Indian siblings wander into jungle with tigers and other wild animals for days at a time… but always come back unharmed



A pair of Indian siblings who have a close bond with wild animals have been compared to Mowgli from The Jungle Book.  Surendera Kumar and his sister Rajeshwari, 25, wander into the jungle for days at a time and play with monkeys in Rajnandgaon, in the Chhattisgarh region. They never fear the wild animals that roam the area and love to play freely amongst the trees and fauna.

 Their mother Pancho Bai, 45, lives her life in fear of losing them and in particular Surendera, 20, known as Golu, because of how close he gets to the animals. She said: 'He roams around in the jungle and I have to drag him home. I have seen him playing Kabaddi sporting game and hide and seek with monkeys and chasing them around. 'I've often seen Golu behaving like a monkey.

People in our village have even tagged him a Gorilla for the way he walks. He has a bond with animals and I believe that is why no animal has ever harmed him"

Source

Female student teacher, 45, 'tried to meet 13-year-old pupil for sex' after working at his school for less than one semester



A former student teacher has been charged with trying to solicit sex from a 13-year-old student during her first semester at a North Carolina school.  Trisha Anderson Rogers, 45, allegedly contacted the boy for sex while she was working at Murray Middle School, New Hanover County

Rogers is accused of using her cell phone to solicit the unidentified boy for sex between February 29 and May 5 this year.

Rogers only worked at the school as a student teacher for one semester during the spring, a district spokesman said, but had previously been a substitute instructor in the area.

Sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Jerry Brewer said that Rogers was reported to investigators on May 5, and that her internship at the school was removed the same day.

Rogers has also been removed from the district substitute teachers' list, WNCN reports.

Police investigated Rogers and she has since been charged with soliciting a child by computer, indecent liberties with a child and indecent liberties with a student.

Rogers was was booked into the New Hanover County Jail yesterday, and was released after paying a $20,000 bond the same day.

SOURCE

Lake Tahoe: Warmest water temperatures ever recorded



Absurd to think that a climate record that goes back to 1968 only can give you a picture of a long term trend.  But since the record goes back to 1968 only, we cannot test for a long term trend.  We can however look at the air temperature record from the nearby Tahoe station.  It's below.  What do we see?  We see that temperatures in the Tahoe area were markedly higher in the 1920s and 1930s.  Tahoe as a whole has been COOLING long term.  How likely is it that the lake is going to be different from its region?  Clearly, the scare below is an artifact of inadequate data




Lake Tahoe's average surface temperature last year was the warmest ever recorded, the latest evidence that climate change is altering California's iconic Sierra Nevada landmark.

In a report released Thursday by UC Davis, scientists said that the lake's waters in the past four years have been warming at 15 times their historic average.

The air temperature at the lake is becoming steadily hotter too. The winter of 2014-15 saw just 24 days where the average temperature dropped below freezing at the lake, according to the report, and only 6 percent of last year's precipitation fell as snow -- both all-time lows.

The ominous evidence threatens efforts in recent years to improve Lake Tahoe's famed blue clarity by reducing pollution. That's because the warming water will likely result in more algae growth, silt and invasive species, researchers said.

"The lake is changing, and it is changing at an increasing rate," said Geoffrey Schladow, director of the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center.

The picture of a steadily warming lake -- and a vacation wonderland with a relentless trend toward hotter weather, more rain and less snow -- emerged from the 2016 "State of the Lake" report, a document the center publishes every year.

Straddling the California-Nevada border, Lake Tahoe is the second deepest lake in America. It's 1,645 feet at its deepest point, behind only Crater Lake in Oregon. If the Empire State Building were submerged in Lake Tahoe, the top of its spire would still be below 200 feet of water. Roughly 3 million people visit each year.

"This year's report is definitely a warning," said Darcie Goodman Collins, executive director of the League to Save Lake Tahoe, an environmental group. "We need to improve our efforts."

SOURCE  

Golfer John Senden waits (and waits and waits) for 22 agonizing SECONDS as his ball teeters on the edge of the hole... before his patience unbelievably pays off



Patience is a virtue, and Australian golfer John Senden has it in spades. During the opening round of the US PGA Championship at Baltusrol in Springfield, New Jersey, Senden showed incredible composure as he waited 22 seconds for a putt to drop.

The 15-foot long-range putt on the 16th hole was one of Senden’s three birdies on Thursday.  The shot was on track as it rolled towards the hole, but hung up directly on the edge of the cup.

He walked around slowly and crouched down to take a closer look, stretching out the 10 seconds normally allowed before being forced to tap the ball in.  As Senden gave up and raised his club to hit the ball it suddenly disappeared into the hole for a birdie"

Source

Il. Woman, 52, accused of sexual contact with boy, 15, in cemeteries



An Elgin woman is accused of having sexual contact with a 15-year-old boy on multiple occasions, including in local cemeteries.

