water after he was caught transporting several illegal fish through Texas.
The Kansas man has been charged for shipping two types of live invasive species of fish to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, officials said.
The exotic fish, freshwater stingrays and boulengerella – both on Texas’ invasive species list – were transported to the airport via a shipping crate. The aquatic animals were packaged in bags of water set between bunches of newspaper inside the crate, a United States Fish and Wildlife Service inspector at the airport discovered.
The Texas Game Warden tweeted that the unidentified suspect told them he planned to drive the fish back to Kansas from Texas.
The fish are also illegal to have in Oklahoma, the tweet read.
Though the fish were alive when they were found at the airport, they are considered “exotic, harmful or potentially harmful” and were euthanized due to the potential harm they can pose to the native Texas ecosystem.
Feds fret terror threats at Burning Man
Reading Eagle – Burning Man organizers say the U.S. government wants to place unreasonable conditions on a proposal to expand the counter-culture festival’s capacity to 100,000, including stepped-up security searches and new perimeter barriers that land managers say would reduce vulnerability to acts of terrorism.
Group leaders say the Bureau of Land Management’s proposed stipulations for a new 10-year special use permit would for the first time require certified building inspections, maintenance of a county road and air quality mitigation that could raise their costs by $10 million a year at the annual event in the desert 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of Reno.
The draft environmental impact statement points to the mass shooting at a country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip in October 2017. It’s apparently the first time the agency has analyzed terrorist threats as part of an environmental review for proposed activities on federal land.
While terrorism has never occurred at Burning Man, “several vulnerabilities exist,” the 372-page document warns. It says the big crowds, “iconic status of Burning Man and widespread media coverage of the event could make the festival an attractive target for an individual or team of attackers.”
Crowds at the weeklong celebration culminating on Labor Day weekend with the burning of a towering wooden effigy have grown from about 30,000 in 2002 to 79,000 in 2017. Attendance currently is capped at 80,000.
The draft issued last month says an attack could result in mass casualties that exceed the capacity of law enforcement and medical resources on-site.
GOP triggers ‘nuclear option’ to speed up Trump picks
The Hill – Senate Republicans deployed the “nuclear option” on Wednesday to drastically reduce the time it takes to confirm hundreds of President Trump’s nominees.
In back-to-back votes, Republicans changed the rules for the amount of time it takes to confirm most executive nominees and district judges — marking the second and third time Republicans have used the hardball tactic since taking over in 2015.
The combined actions will result in most nominations that require Senate confirmation needing only two hours of debate after they’ve defeated a filibuster that shows they have the votes to ultimately be confirmed. Before Wednesday’s rules change, they faced up to an additional 30 hours of debate.
Supreme Court picks, appeals court judges and Cabinet nominees will not be affected by the change and could still face the lengthier Senate floor debate.
But the move will let Republicans hit the gas on confirming nominations, a top priority in an era of divided government that has left lawmakers without big-ticket legislative agenda items.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) argued shortly before triggering the hardball procedural tactic that the Senate needed to go back to a “more normal and reasonable process” for confirming nominations.
“Our colleagues across the aisle have chosen to endlessly relitigate the 2016 election rather than actually participate in governing,” McConnell said. “This problem goes deeper than today. We’re talking about the future of this very institution and the future functioning of our constitutional government.
Ways and Means chair asks IRS for POTUS tax returns
ABC – House Democrats have sent their long-anticipated request for six years of President Donald Trump‘s tax returns to the Internal Revenue Service, the opening salvo in what could prove an explosive battle between Democrats and the Trump administration over the president’s personal finances that is expected to wind up in the courts.
In a letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., requested six years of Trump’s personal and business tax information from 2013-2018, including individual tax returns and returns from eight businesses linked to Trump. He also asked whether any of them are or have been under audit – and for all the information to be delivered to Capitol Hill within a week.
“This request is about policy, not politics; my preparations were made on my own track and timeline, entirely independent of other activities in Congress and the Administration,” Neal said in a statement.
