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Wash. State legislation ending illegal drone surveillance gains bipartisan support

by Mikael Thalen
Infowars.com

Two Washington state bills that protect residents from illegal drone surveillance in the public and private sector are quickly gaining large bi-partisan support.

The first bill, HB 1771, not only prohibits the acquisition of unmanned aerial vehicles by government agencies without prior approval by the state legislature, but also protects residents by requiring law enforcement to obtain warrants for any drone surveillance. Originally introduced last year, the bill’s popularity has grown with Republican and Democrat sponsors.

“We’ve been working collaboratively across the aisle to address some of the concerns raised over the last year,” Rep. David Taylor (R), the bill’s primary sponsor, told Storyleak. “The bill will protect the citizens of Washington from warrantless surveillance using UAVs.”

The bill also protects citizens who may inadvertently be captured by a drone’s camera during warranted use, requiring that any and all identifying information be deleted within twenty-four hours.

“No personal information collected on an individual or area other than the target that justified the issuance of a search warrant may be used, copied, or disclosed for any purpose. Such personal information shall be deleted as soon as possible, and in no event later than twenty-four hours after collection,” Section 11 of the bill reads.

According to the legislation, law enforcement would also be required to conduct yearly comprehensive audits on all drone operations. The audits, which would be made available to the public, would include copies of all warrants, the law enforcement log book and any corresponding emergency telephone calls.

The second bill, HB 2178, gives the same protection to Washington residents from private drone usage as well. Any individual with a reasonable expectation of privacy must give consent before being filmed by any privately owned drone.

“Prohibits operation of an unmanned aircraft in Washington airspace if the unmanned aircraft has active sensory devices onboard that collect personal information about any individual without the individual’s consent,” the bill’s summary reads. The bill also establishes “a private right of action for an individual whose reasonable expectation of privacy is violated.”

While both bills grow in popularity among surveillance-weary residents, aerospace giant Boeing as well as the Washington Association of Sheriffs & Police Chiefs remain likely opponents. While Boeing successfully lobbied the Democratic leadership to reject drone regulation last year, Democrats have now jumped on board, likely responding to public pressure.

A leaked email also revealed a Washington lawmaker’s attempt to hide a drone demonstration from the public last March, citing fear over “demonstrations and security” issues.

Others such as industry lobbyist Paul Applewhite attempted to derail the legislation as well, shockingly advocating for “lethal force” within the United States during a House Committee hearing last February.

Despite the minor hiccup last year, residents did successfully end the Seattle Police Department’s attempts to use surveillance drones, forcing the department to return two drones to their vendor.

With the Obama administration attempting to assassinate yet another American overseas, the public’s support of drones may be shifting. Given different police departments’ vocal support for adding “rubber bullets and tear gas” to UAVs, few Americans are willing to wait and see how far the government is willing to take armed drones.

As experts predict the arrival of more than 30,000 drones over US skies by 2020, constitutional lawmakers are desperately working to restrain the government’s attempts at indiscriminate drone use.

Supporters of these bills are encouraged to contact members of the Washington Association of Sheriffs & Police Chiefs to politely demand they support constitutional drone guidelines.
Phone: (360) 486-2380

In other news:

The global warming tipping point is near

by Andrew Thomas
American Thinker

Malcolm Gladwell’s great book The Tipping Point presents the case that sudden seismic shifts in society can result from small events, if the right factors are present. Tipping points happen when momentum toward an idea builds and finally crosses a threshold where it is evident that a major cultural change has occurred. The global warming tipping point is coming, but not the one anticipated by climate change “experts.”

Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) theory has been dominant for the past three decades as absolute fact in the public mind. In the last several years, however, cracks in the fortress of “settled science” have appeared, and public opinion has begun to shift. Increasingly, alarmist predictions have failed to come to fruition.

In 2004, NASA’s chief scientist James Hansen authoritatively announced that there is only a ten-year window to act on AGW (presumably by transferring mass quantities of taxpayer funds to global warmist causes) before climate Armageddon destroys humanity. Well, that window has now shut tight, and AGW is AWOL.

Al Gore, the high priest of AGW theory, has closed all of his Alliance for Climate Protection field offices, and laid off 90 percent of his staff. Contributions have all but dried up since 2008.

Australia’s conservative government has severely curtailed the country’s climate change initiatives and is in the process of repealing its business-killing carbon tax. A group of German scientists predicts dramatic global cooling over the next 90 years toward a new “little ice age.”

Of course, even many “low information” folks have an awareness of the record increase in Arctic sea ice, as well as the current highly-publicized predicament of the cadre of wealthy global warmists stuck in record-high sea ice while on a cruise to the Antarctic to prove the absence of sea ice.

Now the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has quietly downgraded their prediction for global warming for the next 30 years in the final draft of their landmark “Fifth Assessment Report.” The effect of this is that they are tacitly admitting that the computer models they have religiously relied-upon for decades as “proof” of AGW theory are dead wrong.