Authorities said Randal Perlman, 52, began communicating with the teen through Instagram messages beginning in August and sent him photos of herself in various states of undress.

Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Maureen McGee said that Perlman arranged multiples times to pick up the boy near his home and then drove him on separate occasions to different cemeteries, a public park and an abandoned school to engage in sexual conduct with the teen, McGee said.

Perlman is charged with aggravated criminal sexual abuse, officials said. She appeared in Cook County court Monday where her bond was set at $200,000.

McGee said Perlman made an admission to police regarding the charges.

The prosecutor said Perlman is on probation in Kane County for contributing to the delinquency of a minor in a 2015 case involving the same boy. In that case, Perlman was charged with giving the boy marijuana and, as part of her probation, was prohibited from having contact with him, McGee said.

SOURCE

The latest environmental scare

Do you notice the dog that didn't bark in the report below?  Did you notice that there is no EVIDENCE about how harmful microparticles are?  It's all theory and falls into the category of things that are OBVIOUSLY bad and so must be discouraged.

All too often, however, things that are OBVIOUSLY bad turn out not to be bad at all -- with dietary fat being the most recent major example of that.  So you need to be able to put numbers on just HOW bad a thing is.  Doing so can generate surprising revelations  -- such as the fact that dietary fat can be GOOD for you.

So what DO the numbers say?  What is the research evidence on how bad these things are?  And how come there was no mention of any such evidence below?  I think I know.  In just ten minutes of searching I found the following sentence in a review article on the subject:  "Bioavailability and the efficiency of transfer of the ingested POPs across trophic levels are not known and the potential damage posed by these to the marine ecosystem has yet to be quantified and modelled".

In other words, nobody knows how harmful they really are.  The article is from 2011 so much knowledge my have accumulated since then but I an not hopeful.  I suspect that microbeads are a very minor problem in the great scheme of things

I note that I searched the "Marine Pollution Bullein" which did have lots of up to date articles on the subject -- but they were all about how prevalent the beads were in various locations. That they were just obviously bad seemed to be taken for granted.  Nowhere could I see any quantification of harms

And if there is a seminal article quantifying harms I would be delighted to scrutinize its metholoogy.  As a former university teacher of research methods and statistics, and as as frequent practitioner of same, much that seems plausible to others seems hilarious to me.  I can often tell where the bodies are buried, even with no knowledge of the particular field.  As is now widely recognized, junk science is in epidemic proportions these days

Facial scrubs are used daily by millions of people to exfoliate their skin - but scientists have exposed the tiny toxic plastic beads hidden in the products.

Each wash contains up to 94,500 microbeads, while one tube comprises up to 2.8million of the beads, which experts at Plymouth University extracted.

Microbeads, among the fastest-growing forms of marine pollution, can cause physical damage or poison sea life with the chemicals and microbes on their surface.

Richard Thompson, professor of marine biology at Plymouth University, published a photograph of the amount of microbeads extracted from popular facial scrubs.

He told The Sunday Times: 'It can be hard to convey in words how small these beads are and how many are released by one wash, but the picture shows the scale of the impact much better.'

He said the beads ranged in size from from a 0.01mm up to 1mm. 'Their size means they can pass through sewage treatment screens and be discharged into rivers and oceans,' he explained.

When the facial scrubs are washed away, they are washed into sewage sludge and can spread onto farmland. Smaller beads can escape filters and are subsequently washed out to sea.

Experts say the size of the beads looks like food to plankton and baby fish - and can poison them when eaten. This is then passed up the food chain to larger fish and birds.

Mary Creagh, the Labour MP and chairwoman of the environmental audit committee, which is holding an inquiry into microplastics, told the Sunday Times: 'Most of us would be horrified to learn how many bathroom products contain this plastic rubbish.'

The Plymouth researchers only examined facial scrubs but microbeads are widely found in many cosmetics.

The US government has banned microbeads in consumer products under a law that will go into full effect in 2017.

This month Waitrose announced it will ban microbeads from all products sold in its shops. The supermarket chain has already removed them from its own beauty products and has promised that from September it will stock only branded products which do not contain them.

Banning microbeads makes sense, campaigners say, because they are not necessary for washing products. Their abrasive effect can be replicated by natural exfoliants such as tiny fragments of rice, apricot seeds, walnut shells and bamboo.

Banning microbeads, however, will not end microplastic pollution. All plastic items that end up in lakes, rivers and the sea tend to disintegrate, creating tiny scraps of plastic with a similar effect.

Synthetic fabrics, such as nylon and polyester, also disintegrate, and tiny plastic ‘microfibres’ are also eaten by marine life, with a similar effect to microbeads.

