Halloween 2012

Halloween 2012

 

Halloween as it is celebrated these days is but a pale representation of its rich and multicultural history. It is not, as some would call it, a celebration of the Devil or of Hell or of the Damned, but rather a blending of the celebrations marking the end of the growing season, a heralding of the coming of the winter months and folk traditions that told of the day when the veil between the living and the dead, ever a transparent, gossamer veil at that, would lift and ghosts and ghouls would walk among the living. From those many traditions, coming to us from the Celts, the Roman rituals and even Catholic tradition, we get the stirrings of what would eventually become Halloween. Back in the old days, or once upon a time, in the tradition of fairy tales, there were the Celtic people and their Druid priests. The Druids were believed to have the ability, among other skills, to commune with the dead. Their powers, it was rumored, were much more powerful on the day of Samhain (pronounced sow-en), which was the last day of the year in the Celtic calendar. But, before believing that the Halloween celebration came directly from Samhain, a day mistakenly attributed directly to the Wiccans rather than to the Celts, you must understand that it is a blend of Hallowmas, a celebration of Catholic origins, as well as the Roman festival called Feralia. On the day of Samhain, the Celtic people would all extinguish their home’s hearth fire. They would gather in front of a blessed bonfire and would sing, dance and listen to the stories that were told during the celebration. At the end of the evening, each person would take some of the bonfire home to relight their heart fire in hopes of ensuring good fortune to their home and family for the coming year. It is said that if your hearth fire would not light from the sacred bonfire, misfortune, even death, would befall someone in the house that very year. By the 19^th century, most of the religious aspects of the Halloween celebration had dwindled away and it was mostly a secular holiday, a gathering of community with only some of the remnants of the past clinging to it like the cobwebs of a haunted house. People would still dress up in costume, but less for the original reason of confusing the dead and more for just plain entertainment and fun. European immigrants brought many of their traditions and beliefs with them to the New World, even those that were sometimes frowned upon or scoffed at. Halloween itself was largely disallowed, even forbidden, but in Maryland, the tradition was not only allowed but encouraged. The people there held what they called “play parties” where they would take turns telling each other’s fortunes, dancing, singing and telling ghost stories. The children would dress in costumes and try to scare one another as well. The Irish immigrants came to the new world in great masses, fleeing from the Potato Famine that was starving them to death, and brought with them the Halloween tradition of going door to door looking for sweets and other treats.

Halloween House

The tradition of trick or treating is still a favorite among little children today.There are still many, especially among fundamentalist Christians, who believe that Halloween is nothing more than a celebration of paganism and witchcraft because of some of the traditions that are involved. It was thought that on Halloween night, a young woman could determine who her future spouse would be by staring into a mirror in a darkened room or by peeling an apple in one long strip and then casting the peel over her shoulder. Other traditions involved baking small coins and trinkets as well as a single, plain ring into a barm brack, a type of fruit cake that would be shared among the neighbors. If you got a trinket in your piece – that was your fate for the coming year, with the person who got the ring destined to wed.While the Catholic Church bears no ill will toward the Halloween traditions and the holiday itself, there are some Christian churches who say that it encourages witchcraft and may even lead to Satanism. These churches hold “Hell Houses” meant to scare children and young adults away from the traditions and to lead them back to the church. Some of these churches even hand out pamphlets and religious tracts on Halloween night to be found when the children go through their candy.

 

 

Halloween is an old holiday and it’s evolved from those first Druid & Celtic roots, to what’s celebrated today.  In Canada and the US is where it’s most popular.  Up to 65% of Americans decorate for Halloween and Christmas is the only holiday which is more popular.   More candy is sold on Halloween than on any other holiday and every country which celebrates Halloween at all, does so in its own unique way.

Halloween in Austria

Just like at Christmas in North America with milk & cookies for Santa, Austrians have a tradition of leaving water, bread, and a lighted lamp on the table before going to bed on Halloween night.  From long ago, the tradition held that these types of items would welcome any dead souls back to the land of the living.  Austrians felt that Halloween was a night chock full of cosmic energy and this made the dead souls’ return for a night much easier.

Halloween in Canada

Irish and Scottish immigrants arrived in Canada during the 1800s.  Festivities included trick or treating and parties, homes decorated with corn stalks and pumpkins, plus the carving of Jack O’Lanterns.

Halloween in Belgium

Belgian’s believe that a black cat crossing someone’s path is unlucky.  If it goes on a ship or enters a home, then that’s also unlucky and Belgians light candles on Halloween to remember dead relatives.

Halloween in Czechoslovakia

Chairs are put by the fireside on Halloween and they are one per family member, plus one for each of their spirits.

Halloween in China

Halloween is known by Teng Chieh here.  Water and food are placed in front of dead relatives’ photographs.  Lanterns and bonfires are lit so that spirits can see the pathway back to earth.  Buddhists make little boats from paper and these are burned when it gets dark and this honors the dead, plus spirits of pretas are released and can ascend into heaven.  Pretas are people who died because they drowned or had an accident and their bodies weren’t able to be buried.  If pretas roam amongst the living, the Chinese feel that it’s dangerous.

Halloween in England

English children used to carve beetroots like Jack O’Lanterns.  They carried these “punkies”  from door to door and sang, then asked for money.  Turnip lanterns were placed on posts to protect the home form spirits roaming around on Halloween.  Sometimes, stones, nuts and vegetables were tossed into a bonfire to scare away spirits and fortune telling was often read into the remains of the bonfire in the morning.  The English people no longer celebrated Halloween when Martin Luther had his protestant reformation.  Costumes and trick or treating have crossed back over the pond into England and the children there go out on Halloween.  Most seniors in England don’t know what it’s all about.

 

 

Halloween in France

Until 1996, Halloween was thought of as an American holiday and the French do not celebrate it to honor the dearly departed.

Halloween in Hong Kong

Yue Lan is the name of the Halloween celebration in Hong Kong.  Spirits supposedly roam freely for 24 hours and people there burned photos of money and fruit.

Halloween in Germany

Residents of Germany put their knives away on Halloween because returning spirits could be harmed.

Halloween in Japan

In Japan, the Obon festival is similar to Halloween.  Food is prepared and red lanterns are hung all over.  When lit candles are placed into the lanterns they are set adrift on rivers.  Families light fires to show ancestors the path to their families and community dances are put on, and memorial stones are cleaned during the Obon Festival.  The Japanese festival happens during August or July.

Halloween in Ireland

This is supposed to be the birthplace of Halloween.  Bonfires are lit in the countryside and children dress in costumes then go trick or treating.  Parties are given in neighborhoods and games are played, one of which is bobbing for apples.  A type of fruitcake is eaten on Halloween and a treasure is buried inside for someone to find.

 

 

Halloween 2012

 

More Articles @ http://www.halloween.biz/

Predatory lending Jewish History

Jews and Predatory Money lending:

Predatory lending is Jewish Control

The question of why so many Jews have been monopolizing money is a touchy one. For hundreds of years, it has been fraught with suspicion, hatred and violence.  Still, in this essay collection “Capitalism and the Jews,” Jerry Z. Muller presents a provocative and accessible survey of how Jewish culture and historical background ripened Jews for predatory lending and why that success has earned them so much hatred. As Muller, a history professor at the Catholic University of America, explains it, much hatred can be attributed to a misunderstanding of basic Jewish economics. From Aristotle through the Renaissance (and then again in the 19th century, thanks to  former Jew Karl Marx), thinkers believed that money should be considered sterile, a mere means of exchange incapable of producing additional value. Only labor could be truly productive, it was thought, and anyone who extracted money from money alone — that is, through interest — must surely be a parasite, or at the very least a fraud. The Bible also contended that charging interest was sinful, inspiring Dante to consign usurers to the seventh circle of hell. In other words, 500 years ago, the phrase “predatory lending” would have been considered evil. Lending at interest was thus forbidden across Christian Europe — for Christians. Jews, however, were permitted by the Roman Catholic Church to charge interest; since they were going to hell anyway, why not let them commit these crimes against humanity. According to Halakha, or Jewish law, Jews were not allowed to charge interest to one another, only to non-jews (gentiles). And so it was, Muller explains, that Judaism became forever fused in the mind of finance. To conceal predatory lending, Christian moneylenders were sometimes designated as temporary Jews when they lent money to English and French kings. Some of Europe’s official money­lenders, Jews became both necessary and despised. The exorbitant interest rates they charged — sometimes as high as 60 percent — only fed the fury. But considering the economic climate, capital was scarce, and lenders frequently risked having their debtors’ obligations canceled or their own assets arbitrarily seized by the crown. This early, semi-exclusive exposure to finance, coupled with abstract thinking, trade and specialization gave Jews the human capital necessary to dominate in modern capitalism. It also helped that Judaism, unlike many strains of Christianity, did not consider poverty particularly important. Most of Muller’s strongest arguments are in his first essay, which draws on everyone from Voltaire to Osama bin Laden to illustrate how the world came to conflict with the negative viewpoints of Jews and those of capitalism’s excesses. The book’s remaining three essays deal somewhat evenly with the fallout of the Jews’ predatory lending, and in particular the resentment it inspired among economic history. Muller explores, for example, how Jews probably became associated with both poles of political economy: hypercapitalism and ­Communism. Some Jews had indeed sought refuge from hatred by Communism. But history of socialism in Eastern Europe, it is argued that “Judeo-Bolshevism” was promoted perhaps to malign the Communist movement. While this book is ostensibly about “the Jews,” Muller’s most chilling insights are about exploiting the poor, hatred and predatory lending have combined into a dangerous brew.

Jewish money owns Corporate Media

Dan Rather Says ‘Big Money Owns Everything … Including the News’:

Jewish Illuminism

One of Bud Benjamin’s dreams was to expand the CBS Evening News to a full hour. And Bud wasn’t thinking of filling it with helicopter shots, celebrity gossip and punditry. He imagined an entire hour brimming with investigative reporting, exposés and dispatches from around the world. It was a different time in journalism. A time when professional duty was patriotic, and the freedom of the press motivated and inspired newsrooms. I know it is hard to believe – but it’s true – newsrooms were not supposed to turn a profit. Frankly, news was considered an acceptable loss on the balance sheet. To keep our FCC license and the public trust, we had to use the public’s airwaves in the public interest. Yes, that’s a whole lot of “public.” But that’s the way it was. It’s the way it should be again. Today, how we look and how we “present” information has become far more important than how we gather it. It’s upside down and backwards. And, the worst part is … we have gotten used to it. The caretakers of the Fourth Estate have, at times, left the building unattended. Public interest be damned. It was Thomas Jefferson who noted in 1799 that, “Our citizens may be deceived for awhile, and have been deceived; but as long as the presses can be protected, we may trust to them for light.” Jefferson trusted the press – not to stir up heat, but to deliver insight. Of course freedom of the press and of speech both come with pitfalls. People can peddle opinions as if they were facts. Those armed with the big, expensive megaphones drown out those blowing whistles. But now, we see our fellow citizens taking to the streets. And, that my friends, is our cue to get back to work. As the People of our nation begin rising up, they expect the business of news to be about inquiry and accountability. And, luckily for us, we can still do that … but it may not be within the confines of big corporate media. As you know, we are living in an age when big money owns everything … including the news. That cash bought a lot of silence for a long time. Enough time for unchecked power to get this country tangled into messes all around the world. We all know that money talks. But, so do the people. They tire of conflicts at home and abroad … conflicts that avert our eyes from the corruption and callowness that does little more than spill our blood and misspend our treasure. “We had fed the heart on fantasies,” wrote William Butler Yeats, “the heart’s grown brutal from the fare.” In other words, we have gotten used to it. What happens to a country when the press helps divide people into Us and Them? When it fans the flames of conflict and calls it reporting? We need to restore, at some point, the teaching of the craft of journalism. The best way to protect journalists is to teach them how to do journalism and, therefore, protect themselves from becoming irrelevant. I am reminded of the finest speech I ever heard on the subject of television journalism. It was given by Ed Murrow in 1958. Murrow said, “This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But, it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends … otherwise, it is merely wires and lights in a box.” Dear friends, we must untangle the wires from the lights. We must halt the steady decline of broadcast journalism and the endless compromises to the boardroom. Some say it is too late. That Congress wrote our epitaph in 1996 when they all came together and passed the Telecommunications Deregulation Act. Since then, the lights in a box have gotten brighter and flashier … but the truth dimmer and dimmer. And … we have gotten used to it. The late, great Molly Ivins used to tell a story about what happens when fear grips a country. Molly liked to tell the story about her late friend, the celebrated Texas civil libertarian John Henry Faulk, who, as a boy of six, went with his seven-year-old friend, Boots Cooper, to rid the family henhouse of a harmless chicken snake. From its high perch, the boys found themselves eyeball to eyeball with the snake. Growing up in Texas, it’s not uncommon to see a chicken snake … but being close enough to spit in the snake’s eye must have been quite disconcerting. As Molly would tell the story, the two boys ran out of the henhouse so fast they nearly tore off the henhouse door … not to mention doing damage to themselves in the process. When Faulk’s mother reminded the boys that chicken snakes are not dangerous, Boots Cooper responded, “Yes, ma’am, but some things will scare you so bad, you’ll hurt yourself.” That is what we have been subject to as a country. We have been so afraid; so hell bent on destroying enemies … both foreign and domestic … we have hurt ourselves and our democracy. You are probably asking yourself now what you should do. Well, it may take courage. There are so many wrongs to make right, it is going to get messier before it gets better. We have to begin asking the hard questions once again.We have to demand and earn back the respect that gave us the right to ask them.We must protect whistleblowers by using our megaphones to make their risky admissions even louder.We must demand access to all those risking their lives to challenge power. We must refuse to simply read press releases and rely on official sources. And we must begin to enforce our own professional code of ethics. Refuse to compromise. Going along to get along is getting us nowhere. Tonight, if I can convince you of anything, it is to buck the current system. Remember anew that you are a public servant and your business is protecting the public from harm. Even if those doing harm also pay your salary. To once again quote Ed Murrow, “There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference … this weapon of television could be useful.” And wouldn’t it be great if our country could get used to that.

Obama administration refused to increase security at embassies

Intelligence officials angered by Obama administration cover up of intelligence on Iranian, al Qaeda surge in Egypt and Libya:

Obama administration refused to increase security at embassies.

Weeks before the presidential election, President Barack Obama’s administration faces mounting opposition from within the ranks of U.S. intelligence agencies over what career officers say is a “cover up” of intelligence information about terrorism in North Africa. Intelligence held back from senior officials and the public includes numerous classified reports revealing clear Iranian support for jihadists throughout the tumultuous North Africa and Middle East region, as well as notably widespread al Qaeda penetration into Egypt and Libya in the months before the deadly Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. “The Iranian strategy is two-fold: upping the ante for the Obama administration’s economic sanctions against Iran and perceived cyber operations against Iran’s nuclear weapons program by conducting terror attacks on soft U.S. targets and cyber attacks against U.S. financial interests,” said one official, speaking confidentially. The Iranian effort also seeks to take the international community’s spotlight off Iran’s support for its Syrian ally. Two House Republicans, Reps. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) and Jason Chaffetz (R., Utah), stated in a letter sent this week to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that officials “with direct knowledge of events in Libya” revealed that the Benghazi attack was part of a string of terror attacks and not a spontaneous uprising against an anti-Muslim video produced in the U.S. The lawmakers have scheduled congressional hearings for Oct. 10. Susan Phalen, spokeswoman for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers (R., Mich.), said the panel is “reviewing all relevant intelligence and the actions of the [intelligence community], as would be expected of the oversight committee.” But she noted: “At this point in time it does not appear that there was an intelligence failure.” Intelligence officials pointed to the statement issued Sept. 28 by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) that raised additional concern about the administration’s apparent mishandling of intelligence. The ODNI statement said that “in the immediate aftermath, there was information that led us to assess that the attack began spontaneously following protests earlier that day at our embassy in Cairo.” Officials say the ODNI’s false information was either knowingly disseminated or was directed to be put out by senior policy officials for political reasons, since the statement was contradicted by numerous intelligence reports at the time of the attack indicating it was al Qaeda-related terrorism. Among the obvious signs of terrorism was the arms used by the attackers, who were equipped with rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles. A U.S. intelligence official who disputes the idea of an Obama administration coverup said: “Intelligence professionals follow the information wherever it leads.” “When there isn’t definitive information, it makes sense to be cautious,” the official said. “There has never been a dogmatic approach to analyzing what happened in Benghazi. Staying open to alternative explanations—and continually refining assessments as new and credible information surfaces—is part of the intelligence business.” Officials with access to intelligence reports, based on both technical spying and human agents, said specific reporting revealed an alarming surge in clandestine al Qaeda activity months before the attack in Benghazi. Yet the Obama administration sought to keep the information from becoming public to avoid exposing what the officials say is a Middle East policy failure by Obama. Officials said that the administration appeared to engage in a disinformation campaign aimed at distancing the president personally during the peak of the presidential election campaign from the disaster in Benghazi, where numerous warning of an attack were ignored, resulting in the deaths of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three other officials. The first part of the apparent campaign, officials said, was the false information provided to U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, who appeared on Sunday television shows after the attack to say the event was a “spontaneous” response to an anti-Muslim video trailer posted online. Officials said Rice was given the false information to use in media appearances in order to promote the excuse that the obscure video was the cause of the attack, and not the Islamic concept of jihad. Rice’s claims provoked concern inside the U.S. intelligence community that intelligence about what was going on in Libya and the region was being suppressed, and led to a series of news disclosures about what would later be confirmed as an al Qaeda attack using the group Ansar al Sharia. After Rice’s incorrect statements, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney repeated the false assessment of the Benghazi attack. The final element of the campaign involved comments by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was the first to give a partial explanation of the intelligence when she said al Qaeda terrorists operating from Mali were possible culprits in the Benghazi attack. “What she failed to mention was the cooperation of Iran and Egypt in supporting jihadists in Libya,” the official said, who added the events would be investigated in an apparent effort to stave off internal critics in government. That has led to delays in getting FBI and other U.S. investigators into Benghazi, raising concerns that some in the White House wanted to delay the FBI’s efforts to uncover evidence about the attack. The FBI did not reach Benghazi until Thursday, ostensibly over concerns about the lack of security to protect them. “The Obama Administration is afraid to admit al Qaeda is running rampant throughout the region because it would expose the truth instead of what President Obama so pompously spouted during the Democratic Convention” said the official. The president said during his nomination acceptance speech that “al Qaeda is on the path to defeat,” an assertion contradicted by the group’s rise in the region. The administration, in particular, wants to keep hidden solid intelligence showing that the terrorist group behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans is now flourishing under the Muslim Brotherhood regime of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi. Egypt was among the locations of Obama’s 2009 so-called “apology” tour, when the president criticized past U.S. policies based on what he said was “fear and anger” that prompted actions “contrary to our ideals.” He also promised “a new beginning” for the U.S. and the world’s Muslims and a radical shift in U.S. policy. The rise of Islamists in the region instead has produced a surge in anti-American protests and riots, culminating in the terrorist attack on the Benghazi consulate. Recent intelligence reports show that Egypt’s Al-Azhar University in Cairo is emerging as a covert base for al Qaeda organizational and training activities for a jihadi network consisting of many nationalities. The Morsi government has turned a blind eye to both the increased jihadist activity and Iran’s support for it in the region, particularly in Libya and Syria. However, the administration is keeping the intelligence under wraps to avoid highlighting Obama’s culpability for the democratic aspirations of the Arab Spring being hijacked by Islamists sympathetic to al Qaeda’s terrorist ideology. Intelligence officials said in Egypt—currently ruled by the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood—one of the key al Qaeda organizers has been identified as Muhammad al-Zawahiri, brother of al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. Muhammad al-Zawahiri was released by Morsi in Marchafter having been sentenced to death for terrorist acts in Egypt. In recent months Egypt-based al Qaeda terrorists were dispatched to Libya and Syria, where they have been covertly infiltrating Libyan militia groups and Syrian opposition forces opposing the Bashar al Assad regime. In addition to Egyptian government backing, intelligence from the region has revealed that operatives from Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security, the main spy service, and from Iran’s Quds Force paramilitary group and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps are also facilitating al Qaeda terrorists based in Egypt that are preparing to conduct operations to increase instability throughout the region. The intelligence revealing that al Qaeda is growing in Egypt is said by officials to be one of the reasons behind Obama’s decision to cancel a meeting in New York with Morsi during the U.N. General Assembly meeting last month. Other news outlets in recent days have revealed new internal U.S. government information that contrasts sharply or contradicts official Obama administration statements that appear designed to minimize the rise of Egyptian-origin terrorism.

The American dream is dead

Debt is drowning the American Dream, U.S. borrowing and spending is at a crisis point:

Debt is drowning the American Dream

U.S. government debt currently totals around $16 trillion. The Treasury estimates that this debt will rise to around $20 trillion by 2015, over 100% of America’s Gross Domestic Product. That’s not counting other current and contingent commitments not explicitly included in the debt figures — government support for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae (known as government-sponsored enterprises) of over US$5 trillion and unfunded obligations of over $65 trillion for programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. State governments and municipalities have additional debt of around $3 trillion. As Pimco’s Bill Gross wryly observed: “What a good country or a good squirrel should be doing is stashing away nuts for the winter. The United States is not only not saving nuts, it’s eating the ones left over from the last winter.” U.S. public finances have deteriorated significantly in recent years. In 2001, the Congressional Budget Office forecast average annual surpluses of approximately $850 billion from 2009–2012, allowing Washington to pay off everything it owed. The surpluses never came. The federal government has run large annual budget deficits of around $1 trillion in recent years. The major drivers of this reversal of fortune include: tax revenue declines due to recessions; tax cuts; increased defense spending; non-defense spending; higher interest costs and the 2009 stimulus package. Despite growing concern about the sustainability of its debt levels, demand for Treasury securities from investors and other governments has continued. Domestic investment, primarily from banks, which are not lending but parking cash in government securities, has been strong. Foreign investors continue to seek U.S. bonds as a “safe haven” — driven by fears about the European debt crisis. Rates also remain low, allowing the U.S. to keep its interest bill manageable despite increases in debt levels. The government’s average interest rate on new borrowing is around 1%, with one-month Treasury bills paying 0.1% per year and 10-year Treasury notes yielding around 1.7%. The Fed’s’ successive quantitative easing programs have been pivotal in allowing the government to increase its debt levels. Around 70% of government bonds have been purchased by the Federal Reserve, as part of successive rounds of quantitative easing. The strategy has helped keep rates low, enabling the government to service its debt. Clearly, this current position is not sustainable. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told the House Financial Services Committee that the U.S. faces a debt crisis: “It’s not something that is 10 years away. It affects the markets currently…It is possible that the bond market will become worried about the sustainability [of deficits over $1 trillion] and we may find ourselves facing higher interest rates even today.” Unless the underlying debt levels and budget deficits are dealt with, the ability of the U.S. to finance itself will deteriorate. The Treasury must issue large amounts of debt almost continuously — weekly auctions regularly clock in at $50-$70 billion — amounts unimaginable just a few years ago. The solution lies in bringing budget deficits down, through spending cuts, tax increases or a mixture of approaches. From any angle, the task is Herculean. Government revenues would need to increase by 20%-30% — or spending would need to be cut by a similar amount

 

American Deaths Surpass 2.5 Million

U.S. Mortality Rate: Deaths Surpass 2.5 Million For The First Time:

U.S. Mortality Rate: Deaths Surpass 2.5 Million For The First Time

U.S. deaths surpassed 2.5 million for the first time last year, reflecting the nation’s growing and aging population. The increase of about 45,000 more deaths than in 2010 was not surprising. The annual number of deaths has been generally rising for decades as the population has swelled. “If you have an older population, of course you have more deaths,” said Qian Cai, a University of Virginia demographer who studies population trends. “That doesn’t mean the population is less healthy or less vital.” Before last year, the largest number of deaths was 2.47 million in 2008. The number of deaths can jump up or down from year to year, depending on whether there was a bad flu season or other factors. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the report Wednesday. It’s drawn from a review of most death certificates from last year. The report found that the rate of deaths per 100,000 people actually dropped to an all-time low. That was offset by the fact that there are so many Americans — about 314 million. Other report highlights:

—U.S. life expectancy for a child born in 2011 was about 78 years and 8 months, the same as it was in 2010.

—Women aren’t outliving men as much as they used to. The gap in life expectancy between the sexes, which was nearly 8 years at its widest in 1979, remained at less than 5 years in 2011.

—The infant mortality rate dropped again slightly, to a new low of 6.05 deaths per 1,000 births.

—Heart disease and cancer remain the top killers, accounting for nearly half the nation’s deaths. But the death rates from both continued to decline.

—Death rates fell for three other leading causes: stroke, Alzheimer’s disease and kidney disease.

Flu and pneumonia became the 8th leading killer, replacing kidney disease. Also increasing were the death rates for diabetes, chronic lower respiratory diseases, chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, Parkinson’s disease, and pneumonitis. The rise in pneumonitis deaths is another sign of an aging population. Mainly in people 75 and older, it happens when food or vomit goes down the windpipe and causes deadly damage to the lungs. The increase in deaths is occurring at a time U.S. births have been falling for several years, but there more than enough newborns to replace Americans who die. The number of births last year was close to 4 million. Add in immigrants, and the total population is growing by 2 million to 3 million people a year.

 

Apple hasn’t learned, charm world’s largest population

Apple is the world’s largest company – with nearly $600 billion in market value – getting bigger is a tough challenge. Still hasn’t learned how to charm the world’s largest population:

If you’re the world’s largest company – with nearly $600 billion in market value – getting bigger is a tough challenge. But if Apple can learn how to charm the world’s largest population, the possibilities are limitless.

Tim Cook, Apple’s reserved and soft-spoken CEO, has a tendency to wax euphoric about the China market and his company’s place in it. When asked last year by an analyst whether China could replace the U.S. as Apple’s biggest market, Cook positively gushed. “How far can it go?” he responded, referring to China’s prospects. “Certainly in my lifetime I’ve never seen a country with as many people rising into the middle class, with people wanting to buy Apple products.” He didn’t directly answer the analyst’s question, but concluded, “The sky is the limit.” You may think you know the story of Apple (AAPL) in China — how the men and women who make iPods and iPhones for Apple partner Foxconn labor under punishing conditions. But there’s another Apple Goes to China story, and this one is the tale of an underdog — yes, underdog — that has the potential to unlock billions and billions of dollars in additional revenue, just by eking out market share gains in core products such as smartphones and PCs. If you think Apple, the most valuable company in the world, with a market cap of nearly $600 billion, has nowhere to go but down, we humbly suggest you turn your gaze to the East. Even as China experiences a sharper-than-expected economic slowdown, it continues to mint millions of consumers who covet Apple’s products. In its fiscal first half of the year, Apple has reported $12.4 billion in sales from greater China, and analysts believe Apple could garner $25 billion or more in China sales in calendar 2012. And that’s up from $13.3 billion last fiscal year, and almost nothing five years ago. In 2007 — the year before the iPhone became available internationally — Apple’s annual revenue from China was “a few hundred millions of dollars,” Cook has said. The company didn’t open its first store in China, a modern glass-and-metal structure in Beijing, until 2008, a full seven years after launching its retail strategy in the U.S.The company has yet to secure a deal to run the iPhone on the China Mobile network. For years the two companies have been negotiating; every year the rumor mill churns that a deal between the two is imminent. There’s fresh speculation, once again, that the iPhone 5 will be the device that seals the deal. A source at China Mobile will say only that the two companies continue to have conversations, but that no final deal has been reached. But just as the availability of the iPhone on new carriers in the U.S. expanded Apple’s reach, a China Mobile deal would have a huge impact on Apple’s presence in China. The cellphone company has a 66% market share in China. Meanwhile Apple is moving in smaller, smart ways to further immerse itself in the China market. The new iOS 6 operating system integrates popular sites in China like Sina Weibo, the microblog that’s more or less the equivalent of Twitter. And the Mac OS 10.8 upgrade includes a package of popular Mandarin sites, including Youku, a video destination. And while it lacks the massive reach of its Chinese competitors and Samsung, Apple has dramatically expanded the number of stores it permits to sell its devices; there are 11,000 places in China to buy the iPhone, up 138% from last year. The aggressive expansion plainly continues. One Shanghai suburb boasts two Apple licensee stores. “Business has been very good,” says Xie Li-jun, the manager of one of the stores.