The tipping point is near. I can smell it.

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Fish oil dramatically improves brain health

by Sandeep Godiyal

Researchers have known for quite some time that fish oil is highly beneficial to optimal human health. These benefits include better brain health, which is why so many manufacturers of infant milk substitutes rushed to add both DHA and omega-3 fatty acids, amino acids found in high quantities in fish, to their products. Some recent research has shown that these benefits go beyond the developing brains of the smallest people and can help people of all ages enjoy a dramatic increase in the health of their brains.

Much needed help for severe traumatic brain injuries

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that there are about 1.7 million brain injuries each year that can be classified as traumatic. Recent research literature highlights the use of large amounts of fish oil, which is very high in omega-3 fatty acids, to help with cases of brain injury that are classified as severe.

Severely brain injured teen defies odds

One such case is Grant Virgin. The 16-year-old from Palm Desert, California, was struck by a hitand-run driver while out for a walk. His resulting injuries were severe and necessitated him having to be airlifted from the scene and rushed to a trauma center nearby. Grant’s parents were given a long list of his injuries which included a torn aorta, spinal fractures and a traumatic brain injury consisting of bleeding throughout the brain and skull fractures.

Grant’s prognosis was grim – his doctors essentially told his parents that there was nothing further that could be done for the teen. He would never walk again, nor would he even be able to recognize members of his family. There was little to no hope of him ever being able to recover. Grant spent nine weeks in acute care at the trauma center before he was transferred to a rehabilitation hospital. It was at this time that his parents began to give him high doses – 20 grams – of fish oil each day. Though they had been giving fish oil to the teen while he was in acute care, the dosage was not as high.

Dramatic results

After just 48 hours, Grant awoke, asked for a cell phone and called his mother at midnight. She was so stunned that she thought she was dreaming until she visited the hospital the next day and discovered that a nurse had fetched a cell phone for Grant’s use the night before. Now, nearly 16 months after his accident, Grant continues to progress in his recovery.

Promise for the elderly brain as well

The developing brains of infants and teens are not the only ones who have been shown to benefit from using fish oil. Neurology, a medical journal, recently published the results of a study which showed that elderly women with high levels of omega-3s had better brain functioning. Regardless of an individual’s age, fish oil holds great promise to increase the health of their brain.

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TV propaganda and the mind control culture

by Marvin Ramirez

Marvin J. RamirezMarvin Ramirez

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: Many of you, my readers, have no idea of the destructive effects caused by the current television programming that is offered to the people. Programming that is geared at controlling our lives, behavior, in every aspect of our existence – by design, with one agenda in mind: to make of us slaves. This week’s edition is dedicated to that subject of mind control by television. I found the following article and the column next to this editorial, which expose those dangers to our mind and body.

by Sartre
Infowars.com

Few subjects present an indisputable window into modern society than the electronic version of reality that is dispensed through television broadcasts. This technology does not require interactive skills or critical thinking acumen. Just watch and fall into a daydream trance. TV is the stealth killer that penetrates 114.7 million American households. According to Nielsen, the 2012 Universe Estimate (UE), reflects a reduction in the estimated percent of U.S. homes with a television set (TV penetration), which declined to 96.7 percent from 98.9 percent. Should this turn down suggest promise or is it merely a result of internet substitution?

With the proliferation of cable channels and 24 hour programming, the landscape of TV addiction vastly impacts perception and dramatically excludes normal interpersonal relations. Melissa Melton cites the following in her article, TV: Your Mind. Controlled.

Television’s reporting on politics is miserable by any coherent standard of journalism. The business of television has little to do with an accurate chronicle of events or the meaning of decisions and actions. In order to understand the objectives of the content producers and the basic purpose behind the cultural soothsayers, a review of Mind Control Theories and Techniques used by Mass Media, which is a well-documented source that outlines how the mass media really operates, is useful. Examine the specifics and draw your own lessons.

“Mass media is the most powerful tool used by the ruling class to manipulate the masses. It shapes and molds opinions and attitudes and defines what is normal and acceptable. This article looks at the workings of mass media through the theories of its major thinkers, its power structure and the techniques it uses, in order to understand its true role in society.”

The conclusion of this account is a valid summary.

“Lippmann, Bernays and Lasswell have all declared that the public are not fit to decide their own fate, which is the inherent goal of democracy. Instead, they called for a cryptocracy, a hidden government, a ruling class in charge of the “bewildered herd.” As their ideas continue to be applied to society, it is increasingly apparent that an ignorant population is not an obstacle that the rulers must deal with: It is something that is DESIRABLE and, indeed, necessary, to insure total leadership. An ignorant population does not know its rights, does not seek a greater understanding of issues and does not question authorities. It simply follows trends. Popular culture caters to and nurtures ignorance by continually serving up brain-numbing entertainment and spotlighting degenerate celebrities to be idolized. Many people ask me: “Is there a way to stop this?” Yes, there is. STOP BUYING THEIR CRAP AND READ A BOOK.”

Such a sensible solution as turning off the misinformation screen is not an option for most of the typical dullards that think of themselves as normal and informed citizens.

Society is populated with marginally functional and enthusiastic compliant serfs. Contentment is judged by actions not merely by sentiment. An unquestioning and obedient populace perpetually distracted from serious issues and unaware of comprehending the linkage and ultimate aims behind world events, has always been the goal.

The most profound use of these media techniques usually deal with War & Peace: Media and War. Stanford University publishes this account by Johnnie Manzaria & Jonathon Bruck, Media’s Use of Propaganda to Persuade People’s Attitude, Beliefs and Behaviors.

“Propaganda is so powerful because everyone is susceptible to it. This is true as explained by Robert Cialdini, an expert in influence, because people exist in a rapidly moving and complex world. In order to deal with it, we need shortcuts.

We cannot be expected to recognize and analyze all the aspects in each person, event, and situation we encounter in even one day. We do not have the time, energy, or capacity to process the information; and instead we must very often use our stereotypes, our rules of thumb, to classify things according to a few key features and then to respond without thinking when one or another of these trigger feature are present (Cialdini6). While this makes people highly susceptible to a propagandist who understands persuasion, in general it is the most efficient form of behaving, and in other cases it is simply necessary.

Additionally, propaganda includes the reinforcement of societal myths and stereotypes that are so deeply embedded within a culture that it is often difficult to recognize the message as propaganda.”

The attitude that such practices are “most efficient form of behaving, and in other cases it is simply necessary”, is most disturbing and certainly fits the mold of how TV operates.The examples cited in this case study deal with foreign policy issues. However, the summary on How to Defend Against Propaganda, is worth a look.

“As a result of our increasing sophistication and to build our civilization, we have created and environment so complex, so fast-paced, and informationladen, that we must increasingly deal with it in the fashion of the animals we long ago transcended. Thus, from the case studies on how the media uses propaganda, we can understand that the media does more than presentation facts and information.

The media has the ability to exploit persuasive tactics to the specific definition of propaganda: the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person.”

Now ponder the disclaimer from this academia project: “We are not advocating that propaganda is wrong; we have tried to show, that overall it is usually helpful to respond to messages mindlessly, and that the truly only way to defend against it is to be more aware of the tactics being used.”Also referenced in this study is Phil Zimbardo.

1) Be aware of the general perspective that others use to frame the problem or issue at hand, because accepting their frame on their terms gives them a powerful advantage.

2) Be sensitive to situational demands however trivial they may seem: group norms, group pressures, symbols of authority, slogans, and commitments. Don’t believe in simple solutions to complex personal, social, and political problems.

3) In the end, it must be remembered that it is not enough to dissent vocally — one must be willing to disobey, to defy, to challenge, and to suffer any ensuing consequences of these actions.

Relate this thinking to the television broadcasts and series that occupy the gratuitous viewing of the general-public. It may be functionally realistic not to expect current event discernment from the mediocre crowd, but what motivates these distraction deprived viewers from absorbing the brainwashing message? Escape from reality probably is the most adept answer.

Nonetheless, the dependency on relinquishing individual responsibility and living under the principle of personal integrity is too difficult for most. The easy way out is to believe the junk fed from the TV screen.

Newspeak has become the dominant culture and TV is the chief vehicle for spreading the lies and deceit. Jack Blood provides a succinct summary in, TV = Mind Control (Why do you think they call it Programming?)

“Once again the system is at work, knowing how easy it is to control the minds of a dumbed down population that has been well trained, and some might say socially engineered, to never question authority, never think outside the box, never seek accountability and never think for itself. Easily manipulated, millions of people are conditioned to believe, from a very early age, that anything emanating from television is sacrosanct. Thus, everything they watch is reality and anything they hear is truth. Anchors and reporters become trusted personalities voicing reticent opinions whose veracity are seldom, if ever, questioned.
Is it not time to make a clean break from this self-induced imprisonment of images and sounds that spills out of the television machine?

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Mind control research and freedom

by Jon Rappoport
www.nomorefakenews.com

There is a whole brand of mind control that is little more than torture.

In other words, by inflicting duress, coercion, making threats, causing pain and disorientation, an “expert” can make a victim do and say many things. That’s no secret. There are obviously drugs and hypnotic techniques that will soften up a person and/or put him into tremendous confusion, where he is pliable. And microwaves create pain.

One of the foremost lunatic practitioners of torture was world-famous Canadian psychiatrist, Ewen Cameron, who carried out experiments on unwitting patients during the 1950s. Partially funded by a CIA front, Cameron’s method was called psychic driving.

After horrendous electric shocks, very heavy drugs were given to place patients in days of prolonged sleep. Cameron then subjected them to audio tapes he made, in which he repeated phrases thousands of times, in order to produce “new personalities” for them.

This is murderous coercion. There is nothing sophisticated about it.

A 2012 lawsuit filed by veterans’ groups, against the CIA and the DOD, refers to Cameron’s methods. The suit also states that two researchers, Dr. Louis West and Dr. Jose Delgado, working together under the early CIA MKULTRA subproject 95, utilized two protocols: brain implants (“stimoceivers”) and RHIC-EDOM to program the minds of victims. RHIC-EDOM stands for Radio Hypnotic Intracerebral Control-Electronic Dissolution of Memory.

Translation: bury memory, and insert new data. But here again, burying memory, the first phase, is achieved through force. The force of subjecting the brain to massive electromagnetic disruption.

Later and more sophisticated means of mind control can utilize loops, during which a person’s own brainwaves are fed back to him, along with suggestions.

But different people have different degrees of consciousness about their own thoughts and feelings.

No system exists which would make every person believe a thought planted in his brain is his own thought.

There is another gap. Just because certain naturally occurring brain waves can be read and recorded, this does not mean that feeding back those waves will result in “perfect reception” and integration by every person.

The third gap can be enormous, depending on the person. Thought in its basic form isn’t a product of the brain at all. The brain REFLECTS thought that is created by the person in a non-material space.

People who are aware of this wouldn’t fooled by brainwaves fed to them with suggestions.

As I’ve written before, the entire obsession with the brain is misplaced. If this organ is viewed as the fountainhead of all thought, then there is no such thing as freedom. Why? Because the brain, like every material object, is made up of tiny particles or waves that move according to physical laws—in which case the brain is just “another object” where the particles aggregate and mix and match.

There is absolutely nothing inherent in sub-atomic particles that would lead to a notion of free will.

The existence of freedom (choice) directly implies a non-material space. And a non-material individual who is inhabiting a physical form.

Mind control is most successful when inflicted on people who ALREADY have trouble making the distinction between what they think and believe, and what other people around them think and believe.

Ongoing research to take real-time pictures of brain activity is likely to focus on two major targets: people who hold very strong individualistic beliefs and those who are intensely creative.

The aim here is to introduce new brain activity that will cumulatively erode “the determination to believe” and the commitment to create. Why? Because those are distinct threats to a controlled status quo.

This research direction parallels a social propaganda campaign to eliminate the whole concept of “will power.” That phrase has become passe. It is now viewed by many people as a negative and essentially meaningless notion. In its place? Genetic determinism. DNA rules all. A person is what a person is because of his genes, and that’s the beginning and end of the story.

Never mind the fact that research along these lines has turned up precious little to explain human behavior. It’s a propagated myth of “science.” And it’s promoted for its social impact: “you can’t change what you are.”

It has always been true, since the dawn of time, that one person can force another person to take certain actions. But this is no mystery.

These days, with the use, say, of acoustic weapons or other forms of wave-disruption broadcasting, criminals can make people sick, make them feel pain or anger or fatigue—but this is really on the level of an electromagnetic “fist” to the head. Is it dangerous? Of course. But so is a concussion or a heavy blow to the gut or a bullet to the leg.

The people at the CIA, the Pentagon, DARPA, and other agencies, who are trying to change thought and behavior, are even crazier than they appear to be. They assume that the process of thought is so directly a product of the brain that they can make Thought A turn into Thought B with the flip of a switch. They have many surprises in store for them.

The major problem for humanity, vis-a-vis mind control, is the large number of people who already are only dimly aware of what they’re thinking and feeling. They can be manipulated with relative ease. But that is no surprise.

Nor is it a shock when people who are members of a cult do something horrendous to others or themselves. They’ve been subjected to social conditioning every day. They’ve bought the package. They’ve sworn allegiance to a leader. It takes relatively little to push them over the edge.

The SSRI antidepressants (Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, etc.) are themselves a form of mind control. They elicit, in some people, suicide and homicide. But this isn’t a precise process of switching off one thought and inserting another. This is the creation of a wholesale brain storm, in which neurotransmitters go haywire and scramble the brain and the nervous system. The person is literally being tortured, and he responds with violence.

The bottom-line issue in all these heinous methods is freedom of the individual. Freedom to think his thoughts, act on the basis of his chosen goals. Mind control advocates and researchers deny such freedom exists. For them, it’s just a matter of replacing one piece of equipment for another in what they believe humans are: biological machines.

It’s the end-game of philosophic Materialism.

See that. Know that. Understand it.

Jon Rappoport is the author of two explosive collections, the Matrix Revealed and Exit from the Matrix.

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Focus group for young professionals ages 40 and under

Compiled by the El Reportero’s staff

Grupo AquarelaGrupo Aquarela

The San Francisco Chamber is launching a new networking group for up and coming young professionals and we want your input. We are seeking young professionals ages 40 and under to participate in a focus group to discuss what you’d like to see in our new program. We will also be recruiting committee members and chair-persons for this new and exciting group. SFUP will be led and evolved through the leadership of people like you. Please join us.

