A blog which includes a variety of different topics in which I am interested. Most of the posts are from articles from different websites. This blog includes: politics, health, Islam, economics, etc.
10 hours ago By David Morgan and Thomas Ferraro Source: Yahoo News
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives
voted on Wednesday to delay for one year the tax penalty Americans will
pay under President Barack Obama's healthcare law if they decline to
enroll in health coverage.
The vote, part of a Republican election-year attack strategy against the
2010 healthcare law known as Obamacare, marked the 50th time House
Republicans had passed legislation to try to repeal or dismantle it.
The measure to delay the tax penalty passed by a vote of 250-160, with
27 Democrats joining with 223 Republicans to back the legislation. The
bill is certain to go nowhere in the Democratic-controlled Senate and
would face a White House veto even if it succeeded.
The 27 Democratic votes on Wednesday for the bill fell short of the 39
who broke ranks with the White House last November and voted with
Republicans in favor of a failed bill that would have allowed health
insurers to continue to sell plans canceled under Obamacare.
Supporters of the new bill cast the legislation as an issue of fairness.
They argued that individual consumers should be granted a delay on the
penalty because the Obama administration had postponed the
implementation of some Obamacare provisions that apply to businesses.
"This is an opportunity to stop the political games and put working
Americans first," said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a Virginia
Republican.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California
Democrat, said after 50 such votes, "It's time for Republicans to end
their obsession with upending health reform and work with Democrats to
strengthen it."
Analysts say a
delay on the penalty would undermine the law's aim of extending health
coverage to millions of uninsured Americans by destabilizing new private
insurance marketplaces established on the expectation the penalty would
encourage people to enroll in coverage.
More than 4 million people have already enrolled in private insurance
through the marketplaces. The open enrollment period ends on March 31.
One of Obamacare's most unpopular provisions, the individual mandate
requires most Americans to be enrolled in health coverage by March 31 or
pay a tax penalty that is being phased in over three years.
(Reporting by David Morgan and Thomas Ferraro; Editing by Peter Cooney and Andrew Hay)
Scientists have taken
their first look into the previously unexplored New Hebrides deep-sea
trench in the Pacific Ocean. At the bottom of the trench — a depth of
more than 23,000 feet (7,000 meters) — they found a surprising group of
creatures unlike those found in other deep trenches around the world.
The expedition was carried out
by the University of Aberdeen's Oceanlab team in association with New
Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research. An
unmanned lander fitted with cameras descended into the trench between
the islands of New Caledonia and Vanuatu off Australia's eastern coast.
Dr. Alan Jamieson, who worked on the University's Oceanlab team,
described the unexpected findings. "The surprising thing was that there
was a complete and utter lack of one of the most common deep sea fish we
would expect to see. Anywhere else around the Pacific Rim, around the
trenches we've looked at, you see a lot of grenadiers — they are quite a
conspicuous part of the deep-sea community. But when we went to the New
Hebrides trench, we didn't see a single one." Also missing were snail
fish, small, pink creatures with large heads, often found in deep-sea
trenches.
Instead, the expedition found an ecosystem built around other animals.
Large red shrimp scuttled across the trench's floor, joined by eel
pouts, arrow-tooth eels and "thousands of smaller crustaceans," some of
which the lander was able to collect and bring to the surface. The
expedition also found a surprising abundance of Cusk-eels. Jamieson says
the eels have appeared in other deep-sea trenches across the world, but
in "very, very low numbers." In the New Hebrides trench, Jamieson says
the eels were common.
Dr. Alan Jamieson, who worked
on the University's Oceanlab team, described the unexpected findings.
"The surprising thing was that there was a complete and utter lack of
one of the most common deep sea fish we would expect to see. Anywhere
else around the Pacific Rim, around the trenches we've looked at, you
see a lot of grenadiers — they are quite a conspicuous part of the
deep-sea community. But when we went to the New Hebrides trench, we
didn't see a single one." Also missing were snail fish, small, pink
creatures with large heads, often found in deep-sea trenches.