SOURCE

Is this Britain's most amazing make-over? Size 30 gran gets the face and body of her dreams



A 25-stone [350lb] grandmother has finally got the glamour model body she always wanted after losing more than half of her bodyweight - and having size G breast implants - paid for by her loving husband of 24 years.

Natalie King, 47, from Penzance, Cornwall, who at her heaviest was a size 30, always dreamed of becoming a pinup and even posed for London agencies in her late teens. But when the mother-of-six became pregnant for the first time at the age of 18, she put her modelling dreams aside to raise her family. With each pregnancy Natalie gained more weight until eventually she reached more than 25 stone - leaving her suffering with anxiety that left her virtually housebound.

But after deciding to overhaul her unhealthy lifestyle, Natalie has shed 13 stone, dyed her hair blonde and invested in breast implants to finish off her glamorous new look."

Source

Selfie-related deaths in 2016




In January this year a 19-year-old student fell to her death from the top of a 20-story apartment building in Manila Philippines, while taking a selfie. Her classmate told media that, “she was not satisfied with the photos they had taken so she decided to climb up the parapet wall”.

A 16-year-old boy was killed by a passenger train while taking a selfie with an approaching train in Chennai, India. According to reports: “The teen reportedly walked in front of the train and waited for it to come closer before taking the photo".

In February this year, three students of Mandya Institute of Medical Sciences drowned after falling in an irrigation canal in Hulivana village, 180 km from Bengaluru, India, reportedly while they were taking selfies.

In April 2016, Manjeet Chowdhary climbed a rock fountain at a zoo in Hyderabad, India, apparently to take a selfie. The 16 year old slipped, fell into the water and may have hit his head on a rock. He was taken to hospital where his death was recorded.

At a local wildlife park in the city of Rongcheng, Shangdong province in China, a businessman was drowned by a walrus after taking several selfies and videos with the animal"

Source

Some Green/Left hate speech

"There is no greater crime being perpetuated on future generations than that committed by those who deny climate change. The scientific consensus is so overwhelming that to argue against it is to perpetuate a dangerous fraud. Denial has become a yardstick by which intelligence can be tested. The term climate sceptic is now interchangeable with the term mindless fool"

SOURCE

The author is Jarrod Gilbert, a New Zealand sociologist and I put up his whole article on Greenie Watch recently and pointed out how unsavoury and ill-informed it was.  As I sometimes do, I sent him a link to my criticisms.

Unusually, he replied.  He said: "The headline wasn’t mine and I certainly don’t think climate change denial should be criminalised. The article itself, I stand by."

He obviously had not looked again at the very first sentence of his article (see above), which called climate denial a crime.

So I sent him the excerpt above with the comment: "It's pure hate speech and very offensive to the millions who disagree with the orthodoxy"

And he even replied to that, but with a single word: "whatever".

In true Leftist style, he is unconcerned about being a hater.  "My hates are good" is no doubt his opinion of the matter.  Leftists are consumed by hate.  It's what they do. Their  "compassion" is just camouflage.

Climate models are accurately predicting ocean and global warming: A new study from my colleagues and I vindicates climate models, which are accurately predicting the rate of ocean heat accumulation

It's good old Prof. Abraham back at the barrow below.  He says that the estimates of global warming yielded by climate models are validated by measurements of heat present.  But the measures of heat are themselves estimates -- so all he has shown is that two sets of estimates tally.   Not hard to do of course but it proves nothing.  It's not even a good con trick


For those of us who are concerned about global warming, two of the most critical questions we ask are, “how fast is the Earth warming?” and “how much will it warm in the future?”.

The first question can be answered in a number of ways. For instance, we can actually measure the rate of energy increase in the Earth’s system (primarily through measuring changing ocean temperatures). Alternatively, we can measure changes in the net inflow of heat at the top of the atmosphere using satellites. We can also measure the rate of sea-level rise to get an estimate of the warming rate.

Since much of sea-level rise is caused by thermal expansion of water, knowledge of the water-level rise allows us to deduce the warming rate. We can also use climate models (which are sophisticated computer calculations of the Earth’s climate) or our knowledge from Earth’s past (paleoclimatology).

Many studies use combinations of these study methods to attain estimates and typically the estimates are that the planet is warming at a rate of perhaps 0.5 to 1 Watt per square meter of Earth’s surface area. However, there is some discrepancy among the actual numbers.

So assuming we know how much heat is being accumulated by the Earth, how can we predict what the future climate will be? The main tool for this is climate models (although there are other independent ways we can study the future). With climate models, we can play “what-if scenarios” and input either current conditions or hypothetical conditions and watch the Earth’s climate evolve within the simulation.

Two incorrect but nevertheless consistent denial arguments are that the Earth isn’t warming and that climate models are inaccurate. A new study, published by Kevin Trenberth, Lijing Cheng, and others (I was also an author) answers these questions.

The study was just published in the journal Ocean Sciences; a draft of it is available here. In this study, we did a few new things. First, we presented a new estimate of ocean heating throughout its full depth (most studies only consider the top portion of the ocean). Second, we used a new technique to learn about ocean temperature changes in areas where there are very few measurements. Finally, we used a large group of computer models to predict warming rates, and we found excellent agreement between the predictions and the measurements.

According to the measurements, the Earth has gained 0.46 Watts per square meter between 1970 and 2005. Since, 1992 the rate is higher (0.75 Watts per square meter) and therefore shows an acceleration of the warming. To put this in perspective, this is the equivalent of 5,400,000,000,000 (or 5,400 billion) 60-watt light bulbs running continuously day and night. In my view, these numbers are the most accurate measurements of the rate at which the Earth is warming.

What about the next question – how did the models do? Amazingly well. From 1970 through 2005, the models on average showed a warming of 0.41 Watts per square meter and from 1992-2005 the models gave 0.77 Watts per meter squared. This means that since 1992, the models have been within 3 % of the measurements. In my mind, this agreement is the strongest vindication of the models ever found, and in fact, in our study we suggest that matches between climate models and ocean warming should be a major test of the models.

SOURCE

  Woman flaunts herelf  in a VERY small pair of shorts to test men’s reactions



A woman set out to test people's reactions to her 'big booty' - with somewhat disturbing results. The stunt, which was filmed by YouTube pranksters DengisV and JasonMoments on their Immature Life channel, sees Kaysheen Whiteley flaunting her derrière.  Wearing a pair of skimpy shorts, she walks through a London park on a summer's day - leaving many passersby speechless.

The American pranksters filmed the video in Hyde Park last week, and the camera caught several sunseekers gawping at the 24-year-old, who is dressed in a tight white vest and eye-wateringly short grey sports shorts. One jealous woman gives her male companion a slap around the face as he appears unable to take his eyes off the scantily-clad passerby, blasting: 'What the f***?'

One man alerts his friend to the sight with a frantic pat on the back -and in one particularly harrowing scene, a man sitting on a bench appears to pleasure himself while taking a picture on his phone. Another gawper is seen recording a detailed video, first following Kaysheen around and then watching her from afar - and even women can't seem to resist taking a snap.

In another hilarious moment, one man almost falls off his scooter after spotting Kaysheen"

Source

Teacher, 24, who had sex with student, 17, claims school officials turned a blind eye 




A substitute teacher was allowed to carrying on teaching, even after she admitted to having sex with a 17-year-old student. Mary Haglin, 24, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has been charged with sexual exploitation following her illicit relationship with the teenage boy.

But she claims school officials turned a blind eye to her actions, and even allowed her to look for jobs at other schools.  She also insists that nobody called police after learning of her alleged abuse while she was teaching at Washington High School.

Mary Haglin, 24, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has been charged with sexual exploitation after following her illicit relationship with the teenage boys

'They didn't ban me,' she told The Gazette. 'They never actually said they were banning me from school grounds, they never said they were banning me from working at any other school, they never said they were banning me from thus-and-so many feet of any school. They never said any of that.'

Haglin first had sex with the teenager in October 2015. Administrators first heard about the affair in February, but the allegations were unfounded. However Superintendent Brad Buck conducted a second probe, and told Haglin to leave.

After she was let go from Washington High, she still had access to SubCentral, a database where substitute teachers could apply to other schools. She was accepted for two positions at Harrison and Madison elementary schools and taught until classes ended for the summer.

Haglin added that school officials 'knew full well that I was there'. 'There was no way they could not have known. I'm sure that they were tracking me and checking me,' she told the Iowa newspaper.

She also insists that nobody called police after learning of her alleged abuse while she was teaching at Washington High School

Even though administrators did not report her alleged actions, someone else went to the police. She was arrested last Friday as a result.

After an initial hearing, she was released on her own reconnaissance. She is facing two years in prison if found guilty.

School district officials told The Gazette a 'miscommunication' meant Haglin was allowed to teach at two more schools.

A spokeswoman for the Grant Wood AEA, which maintains SubCentral, said the agency was kept in the dark about Haglin's conduct and didn't receive communication from the Cedar Rapids district to remove her from the database until June 14.

The notification came almost a month after Washington officials removed Haglin because of the school inquiry.

'Districts must communicate back to SubCentral with concerns about any substitute teacher placements to help ensure the fidelity of the teachers in the system,' spokeswoman Renee Nelson said. 'We did not receive communication from the Cedar Rapids Community School District of any allegations nor of the concerns submitted to the Board of Education.'

The district did ask May 18 for SubCentral to remove Haglin from Washington, Nelson said — but didn't ask for further action.

The district's silence allowed Haglin to access the database as easily as she had before she lost her job at Washington, Haglin said.

SOURCE  

Another clunk-headed academic who can't read




Jarrod Gilbert, a New Zealand sociologist no less, says climate denial ought be seen as a crime.  Sociologists are generally far-Left so a bit of Stalinism from one is no surprise.  And in true Stalinist style he is a good Trofim Lysenko too.  Lysenko had the basics of biology wrong and this guy has the sociology of climate science wrong.

How so?  Because his basic "97%" claim shows he can't read.  The paper usually quoted in support of the 97% in fact says that only ONE THIRD of climate scientists supported global warming.  The other two thirds took no position on the matter.

Since Jarrod has such bad eyes, I reproduce the Cook et al. abstract below  and highlight the bit that jarring Jarrod missed.  What a clown! He might one day learn the importance of doing your research before you open your mouth. But he does admit to being a liberal wanker so maybe he won't

"We analyze the evolution of the scientific consensus on anthropogenic global warming (AGW) in the peer-reviewed scientific literature, examining 11 944 climate abstracts from 1991–2011 matching the topics 'global climate change' or 'global warming'. We find that 66.4% of abstracts expressed no position on AGW, 32.6% endorsed AGW, 0.7% rejected AGW and 0.3% were uncertain about the cause of global warming. Among abstracts expressing a position on AGW, 97.1% endorsed the consensus position that humans are causing global warming. In a second phase of this study, we invited authors to rate their own papers. Compared to abstract ratings, a smaller percentage of self-rated papers expressed no position on AGW (35.5%). Among self-rated papers expressing a position on AGW, 97.2% endorsed the consensus. For both abstract ratings and authors' self-ratings, the percentage of endorsements among papers expressing a position on AGW marginally increased over time. Our analysis indicates that the number of papers rejecting the consensus on AGW is a vanishingly small proportion of the published research"

There is no greater crime being perpetuated on future generations than that committed by those who deny climate change. The scientific consensus is so overwhelming that to argue against it is to perpetuate a dangerous fraud. Denial has become a yardstick by which intelligence can be tested. The term climate sceptic is now interchangeable with the term mindless fool.

Since the 1960s, it has been known that heat-trapping gasses were increasing in the earth's atmosphere, but no one knew to what effect. In 1979, a study found "no reason to doubt that climate changes will result and no reason to believe that these changes will be negligible". Since then scientists have been seeking to prove it, and the results are in.

Meta studies show that 97 per cent of published climate scientists agree that global warming is occurring and that it is caused by human activities. The American Association for the Advancement of Science compared it to the consensus linking smoking to cancer. The debate is over, yet doubt continues.

For decades, arguments denying the harms caused by smoking were made. A tobacco executive once said: "Doubt is our product since it is the best means of competing with the 'body of fact' that exists in the minds of the general public. It is also the means of establishing a controversy."

Such doubts can be highly effective, particularly if they allow people to support agendas that are politically or economically useful to them.

One person who has managed to successfully merge expert and popular opinions is English physicist Professor Brian Cox, whose books and television programmes explain complex scientific phenomena in highly accessible ways. He recently said that ignoring best evidence and turning against experts is "the road back to the cave".

Modern civilisation, he says, has grown not because of gut instinct and guesswork but because of scientific understanding and thinking. "Being an expert does not mean that you are someone with a vested interest; it means you spend your life studying something. You're not necessarily right - but you're more likely to be right than someone who's not spent their life studying it."

If 100 of the best-qualified engineers were asked to assess the structural integrity of a house and 97 of them said it was unsafe, who would listen to the other three engineers and buy the house? Yet that is the foolishness of climate change denial. Furthermore, the basis for these decisions is often arbitrary and variable.

We all believe in the expertise at Nasa when it launches a rocket into earth's orbit then flicks it into space and lands it on a rock, but so many people conveniently ignore the organisation's knowledge and expertise when it confirms humans created climate change.

All of this might be a strange curiosity if the ramifications weren't so serious. Whether it is the erosion of coastal properties, an influx of climate refugees from the Pacific, or the economic impacts on our primary industries from severe weather events, New Zealand must prepare for some significant realities.

The worst of these problems will impact more greatly on generations to come, but to ignore them now is as unconscionable as it is selfish. It ought be seen as a crime.

One way in which everyday crime can be discouraged is to ensure that "capable guardians" are around to deter criminal activity. When it comes to climate change, the capable guardians are educated members of the public who counteract the deniers.

There may be differing opinions on what policies to pursue, but those who deny that climate change exists ought be shouted down like the charlatans that they are. Or better yet, looked upon with pitiful contempt and completely ignored.

There is no room to sit on the fence and say, "I don't know if it's true". Ignorance of the law excuses no one - and so it is with the laws of science.

SOURCE  

Bushwalkers rescue a dog from freezing waters in a rock pool - name her Miss Piggy and reunite her with her owner




A group of bushwalkers have taken the internet by storm after rescuing a lost dog stuck in freezing waters in rugged bushland and reuniting her with her owner.

'As we walked along the creek bed, we noticed a disturbance in one of the deep pools ahead,' she wrote. 'Thinking it might be a roo or a platypus, we approached quietly, only to see this forlorn little face looking back. It was honestly the saddest sight.'

They looped a rope around her head and shoulders and dragged her from the water. 'It was completely exhausted from it's attempts to struggle out of the deep section it had fallen into, and there's no way it would've survived the night,' Dangerm0use wrote.

The group put together a makeshift harness using a large stick and a bag for Miss Piggy to sit in as they carried her through the bush.

'I posted on a FB page for lost pets in the area surrounding where we'd found her, and miraculously, got a message about 30 mins later"

 Source

China unveils world's largest float plane



China has completed production of the world's largest amphibious aircraft which will be used to fight forest fires and perform marine rescues. The aircraft, dubbed the AG600, is around the size of a Boeing 737 - far larger than any other plane built to take off and land on water.  It has a maximum flight range of 2,800 miles and can collect 12 tonnes of water in 20 seconds. Its maximum take-off weight of 53.5 tonnes.

The production is the latest effort in the country's program to wean itself off dependence on foreign aviation firms. The Chinese plane, which is targeted at the domestic market, will be 'very useful in developing and exploiting marine resources,' local media reported, adding that it could be used for 'environmental monitoring, resource detection and transportation'.

Despite a history of delays and problems, China's aviation industry has made rapid progress in the last year. It rolled out the C919, China's first domestically developed narrow-body passenger plane, in November last year"

Source

Why I Support Israel

Pat Condell tells it like it is

Top violinist says he is being extorted by porn star ex-girlfriend who's suing him for $12m



A world-famous violinist who is being sued by his porn star ex-girlfriend claims in a counter-suit she is a gold-digging extortionist after she accused him of forcing her to drink his urine.

David Garrett, who is a Julliard-trained violinist, is being sued for $12million by his ex, 28-year-old Ashley Youdan. The brunette who works under the name Kendall Karson, claims in her civil court filing that Garrett, 35, forced her into rough sex that caused her to break a rib, wanted to hire a sex slave, had sex with transsexuals and used cocaine.

Garrett met Youdan through The Luxury Companion, a Los Angeles escort service, in 2014, according to his counter-suit that was filed in a Manhattan court.  The world famous violinist became 'enamored,' and Youdan started calling herself his fiancée despite his claim there was never a formal proposal for marriage"

Source

What gives with 247-host.com?

I recently signed up for some web services with Canadian hosting company 247-host.  As usual, I gave them my credit card details and expected that to be the end of it.  Instead I got an email as below.  The email sounded like a classic scam to me so I declined to give the info requested and asked for a refund of what I had paid.  I expected that to be the end of it with my money lost

But here's the funny thing.  They DID refund my money!  They had my money all along but still wanted extra documentation.  Very strange indeed!  If they were crooks, why did they refund my money?  And if they were honest, why did they demand all my personal details?  It makes no sense.

I have been buying stuff off the net for years and I have NEVER had an enquiry such as the one below.  Once a supplier has my  money, that has always been sufficient.  Very strange people indeed!  The best theory I can come up with to explain it is that they are very clever crooks.  Or maybe they just don't want customers.  At a minimum their PR skills are at rock bottom


247-host URGENT Credit Card Validation Needed

Dear Customer,

Due to the recent fraud activity we have been receiving for credit card payments we will require a copy of your government issued ID (for example drivers license, passport etc.) and credit card ending in 9916

Please fax these 2 documents to us at 1-514-439-3249 or you can email it to us.

We need these documents within the next 24 hours for our records.
Inability to provide valid documentation within 24 hours will result in cancellation of the order.

If you are unable to provide this information you can pay using paypal or western union. Please email us back if you have any questions or concerns.

We appreciate your cooperation in this matter.

247-Host

Web: http://www.247-host.com/  http://www.247-host.ca/
Phone: 1-877-791-3474
ENGAGE US: http://twitter.com/247webhost

More on 2016 being "hottest year on record"

On 21st, I pointed out that the prophecy about 2016 becoming the "hottest" year was a flight of fancy.  I put up the actual GISS temperature figures and pointed out that global temperatures were in fact dropping like a stone.  Steve Goddard has made a similar point, saying that: "The past four months is the largest four month cooling in the GISS LOTI record.  WMO describes this as "2016 warming faster than expected.""

He provides the following graph to ilustrate his point:

Unusual Japanese bikini

Very brief beachwear is common in Japan



If you thought you'd seen some racy bikinis this summer, brace yourself. A string-thin 'bikini' is taking the internet by storm having just landed in Japan as it's hailed the hottest new piece of swimwear in the Far East this summer. The two-piece, by fashion house Buyma, lets wearers show a very generous amount of 'under-boob' and just about covers their nipples.

Not only does the bikini top not encase the wearer's breasts properly - like a bikini is supposed to - but it features a lot of unnecessary criss-cross straps across the chest and cleavage - as if to accentuate its lack of support in other, more vital areas.

The bottom half, on the other hand, shows everything except your most intimate body part. It features a tiny piece of material at the front and widely spaces straps which encase your bottom - leaving your cheeks showing fully.  Women in Japan are snapping up the bondage-inspired swimsuits from Pocket Tokyo, where it retails for around £28"

Source

Man finds woman LIVING in his attic - who insists it's actually HER house



Davis Wahlman was stunned when he heard rustling around in the upper levels of his Green Lake, Washington home Monday night, and pulled on the door to his office, only to find it locked. In the unusual position of knocking on a door in his own home, he knocked a few times before a woman called out, 'Jimmy? Is that you, Jimmy?' according to KOMO.

Minutes earlier, Wahlman had also heard rummaging around in his attic, and thought that was strange. But things got even more odd when the noises moved to his office, and then a dark-haired woman opened the door and Wahlman was confronted with the face of a total stranger. The woman then, according to the startled homeowner, insisted it was actually her house.  'This is my house. I live here. I've been here for three days. Jimmy said I could live here, Jimmy said I could stay here,' he said the woman told him.

Wahlman, who had dialed 911 as soon as he heard someone in his office, tried to keep the woman engaged until police could arrive, but because Wahlman says they took almost 20 minutes to get there, the woman absconded before cops showed up.

Source

Teacher, 51, 'was caught on camera performing oral sex on 17-year-old student in a parking lot'



A teacher is set to appear in court charged with performing oral sex on a 17-year-old student.

Sandra Mayfield, 51, is accused of sexually assaulting the teenager in a parking lot in Oklahoma City in February.

Mayfield - a teacher at Moore High School in Oklahoma - was also seen kissing and hugging the boy, who also attends the school, as they drove and took the metro around the city, investigators said.

The alleged inappropriate relationship, which is said to have taken place on the back seat of Mayfield's car, was captured on surveillance cameras.

School officials learned about the alleged incident in March and went to the police, KFOR reported.

Moore Police Sergeant Jeremy Lewis said: 'They met at a business here in Moore, drove around in Oklahoma City, made a few stops, ended up late that night at a park here in Moore, Buck Thomas Park, where she performed oral sex on the 17-year-old.'

Police have interviewed the teenager and his story is said to match what investigators saw on CCTV.

The alleged encounter is believed to be the only one between the student and the teacher.

In a statement in March, the school board said: 'Moore Public Schools places the safety and welfare of its students ahead of any other interests, and will continue to take necessary steps to safeguard their emotional, physical, and educational well-being.

'Information was received of possible improper behavior on Friday, March 4, 2016. The teacher was suspended immediately and placed on administrative leave. Law enforcement was also immediately contacted by the District.

'The charges filed this afternoon against our employee are shocking and upsetting and are not representative of the hundreds of other teachers who work hard every day to provide a safe and quality education for the students in the Moore Public School District.

'As always, we will continue to cooperate with the police department and District Attorney's office. We are thankful for their diligent work in this matter and have full confidence in the legal process.

'At this time, being consistent with any incident such as this, the employee remains on administrative leave while the case works its way through the court process.'

SOURCE

Is there anything duct tape can't do? Fisherman saved by DIY leg bandage after he was bitten by a shark



A Gold Coast man bitten by a shark while he was running a charter fishing trip on Wednesday afternoon used padding and duct tape to treat his wound so his customers could keep fishing.

Scott van Burck, 31, was about 20 kilometres - or an hour and a half - off the coast of Main Beach when a customer caught a one-metre reef shark, reported the Brisbane Times. After helping pull the catch aboard, it flipped and bit Mr van Burck on the calf. Deckhand Adrian Gray told 9News he used pliers to pull the big fish off his colleague.

Instead of panicking, the experienced fisherman applied some padding to the wound and secured it with duct tape, and decided to call his mum instead of an ambulance. Luckily, his mother Tiana van Burck called emergency services for her son, and an ambulance met the fishing group at Muriel Henchman Drive in Main Beach just before 1pm"

Source

he Antarctic peninsula is COOLING

Laughs all round with this one. They want to say that this finding has no implications for the globe as a whole.  Since Antarctica has 96% of the world's glacial ice, it surely has BIG implications for the scare about rising sea levels. Zwally has shown that Antractica as a whole is gaining mass so put the two findings together and it undermines the very thing that Warmists have made central to their cries of doom!  Unless there is significant warming and melting in Antarctica, there is no doom! The way it's going, we are headed for a sea-level FALL!

And their explanation for the cooling is pathetic.  They say it's caused by the ozone hole shrinking.  But it isn't. The hole was at its largest in October.  Not October 10 years ago or even October 5 years ago.  It was October LAST YEAR.  The ban on our best refrigerant gases has clearly had no effect whatever.

Their other explanation is: "Temperatures have decreased as a consequence of a greater frequency of cold, east-to-southeasterly winds". But why?  Why did these winds spring up promptly at the beginning of the 21st century. If they have been going for around 20 years now, why did they not spring up earlier?  What has  changed?  It's essentially a non-explanation, which is why they have defaulted to "natural variability" as an explanation.  But in that case why is the slight warming of the 20th century not natural variability too?  They're getting into some very deep water there.

When big icebergs break off Arctica or Antarctica that is regularly said to be evidence of global warming.  I wonder why "natural variability" is not invoked on those occasions?  It seems to be a case of Warmists trying to have their cake and eat it too.

But whatever the cause, we have in the work below yet another example of global warming prophecy failing.  I append the extract from the underlying journal article


The Antarctic is one part of the world you might have thought would be affected by global warming.  But for the last two decades, the Antarctic peninsula – the tip of the continent nearest to South America - has not got any warmer, scientists have found.

Research stations on the peninsula show that a while temperatures rose rapidly since the 1950s, the temperature has stayed steady and even declined since the late 1990s.

A new study has recorded an ozone increase in the icy region, suggesting the agreement signed nearly three decades ago to limit the use of substances responsible for ozone depletion, is having a positive effect.

As well as creating an identifying ozone increase, it’s slowing the rate of ozone depletion in the stratosphere - Earth's second major atmospheric layer.

Part of the answer why the Antarctic peninsula has not got any warmer in the past two to three decades is because more cold south-easterly and easterly winds are blowing towards the area from the Weddell Sea.

A further reason is because the hole in the ozone layer – caused by gases in aerosols called CFCs – is beginning to heal up – helping to shield Antarctica from solar radiation.

The hole has started to close since the polluting CFCs have been banned.

The scientists behind the finding are keen to stress that the ‘pause’ in Antarctic warming does not mean that global warming worldwide has come to a stop.

They say the six research stations on the peninsula cover only 1 per cent of the total continent of Antarctica.

Glaciers are still retreating – and ice shelves are still collapsing in the region.

They also note that temperatures are still warmer than at the beginning of the century.

Reporting this week in the journal Nature researchers from British Antarctic Survey (BAS) said changing wind patterns may also be ‘temporarily masking’ the warming influence of greenhouse gases.

The authors also note that the ‘pause’ in warming coincides with the controversial ‘global warming hiatus’ or slowdown, which claims that global temperatures started to slowdown from 1996 from rising 0.14°C per decade up to 1996 and rising to 0.07°C per decade afterwards.

But the authors argue that the pause in the Antarctic is ‘independent of the global warming hiatus’.

Lead author, Professor John Turner of British Antarctic Survey says: ‘The Antarctic Peninsula is one of the most challenging places on Earth on which to identify the causes of decade-to-decade temperature changes.’

They said that the peninsula ‘shows large natural variations which can overwhelm the signals of human-induced global warming’.

He added: ‘The ozone hole, sea-ice and westerly winds have been significant in influencing regional climate change in recent years.

‘Even in a generally warming world, over the next couple of decades, temperatures in this region may go up or down, but our models predict that in the longer term greenhouse gases will lead to an increase in temperatures by the end of the 21st Century.’

Antarctic Peninsula temperatures increased by up to 0.5°C per decade until the 1950s when they stopped rising, the researchers said.

The research team analysed ice cores taken from drilling into the soil – which allow scientists to calculate the temperature at the time the ice was laid down.

They found that the warming of the peninsula ‘was not unprecedented’ over the past 2,000 years.

Recently, they found that warming started in the 1920s, and revealed ‘periods of warming and cooling over the last several centuries that were comparable to those observed in the post-1950s instrumental record.’

The authors said the findings ‘highlights the large natural variability of temperatures in this region of Antarctica that has influenced more recent climate changes.’

Dr Robert Mulvaney, is a leading ice core researcher at British Antarctic Survey, said: ