Snow squalls cause massive car pileup in New Hampshire

Mark Wilson / Getty Images / AFP

RT | Jan 2, 2015

At least 35 cars got into a massive pileup in New Hampshire on Friday due to a fast-moving morning storm that induced snow squalls and icy slick.

The crash at Interstate 93 took place in Ashland at around 10 AM local time, the New Hampshire Department of Transportation said. According to some reports, up to 100 cars could be part of the massive crash.

The pileup happened in the northbound lanes, which were closed to traffic by the road police.




"We had a snow squall go through around 9:45 a.m. ET this morning, which typically will reduce visibility," said State Police Lieutenant Jerome Maslan.

 The police said that were reports of multiple injuries, without specifying their numbers and character. At this point, no fatalities have been reported in the chain reaction crash.

It’s not the first time Interstate 93 is being paralyzed by a snow related crash as five people were injured in a 20-vehicle pileup in 2012.

Back in 2009, a 59-vehicle crash led to a dozen people being hurt.

more photos..

How The Elite Stay In Power

We Are Change | Dec 30, 2014

In this video we break down in simple terms a very complex game that is happening behind the scenes that many do not notice. A complex game played by the very few against everyone else.

6 months of Earth in 6 mins: Astronaut shares ISS voyage in stunning time-lapse video

Screenshot from youtube video
by European Space Agency, ESA

RT | Dec 26, 2014

A German astronaut has made a Christmas gift for all space lovers by combining thousands of photos he took during his ISS mission into one 4K-quality video. The six-minute clip captures the drama and beauty of planet Earth viewed from orbit.

European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut and social media celebrity Alexander Gerst returned from a six-month mission on the International Space Station, where among his other duties he took 12,500 photos of Earth and space.

The photos included images of the Milky Way, the auroras, lightning, cities at night, and twinkling lights following the path of the river Nile in Egypt.

Some of the video action highlights include a robotic space arm extending to grab hold of a Cygnus spacecraft (1:35) and then releasing its capture for its homeward journey at 4:50. The video wraps up with one last incredible aurora – one of the many the astronaut observed.


Read more..

Quantum Physics and Romanesque Art - Lothar Schäfer, Ph.D.

scienceandnonduality | Dec 26, 2014

Deep Truths Are Eternal. They constantly return and engage the Human Mind. The discovery of Quantum Physics that there is an invisible part of the world, which doesn't consist of things, but of non-material forms, is such a truth. We find it, for example, in the work of the European Romanesque Artists, between 1000 – 1120 CE. the artists at that time believed that the basis of reality is an invisible mystery, and they wanted to reveal that mystery in their art. In this lecture the parallels between the world view of Quantum Physics and that of the Romanesque Artists will be described, which suggest that our mind is connected with a Cosmic Mind, which expresses its principles as thoughts in our mind and as material structures in the external world.

Lothar Schäfer is Distinguished Professor (emeritus) of Physical Chemistry at the University of Arkansas. His research in physical chemistry, electron diffraction, applied quantum chemistry, and computational chemistry led to developing the first real-time gas electron diffraction instrument in which data is recorded online, enabling the first pulsed-beam, timeresolved studies of laser-excited molecules, and to performing the first quantum chemical geometry determinations of peptide molecules, predicting structural trends in proteins a decade before experimental observation. Author of Infinite Potential and In Search of Divine Reality.

This Journalist is Launching Drones to Expose Factory Farm Abuse | Interview with Will Potter

Breaking the Set | Jun 19, 2014 | CHANNEL

Common Core: Common Enemy of the Right and the Left?

SchoolSucksPodcast | Apr 17, 2014 | Subscribe

Mark and Brett take a call from a conservation who is very upset about Common Core. After providing some more information, they go on to discuss why people of the left might oppose it as well.

New study challenges consensus scientific belief that sharks are ‘living fossils’

Raw Story | Apr 16, 2014 | Agence France-Presse

Modern sharks are not “living fossil” replicas of their prehistoric ancestors but have evolved significantly over millions of years to develop their hallmark design, a consensus-busting study said Wednesday.