Scientists were surprised by the abundance of Cusk-eels
Instead, the expedition found
an ecosystem built around other animals. Large red shrimp scuttled
across the trench's floor, joined by eel pouts, arrow-tooth eels and
"thousands of smaller crustaceans," some of which the lander was able to
collect and bring to the surface. The expedition also found a
surprising abundance of Cusk-eels. Jamieson says the eels have appeared
in other deep-sea trenches across the world, but in "very, very low
numbers." In the New Hebrides trench, Jamieson says the eels were
common.
The difference in ecosystem,
Jamieson and the scientists believe, is due to the "very unproductive"
water above the trench. Without sufficient nutrients in the shallower
sea off the coast of New Caledonia, fish that rely upon higher food
quantities — such as the grenadiers the scientists expected to find —
are unable to survive. Cusk-eels, on the other hand, are specialists in
very low food areas. Jamieson says that each deep-sea trench is such a
strange environment that scientists can't set solid expectations for
what kind of creatures they'll discover. "We're starting to find out
that what happens at one trench doesn't necessarily represent what
happens in all the trenches."
Microsoft has a problem: It desperately wants any remaining Windows XP
users to upgrade to a newer version of the operating system but a huge
chunk of them still haven’t budged. The latest numbers from
NetMarketShare show that Windows XP still accounts for around 29.5% of
all desktops in use even though Microsoft is due to end support for the
13-year-old platform on April 8th. ZDNet reports that Microsoft
plans to pester remaining XP holdovers starting next week by sending
them pop-up notifications reminding them — again — that it will end XP
support within a month.
However, as Computerworld
reports, Microsoft may have a tough time convincing some Windows XP
users to upgrade because it’s trying to sell them on Windows 8, the
hugely polarizing operating system that has angered many longtime PC
users by eliminating the traditional Start menu and by adding the touch-centric Live Tiles interface a staple feature. Computerworld writes that many Windows users expressed anger last month when Microsoft
asked them to help switch as many people as they could from Windows XP
to Windows 8.1 in part because Microsoft hasn’t offered any sort of
discount for Windows XP users making the switch.
This
is particularly irksome, these users said, because switching from XP to
Windows 8.1 won’t just require a software upgrade but will instead
likely force them to buy new machines capable of running Microsoft’s new
touch-centric OS. Some users were also annoyed that Microsoft only
mentioned Windows 8.1 and not Windows 7 as upgrade possibilities.
In
the end, it looks like when Microsoft ends support for Windows XP next
month there will still be a huge chunk of the desktop PC world using the
platform. Hackers who have been saving up all their best new malware
for the day when Windows XP support ends are about to have a field day.
Robert Duncan moved from Los Angeles to Northern California in
2010 to manage marijuana growing operations for a collective of medical
marijuana dispensaries. Although California voters legalized medical
cannabis more than 17 years ago, the plant remains illegal under federal
law, and the Obama administration launched a renewed crackdown on marijuana in California in 2011. That
October, Duncan’s grow house was raided. A few months later, U.S.
Attorney Benjamin Wagner indicted him and others involved in the
dispensary business on the grounds that it had grown too large. Despite
California’s struggle with prison overcrowding, and despite new federal
guidelines that say size should no longer be considered in prosecution
decisions, Duncan, 31, was sentenced to two years in prison. He is
scheduled to report to Mendota Federal Correctional Institution near
Fresno, Calif., on Monday afternoon. HuffPost Live will go with him. This is his story:
I
got my undergraduate degree in communication design from a Cal State
school in 2006. I worked in television production in Los Angeles for a
couple years, then I worked in marketing, then I got laid off because of
the economy.
I grew up up north, in the Bay Area, and I knew
these guys starting a medical marijuana business through a family
friend. They called me up and asked if I was interested, said they
needed someone to manage the growing aspect of it. I had very little
experience with growing.
I paid about $800 to consult with a
lawyer who specializes in this field before I said yes. He said, “You
know, they don’t really raid anymore, these things are fewer and fewer
far between.” If they do go after people, he said, they go after the
kingpin, the person who’s in charge of everything.