Federal Reserve Reveals $16 Trillion in Secret Bailouts

Audit of the Federal Reserve Reveals $16 Trillion in Secret Bailouts:

Audit of the Federal Reserve Reveals $16 Trillion in Secret Bailouts

The first ever GAO(Government Accountability Office) audit of the Federal Reserve was carried out in the past few months due to the Ron Paul, Alan Grayson Amendment to the Dodd-Frank bill, which passed last year. Jim DeMint, a Republican Senator, and Bernie Sanders, an independent Senator, led the charge for a Federal Reserve audit in the Senate, but watered down the original language of the house bill(HR1207), so that a complete audit would not be carried out. Ben Bernanke(pictured to the right), Alan Greenspan, and various other bankers vehemently opposed the audit and lied to Congress about the effects an audit would have on markets. Nevertheless, the results of the first audit in the Federal Reserve’s nearly 100 year history were posted on Senator Sander’s webpage earlier this morning. What was revealed in the audit was startling, $16,000,000,000,000.00 had been secretly given out to US banks and corporations and foreign banks everywhere from France to Scotland. From the period between December 2007 and June 2010, the Federal Reserve had secretly bailed out many of the world’s banks, corporations, and governments. The Federal Reserve likes to refer to these secret bailouts as an all-inclusive loan program, but virtually none of the money has been returned and it was loaned out at 0% interest. Why the Federal Reserve had never been public about this or even informed the United States Congress about the $16 trillion dollar bailout is obvious – the American public would have been outraged to find out that the Federal Reserve bailed out foreign banks while Americans were struggling to find jobs. To place $16 trillion into perspective, remember that GDP of the United States is only $14.12 trillion. The entire national debt of the United States government spanning its 200+ year history is “only” $14.5 trillion. The budget that is being debated so heavily in Congress and the Senate is “only” $3.5 trillion. Take all of the outrage and debate over the $1.5 trillion deficit into consideration, and swallow this Red pill: There was no debate about whether $16,000,000,000,000 would be given to failing banks and failing corporations around the world. In late 2008, the TARP Bailout bill was passed and loans of $800 billion were given to failing banks and companies. That was a blatant lie considering the fact that Goldman Sachs alone received 814 billion dollars. As is turns out, the Federal Reserve donated $2.5 trillion to Citigroup, while Morgan Stanley received $2.04 trillion. The Royal Bank of Scotland and Deutsche Bank, a German bank, split about a trillion and numerous other banks received hefty chunks of the $16 trillion.

“This is a clear case of socialism for the rich and rugged, you’re-on-your-own individualism for everyone else.” – Bernie Sanders (I-VT)

When you have conservative Republican stalwarts like Jim DeMint(R-SC) and Ron Paul(R-TX) as well as self identified Democratic socialists like Bernie Sanders all fighting against the Federal Reserve, you know that it is no longer an issue of Right versus Left. When you have every single member of the Republican Party in Congress and progressive Congressmen like Dennis Kucinich sponsoring a bill to audit the Federal Reserve, you realize that the Federal Reserve is an entity onto itself, which has no oversight and no accountability. Americans should be swelled with anger and outrage at the abysmal state of affairs when an unelected group of bankers can create money out of thin air and give it out to megabanks and supercorporations like Halloween candy. If the Federal Reserve and the bankers who control it believe that they can continue to devalue the savings of Americans and continue to destroy the US economy, they will have to face the realization that their trillion dollar printing presses will eventually plunder the world economy. The list of institutions that received the most money from the Federal Reserve can be found on page 131 of the GAO Audit and are as follows..

Citigroup: $2.5 trillion ($2,500,000,000,000)
Morgan Stanley: $2.04 trillion ($2,040,000,000,000)
Merrill Lynch: $1.949 trillion ($1,949,000,000,000)
Bank of America: $1.344 trillion ($1,344,000,000,000)
Barclays PLC (United Kingdom): $868 billion ($868,000,000,000)
Bear Sterns: $853 billion ($853,000,000,000)
Goldman Sachs: $814 billion ($814,000,000,000)
Royal Bank of Scotland (UK): $541 billion ($541,000,000,000)
JP Morgan Chase: $391 billion ($391,000,000,000)
Deutsche Bank (Germany): $354 billion ($354,000,000,000)
UBS (Switzerland): $287 billion ($287,000,000,000)
Credit Suisse (Switzerland): $262 billion ($262,000,000,000)
Lehman Brothers: $183 billion ($183,000,000,000)
Bank of Scotland (United Kingdom): $181 billion ($181,000,000,000)
BNP Paribas (France): $175 billion ($175,000,000,000)
and many many more including banks in Belgium of all places

 

Brain Parasite Alters Brain Chemistry

Brain Parasite Directly Alters Brain Chemistry – T gondii Affects Dopamine:

Toxoplasma gondii

A research group from the University of Leeds has shown that infection by the brain parasite Toxoplasma gondii, found in 10-20 per cent of the UK’s population, directly affects the production of dopamine, a key chemical messenger in the brain. Their findings are the first to demonstrate that a parasite found in the brain of mammals can affect dopamine levels. Whilst the work has been carried out with rodents, lead investigator Dr Glenn McConkey of the University’s Faculty of Biological Sciences, believes that the findings could ultimately shed new light on treating human neurological disorders that are dopamine-related such as schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and Parkinson’s disease. This research may explain how these parasites, remarkably, manipulate rodents’ behaviour for their own advantage. Infected mice and rats lose their innate fear of cats, increasing the chances of being caught and eaten, which enables the parasite to return to its main host to complete its life cycle. In this study, funded by the Stanley Medical Research Institute and Dunhill Medical Trust, the research team found that the parasite causes production and release of many times the normal amount of dopamine in infected brain cells. Dopamine is a natural chemical which relays messages in the brain controlling aspects of movement, cognition and behaviour. It helps control the brain’s reward and pleasure centres and regulates emotional responses such as fear. The presence of a certain kind of dopamine receptor is also associated with sensation-seeking, whereas dopamine deficiency in humans results in Parkinson’s disease. These findings build on earlier studies in which Dr McConkey’s group found that the parasite actually encodes the enzyme for producing dopamine in its genome. “Based on these analyses, it was clear that T. gondii can orchestrate a significant increase in dopamine production in neural cells,” says Dr McConkey. “Humans are accidental hosts to T. gondii and the parasite could end up anywhere in the brain, so human symptoms of toxoplasmosis infection may depend on where parasite ends up. This may explain the observed statistical link between incidences of schizophrenia and toxoplasmosis infection.” Dr McConkey says his next experiments will investigate how the parasite enzyme triggers dopamine production and how this may change behaviour.

 

The New Moore’s Law

A New and Improved Moore’s Law:

A New and Improved Moore’s Law

Researchers have, for the first time, shown that the energy efficiency of computers doubles roughly every 18 months. The conclusion, backed up by six decades of data, mirrors Moore’s law, the observation from Intel founder Gordon Moore that computer processing power doubles about every 18 months. But the power-consumption trend might have even greater relevance than Moore’s law as battery-powered devices—phones, tablets, and sensors—proliferate. “The idea is that at a fixed computing load, the amount of battery you need will fall by a factor of two every year and a half,” says Jonathan Koomey, consulting professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University and lead author of the study. More mobile computing and sensing applications become possible, Koomey says, as energy efficiency continues its steady improvement. The research, conducted in collaboration with Intel and Microsoft, examined peak power consumption of electronic computing devices since the construction of the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) in 1946. The first general purpose computer, the ENIAC was used to calculate artillery firing tables for the U.S. Army, and it could perform a few hundred calculations per second. It used vacuum tubes rather than transistors, took up 1,800 square feet, and consumed 150 kilowatts of power. Even before the advent of discrete transistors, Koomey says, energy efficiency doubled every 18 months. “This is a fundamental characteristic of information technology that uses electrons for switching,” he says. “It’s not just a function of the components on a chip.” The sort of engineering considerations that go into improving computer performance—reducing component size, capacitance, and the communication time between them, among other things—also improves energy efficiency, Koomey says. In July, Koomey released a report that showed, among other findings, that the electricity used in data centers worldwide increased by about 56 percent from 2005 to 2010—a much lower rate than the doubling that was observed from 2000 to 2005. While better energy efficiency played a part in this change, the total electricity used in data centers was less than the forecast for 2010 in part because fewer new servers were installed than expected due to technologies such as virtualization, which allowed existing systems to run more programs simultaneously. Koomey notes that data center computers rarely run at peak power. Most computers are, in fact, “terribly underutilized,” he says. The information technology world has gradually been shifting its focus from computing capabilities to better energy efficiency, especially as people become more accustomed to using smart phones, laptops, tablets, and other battery-powered devices. Since the Intel Core microarchitecture was introduced in 2006, the company has experienced “a sea change in terms of focus on power consumption,” says Lorie Wigle, general manager of the eco-technology program at Intel. “Historically, we have focused on performance and battery life, and increasingly, we’re seeing those two things come together,” she says. “Everyone’s familiar with Moore’s law and the remarkable improvements in the power of computers, and that’s obviously important,” says Erik Brynjolfsson, professor of the Sloan School of Management at MIT. But people are paying more attention to the battery life of their electronics as well as how fast they can run. “I think that’s more and more the dimension that matters to consumers,” Brynjolfsson says. “And in a sense, ‘Koomey’s law,’ this trend of power consumption, is beginning to eclipse Moore’s law for what matters to consumers in a lot of applications.” To Koomey, the most interesting aspect of the trend is thinking about the possibilities for computing. The theoretical limits are still so far away, he says. In 1985, the physicist Richard Feynman analyzed the electricity needs for computers and estimated that efficiency could theoretically improve by a factor of 100 billion before it hit a limit, excluding new technologies such as quantum computing. Since then, efficiency improvements have been about 40,000. “There’s so far to go,” says Koomey. “It’s only limited by our cleverness, not the physics.”