The newly discovered fossil skull of a shark-like ancestor of all jawed vertebrates adds to evidence that a bony skeleton, not a cartilaginous one, was the prototype.

The ancestor, which lived in the Palaeozoic era some 325 million years ago, turns out to have had characteristics of fish with cartilaginous skeletons, like sharks, and of bony ones like salmon and tuna, a reasearch team wrote in the journal Nature.

Scientists have long assumed that modern animals with bony skeletons evolved from a shark-like creature with a frame made of cartilage, thus acquiring bone over time.

Modern-day sharks and rays were thought to most closely represent the original jawed ancestor, having stayed basically unchanged.

But the latest study adds to a new school of thought that sharks shed their bony frames and replaced them with cartilage to become specialised, deep-sea hunters.

“Scientists, and the public, have long thought that today’s sharks are ‘living fossils’ — a group of animals that appeared a long time ago and hardly changed,” study lead author Alan Pradel of the American Museum of Natural History, told AFP.

“Scientists based this on the fact that their skeletons are cartilaginous like those of jawless fish (a sister group comprised of lampreys and hagfish), which are assumed to be more primitive.

“Thus, scientists assumed that modern-day sharks represent the ancestral version of the skeleton of jawed vertebrates.”

But the new fossil challenges this view.

Its skull is arranged very differently to those of sharks, much more like those of bony fishes, Pradel’s team found.

“The common ancestor of jawed vertebrates more closely resembled today’s bony fish than cartilaginous ones,” said Pradel of the study findings.

“That turns the traditional scientific thinking on its head. Today’s sharks are not living fossils, and they are very different to their ancestors.”

The finding means that scientists can probably learn more from bony fishes like salmon and tuna about the early evolution of jawed vertebrates than from sharks, as was long believed.

[Image via Agence France-Presse]

The world is not flat

RT America | Mar 30, 2014 | Subscribe

The world is not flat. The Titanic was sinkable after all. Dewey never defeated Truman. Nixon was indeed a crook. Al Gore did not invent the internet. WMDs were never found in Iraq. Benghazi was not caused by an anti-Muslim film. Question more with RT America.

Find RT America in your area: http://rt.com/where-to-watch/

8 killed, 18 missing in Washington state landslide

Officials survey a large mudslide in this handout photo
provided by the Washington State Police near Oso,
Washington March 22, 2014. (Reuters / Washington State
Police / Handout via Reuters)

RT | Mar 23, 2014

A devastating mudslide in the state of Washington has killed at least eight people. Eighteen others are missing as houses were buried under rubble. The incident prompted the evacuation of a nearby town in case of a “potentially catastrophic flood event.”

The 45-meter-long landslide in the northwest of Washington state has decimated the area, swallowing six houses, blocking a main road and damming a river.

The mudslide struck near the town of Oso, about 90km north of Seattle at 11:00 am local time (18:00 GMT) on Saturday. The first rescuers on the scene said they could hear people screaming for help under the wreckage.

Members of a swift water rescue team look on as an
ambulance drives past after a large mudslide blocked
Highway 530 near Oso, Washington March 22,
2014. (Reuters / Jason Redmond)

The local authorities initially reported that two people had been killed in the incident, but it later emerged that one man died in hospital of his injuries. Three more people, including a six-month-old boy are currently in critical condition at Harborview Medical Center. Rescuers continue to search for any sign of survivors.

The governor of Washington State, Jay Inslee, tweeted his condolences to the families affected by the landslide.

Such a tragedy in Oso. On behalf of all Washingtonians, my condolences to the families who lost loved ones in Snohomish Co. mudslide today.
— Governor Inslee (@GovInslee) March 22, 2014

"We have people who are yelling for our help, and we are going to take extreme risks," said Snohomish County Fire District 21 Chief Travis Hots at a news briefing.

Debris from the mudslide has dammed the Stillaguamish River, which is threating to flood low-lying areas nearby. Authorities have told residents and businesses in the towns of Oso and Stanwood to seek higher ground until Sunday morning.

A spokesperson for Snohomish County told local newspaper, The Herald, that the landslide had created conditions for a “catastrophic flood event.”

State geologists are now working on finding the cause of the landslide. At present local authorities believe that the principle cause of the incident was the large amount of rainfall the region has received this month.

Officials survey a large mudslide in this handout photo provided by the
Washington State Police near Oso, Washington March 22, 2014. (Reuters / Washington
State Police / Handout via Reuters)

Strange details emerge about missing Malaysia Airlines plane

Next News Network | Mar 11, 2014 | CHANNEL

)
Transcript:

Mystery and questions surround the fate of the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. All we really know is that the plane, a Boeing 777, took off from Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur, at 12:41 a.m, on Saturday, March 8th. The flight was scheduled to arrive in Beijing, at 6:30 a.m., a distance of approximately 2,700 miles. There were 12 crew members and 227 passengers. Two of the passengers, using stolen European passports, were two Iranian men, one of which was known to be seeking asylum in Germany.

Air Traffic Control lost contact with the plane as it was flying over the Gulf of Thailand between Malaysia and Vietnam.

Malaysian military said that the plane changed course from heading northeast to heading west, after Air Traffic Control lost contact. The military had tracked the plane in the Malacca Straits, flying at a lower altitude, close to Pulau Perak, at 2:40 a.m., before the signal was lost. This is more than 100 miles off the western shore of the Malaysian peninsula.

Officials have no idea what happened to the plane and can only speculate about what happened based on the lack of current evidence, while the internet is buzzing with theories that include the use of electronic weaponry that is keeping the plane hidden from radar or detection, and that the plane is being held in an abandoned hangar in Vietnam to be used for a possible future 9/11 style attack.

© LA Times

Other interesting facts and questions include:

Why the search for the plane was also taking place in the Andaman Sea, which was not anywhere near the location of where the plane had disappeared.

There was no distress signal or indication as to why the plane lost contact and reportedly disappeared from radar.

There is little being reported about the absence of the black box recorder which all Boeing 777 commercial jets are equipped with, and can survive any on-board explosion. They also transmit a locator signal for at least 30 days after falling into the ocean. The fact that the black box has not been detected at all means that the box has either vanished, malfunctioned or was obliterated by a very powerful source.

Many parts of a plane naturally float, and if the plane disintegrated, exploded, or was shot by a missile, it should not be difficult to find floating debris from the plane.

Based on the radar information we currently have, it is safe to assume that the plane was not shot down by a missile, or hijacked.

Family members of missing passengers are furious at officials. It has been reported by Chinese media that family members have been able to call the cellphones of missing passengers, the phones connect, but no one picks-up. If the phones are connecting it should be possible to track the location of the phone.

All that is really known about the fate of the plane and the people aboard, is that they vanished, no part of the plane or it's contents has yet been found, and family members eagerly await any actual news or evidence of what happened.

Winter Hurricane Atlantic storm brings more flood misery to drenched Britain: heaviest rainfall in 250 years

Winter Hurricane Atlantic storm brings more flood misery to drenched Britain: heaviest rainfall in 250 years
Feb 14, 2014 | The Extinction Protocol

BRITAIN – Princes William and Harry rolled up their sleeves Friday to help out with flood defense efforts as Britain braces for another hammering Friday from a major storm off the Atlantic. The princes showed up at 6 a.m. local time in the flood-hit village of Datchet, west of London. The community is one of several in Berkshire and Surrey to have been hit by flooding in recent days after the River Thames burst its banks. Nearly 6,000 homes have been inundated along the Thames Valley and elsewhere following England’s wettest January in 2½ centuries. A car dealership’s display model sits on a ramp above floodwaters in Datchet, England, on Monday, February 10. Britain has been hit by bad weather since early December, and swaths of southwestern England have been flooded in continuously stormy weather.  Some communities in low-lying areas of Somerset, in southwest England, have been under water since December. And there’s no letup in sight just yet. The Environment Agency has warned of more flooding along the Thames over the weekend as the river reaches its highest level in 60 years. A powerful Atlantic storm that is blowing in on Friday will add to people’s woes. It comes only two days after a storm blasted western Wales and northwest England, as well as parts of Ireland, with gale-force winds. Some 450,000 properties were affected by power outages as a result of Wednesday’s storm. Only 16,000, almost all of them in Wales, were still without power Friday morning, according to the Energy Networks Association, but high winds could cause new problems.