Smollett, Chicago face off in nasty legal battle
USA Today – Jussie Smollett’s lawyer, the ever pugnacious Mark Geragos, had a message to the city of Chicago on Friday: Bring. It. On.
Firing back at Chicago’s vow to pursue the “Empire” star in court to force him to pay a fine of up to $390,000 for police overtime in the investigation of his now-dismissed hate-crime case, Geragos told the city to go jump in Lake Michigan.
In the process, he charged the city’s stance is “unconstitutional,” “malicious,” “false and defamatory,” harassment and a violation of “double jeopardy” bans. Geragos strongly hinted if the city sues Smollett, Smollett will respond in kind.
“Your letter constitutes part of a course of conduct intended to harass and irreparably injure Mr. Smollett,” Geragos declared in a missive sent to Edward Siskel, head of the city’s law department, which released a copy to the media on Friday.
“As explained below, your letter is both factually and legally flawed and Mr. Smollett will not be intimidated into paying the demanded sum.”
Economy & Business
Jobless Claims Fall to 49-Year Low, Below ALL Forecasts
Bloomberg – Filings for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell, dropping to the lowest since December 1969, as the labor market tightened further.
Energy & Environment
Is your home full of this deadly gas?
NaturalNews – Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas that you can’t see, smell or taste. An article by The University of Toledo College of Engineering explains that radon is a “by-product of the radioactive decay of another element, uranium.” Radon exists in most rocks, sediment and soil throughout the earth. Because uranium is in a constant state of decay, radon may be swirling around inside your home and you wouldn’t even know it. This is no innocuous invisible gas; more than 20,000 Americans die of radon-related lung cancer every year.
Radon gas doesn’t discriminate. Your house could be a spiffy new construction, a “drafty home,” or an older block house with or without a basement. The only way to know if radon is present in your living quarters is to have your home tested. The average charge for radon detection is estimated to be around $1,200. Radon gas could also be seeping into your workplace, school or daycare facility. It quietly churls into buildings through cracks or gaps in flooring or walls, wires and pipes, as well as via your water supply.
A high level of radon is lurking in one out of every 15 homes, says the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Radon is measured in picocuries, designated as pCi, which is the measurement “of the rate of radioactive decay of radon,” as reported by SOSRadon.org. The indoor radon level recommended by the EPA is 4 pCi/L (picocuries per liter). Outside in the fresh air, the typical radon level is much lower at 0.4 pCi/L.
Four-legged whale that lived 40-million-years-ago found off coast in Peru
Fox – Fossils of a four-legged whale that lived off the coast of Peru more than 40 million years ago have been discovered by researchers.
The mammal, which is estimated to be 13 feet long, has been named Peregocetus pacificus. The presence of small hooves on the ends of its fingers and the morphology of its hips and limbs has led researchers to believe it could walk on land.
“This is the first indisputable record of a quadrupedal whale skeleton for the whole Pacific Ocean, probably the oldest for the Americas, and the most complete outside India and Pakistan,” said Olivier Lambert of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in a statement.
Lambert continued: “When digging around the outcropping bones, we quickly realized that this was the skeleton of a quadrupedal whale, with both forelimbs and hind limbs.”
In addition to four limbs, which provided the capability to walk on land and return to the sea, Peregocetus likely also had an elongated snout and teeth to capture prey. Modern-day whales use baleen, which is made out of the same protein that makes up human hair and fingernails, to capture prey.
“The moderately elongated snout bearing robust anterior teeth with markedly ornamented enamel and shearing molars suggests that this medium-size protocetid was capable of preying upon relatively large prey, for example, large bony fish, an interpretation further supported by the incipient apical dental wear,” Lambert said in comments obtained by SWNS.
Ancient whale discoveries have primarily been in India and Pakistan, but the find of Peregocetus marks a new era for researchers, Lambert said.