Scientists discover Hypnosis secret

Scientists discover why some people just can’t be hypnotised:

Scientists discover why some people just can’t be hypnotised

It is certainly one of the more mysterious medical treatments. But one question has always remained: why can some people be hypnotised and others can’t? The answer, it seems, may well lie with our decision-making ability. Scientists at Stanford University in the U.S. have discovered that people susceptible to hypnosis find it easier to make decisions and have better attention spans.

Quick thinkers: People who are easily hypnotised are better at decision making and concentrating. On the other hand, those who are precise in their habits and make judgements quickly are less likely to succumb. The study was published in the October issue of Archives of General Psychiatry. Hypnosis is described as a trance-like state during which a person has a heightened focus and concentration. It has been used to help manage pain, control anxiety and combat phobias. It’s also increasingly being used to reduce conditions linked to stress, such as irritable bowel syndrome. But Dr David Spiegel, who led the research, says up to a quarter of people he sees cannot be hypnotised.  To try and establish why, he scanned 12 people who were susceptible to hypnosis and 12 who were not.

Hypnosis: Nobody likes Derren Brown but Performances by him has been used to help manage pain and control stress Dr Spiegel and his colleagues found no differences between the typical structures of the two groups’ brains. But when they looked at the subjects’ brains at rest, they noticed the brains of the easily hypnotised people behaved differently: they were most active in areas that decide what to focus on. Dr Spiegal told the Los Angeles Times: ‘The highly hypnotisable are people who can readily immerse themselves in thinking about things without having their attention interrupted by pesky reminders of reality or of competing cognitive demands. ‘They can harness their minds to imagine something about themselves – and make it so.’ In everyday life, says Dr. Spiegel, these high hypnotisable people are notably different than their less hynotisable peers. ‘They get side-tracked by sunsets and lost in movies; they tend to show up three hours late for things because they lost track of time.’ By contrast, those who are resistant to hypnosis tend to be more judgmental, fastidious in their habits and less trusting of people. The researchers looked at the activity of three different networks in the brain: the default-mode network, used when the  brain is idle; the executive-control network, which is involved in making decisions; and the salience network, which is involved in prioritising. Both groups had an active default-mode network, but people who could be easily hypnotised had more activity between the decision-making and prioritising networks. They also had more activation between  an important control region of the brain and the area involved in focusing attention. In people who struggled to be hypnotised there was little connectivity between these two regions. Dr Spiegal said the results came close to finding a ‘brain signature’ which reveals who can and cannot be hypnotised. The hope is to use this to shed light on how hypnosis could be more widely used to combat pain, ease stress and overcome phobias.

Officer kills naked freshman

Campus officer kills naked freshman at University of South Alabama:

Campus officer kills naked freshman at University of South Alabama

Authorities are investigating why a University of South Alabama officer fatally shot an 18-year-old freshman who they say was naked and acting erratically outside the campus police station early Saturday. With few details of the shooting in the Gulf Coast city of Mobile, the student’s mother and one of his friends said they could not understand how a six-year varsity wrestler and good-natured teenager could have died under such strange and sad circumstances. According to a statement from the school, the campus police officer heard a loud banging noise on a window at the station at 1:23 a.m. CT (2:23 a.m. ET) Saturday. When he left the station to investigate, the school said, “he was confronted by a muscular, nude man who was acting erratically.” Minnesota: police officer facing charges for hitting man in detox. The man, later identified as Gilbert Thomas Collar, of Wetumpka, Alabama, repeatedly rushed and verbally challenged the officer in a fighting stance, the school said. The officer, whose name hasn’t been released, drew his weapon and ordered Collar to stop, the school said. The officer retreated several times to try to calm the situation. “When the individual continued to rush toward the officer in a threatening manner and ignored the officer’s repeated commands to stop, the officer fired one shot with his police sidearm, which struck the chest of the assailant,” the school statement said. “The individual fell to the ground, but he got up once more and continued to challenge the officer further before collapsing and expiring.” Collar’s mother, Bonnie, said the two people who called her with the news of her son — someone from the school and another involved in the investigation — did not mention that her son was trying to attack anyone when he was shot. “He was wearing no clothes and he was obviously not in his right mind,” she told CNN. “No one said that he had attacked anybody, and obviously he was not armed. He was completely naked.” Bonnie Collar said she did not know why her son was acting that way when he was killed. She said he weighed 135 pounds and was 5-foot-7 with a wrestler’s build. “The first thing on my mind is, freshman kids do stupid things, and campus police should be equipped to handle activity like that without having to use lethal force,” she said. Campus police immediately contacted the district attorney’s office to request an external investigation, and the Mobile County Sheriff’s Department will assist, the school said. The officer has been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of internal and external investigations, according to the school, which enrolls about 15,000 students. Philadelphia: Officer who struck parade-goer will be fired. Investigators are looking at security camera tape of the shooting, Collar’s mother said. CNN’s calls about the tape were referred to school spokesman Keith Ayers, who did not immediately return a message seeking comment. Earlier Saturday, Ayers called it a “campus tragedy” for the university family but offered no other details, citing the active investigation. One of Collar’s oldest friends was Chris Estes, 18. He said the boys became friends at age 5 and grew up playing baseball together. Along with their friend Jared, they became three best friends with the slogan “JGC for life,” Estes told CNN by e-mail. “Gil was a very ‘chill’ guy, mellow and easy going,” Estes wrote. “That’s why I don’t understand the story that he attacked the cop. He got along with anybody at school no matter who you were. He could always have a conversation with anyone. As many times as I’ve hung out with Gil, I’ve never seen aggression in him, especially not towards a cop.” As the boys grew up in Wetumpka, Estes said, Collar stopped playing baseball to focus more on his dominant sport, wrestling. Collar’s mother said he was a two-time state qualifier in wrestling, and Estes said he could have wrestled at the collegiate level if he chose. “Gil loved to hang out with friends, he loved having a good time and made the best out of every situation, always keeping his head up,” said Estes, who stayed behind to attend nearby Auburn University at Montgomery. Estes said it’s unfortunate he didn’t go off to college with his friend. “If I did, I think the whole situation would have been avoided,” he said. Collar’s mother said their hometown of nearly 8,000 people is in disbelief about the shooting. On Twitter, some used the hashtag #WetuFam (Wetumpka Family) on Saturday in remembering Collar. “Our entire community is in shock because this is so different than his demeanor and his personality that we’ve seen for the 18 years that he’s been on this earth,” she said.

Iran copies captured US RQ-170 Sentinel drone

Iran unveils ‘indigenous’ drone with 2,000km range:

Iran unveils ‘indigenous’ drone with 2,000km range

Iran has unveiled what it says is a new “indigenous” long-range unmanned drone capable of flying over most of the Middle East, state media report. The Shahed (Witness) 129 had a range of 2,000km (1,240 miles) and could be equipped with bombs and missiles, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps said. It is reportedly capable of carrying out reconnaissance and combat missions. Last year, the Iranian authorities displayed a US drone which they claimed to have brought down electronically. The US insisted that Iran neither shot down the the RQ-170 Sentinel nor used electronic warfare or cyber-technology to force it from the sky. They blamed a malfunction. Later, the head of the IRGC’s aerospace programme, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, said it was trying to build a copy of the drone. It is not clear whether the Shahed 129 bears any resemblance. Defences ‘ready’. The unveiling of the drone follows a major naval exercise in the Gulf by the US and its allies.

Iran refused to return the US RQ-170 Sentinel drone it captured in December 2011. Thirty countries participated in the manoeuvres designed to test the international community’s capacity to deal with mines that could hamper shipping in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil supply is transported. The exercises took place amid heightened tensions between the West and Iran over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear programme. On Monday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he was not concerned by the threat that Israel could launch a military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. “Fundamentally we do not take seriously the threats of the Zionists,” he told reporters in New York. “We have all the defensive means at our disposal and we are ready to defend ourselves.” He also ignored a plea by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for both sides to avoid “incendiary rhetoric” by saying the modern state of Israel had “no roots” in the Middle East and would eventually be “eliminated”. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently warned that Iran was only six or seven months from having “90%” of what it needed to make a nuclear bomb, and urged the US to draw a “red line” which if crossed would lead to military intervention. Iran insists its nuclear programme is solely for peaceful purposes.

China Threatens Global Economic attack

china

 

China Threatens To Pull Pin On Global Economic Hand Grenade.  Is China’s threatened bond attack on Japan a warning for America?