So with that
knowledge, and without having a job, I decided to go for it. It seemed
exciting. I’ve had family members who have had problems with cancer.
From their own personal accounts, marijuana helps them more than
anything the doctors can prescribe. It was rewarding, in that regard --
to be able to help them with their own struggles. Some of the plants
that I grew and the medicines I made were specifically for family
members.
I designed the grow rooms with the help of a local
hydroponic store. Did the scheduling, decided which nutrients to feed
the plants, when they were going to get harvested. I was constantly
working to upgrade the efficiency of the grow room environment and
thinking of new ways to make things better. I enjoyed the work. It was
rewarding. It was fun gardening. It turned out to be an extremely
challenging job. Maybe 80 hours a week.
I honestly had some
stereotypes of what I expected to see when I got into the business --
people who probably really didn’t need marijuana for medicinal purposes.
But I was actually quite surprised to see people who were battling
cancer, in wheelchairs, suffering from chronic pain from car accidents.
It was quite justified. We had thousands and thousands of members of our
cooperatives.
We hired lawyers from day one. We were entirely
compliant with state law. It was shortly after the federal government
said it would not intervene if people followed state law. We wanted to
abide by the rules. None of us had criminal backgrounds. We’re all
regular guys. The only reason we got into this was because the federal
government said they wouldn’t intervene.
One of our stores in
Sacramento, Medizen, was broken into once, and robbed once. Both times
the police responded and police reports were filed, proving we were
interacting with law enforcement like any other business would.
I
was there during the raid. A SWAT team came, like 10 cop cars, news
vans. They had the whole building surrounded -- assault rifles, police
dogs. They came in with guns pointed at us, saying, “We’re the good
guys, we just want to make sure you’re okay and get you out of here.”
They had us come out one at a time, handcuffed us. Took us downtown for
questioning.
After the raid, I got back into sales and worked
steadily, a couple different sales jobs. I was recently promoted as
sales manager for a merchandising company in the Bay Area.
The
indictment wasn’t until the following year. I was charged with the
manufacturing of marijuana. I’ve been trying to keep quiet through that
and not upset the feds and try to keep a low profile because I was the
third name listed in the indictment, so there was the owner, the
director, and then me of least importance -- I wasn’t even an owner,
didn’t have any stake in the company, didn’t have any ownership of
anything. My whole strategy all along has been to try and be as
compliant as possible and benefit from all the big bucks that the owners
of the company were spending on attorneys. I spent about $30,000 in
legal fees.
I took a plea deal. My plea bargain was written in
such a way that I could negotiate down to just probation with the judge.
So early on, I was kind of led to believe that was a realistic
possibility. But as the case progressed and I learned how conservative
the judge and the prosecutor were, that seemed less and less likely.
I
didn’t find out until shortly before the actual sentencing that I would
have to go to jail. The prosecutor recommended 24 to 30 months, and I
was sentenced to two years in December. I guess I got the lower end of
the sentence.
The owner of the company, [Matt] Davies, has two young children and he got five years.
The other co-defendant got three and a half and is having to sell his
house. Now that all three of us are sentenced, the case is pretty much
closed.
It boils down to the feds wanting to make an example out
of us. There’s no rhyme or reason, no formulas, like the feds saying you
have too many patients or you have too many profit dollars. And
actually, we really weren’t making that much money because we were just
reinvesting into the company. And I didn’t see any of that anyways. I
just had a modest salary. President Obama saying that marijuana is like a
vice similar to alcohol, maybe there’s a bigger strategy there and he’s
trying to ramp up for a bigger policy change. But the snapshot of right
now -- it couldn’t be a more insulting slap in the face.
My new
boss was sympathetic, which was comforting. I had been dreading telling
him for weeks. I was very candid with him; told him exactly what had
been going on. Everyone’s been really supportive. I’m just trying to
stay positive, enjoy my time with my friends and family.
I’m going
to try to keep myself as occupied as I can while I’m away. Try to get
an online MBA, read a lot, be as prepared and sharp as I can be to go
back into the working world. I want to get into a more traditional line
of work, ideally sustainable energy or sustainable transportation.