Great white sharks have ‘toxic’ heavy metals in their blood, study finds
Fox – What do mercury, arsenic and lead have in common? If you guessed they’re all heavy metals, you’re right — at least, in part. These elements are also found in the blood of great white sharks, according to a recent study.
Researchers with the University of Miami studied blood samples from great white sharks in South Africa and found the specimens contained levels of mercury, arsenic and lead that would likely be toxic to many other animals. Interestingly, however, these metals don’t adversely affect sharks — at least in terms of their “body condition, total leukocytes and granulocyte to lymphocyte ratios,” per the University of Miami’s news release on the findings, which were published in the Marine Pollution Bulletin in March.
One possible explanation may be due to their “inherent physiological protective mechanism that mitigates the harmful effects of heavy metal exposure,” Liza Merly, the study’s lead author and senior lecturer at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, said in a statement.
Researchers obtained the results by looking at the blood samples from 43 great whites, which scientists collected in 2012 during an Ocearch expedition. Later, they screened the blood “for concentrations of 12 trace elements and 14 heavy metals.”
Science & Technology
Mummy of Pharaoh’s official discovered inside limestone sarcophagus in Egypt
Live Science – The mummified remains of a high-ranking official named Khuwy were discovered in a colorful tomb that dates back 4,400 years. Archaeologists made the discovery in south Saqqara, in Egypt, the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities announced April 2.
Next to the burial is a pyramid complex built for the pharaoh Djedkare Isesi, who reigned from 2381 to 2353 B.C. The colors of the tomb’s hieroglyphs and decorations are incredibly well-preserved, despite the passage of over 4 millennia.
Hieroglyphs in the tomb list offerings and Khuwy’s many titles, including “overseer of the khentiu-she of the Great House,” “Great one of the ten of Upper Egypt” and “Sole friend” — titles that indicate he was a senior administrator in the pharaoh’s court, said Emilie Martinet, a postdoctoral fellow in Egyptology with the Université Paul Valéry — Montpellier. While Martinet is not part of the team that made the discovery, her research focuses on the workings of ancient Egyptian administrations.
Experts Warn ‘GPS Rollover Event’ May Cause Havoc…
CBS – On or around April 6th 2019 , will your handy-dandy global positioning system (GPS) device be working properly?
Or, if you’re driving south on U.S. Highway 101, heading to your job in San Jose, will your GPS show your car is traveling to the Farallon Islands?
If you’re on a hike in the Coyote Hills, will your GPS device display that you are walking around at the Stanford Shopping Mall?
Here’s the deal: if your GPS begins to go a little haywire around this time, you may be experiencing what’s called “GPS Week Rollover Event.” The issue may remind us how much the world relies on GPS.
But, with the GPS rollover event, you may want to stash a few in your car. It’s the GPS version of a mini-Y2K. Devices at highest risk for failure include the older devices or the devices that have not been frequently updated.
The imminent system update has the attention of Brad Parkinson, a recalled emeritus Professor at Stanford University and best known as the lead architect, advocate, and developer of GPS.
“First of all, I would say it’s legitimate to be concerned,” said Parkinson.
The California resident is an engineer and an inventor, as well as a retired U.S. Air force colonel.
“GPS affects everything we do,” Parkinson told KPIX 5 in a recent interview at the Marines’ Memorial Club in San Francisco.
GPS is a network of 31 satellites owned by the U.S. government and operated by the Air Force. GPS provides many services for civilian uses, by providing location, and syncing up critical systems back on earth.
“It affects timing, banking, cell towers, airplanes, ships, passengers in cars,” explained Parkinson. “It is affecting everything that we can imagine.”
The power grid, financial markets, delivery trucks, and emergency services all benefit from GPS. In California, public safety agencies, such as the California Highway Patrol and Cal Fire utilize GPS timing at the major dispatch console systems, which is transmitted to field personnel via radio.
USGS officials monitor seismic movement or tectonic plate motion using GPS sensors, which helps locate where a quake has occurred.
“We’re completely reliant upon GPS,” remarked GPS expert Dana Goward, who served as the maritime navigation authority for the United States.