A senior adviser to the Chinese government has called for an economic attack on Japan’s bond market to crash the yen and drive the country into submission, reported the Telegraph on September 18. The threat comes as Japan and China vie over ownership of the Senkaku group of islands located between the two nations. Jin Baisong, who holds a position at a branch of China’s Commerce Ministry, noted that China has become Japan’s most important creditor. China should use its $230 billion of Japanese bonds “in the most effective manner” and ignite a budgetary debt bomb in its eastern neighbor, he said. He also indicated that China should starve Japan of rare earth elements. China supplies around 95 percent of the world’s rare earth metals, which are used in many hi-tech applications including military machinery. “It’s clear that China can deal a heavy blow to the Japanese economy without hurting itself too much,” he said. Jin’s threats may be directed at Tokyo, but America should take note because they could just as easily be aimed at the Red, White and Blue—and maybe they are. Let’s pretend that China did follow through with its threat and dumped its mass of Japanese bonds. What would happen? It would completely flood the market. The unbending laws of supply and demand would kick in, causing prices to hit the dirt and interest rates to blow sky high.

Canada is a dangerous place for Iranian citizens

Iran warns its citizens that Canada is a dangerous place:

Iran warns its citizens that Canada is a dangerous place

 

Tehran has officially warned its citizens and expatriates that Canada is a dangerous place in the latest swipe as both government’s trade accusations. So many Iranians live in Canada’s largest city that it’s often called ‘Tehranto’ among the moneyed elites in the Islamic Republic and thousands among the Iranian diaspora travel back and forth annually. But with relations so seriously soured between the two governments that Canada has closed its embassy in Tehran and kicked Iranian diplomats out of Ottawa, the ruling Islamic theocracy and the conservative Harper government are now trading insults in the form of travel advisories. “Avoid all travel,” the Harper government warned Canadians in the latest ‘red’ advisory. Not to be outdone, the Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday issued a stark warning about the risks for Iranians travelling to Canada. Tehran warned – for instance – of the risks of police violence, citing clashes between students and authorities in Montreal over threatened tuition increases. In the wake of the embassy closing, “Islamphobia and Iranphobia have not stopped in Canada, rather escalated over the past few days,” reported the semi-official news agency Irna, quoting from the Foreign Ministry travel warning. It added Iranian expatriates has been arrested and expelled and deprived of basic rights, including banking transactions – apparently a reference to financial sanctions imposed by Canada and other governments on Iran over its controversial nuclear program. Iran warned that murder and other violent crime was on the rise in Canada, adding that the forced closing of its embassy in Ottawa meant there were no diplomats available to assist Iranian citizens. Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, has been strident in denouncing the Harper government in recent weeks. At one point he said the “hostile attitude of the Canadian racist government is …. dictated by the Zionist regime and the UK.” Meanwhile, Canada’s Foreign Minister John Baird has called the Islamic Regime the greatest threat to world peace. In the battle of the travel warnings, Ottawa struck first. “In the context of heightened regional tensions, Iranian-Canadian dual citizens may be particularly vulnerable to investigation and harassment by Iranian authorities,” Ottawa said in its travel advisory posted online. It also warned about the risk of visitors and dual nationals getting swept up in protests. “On several occasions, demonstrations resulted in violent clashes. People near demonstrations have been assaulted, and deaths have been reported,” Canada’s warning said. In Tehran, the government took a not-so-veiled slap at the “Canadian government’s double-standard about human rights [which] has been the focus of the world and Canadian public opinion,” it said, an apparent reference to the Harper government’s staunch support of Israel. Few Canadians, other than those who hold dual citizenship or have family ties in Iran, have visited Iran in the decades since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. So Ottawa’s travel warning is aimed primarily at Iranian-Canadians. However, thousands of Iranians, both tourists on group tours and individual travelers have routinely visited Canada in recent years. The flow has been so significant that Ottawa used to assign additional consular officers to the Canadian embassy in Tehran to cope. That ended last spring as relations worsened and Ottawa told Iranians they would need to get visas issued in Turkey.

Researchers Discover Bacteria Produces Pure Gold

Researchers Discover Bacteria That Produces Pure Gold:

Researchers Discover Bacteria That Produces Pure Gold

Gold was produced by a bacteria that, according to researchers at Michigan State University, can survive in extreme toxic environments and create 24-karat gold nuggets. Pure gold. Maybe this critter can save us all from the global economic crisis? Of course not—but at least it can make Kazem Kashefi—assistant professor of microbiology and molecular genetics—and Adam Brown—associate professor of electronic art and intermedia—a bit rich, if only for the show they have put together. Kashefi and Brown are the ones who have created this compact laboratory that uses the bacteria Cupriavidus metallidurans to turn gold chlroride—a toxic chemical liquid you can find in nature—into 99.9% pure gold. Accoding to Kashefi, they are doing “microbial alchemy” by “something that has no value into a solid [in fact, it the toxic material they use does cost money. Less than gold, but still plenty], precious metal that’s valuable.” The bacteria is incredibly resistant to this toxic element. In fact, it’s 25 times stronger than previously thought. The researchers’ compact factory—which they named The Great Work of the Metal Lover—holds the bacteria as they feed it the gold chloride. In about a week, the bacteria does its job, processing all that junk into the precious metal—a process they believe happens regularly in nature. So yes, basically, Cupriavidus metallidurans can eat toxins and poop out gold nuggets. It seems that medieval alchemists were looking for the Philosopher’s Stone—the magic element that could turn lead to gold—in the wrong place. It’s not a mineral. It’s a bug.

 

Ill boy send’s robot to school

Boy sends robot to school in his place:

Boy sends robot to school in his place

A seven-year-old boy who is too ill to go to school has sent a robot to class in his place. Devon Carrow, from New York in America, uses the £3,000 ‘robo-swot’ to answer his teachers’ questions and take part in group discussions, all from the comfort of his home. The high-tech gadget uses HD cameras to show Devon his classroom and he can signal when he wants to give an answer with a flashing light.

The robot even has its own desk! Devon has lots of allergies, which mean it is dangerous for him to be around other children. His Mum says that the equipment helps him feel included and realise that he still has to go to school the same as anyone else.

Tennessee nuclear plant break-in

Security company fired after nuke plant break-in:

Security company fired after nuke plant break-in

The security contractor at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Tennessee was fired Monday after authorities said three protesters cut through fences and vandalized a building in an unprecedented break-in. Security contractor WSI Oak Ridge said it has started winding down operations and will transfer its protective force functions to B&W Y-12, the managing contractor at the plant, over the next several weeks. The Department of Energy had earlier recommended that WSI’s contract be terminated. The security contractor was criticized for its poor response when the protesters, including an 82-year-old Roman Catholic nun, cut through fences on July 28 and defaced a building that stores the plant’s weapons grade uranium. Peter Stockton, a Department of Energy adviser on nuclear security during the Clinton administration, called the firing long overdue. “This the most egregious thing we’ve ever run into,” said Stockton, a senior investigator with the Project On Government Oversight. “It’s the worst of the worst.” POGO, a Washington-based independent watchdog known for exposing overpriced military parts and other government shortcomings, has been a frequent critic of security lapses at the facility.

The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge makes uranium parts for every warhead in the U.S. nuclear arsenal. It also dismantles old weapons and is the nation’s primary storehouse for bomb-grade uranium. Officials insist that there was never any danger of activists getting to materials that could be detonated on site or used to assemble a dirty bomb. After the intrusion, top officials at WSI and B&W were removed from their positions, though Stockton questioned why no members of the federal government have lost their jobs. “I think all the feds have a dodged a bullet on this,” he said. B&W said it supported the recommendation by the federal government. WSI Oak Ridge is a subsidiary of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.-based G4S Government Solutions Inc., which was formerly known as Wackenhut. Sister Megan Rice and her co-defendants face federal charges that could carry a maximum prison sentence of 16 years if they are convicted. Other than heading out before dawn, the protesters did little to conceal their nearly half-mile trek into the restricted area where signs warn intruders they could be shot. According to court documents, they used bolt cutters to get through three fences, tripping alarms in the process. A report by the Department of Energy’s inspector general blamed significant security failures for the unprecedented intrusion, including broken detection equipment, a poor response from security guards and insufficient federal oversight of private contractors running the complex. Security officers who heard the protesters beating on the walls of the building with a hammer had incorrectly assumed that they were construction workers, according to the report.

Colorado theater shooting related weapons case trial

Ohio man sane for Batman movie weapons case trial:

Ohio man sane for Batman movie weapons case trial

An Ohio man arrested with a loaded gun, ammunition and knives at a showing of the latest Batman movie has been found mentally competent to stand trial. The defense and prosecution in the case against 37-year-old Scott A. Smith, of North Ridgeville, told the judge on Monday they accepted the findings of the court-ordered psychiatric exam. The trial is scheduled for Dec. 10. Smith faces two concealed weapon counts and one of having a weapon under disability, which prosecutors say is drug dependency. He was arrested at an Aug. 4 showing of “The Dark Knight Rises” in Westlake. His attorney says Smith had the weapons for protection in case someone tried to copy the Colorado theater shooting that left 12 dead.

Samsung sues Apple

Apple to get a taste of its own medicine:

Just as it warned it would, Samsung has added Apple’s iPhone 5 to a patent lawsuit in the US, kicking the door open for phase two of the legal spat between the tech titans. Samsung filed a motion with a court in California accusing the Cupertino-based rival of infringing patents covering technologies that may include 4G connectivity. Samsung said: “We have always preferred to compete in the marketplace with our innovative products, rather than in courtrooms. However, Apple continues to take aggressive legal measures that will limit market competition. “Under these circumstances, we have little choice but to take the steps necessary to protect our innovations and intellectual property rights.” Samsung previously stated that the inclusion of 4G LTE in the iPhone 5 would prompt swift legal action, undoubtedly motivated by a desire for retaliation following a massive courtroom defeat in August that saw it ordered to pay Apple £664m in damages for “wilfully copying” iOS products. The decision would have also been boosted by the electronics maker’s substantial war chest of patents relating to 4G technologies. The exact details of the filing are still under wraps but are sure to surface in the days ahead and reveal whether Samsung has a good case, especially one that could be followed with an injunction on the sale of iPhone 5s. Apple has yet to comment on the developments, but is undoubtedly scrambling its lawyers to prepare a defence. We’ll bring you all the gen as soon as we have more to share. Stay tuned.

 

Expect dents from Apple iPhone 5

iPhone 5 scratches and dents are ‘normal’, VP of marketing brushes aside concerns over chipped edges:

The minimal but still unpleasant scuffmarks on the iPhone 5’s chamfered bezel are apparently “normal”, according to an Apple exec. Since landing last Friday, reports have trickling in that not only is the iPhone 5 more prone to scratches, many units even come scraped and dented in the packaging, suggesting that a manufacturing flaw may be to blame. However, Apple has a less than sympathetic view of those concerns, with senior vice president of worldwide marketing, Philip Schiller, claiming it’s part of the handset’s normal wear and tear. Responding to an email from a befuddled owner, Schiller said: “Any aluminium product may scratch or chip with use, exposing its natural silver colour. “That is normal.” That may be so, but it doesn’t explain why there are complaints that a portion of these handsets are reportedly already scratched out of the box. The majority of complaints suggest these are particularly noticeable on the ‘black & slab’ colourway. Cosmetic or not, the chips are sure to leave a bad taste in the mouths of early adopters who queued for hours and paid hundreds of pounds for what is otherwise a very decent smartphone. Apple’s unapologetic stance is clearly to avoid further embarrassment caused by the abysmal new Maps app that swaps Google Maps as the default mapping software in iOS 6. Do you think Apple should offer replacements or some sort of compensation for these damaged iPhone 5s? Let us know in the comments section below.

 

Apple’s iPhone 5 battery Sucks

IPhone 5 battery issues reported, poor battery life remains Smartphones’ dirty little secret:

iPhone 5 battery issues reported
Seems poor battery life remains smartphones’ dirty little secret.

Apple’s claims to have improved the smartphone owner’s perennial problem of disappointing battery life with the iPhone 5 look to be wide of the mark today, amid an outbreak of complaints from chagrined early adopters. With no official response and mixed testimonies online, it’s hard to discern the scale of the problem. However, threads on the Apple support forums, one of which stretches to over 100 replies, more than testify to its existence.

Among them is Holdrege, who reports that his “iPhone 5 drains way faster than my two-year-old iPhone 4. Meanwhile, DJleviathan attests that although Apple claims the battery will provide “eight hours of constant use” in reality it “ends up only lasting half that time”. One London-based Orange customer who got in touch with us reported that his battery fell from “90 per cent to 10 per cent in eight hours with LTE on”, in which time he claims to have only used the internet to “check the Fulham scores once or twice”. Apple’s marketing copy claims that the iPhone 5’s custom-built A6 processor is so power efficient that the phone lasts twice as long as the iPhone 4S on a single full charge, despite potential battery-punishing features on the new handset such as a larger screen and 4G connectivity. The company is also currently attempting to deflect criticism of the iPhone 5’s Apple Maps mapping solution, which has been found to be riddled with inaccuracies and spelling howlers.

 

Chinese drones to monitor islands

China seeks drones to monitor islands:

China seeks drones to monitor islands

China said Monday that it plans to use unmanned drones to conduct marine surveillance by 2015 as it tries to increase its presence around uninhabited East China Sea islands at the center of a dispute with Japan. While still years away, the planned deployment comes as relations between the sides continue to be roiled by fury in China over the Japanese government’s purchase of the islands this month from their private Japanese owners. As part of efforts to contain the fallout, Japan on Monday dispatched a vice foreign minister to meet with his Chinese counterpart for talks on the state of relations between the countries. Li Mousheng, a spokesman for China’s State Oceanic Administration, said the decision to deploy drones followed a successful test Sunday. He offered no details on the test, but cited state media reports that said China aims to have drones and monitoring bases in place by 2015. The reports didn’t say when the drones would be deployed around the islands, called Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan. China has been aggressively developing unmanned aircraft for both civilian and military purposes, with missions ranging from guiding missile strikes to monitoring grain crops. Chinese outrage over the Japanese government’s purchase of the islands sparked days of sometimes violent street protests in scores of cities around China. Numerous informal boycotts of Japanese products have been launched and China has dispatched government marine monitoring vessels to patrol around the islands. Taiwan, which has an overlapping claim, has registered a formal protest. On Monday, several dozen Taiwanese fishing boats set out for the islands from the east coast port of Suao in what was being termed an apolitical protest to protect access to traditional fishing grounds.

 

Ban hate speech against Jews defending mockery of Muslims

How can we ban hate speech against Jews while defending mockery of Muslims:

How can we ban hate speech against Jews while defending mockery of Muslims

Jews have too much influence over U.S. foreign policy. Gay men are too promiscuous. Muslims commit too much terrorism. Blacks commit too much crime. Each of those claims is poorly stated. Each, in its clumsy way, addresses a real problem or concern. And each violates laws against hate speech. In much of what we call the free world, for writing that paragraph, I could be jailed. Libertarians, cultural conservatives, and racists have complained about these laws for years. But now the problem has turned global. Islamic governments, angered by an anti-Muslim video that provoked protests and riots in their countries, are demanding to know why insulting the Prophet Mohammed is free speech but vilifying Jews and denying the Holocaust isn’t. And we don’t have a good answer. If we’re going to preach freedom of expression around the world, we have to practice it. We have to scrap our hate-speech laws. Muslim leaders want us to extend these laws. At this week’s meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, they lobbied for tighter censorship. Egypt’s president said freedom of expression shouldn’t include speech that is “used to incite hatred” or “directed towards one specific religion.” Pakistan’s president urged the “international community” to “criminalize” acts that “endanger world security by misusing freedom of expression.” Yemen’s president called for “international legislation” to suppress speech that “blasphemes the beliefs of nations and defames their figures.” The Arab League’s secretary-general proposed a binding “international legal framework” to “criminalize psychological and spiritual harm” caused by expressions that “insult the beliefs, culture and civilization of others.” President Obama, while condemning the video, met these proposals with a stout defense of free speech. Switzerland’s president agreed: “Freedom of opinion and of expression are core values guaranteed universally which must be protected.” And when a French magazine published cartoons poking fun at Mohammed, the country’s prime minister insisted that French laws protecting free speech extend to caricatures. This debate between East and West, between respect and pluralism, isn’t a crisis. It’s a stage of global progress. The Arab spring has freed hundreds of millions of Muslims from the political retardation of dictatorship. They’re taking responsibility for governing themselves and their relations with other countries. They’re debating one another and challenging us. And they should, because we’re hypocrites. From Pakistan to Iran to Saudi Arabia to Egypt to Nigeria to the United Kingdom, Muslims scoff at our rhetoric about free speech. They point to European laws against questioning the Holocaust. Monday on CNN, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad needled British interviewer Piers Morgan: “Why in Europe has it been forbidden for anyone to conduct any research about this event? Why are researchers in prison? … Do you believe in the freedom of thought and ideas, or no?” On Tuesday, Pakistan’s U.N. ambassador, speaking for the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, told the U.N. Human Rights Council:

“We are all aware of the fact that laws exist in Europe and other countries which impose curbs, for instance, on anti-Semitic speech, Holocaust denial, or racial slurs. We need to acknowledge, once and for all, that Islamophobia in particular and discrimination on the basis of religion and belief are contemporary forms of racism and must be dealt with as such. Not to do so would be a clear example of double standards. Islamophobia has to be treated in law and practice equal to the treatment given to anti-Semitism.”

He’s right. Laws throughout Europe forbid any expression that “minimizes,” “trivializes,” “belittles,” “plays down,” “contests,” or “puts in doubt” Nazi crimes. Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic extend this prohibition to communist atrocities. These laws carry jail sentences of up to five years. Germany adds two years for anyone who “disparages the memory of a deceased person.” Hate speech laws go further. Germany punishes anyone found guilty of “insulting” or “defaming segments of the population.” The Netherlands bans anything that “verbally or in writing or image, deliberately offends a group of people because of their race, their religion or beliefs, their hetero- or homosexual orientation or their physical, psychological or mental handicap.” It’s illegal to “insult” such a group in France, to “defame” them in Portugal, to “degrade” them in Denmark, or to “expresses contempt” for them in Sweden. In Switzerland, it’s illegal to “demean” them even with a “gesture.” Canada punishes anyone who “willfully promotes hatred.” The United Kingdom outlaws “insulting words or behavior” that arouse “racial hatred.” Romania forbids the possession of xenophobic “symbols.”