I've
used some of the skills I learned growing marijuana to successfully
clone old growth coastal redwood trees. I plan to continue where I left
off when I get out. I had been getting my graduate degree in
environmental resource management when all this happened -- I had to
withdraw after my first class.
I have to surrender by 2 p.m. [West
Coast time] on Monday. My dad or someone else will just drop me off
there. It’s really hard to find good information about federal prison,
the do’s and don’ts, what to expect, what you can bring, what you can
say. It’s kind of like falling into a black hole. I’m going to be very
out of water.
Duncan's story has been edited for length and clarity. Learn more about his case and sign the petition calling for his release here.
March 5, 2014 by worldbulletin.net Source: muslimvillage.com
The mayor of London, the capital of the UK, has said that children
who are at risk of being brainwashed by ‘radical’ and ‘extemist’ Muslim
parents should be taken into care.
Writing in the Telegraph, Boris Johnson challenged the political
correctness of British society which makes them reluctant to judge
someone else’s culture, calling this approach as ‘utter rubbish, and a
monstrous inversion of what I mean by liberalism.’
Stating that the authorities were watching Muslims who returned from
fighting in Syria ‘like hawks’ to monitor the ideas they may have picked
up there, he also stated his belied that some young people were being
‘radicalised at home, by their parents or by their step-parents.’
‘It is the strong view of many of those involved in counter-terrorism
that there should be a clearer legal position, so that those children
who are being turned into potential killers or suicide bombers can be
removed into care – for their own safety and for the safety of the
public,’ he said.
Urging the British people to be ‘less phobic of intrusion into the
ways of minority groups and less nervous of passing judgment on other
cultures,’ Johnson called on the authorities to be ‘ruthless’ in
tackling behaviour that undermines British values.
Boris Johnson said these measures may be necessary to prevent repeats
of incidents like the killing of military drummer Lee Rigby, who was
killed by two Muslims in London last year in what they said was an ‘act
of war.’ However, Johnson failed to note that the parents of both of the
two killers were not Muslims, but were in fact Christians.
The CDC has been shunning the correlations between thimerosal and
neurological disorders for a very long time. Although the FDA gave a two
year deadline to remove the mercury based preservative from vaccines
after the neurotoxin was banned in 1999, it still remains to this day
in 60 percent of flu vaccines.
A vaccine industry watchdog has now obtained CDC documents that show
statistically significant risks of autism associated with the vaccine
preservative, something the CDC denies even when confronted with their
own data.
For nearly ten years, Brian Hooker has been requesting documents that
are kept under tight wraps by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC). His more than 100 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
requests have resulted in copious evidence that the vaccine
preservative Thimerosal, which
is still used in the flu shot that is administered to pregnant women
and infants, can cause autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders.
Dr. Hooker, a PhD scientist, worked with two members of Congress to
craft the letter to the CDC that recently resulted in his obtaining
long-awaited data from the CDC, the significance of which is historic.
According to Hooker, the data on over 400,000 infants born between 1991
and 1997, which was analyzed by CDC epidemiologist Thomas Verstraeten,
MD, “proves unequivocally that in 2000, CDC officials were informed
internally of the very high risk of autism, non-organic sleep disorder
and speech disorder associated with Thimerosal exposure.”
Factually, thimerosal is a mercury-containing compound that is a
known human carcinogen, mutagen, teratogen and immune-system disruptor
at levels below 1 part-per-million, and a compound to which some humans
can have an anaphylactic shock reaction. It is also a recognized
reproductive and fetal toxin with no established toxicologically safe level of exposure for humans.
In November, 1997, the U.S. Congress passed the Food and Drug
Administration Modernization Act, requiring the study of mercury content
in FDA-approved products. The review disclosed the
hitherto-unrecognized levels of ethylmercury in vaccines.
In July 1999, public-health officials announced that thimerosal would
be phased out of vaccines. The CDC, American Academy of Pediatrics, and
FDA insisted that the measure was purely precautionary. They requested
of all vaccine manufacturers to eliminate mercury from vaccines.