On Thursday, Feb. 20, 2014, from 5:30-7 p.m., San Francisco, Chamber of Commerce, 235 Montgomery St., Suite 760, San Francisco

California renters to converge on the Capitol to demand relief

Ellis Act Reform, homes & jobs act, and renters’ rebate identified as top priorities renters’ day of action. Frustrated with surging rents and evictions, California renters will take to Sacramento for a Renters Day of Action on February 18, 2014. The event is being organized by Tenants Together, California’s statewide organization for renters’ rights. Hundreds of renters are expected to take to the Capitol for the Renters Day of Action.

The Renters’ Day of Action will be the first mass mobilization of tenants in Sacramento in decades. Renters seek to shift the dynamic in Sacramento in which politicians of both major parties are heavily funded by landlords and realtors and routinely ignore the needs of tenants.

There are over 15 million tenants in California, according to Census data.

Most are low and middle income and struggling for daily survival. Rents have soared, as have evictions by speculators. Meanwhile, basic safety net programs like the renters’ rebate have been slashed to the detriment of tenants statewide. March 10 a.m., rally at 11 a.m., Tuesday, Feb, 18 at the Capitol Building, North Steps, 11th & L Streets, Sacramento, California.

Brazilian Carnaval Ball – The Real Thing!

Brazilians can teach the world how to party. San Francisco’s premiere party makers, the Bay Area Brazilian Club, cast their mystic, joyous spell again on Saturday, March 1st. It’s the 47th Friends of Brazil Carnaval Ball Featuring direct from Brazil, back by popular demand, The Sotaque Baiano Band. Sotaque Baiano brings alive authentic, traditional Brazilian Carnaval, Samba Enredos, Pagode, Axé, Frevos, Trio Eletrico, traditional Marchinhas.

Also performing – the one and only Fogo na Roupa Escola de Samba, bringing the sounds of Olodum, Timbalada and Mama Africa, celebrating 25 years showcasing Brazilian/Latin culture in the Bay Area. And parading through the entire evening — colorful costumes, plumage and exotic dancers of the Aquarela Group. And not least of all, the in-sync DJ Ellen, DJ kblo, and more, playing non-stop music from 9:30 p.m. till 2 a.m. on March 1st, 2014.

At the lively night-spot “Roccapulco Super Club”, 3140 Mission St. (at Cesar Chaves St) in San Francisco.

Advance tickets are $30, available at Brazilian stores in the Bay Area. Tickets also online at Brazilian events.com Tickets will also be sold at the door. For more info: www.FriendsofBrazil.org or call us at 415-587-4990, or 415-425-7242. Plenty of free parking around Roccapulco Club and in parking lots for small fee.

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German Film Festival screens film looking at Mexican emigration to the U.S.

by the El Reportero news services

Salma HayekSalma Hayek

The drama of Mexican immigration to the United States is depicted in “Los Angeles,” a film by American director John Harper that honors the largely forgotten figures of that exodus.

Harper lived for long periods in the Zapotec Indian town of Santa Ana del Valle in southern Mexico, where he shot the film.

The director dispensed with professional actors for the work and wanted the residents of the town to play the characters.

“They are people with a lot of heart. They are intelligent people with a profound humanity,” Harper told Efe, adding that he was “affected (by) … such a strong” community where “they take care of each other.”

The film, which is in the Forum category at the film festival in Germany’s capital, uses both the Zapotec and Spanish languages and tells the story of Mateo, a 17-year-old boy who dreams of traveling to the U.S. city that gives the film its name in search of a better future for himself and his family.

Harper’s work, on the other hand, also captures the lives of the people who return to their hometown after many years only to realize that they have become strangers there, and it also deals with the role of mothers, who are defined in the film as the true supporting figures in the Zapotec community.

“I know several men who were away for a long time, worked, returned and there was a lot of conflict,” Harper said.

The emigrants encounter difficulties upon returning and having “once again (to find) their niche within the family, within the community, within the society,” the director said.

Salma Hayek joins cast of “The Septembers of Shiraz”

Mexican actress Salma Hayek has been cast in the political drama “The Septembers of Shiraz,” the story of a Jewish family caught up in Iran’s 1981 Islamic revolution, The Hollywood Reporter said.

Hayek will be accompanied in the cast by Shoreh Aghdashloo, a 2003 Oscar nominee for “House of Sand and Fog.” The movie, an adaptation of the like-named novel by Dalia Sofer, will be directed by Wayne Blair (“The Sapphires”).

Actor Gerard Butler will produce the film together with partners Alan Siegel and Heidi Jo Markel.

The thriller is based on events that really happened – Sofer was 10 years old when her family escaped from Iran – and centers on the character of a gem merchant in prison who fights to rejoin the rest of his family to leave Tehran.

Hayek plays the long-suffering wife of the main character (a part not yet cast), while Aghdashloo represents the housekeeper whose son once worked for the man in jail.

The filming is planned to start in April.

The Mexican actress will soon be seen in a small role in “Muppets Most Wanted,” to premiere March 21.

“I have a very little cameo,” Hayek said recently. “But I’m very excited because I’m (my daughter Valentina’s) hero now.”

Argentina sets record for longest salami in the Americas

Argentina now holds the record for making the longest salami in the Americas, after presenting a spicy sausage 16 meters (52 feet) long and weighing 45 kilos (100 pounds) at a festival in the town of Tandil in Buenos Aires province, the organizers told Efe.

The salami was presented Friday evening by the Council of the Guarantee of Quality “Salame de Tandil” at the Sierra Festival in that town some 350 kilometers (220 miles) south of the Argentine capital, council spokesman Mariano Frias told Efe.

Salame de Tandil is made with raw materials from this mountainous region, located some 350 kilometers (220 miles) south of Buenos Aires, and is between 54 and 60 percent pork, between 18 and 21 percent beef, and 20-25 percent pork fat.

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Boxing

The Sport of Gentlemen

Boxing” de Molina

Saturday, February 22 – Macao, China (HBO) –

Lightweights: Miguel Vazquez (33-3, 13 KOs) vs. Denis Shaflikov (33-0-1, 18 KOs).

Saturday, March 1 – San Antonio, Texas (HBO) –

Featherweights: Orlando Salido (40-12-2, 28 KOs) vs. Vasyl Lomachenko (1-0, 1 KOs).

Saturday, March 1 – Glasgow, Scotland –

Lightweights: Ricky Burns (36-2-1, 11 KOs) vs. Terence Crawford (22-0, 16 KOs).

Saturday, March 1 – Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany

Junior lightweights: Robert Stieglitz (46-3, 26 KOs) vs. Arthur Abraham (38-4, 28 KOs).

Saturday, March 1 – Johannesburg, South Africa –

Minimumweights: Hekkie Budler (24-1, 7 KOs) vs. Karluis Diaz (21-4, 14 KOs).

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Wind megaproject at Isthmus of Tehuantepec moved due to indigenous communities opposition

Wind farm project in Oaxaca, México. (PHOTO BY ORSETTA BELLANI)

by Orsetta Bellini

The mega wind farm project that the company Mareña Renovable wanted to build in Santa Teresa (Oaxaca, Mexico) is dead. This is what spokesman Maurice Wilbrink said, from Dutch pension PGGM – which has a stake in transnational Mareña Renovable – in a January 8, 2014 interview with newspaper De Telegraaf. According to Wilbrink the project, which plans to invest one billion dollars for the construction of 132 wind turbines that will produce 396 megawatts, will be moved from the bar of Santa Teresa (Municipality of San Dionisio del Mar) to the nearby towns of El Espinal and Juchitan.

In December 2012 the Mexican Wind Energy Association (AMDEE), which brings together the leading companies in this sector, already had 15 wind farms in the isthmus. The proliferation of wind turbines in this area known as the Isthmus of Tehuantepec is motivated by the findings of the Atlas of Wind Resources of the State of Oaxaca, published in 2004 by the Department of Energy and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which claims that the wind potential of much of the isthmus is “excellent.” In addition, the atlas asserts that communities would receive social and economic benefits of renewable energy.

However, until now the benefits from the sale of this energy considered “green” did not reach the residents of the area, but the wind companies that sell electricity (Iberdrola, Acciona, CFE, Enel Green Power, Gamesa, Cemex Peñoles, Eléctrica del Valle de Mexico, Renovalia, Demex) and those who buy it. Wind farms working under a “self-sufficiency” scheme, which stipulates that the energy produced is not enjoyed by the local population, but by large corporations such as Nestlé, Coca-Cola Femsa, Bimbo, Nissan and Mitsubishi.

“The companies divided our territory, in the same way the Spanish did when they arrived in America,” complains Bettina Cruz Velázquez, a member of the Assembly of Indigenous Peoples of the Isthmus in Defense of Land and Territory. “I recognize that there is a global concern about climate change, but what drives our business is to turn our air into money. Green energy is a for profit business cheating communities, destroy our way of life and threaten our food sovereignty, forcing displacement”.

The decision to halt the construction of wind turbines in the bar of Santa Teresa, a strip of about 27 km of sand and mangroves, has been adopted because of the opposition by the Oaxacan indigenous communities. For months, the community Álvaro Obregón blocked the only land access to the bar of Santa Teresa, while in San Dionisio del Mar residents occupied the town hall.

“When they started doing studies there was a massive fish kill. Here we live of fishing and we get our daily food from Santa Teresa. We do not want this project and fighting became very strong after the mayor Miguel López Castilian was sold to the company, signing permission for their entry,” tells a commoner of San Dionisio del Mar who preferred to remain anonymous.

Clampdown against those opposing the project has been strong, with the actions by public security forces and shock groups of PRI (affiliated to ruling party PRI). In February 2013, Oaxaca Governor Gabino Cue Monteagudo said that he would make “all necessary action to prevent such a major investment is withdrawn from the state.”

In fact, although the struggle by communities has been successful, the investment has not been removed from the state of Oaxaca, moving the problem only a few miles away.

According to De Telegraaf, statements by Maurice Wilbrink, spokesman of Dutch pension PGGM, in El Espinal the consultation with local residents is more or less complete and in the city of Juchitan it will begin shortly for the construction of the wind farm starting in the first quarter of this year. The lack of consultation with the communities affected by the project – a mechanism provided by Convention 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples of the International Labour Organization (ILO), and some national laws – was one of the facts that led a local court to temporarily suspend the construction of the project on October 9, 2013.

In addition, the Mareña Renovable´s wind farm is illegal because, as in many other wind farms in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, it wants to occupy a land that is not private but communal. “This land ownership belongs to the community, families have the usufruct without owning it,” says attorney Raul Gonzalez Rangel. “Only the community assembly can give the company the right to operate.”

Yet there were not community assemblies to authorize the construction of wind turbines: for the right of possession of the land for 30 years, representatives of companies are going house to house, asking peasant families to sign unfair contracts where they fix the amounts for the payment of land lease, promising work, development and investment in infrastructure.

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Mexico’s Peña Nieto rocked by Michoacán mayhem

by the El Reportero’s wire services

Enrique Peña NietoEnrique Peña Nieto

Despite his level best effort to divert the focus away from insecurity in Mexico since taking office in December 2012, President Enrique Peña Nieto was compelled to take urgent action this week when the conflict-torn south-western state of Michoacán was thrust into the global media spotlight.

The interior minister, Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, announced that federal forces would take charge of security in the inflamed area of Tierra Caliente in Michoacán after meeting Governor Fausto Vallejo in the state capital, Morelia, on 13 January. The catalyst for the deployment of hundreds of soldiers and 2,000 members of the federal police (PF) was the imminent risk of a blood bath in Apatzingán, a city of 90,000. ‘Self-defence groups’ had taken control of much of the surrounding area in the previous week, and announced that they would drive the drug trafficking organisation (DTO) Los Caballeros Templarios (LCT) out of the city. Reported Latin News.

Mexican Federal Police takes control in southern Michoacan

The Mexican Federal Police with the support of Army now controls security in the entire southern region of Michoacan, where the government launched an operation this week because of the growing violence.

In a joint statement, the Ministries of the Interior (Segob) and National Defense (Sedena) emphasized that none of the actions in the different municipalities arose incidents. The takeover by the elements of the Executive occurs within a week of the head of the Interior Ministry, Miguel Angel Osorio, and the governor of Michoacan, Fausto Vallejo, signed the agreement to support the security of the state.

The forces led by the Federal Police, with the support of Army concluded the task of assuming police responsibility in all the municipalities that are facing operational action, government agencies said. As part of the actions, the military destroyed three marijuana plantations located in the town of Aquila, with a combined area of 3500 square meters.

At the same time, the Department of Defense concluded the collection of weapons from the local police for review and evaluation in accordance with the collective license for these corporations. As a result of this disarmament, 393 municipal police officers from Huetamo, Miigica, Aquila, Gabriel Zamora, Parácuaro, Ario de Rosales, Coahuayana, New Urecho and Chinicuila were taken for evaluation at the Center for Regional Training of the Sixth Military Region, in Tlaxcala.

The text also refers that the government sent this week 11 helicopter to reinforce security tasks confronting the actions of the The Templar Knights cartel and the extent of self-defense groups. These groups of armed civilians, emerged in February 2013, have expanded their presence in the area of Michoacán to deal with organized crime members accused of crimes such as extortion, kidnapping, theft and murder. Amid increasing insecurity, the Mexican administration called selfdefense groups to be integrated into the police or leave their weapons and return to their places of origin. By Prensa Latina.

Forestry model violates rights of Chilean Mapuche, study says

The current forestry model in Chile violates the rights of the Mapuche people and is an obstacle to its development, a study revealed today.

An investigation of the City Observatory and the International Work Group on Indigenous Peoples notes that Decree 701 of 1974 is harmful to the community.

The initiative aims to promote the exotic tree plantations on native forest care, causing irreparable damage to biodiversity and the Mapuches, the study stresses.
Quoted by radio station Radio Universidad de Chile, Pablo Huaiquilao, forestry engineer member of the Pewun Kimun Corporation, stated that it is large-scale monoculture exotic model.

“The state subsidizes it and generates money with subsidy of the Mapuches, we are those who pay the costs”, the expert said.

According to the City Observatory, despite it “ensure prevention of degradation, protection and recovery of soils of the national territory”, the decree is harmful because “nor the companies, nor the State have been responsible for the adverse effects.”

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U.S. Army continues cover-up of secret experimentation 65 years later

Pentagon moves to block release of court documents

by Adan Salazar

The D.O.D. and U.S. Army are attempting to delay a court order that would force them to provide certain notice to Vietnam veterans disclosing the extent to which they had secretly been used as test subjects for experimentation during the Cold War.

The federal lawsuit, filed by Vietnam Veterans of America as well as individual soldiers, has dragged on since January 2009, and requests the Army disclose details about covert testing performed during “Project Paperclip,” an operation through which the U.S. Office of Strategic Services recruited Nazi scientists for “postwar intelligence purposes.”

“With the help of Nazi scientists recruited through ‘Project Paperclip,’ the Army and CIA used at least 7,800 veterans as human guinea pigs at the Edgewood Arsenal, [Maryland] alone,” the veterans’ class action suit states.

Starting in the 50s, the Army casually went about using troops to research the effects of various psychoactive elements on the human mind. “[T]he U.S. government sought drugs to control human behavior, cause confusion, promote weakness or temporary loss of hearing and vision, induce hypnosis, and enhance a person’s ability to withstand torture,” the lawsuit states.

“These experiments also used civilian ‘volunteers’ such as college students, who were paid small sums to participate, or prisoners,” the complaint alleges.

Carried out under project names such as “Bluebird,” “Pandora,” “Monarch,” “Artichoke” and “MKUltra,” subjects were unknowingly “administered at least 250 and perhaps as many as 400 types of drugs, among them Sarin, one of the most deadly drugs known, amphetamines, barbiturates, mustard gas, phosgene gas and LSD,” in efforts to develop drugs that would produce the desired effects.

“Defendants videotaped many of the experiments involving ‘volunteers; at Edgewood, as evidence by releases signed by many of the ‘volunteers.’ Varying doses of each substance were administered to the ‘volunteers,’ typically through multiple pathways, including through intravenous, inhalation, oral and percutaneous,” the suit states (.pdf).

It is also alleged chemicals administered were “above the known toxic threshold,” and left many service members suffering “excruciating pain, blackouts, memory loss, hallucinations, flashbacks, trauma, psychotic disorders, and other lasting health problems.”

“The crux of the veterans’ argument,” reports Courthouse News, “is that the Administrative Procedure Act obligates the defendants to provide notice to test subjects and to provide them medical care.”

Additionally, plaintiffs are citing a 1962 Army regulation mandating that experiment participants “will be told as much of the nature, duration, and purpose of the experiment, the method and means by which it is to be conducted, and the inconveniences and hazards to be expected, as will not invalidate the results.”

Among several claims for relief, the veterans are chiefly seeking the disclosure of medical information “concerning all tests conducted on Plaintiffs (including any results thereof),” as well as a court order “stating Defendants’ duty to provide Plaintiffs with all necessary medical treatment on an ongoing basis is mandatory.”

Whistleblower: Google Chrome can listen to your conversations Programmer goes public four months after company failed to fix exploit

by Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com

Whistleblower who privately informed Google four months ago that their Chrome browser had the ability to record conversations without the user’s knowledge has gone public after the tech giant failed to fix the issue.

In the video above, the programmer explains how Google Chrome’s speech recognition function remains operational even after the user has left the website on which they gave permission for the browser to record their voice.

“When you click the button to start or stop the speech recognition on the site, what you won’t notice is that the site may have also opened another hidden pop under window. This window can wait until the main site is closed, and then start listening in without asking for permission. This can be done in a window that you never saw, never interacted with, and probably didn’t even know was there,” writes the whistleblower. The video shows a pop-under browser window recording and typing the programmer’s words as she speaks. The window can be disguised as an advertising banner so the user has no indication that Chrome is listening to their voice, whether that be on the phone, talking to someone on Skype, or merely having a conversation with someone near the computer.

The exploit is a “serious security breach” that has compromised the privacy of millions of Google Chrome users, according to the programmer, who warns, “as long as Chrome is still running, nothing said next to your computer is private.”

The exploit turns Google Chrome into an “espionage tool,” adds the programmer, noting that the recording function can be activated by the use of sensitive keywords and be passed on “to your friends at the NSA.”

The programmer reported the exploit to Google on September 19 last year and was met with assurances that it would be quickly fixed. However, despite apparently fixing the bug within two weeks, the update was never released to Chrome users, with Google telling the programmer, “Nothing is decided yet.”

As far back as 2006, we warned that computers would use in-built microphones to spy on users. We also revealed how digital cable boxes had embedded microphones that had the capability of recording conversations since the late 1990’s.

As we have previously highlighted, terms of agreement for both Android and iPhone apps now require users to agree to allow their microphone to be activated at any time without confirmation before they can download the app. Facebook’s term’s of agreement also allow the social network giant to record your phone calls, read your phone’s call log and “read data about contacts stored on your phone, including the frequency with which you’ve called, emailed or communicated in other ways with specific individuals.”

We are now fully ensconced in a world that even George Orwell would have laughed off as inconceivable. Embedded microphones in everything from Xbox Kinect consoles to high-tech street lights that can record private conversations in real time represent the final nail in the coffin of privacy.

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