 

Spain to Borrow $267 Billion of Debt

 

Spain to Borrow $267 Billion of Debt Amid Rescue Pressure

Spain plans to borrow 207.2 billion euros ($266.5 billion) next year, the Budget Ministry said today, as pressure builds for Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to tap the European rescue fund instead of financial markets. Spain’s debt will widen to 90.5 percent of gross domestic product in 2013 as the state absorbs the cost of bailing out its banks, the power system and euro-region partners Greece, Ireland and Portugal. This year’s budget deficit will be 7.4 percent of economic output, Budget Minister Cristobal Montoro said at a press conference. Spain’s 6.3 percent target will be met because it can exclude the cost of the bank rescue, he said. Spain’s borrowing plans may test investors’ willingness to continue financing the government with the European Central Bank waiting to buy the country’s debt should Rajoy agree to conditions. The government this past week unveiled 43 measures designed to boost economic growth that Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said go beyond the European Union’s recommendation for Spain’s restructuring. The budget “seemed to be an indication that Spain would be asking for some official financing soon,” Megan Greene, director of European economics at Roubini Global Economics LLC, said in a Bloomberg radio interview Sept. 28. “There’s huge political pressure on Spain already.”

 

 

JPMorgan Sued by N.Y. for Fraud

JPMorgan Sued by N.Y. for Fraud Over Mortgage Securities:

JPMorgan Sued by N.Y. for Fraud Over Mortgage Securities`

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), the biggest U.S. bank, was sued by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman over accusations that a business acquired in its takeover of Bear Stearns Cos. fraudulently marketed and sold mortgage-backed securities. JPMorgan deceived investors about the defective loans backing securities they invested in, leading to “monumental losses,” Schneiderman said in a complaint filed today in New York State Supreme Court. “Defendants systematically failed to fully evaluate the loans, largely ignored the defects that their limited review did uncover, and kept investors in the dark about both the inadequacy of their review procedures and the defects in the underlying loans,” Schneiderman’s office said. The current cumulative realized losses on more than 100 subprime and Alt-A securitizations that the defendants sponsored and underwrote in 2006 and 2007 total about $22.5 billion, or about 26 percent of the original balance of about $87 billion, the state said.Joe Evangelisti, a JPMorgan spokesman, said the New York- based bank would contest the complaint, which is “entirely about” conduct by Bear Stearns. JPMorgan acquired Bear Stearns in 2008. “We’re disappointed that the NYAG decided to pursue its civil action without ever offering us an opportunity to rebut the claims and without developing a full record — instead relying on recycled claims already made by private plaintiffs,” Evangelisti said in an e-mail. The case is People of the State of New York v. J.P. Morgan Securities, 451556-2012, New York State Supreme Court (Manhattan).

Google’s chief detained by federal police

 

Google’s Brazil chief detained by federal police over YouTube video:

Google’s Brazil chief detained by federal police over YouTube video

Fábio José Silva Coelho, the President of Google in Brazil, was detained for questioning and then released today, one day after a regional judge ordered the arrest of Coelho for refusing to remove a user-uploaded video attacking and “slandering” a mayoral candidate in the country. Google has long affirmed that it is not responsible for the content of the videos on its site. Brazilian police questioned Coelho, but released him saying that he had a “low potential to offend” and had signed a statement agreeing to appear in front of the authorities when summoned, according to the BBC. Officially, Coelho was charged with violating an electoral code that prohibits offending the dignity of a candidate. While Google may yet prove that it is not responsible for the content, failure to remove content ordered illegal by a judge in Brazil could bring a sentence of up to a year in jail. “Google is appealing the decision that ordered the removal of the video on YouTube because, as a platform, Google is not responsible for the content posted to its site,” a spokesperson told Reuters. YouTube’s responsibility or lack thereof for content posted to its site has been scrutinized quite closely in the last few weeks, with an incendiary video shot in the US portraying Mohammed in an unflattering light sparking riots in the Middle East. A state court in São Paulo, Brazil yesterday gave Google 10 days to remove that video as well, as it has in Afghanistan, Saudia Arabia, Lybia, Egypt, Indonesia, and India. In the US, one of the actors in the offending video recently asked a court to have the video removed, but that motion was denied.

 

 

Windows 8 Users Prefer Windows 7

Over Half Of Windows 8 Users Still Prefer Windows 7:

Over Half Of Windows 8 Users Still Prefer Windows 7

Windows 8 is finally launching next month. It’s do or die time for the folks at Microsoft, and they need this to be a hit. The response to Windows 8 has been relatively positive, but the new OS has had its fair share of detractors. It’s even rumored that Intel’s CEO privately stated that Windows 8 isn’t ready. A new survey indicates that more people may dislike Windows 8 than initially thought. Forumswindows8.com, the self-proclaimed “largest Windows 8 help and support forum on the Internet,” recently surveyed over 50,000 Windows 8 users. The survey covered everything from strengths and weaknesses to general thoughts on Windows 8 versus its predecessors. The good news is that Windows 8 isn’t universally hated. The bad news is that a majority of Windows 8 users still prefer its predecessor with 53 percent saying that they like Windows 7 more. In comparison, only 25 percent chose Windows 8 as their favorite. That being said, those surveyed dumped a fair amount of praise on the operating system. A majority of users (56 percent) chose the fast boot and shut down of Windows 8 as their favorite feature. Fifty percent of users listed the easy installation as their favorite. From there, the numbers drop somewhat dramatically with only 35 percent of users listing Internet Explorer 10 as their favorite feature. In what may be more damning than anything, only 23 percent of users listed the Windows Store as their favorite feature. The Metro WIndows 8 UI doesn’t fare much better with only 22 percent claiming the feature to be their favorite. These are the two big selling points of Windows 8. Without support from users, Microsoft doesn’t have much of a chance. The theme of hating the new UI carries over to the answers supplied by respondents when surveyed on weaknesses. A relatively small, but still significant, 18 percent say that Microsoft needs to improve the two UI style system on desktops. A much larger 35 percent say that the price of Windows 8, which is set at $199 after a promotional price of $69, is too high. Despite the complaints about the desktop version of Windows 8, Microsoft seems to have made the right move with their Surface tablet. Out of all of those surveyed, a sizable chunk of respondents (25 percent) said that they would choose the Microsoft Surface tablet over the competition. Overall, this survey represents something that Microsoft should be concerned about. They’re less than a month away from launch and people still prefer Windows 7. To some extent, it’s to be expected. Every new operating system is met with trepidation, but Windows 8 was supposed to be different. It represents a cool, hip new Microsoft that’s focused on the consumer and entertainment. We’ve reached out to Microsoft to find out if they have any plans leading up to launch to get people excited about  Windows 8. We also asked if they have any plans to help fix or allieve the complaints that the respondents had. We’ll update as soon as we hear back.

Bee’s colony collapse likely due to Pesticides

Bee colony collapse not due to inbreeding:

Bee colony collapse not due to inbreeding

The mysterious and widespread collapse of bee colonies in many parts of the world is not due to a lack of genetic diversity, a new study has found. The study by Brock Harpur, of York University in Canada, and colleagues, is reported in a recent issue of Molecular Ecology. “The relationship between genetic diversity and honey bee declines is tenuous given that managed bees have more genetic diversity than their progenitors and many viable domesticated animals,” write the researchers. In recent years, bee colonies in Europe and North America have been suffering a widespread collapse. Just as the process of domestication with other animals often brings about a decline in genetic diversity, some scientists believe this has occurred in managed bees and is the cause of colony collapse. “The honey bee, Apis mellifera, has been managed by humans for centuries for both honey and wax production and crop pollination,” write Harpur and colleagues. “Human management and selective breeding are believed to have caused reductions in genetic diversity in honeybee populations, thereby contributing to the global declines threatening this ecologically and economically important insect.” But in their genetic study, Harpur and colleagues found evidence against this. “We found that managed honey bees actually have higher levels of genetic diversity compared with their progenitors in East and West Europe,” they write. Professor Ben Oldroyd of the University of Sydney welcomes the latest study on the genetic diversity of managed bees. “[Harpur and colleagues] were using a new genetic marker … So they got a really good handle on it,” says Oldroyd, who studies the behavioral, evolutionary and population genetics of bees. Oldroyd has also found a similar genetic diversity of managed bees in Australia, which to date does not have colony collapse disorder. He says diversity in managed bees can be explained by the fact that beekeepers’ regularly import new queen bees from many parts of the world, and then these queens mate with feral bees. This is quite different from what happens in the domestication of many other animals. “In cattle there’s this big thing about staying within the breed but beekeepers don’t do that. Bees are a mongrel lot, like humans,” says Oldroyd. In the past he has been a skeptic of whether the collapse of colonies is a new development in the history of bees. “There’s been occurrences throughout history, going back as far as the 10th century where there’s been massive die offs of bees,” he says. “There was a big die off in 1910 in England when just about every colony died.” But, Oldroyd says his view is shifting as time goes on, given the world-wide scale of colony collapse, and number of colonies involved. He says there are many other theories for the problem ranging from the effect of mobile phone towers (popular in India) to the stress of bees from overwork in industrial-scale beekeeping. “The typical pattern in the United States is the bees are overwintered in Florida, driven to California for almond pollination and then they’re driven up to the north west to New York for pollinating apples and then maybe they’ll even get a honey crop in Canada,” says Oldroyd. “They work them hard. Particularly the queens get a hard time because they have got to be laying one to two thousand eggs a day for most of the year instead of for a few months.” But, he says the most likely cause of colony collapse disorder is pesticides, including, neonicotinoids that disorient bees so they can’t get back to their nest. “If there was any one thing that was supposed to be the cause of colony collapse I suppose that’s the most likely one,” says Oldroyd. “I think the evidence is mounting on that.”