He is currently serving as President of the Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation or RNTF. The nonprofit is dedicated to protecting, toughening, and augmenting GPS signals.
AMAZON to launch thousands of satellites into orbit
CNBC – Amazon is planning to build a network of more than 3,000 satellites federal filings reveal, in an ambitious attempt to provide global internet access.
Known as Project Kuiper, the move represents the latest space ambition from Jeff Bezos. Amazon has previously announced its cloud business will build a network of satellite facilities on Earth and Bezos’ space venture Blue Origin continues to move closer to launching space tourists.
“Project Kuiper is a new initiative to launch a constellation of low Earth orbit satellites that will provide low-latency, high-speed broadband connectivity to unserved and underserved communities around the world.
Ancient teeth hint at mysterious human relative
National Geographic – Four teeth found in a cave in the Tongzi county of southern China have scientists scratching their heads.
In 1972 and 1983, researchers extracted the roughly 200,000-year-old teeth from the silty sediments of the Yanhui cave floor, initially labeling them as Homo erectus, the upright-walking hominins thought to be the first to leave Africa. Later analysis suggested they didn’t quite fit with Homo erectus, but that’s where the story paused for nearly two decades.
Now, a study published in the Journal of Human Evolution takes a fresh look at these ancient teeth, using modern methods to examine the curious remains. The new analysis excludes the possibility that the teeth could come from Homo erectus or the more advanced Neanderthals, but the elusive owner remains unknown.
“It’s strange. We don’t know where to put it,” says study author Song Xing of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing.
The four teeth join a growing number of finds in China that don’t tidily fit onto the known branches of the human evolutionary tree, hinting that there’s more to the story of human history in this region.
“We always think of Africa as the ‘cradle of humankind,’” says study author María Martinón-Torres, director of Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana in Spain. “I would say it’s a cradle of probably one of the human kinds, which is Homo sapiens.” But many human species once walked the Earth, and what is going on in Asia, she says, is likely “crucial to understanding the whole picture.”
Health
CNBC – Health officials are investigating an E. coli outbreak that has sickened 72 people across five states, federal health agencies said Friday.
The reported cases were in Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement announcing the outbreak. Eight people have been hospitalized, the CDC added.
The agency is working with the Food and Drug Administration and Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service to investigate the outbreak. They have not yet pinpointed a specific food, grocery store or restaurant chain that’s responsible for the infections. As a result, the CDC is not recommending people avoid a particular food.
Take that, Roundup! Costco confirmed to have pulled all Roundup / glyphosate (toxic herbicide) from its shelves
NatrualNews – It can often feel like our protests about matters like glyphosate in food are falling on deaf ears, but one retailer is poised to take a harsh stance against the dangerous chemical – and we can only hope other businesses will follow its lead.
Costco, the fifth largest retailer in the U.S., will reportedly stop selling the popular glyphosate-based weedkiller Roundup as the product finds itself at the center of a number of lawsuits filed by people who say it caused their cancer.
Update: Natural News has contacted Costco by phone and confirmed Roundup / glyphosate is no longer be sold in Costco stores. No official statement has been issued on the matter, however.
The founder of Moms Across America, Zen Honeycutt, says that three people within the company confirmed to her that they would not be ordering Roundup nor any other glyphosate herbicides in their spring shipments. Administrators for the company have told media outlets that the product was pulled from store floors on corporate orders, and it’s a move that applies to every location.
Last year, a 46-year-old school groundskeeper and father of three, Dewayne Johnson, successfully sued Monsanto for causing his Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma after the glyphosate products he had to use at work did not bear a cancer warning label. He was awarded $289 million, although it was later lowered to $78 million on appeal.
Monsanto is currently facing thousands of similar lawsuits. The product has already been banned in several countries because of its health dangers, but strong government ties – including a cozy relationship with the EPA – have enabled it to continue to be sold in places like the U.S.
Reishi mushrooms can reduce cholesterol, prevent cellular damage
NaturalNews – Reishi mushrooms (Ganoderma lucidum) are red-varnished, kidney-shaped mushrooms popular in traditional Japanese and Chinese medicines. A recent study suggests that this type of mushroom can fight oxidative stress, lower cholesterol, and help prevent cancer.
In the study, a team of researchers at Hunan Agricultural University in China looked at the effect of polysaccharides derived from reishi mushrooms on lipid metabolism, oxidative stress, and apoptosis in mice. The Chinese research team fed mice with a high-fat diet to induce obesity. Obesity can damage cells, promote oxidative stress, and increase lipid levels. Then, they treated the mice with different doses of reishi mushroom polysaccharides. One group of mice was treated with 200 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg) body weight of reishi mushroom polysaccharides once a day for 12 weeks, while another group received 400 mg/kg body weight.
Based on their findings, treatment with reishi mushroom polysaccharides attenuated the oleic acid-induced cell viability loss and apoptosis dose-dependently in lymphocytes isolated from the spleens of mice. In mice, treatment with reishi mushroom polysaccharides significantly decreased the body weight increases caused by the high-fat diet. Moreover, it dramatically reduced fat in the liver and heart of the mice, as well as reduced their levels of white adipose tissue.
In addition, the treatment also reduced lipid buildup in the blood and oxidative stress in serum and small intestine of mice fed a high-fat diet. High-fat diet-induced cellular damage, which may contribute to the development of cancer, was also prevented upon treatment with reishi mushroom polysaccharides.
Regular aspirin use linked to 50% increased risk of MAJOR bleeding episodes, warn researchers
NaturalNews – You might have heard that taking aspirin on a daily basis can help prevent heart attacks, but is it really such a good idea to regularly take medication if nothing is wrong with you? According to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the answer to that is a resounding No.
Researchers in London examined the overall effects of taking aspiring regularly on people who do not have cardiovascular disease. Although they did find that these people had a lower risk of cardiovascular events like heart attacks, they also had a far greater risk of experiencing major bleeding episodes.
The researchers looked at trials involving more than 1,000 people who had no cardiovascular disease history. Some took aspirin while others took a placebo, and they were followed over the course of 12 months.
According to their results, the aspirin was associated with an 11 percent lower likelihood of a cardiovascular event, which sounds like good news on the surface – until you learn that the use of aspirin was also associated with a 43 percent greater chance of major bleeding events, with one out of every 200 people treated with aspirin experiencing a major bleed. They also discovered that aspirin use did not impact new diagnoses of cancer or death.
It’s important to note that much of the evidence of aspirin benefiting heart health has been seen in people who had previously experienced a heart attack or stroke; its power to prevent initial cardiovascular events is far less certain – and some studies have shown it doesn’t benefit anyone.
Major study debunks myth that moderate drinking can be healthy
Reuters – Blood pressure and stroke risk rise steadily the more alcohol people drink, and previous claims that one or two drinks a day might protect against stroke are not true, according to the results of a major genetic study.
The research, which used data from a 160,000-strong cohort of Chinese adults, many of whom are unable to drink alcohol due to genetic intolerance, found that people who drink moderately – consuming 10 to 20 grams of alcohol a day – raise their risk of stroke by 10 to 15 percent.
For heavy drinkers, consuming four or more drinks a day, blood pressure rises significantly and the risk of stroke increases by around 35 percent, the study found.
“The key message here is that, at least for stroke, there is no protective effect of moderate drinking,” said Zhengming Chen, a professor at Oxford University’s Nuffield Department of Population Health who co-led the research. “The genetic evidence shows the protective effect is not real.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that around 2.3 billion people worldwide drink alcohol, with average per person daily consumption at 33 grams of pure alcohol a day. That is roughly equivalent to two 150 ml glasses of wine, a large (750 ml) bottle of beer or two 40 ml shots of spirits.
This latest study, published in The Lancet medical journal, focused on people of East Asian descent, many of whom have genetic variants that limit alcohol tolerance.
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