The severe weather has affected travel, with many trains delayed or canceled. A sea wall under one coastal section on the main rail line to the southwest collapsed after high seas pummeled it. There were 18 severe flood warnings, meaning a danger to life, in place Friday, most of them in southeast England. Warnings of high winds are also in place for parts of southern England. In the past few days, more than 1,000 homes have been flooded in well-heeled communities along the Thames Valley, including Maidenhead and Windsor, where Queen Elizabeth has a castle. The Environment Agency warned the area could expect “widespread flooding affecting significant numbers of properties and whole communities and significant disruption to travel” in the coming days. Central London has been protected from flooding by the Thames Barrier, which prevents high tides surging up the tidal river when it is already full. The Met Office, the UK’s national weather service, said the recent series of winter storms “has been exceptional in its duration, and has led to the wettest December to January period in the UK since records began.” But it’s not yet able to say whether climate change is a factor in the extreme weather, as some observers have suggested. “As yet, there is no definitive answer on the possible contribution of climate change to the recent storminess, rainfall amounts and the consequent flooding. This is in part due to the highly variable nature of UK weather and climate,” it said. -CNN

Wackadoodle 350.org protesters disappear their KKK moment

Wackadoodle 350.org protesters disappear their KKK moment
Feb 13, 2014 | Watts Up With That | Anthony Watts

Last weekend I pointed out that 350.org leader Bill McKibben had endorsed the antics of some 350.org members in Texas that adopted tactics of the Klu Klux Klan – showing up at somebody’s house with mask covered faces, torches, and a threat:

It seems the well deserved ridicule of these cowards has had an effect, they have disappeared that photo from their website. See here: http://www.tarsandsblockade.org/enbridge-home-demo/

Fortunately, I have a copy of the entire web page before that disappearing act took place.

See the PDF: Tar Sands Blockade – Enbridge 

No apology, just down the memory hole. What a bunch of cowardly and pathetic people they are. That goes for Bill McKibben too who thought this was a good enough idea to promote with a tweet rather than condemn it.

Learn more..

Noam Chomsky "What Can We Do?"

Noam Chomsky "What Can We Do?"
Jan 25, 2014 | The Chomsky Videos

Manifesting the Mystic Morphic Field

Manifesting the Mystic Morphic Field
Jan 23, 2014 | Waking Times | Zen Gardner

There was an interesting article recently about researchers who found within the computer informational field what appears to be proof of foreknowledge of 9/11. The huge spike in chatter regarding the events immediately prior to the strikes is completely anomalous. In other words, it goes on to say, for it to be just a coincidence is next to impossible.

No big surprise. But what about this informational field?

They call this computer information world a type of “morphic field” or “information field” and it seems to be a virtual manifestation of the global mind. Not all of it of course, but the informational global mind, which at this point in history is a massive amount of generated information that’s accelerating by the hour.

Research in this field is also being investigated by other visionaries. By tracing trends in language using webbots that crawl the internet reading data with assigned values to various words, they’ve been able to often predict not only major events, trends and changes, but the specific nature and sometimes locations of future phenomena.

It’s not an exact science by any means, but this whole field starts to show the power of the literal electromagnetic informational mind as evidence of or a reflection of human consciousness, and we should pay close attention.  

Read more..

13-year-old inventor cracks the secret of trees to revolutionize solar energy

© Natural News

13-year-old inventor cracks the secret of trees to revolutionize solar energy
Dec 29, 2013 | Natural News | L. J. Devon

A 13-year-old boy named Aidan Dwyer has an idea that can vastly improve solar energy technology. His idea is so revolutionary that it might make flat panel solar designs extinct.

Aidan discovered a spiral mathematical formula in trees based on the Fibonacci sequence. When he recognized this design in the placement of tree branches, he began applying the secret knowledge to solar panel designs. His discovery could maximize solar panel sunlight collection in new, efficient ways.

Discovering a pattern in tree trunks 

On a winter hiking trip, Aidan noticed something unique about tree branches. After collecting photographs of various trees, he began to see a pattern among the random display of branches and leaves. Aidan realized that the overall branch pattern of trees resembled a spiral. Furthermore, he found a mathematical pattern behind the spiral of branches. To investigate further, he began building test models.

Using the Fibonacci sequence to maximize sunlight collection

Upon investigating, Aidan discovered a pattern based on a number sequence invented by medieval mathematician Fibonacci. Fibonacci discovered a pattern when experimenting with a math puzzle. Through solving a problem about the rate at which rabbits reproduce over time, Fibonacci invented a sequence of numbers. Fibonacci invented a mathematical pattern, starting with zero and one. By adding two numbers to the series together, the new sum became the next number in the sequence. This sequence starts out with the numbers 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 and 21.

This Fibonacci sequence and its ratios appear in nature, in many forms of life. According to Aidan, examples of this pattern can be found in the seeds of a sunflower, systems of the human body and even galaxies in space.

Aidan found that tree trunks contain similar patterns based on the Fibonacci sequence.

According to Aidan, "Tree branches follow a Fibonacci formula." He reports that, in an oak tree, branches are arranged in a two to five sequence. "Five branches spiral around the trunk two times to reach the same starting point on the trunk," he reports.

The patterns that he found also include the elm tree, which follows a one to two pattern, and the beech tree, which follows a one to three pattern. He found a three to eight pattern in the willow tree and a five to one pattern in the branch arrangement of almond trees.

Using the spiral pattern for maximum efficiency in solar panel technology

In trying to understand the meaning behind the pattern, Aidan hypothesized that the main goal of the leaves is to collect maximum sunlight for photosynthesis.

To test this hypothesis, Aidan created mini tree models with sunlight-collecting solar panels. He arranged the mini panels in a spiral pattern based on the Fibonacci sequence design he observed in the trees.

Logging data on voltage and current, Aidan ran tests on the spiral design and on a flat panel design for several months. Click here to view his models.

He found out that the Fibonacci solar panel design was extremely more efficient than flat panel designs. The spiral patterns collect, on average, 20 percent more open current voltage and absorbs 2.5 more hours of sunlight per day.

Even more exciting were his results during the winter solstice when the sun is at its lowest point in the sky. During this time, the Fibonacci design collected 50 percent more sunlight than flat panel designs!

"My results suggest that the Fibonacci pattern can improve solar panel arrays in several ways. It collects more sunlight when the sun is at a low angle in the sky. This is useful during winter months and in extreme latitudes," Aidan explained.

He mentioned other benefits of the spiral design, saying that it will take up less room in urban areas, where space is limited. He also believes that the design would not collect as much rain and snow and be more weather-resistant than rooftop flat panel designs.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.minds.com

http://science.naturalnews.com

McDonald’s Tells Employees Not To Eat Its Own Food, Then Shuts Website

McDonald’s Tells Employees Not To Eat Its Own Food, Then Shuts Website
Dec 26, 2013 | Disinformation

No one in their right mind would consider eating at McDonald’s to be beneficial to one’s health, but it was still surprising that the corporate food monolith would advise its own employees to avoid its processed junk “food.” It seems that someone in management just worked that out, as the employee website has rapidly been shuttered. Jenn Harris at the LA Times has the story (pre-site shutdown):

McDonald’s wants its employees to know that fast food is unhealthy. The company famous for its Big Mac hamburgers and fries has language on its resource site McDonalds.Mynurturelife.com advising workers that instead of eating fast food, they should look for healthier options.

McDonald’s is currently investigating the posts on the website, which were written by a third party vendor called Adam. The posts were still live on the site at the time of publication.
 

Under a section of the website titled “fast food tips,” a picture of a fast food meal of fries, a burger and a soft drink are labeled “unhealthy choice” and a picture of a meal of a submarine sandwich, salad and a water are labeled as “healthier choice.”

There are no submarine sandwiches on the McDonald’s menu. And the red container of fries bears an uncanny resemblance to the McDonald’s red containers of fries…

[continues at the LA Times]

Organic Food is Better for the World

Organic Food is Better for the World
Dec 8, 2013 | Project Censored

Researchers at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand found that the Genetically Modified (GM) strategy used in North America crop production is limiting production and increasing pesticide use, compared with farming in countries that do not use these strategies.  This study found that European farmers are using less herbicides and insecticides and producing just as much food as they were before.

Europeans have figured out how to produce more food in an area with less harmful chemicals. Europe’s combination of seed and crop management is also more resilient to weather change. In effect, Europe has learned to grow more food per hectare and use fewer chemicals in the process. The US choices in biotechnology are causing it to fall behind Europe in productivity and sustainability. The decrease in annual variation in yield in the US suggests that Europe has a superior combination of seed and crop management technology and is better suited to withstand weather variations. This is important because annual variations cause price speculations that can drive hundreds of millions of people into food poverty.

The controlling of seeds in the United States through patents also prevents seed saving and restricts what farmers can use. Diversification in seed and product will be strategic in the changes in production and growth. In the US, 95% of the cabbage, 91% of the field maize, 94% of the pea and 81% of the tomato varieties cultivated in the last century have been lost. GMOs and the control of seeds through patents have restricted farmer choice and prevented seed saving.

Evidence is mounting that GM industrial food system is not only failing to feed the world, but also responsible for some of the planet’s most pressing social and environmental crises. Industrial food system is directly responsible for around half of all global greenhouse gas emissions. 70-80% of the world’s food land is being used by corporate food chains that produce only 30-40% of the food that we eat.

Sources:

Colin Todhunter “The Future is Local, the Future is Organic”, Global Research, September 26, 2013. http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-future-is-local-the-future-is-organic/5351677

“Patenting the Food Supply and the Monopolization of the Biosphere”, James Corbett, Global Research, October 24, 2013. http://www.globalresearch.ca/patenting-the-food-supply-and-the-monopolization-of-the-biosphere/5355452?print=1s

“Philippines: Organic farming is cost-effective”, Paul Icamina, Global Research, April 16, 2011. http://www.globalresearch.ca/philippines-organic-farming-is-cost-effective

Student Researcher: Amanda Baxter (Sonoma State University)

Faculty Evaluator: Elaine Wellin (Sonoma State University)

Art is dangerous to authorities

© Courtesy Thunderbolt.info

Art is dangerous to authorities
Nov 20, 2013 | No More Fake News | Jon Rappoport

Art is dangerous. It makes people move out of standard-response channels.

They don’t see what they’re supposed to see anymore. They see what they’re not supposed to see.

That’s why colleges teach brain-deadening courses in art history. Every attempt is made to codify the students’ reactions.

I’m not just talking about political art. I mean anything that truly comes out of reliance on imagination.

Those who run things—and their willing dupes—want reality to look a certain way and be experienced and felt in certain ways. These limited spectra form a shared lowest common denominator.

Even so-called spiritual experience is codified. It’s called organized religion. I call it “give money to the ceiling.” You give your money and they tell you high how the ceiling of your experience is and what you’ll find when you get there.

Art has none of these limitations. It’s created by people who’ve gone beyond the shrunken catalog of emotions, thoughts, and perceptions listed by authorities.

Art, by which I mean imagination, throws caution to the winds. It invents realities that engender new reactions, never before experienced. It blows apart old rigid perception.

The hammer blows and the soft propaganda of the common culture install layers of mind control: “See things, experience things in these prescribed ways.”

Over the years, I’ve encouraged a number of people to become artists. Aside from the work they then invented, I noticed their whole approach to, and perception of, life altered radically.

Their sense of vitality, their courage, their adventurous spirit came to the foreground.

Mind control, externally applied and self-induced, is all about putting a lid on creative power. That is its real target.

The one trap an artist—which is to say anyone who lives through and by imagination—has to avoid is thinking of himself as a victim because he is “an outsider.”

Outside is good. Outside has great strength.

When an artist invents himself as a victim, he then goes on to lash out at people who have nothing to do with the fate to which he’s consigned himself.

Authorities in any society, no matter what they call themselves, are invested in systems that will maintain a status quo of perception. They are constantly producing new systems for that purpose.

Technocrats would like you to believe that hooking your brain up to some super-brain computer will fulfill your needs and desires. They seek to prove that all invention, all creation, all art, all imagination is merely a set of calculations within a closed system.

This effort betrays their own despair. They see no way they can truly create.

It is the vacuum in which all elites live. They build up a frozen dead consciousness of models and algorithms and “solutions,” and they seek to impose it, as reality, on the minds of populations.

Essentially, they’re saying, “If we have a soul-sickness, you have to have it, too.”

It’s called hatred of life.

On the other hand, individual creative power launches from a platform of freedom and rises through layer after layer of greater freedom.

From that perspective, authoritarian power looks like a sick-unto-dying charade.

Jon Rappoport

The author of two explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED and EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free emails at www.nomorefakenews.com

Forget everything you think you know about mental health

Forget everything you think you know about mental health
Nov 15, 2013 | Kelly Brogan, M.D. / Huffington Post

I felt this sensation in the pit of my stomach -- it was a combination of sympathy and anger -- listening to Annie tell me, through tears, about her postpartum journey into the world of psychiatry.

Three separate psychiatrists dismissed me when I expressed concerns about taking an addictive medication like Klonopin. It's been two years, I can't get off it, I'm on four psych meds and I feel worse than I ever did before I started this treatment.

Annie was ushered into the promise-filled halls of psychiatry three months after the birth of her first baby when she began to experience racing heart, insomnia, vigilance, irritability, and a host of physical complaints including joint pain and hair loss. No one did blood work, asked about her diet, or cared about any of the myriad observations about her body and its changes in functioning. This was a "head-up" intervention. I believe women deserve better. People deserve better.

Most patients who come to me for treatment of depression and anxiety do so because they want answers. They want to know WHY they are struggling. The closest they will be offered by their prescribing psychiatrist or primary care doc is some reductionist hand waving about serotonin imbalances. I think it is time to speak to these patients with respect, truthfulness, and to offer them more than a life-long relationship with a pill (or pills, as it will inevitably become over the years). First, let's review some basics:

Continue reading..

10,000 feared killed in Philippines by super typhoon Haiyan

Survivors assess the damage after super Typhoon
Haiyan battered Tacloban city, central
Philippines November 9, 2013 (Reuters)

10,000 feared killed in Philippines by super typhoon Haiyan
Nov 9, 2013 | RT

An estimated 10,000 people might have been killed in the central Philippine province of Leyte alone, which was almost completely destroyed by the powerful typhoon Haiyan, local authorities said.

The typhoon has devastated up to 80 percent of the Leyte province area as it ripped through the Philippines, Chief Superintendent Elmer Soria told Reuters.

“We had a meeting last night with the governor and other officials. The governor said based on their estimate, 10,000 died,” Soria said.

Most of the dead drowned or were killed by collapsed buildings, authorities say. Tacloban city administrator Tecson Lim told AP that the death toll in Leyte province city alone "could go up to 10,000."

Police have been deployed to patrol the ruins of Tacloban to prevent looting as desperate residents look for food and water, said Philippine Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, describing the situation as “horrific.”
 
"The dead are on the streets, they are in their houses, they are under the debris, they are everywhere," said Lim, adding that only about 400 bodies have been recovered so far.

The Red Cross said earlier that 1,200 people we confirmed dead in the Philippines.

Roxas said earlier on Saturday that it was too soon to announce any final figures.

"The rescue operation is ongoing. We expect a very high number of fatalities as well as injured," Roxas told AP. "All systems, all vestiges of modern living — communications, power, water — all are down. Media is down, so there is no way to communicate with the people in a mass sort of way."
 
While the extent of the devastation in Leyte region has at least been confirmed, authorities are still struggling to reach some regions cut off from communications.

Continue reading report..