When the results of the Verstraeten study were first reported outside
the CDC in 2005, there was no evidence that anyone but Dr. Verstraeten
within the CDC had known of the very high 7.6-fold elevated relative
risk of autism from exposure to Thimerosal during infancy. But now,
clear evidence exists. A newly-acquired abstract from
1999 titled, “Increased risk of developmental neurologic impairment
after high exposure to Thimerosal containing vaccine in first month of
life” required the approval of top CDC officials prior to its
presentation at the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) conference.
Thimerosal, which is 50% mercury by weight, was used in most childhood
vaccines and in the RhoGAM shot for pregnant women prior to the early
2000s.
The CDC maintains there is “no relationship between
Thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism rates in children,” even
though the data from the CDC’s own Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD)
database shows a very high risk. There are a number of public records to
back this up, including this Congressional Record from May 1, 2003.
The CDC’s refusal to acknowledge thimerosal’s risks is exemplified by a
leaked statement from Dr. Marie McCormick, chair of the
CDC/NIH-sponsored Immunization Safety Review at IOM. Regarding
vaccination, she said in 2001, “…we are not ever going to come down that
it [autism] is a true side effect…” Also of note, the former director
of the CDC, which purchases $4 billion worth of vaccines annually, is
now president of Merck’s vaccine division.
Toxic Effects of Thimerosal No Longer Disputed by Scientific Study
Thimerosal, is metabolized (converted) into the toxic and “harmful”
methylmercury. And then in turn, the harmful methylmercury is
metabolized (converted) into the most harmful, long-term-toxic,
“inorganic” mercury that is retained in bodily tissue.
“Inorganic” mercury is the end product of mercury metabolism.
Methylmercury subject groups confirm that the metabolic pathway for
mercury in the human and animal body consists in the
reduction/conversion of the harmful methylmercury into a more harmful
“inorganic” mercury which is tissue-bound, and long-term-toxic. Hence,
both the originating substance (methylmercury) and its
conversion/reduction, inorganic mercury are found.
Based on published findings by Dr. Paul King,
the metabolic pathway for organic mercury involves the conversion of
Ethylmercury (Thimerosal) into “methylmercury” and then the further
reduction of “methylmercury” into inorganic mercury.
Congress Must Act
Dr. Hooker’s fervent hope for the future: “We must ensure that this
and other evidence of CDC malfeasance are presented to Congress and the
public as quickly as possible. Time is of the essence. Children’s
futures are at stake.” A divide within the autism community has led to
some activists demanding that compensation to those with vaccine-injury
claims be the top priority before Congress. Dr. Hooker maintains that
prevention, “protecting our most precious resource — children’s minds,”
must come first. “Our elected officials must be informed about
government corruption that keeps doctors and patients in the dark about
vaccine risks.”
Referring to an organization that has seen its share of controversy
this past year, Dr. Hooker remarked, “It is unfortunate that SafeMinds
issued a press release on my information, is accepting credit for my
work and has not supported a worldwide ban on Thimerosal.”
Brian Hooker, PhD, PE, has 15 years experience in the field of
bioengineering and is an associate professor at Simpson University where
he specializes in biology and chemistry. His over 50 science and
engineering papers have been published in internationally recognized,
peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Hooker has a son, aged 16, who developed
normally but then regressed into autism after receiving
Thimerosal-containing vaccines.
About the Author
Dave Mihalovic is a Naturopathic Doctor who specializes in vaccine research, cancer prevention and a natural approach to treatment.
Etihad Airways, the official airline of the United Arab Emirates, has removed Israel from its in-flight map; the New York Post reported.
Etihad Airways is a partner of the American Airlines and receives
annual support to the amount of $425,000 from the US Department of
Homeland Security which administers customs clearance at Abu Dhabi
International Airport. The facility allows passengers travelling to the
United States to clear customs more easily and reduces waiting times.
The Etihad Airways in-flight map lists the names of all neighbouring
countries including: Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Cyprus, but does
not mention Israel or any of its main cities.
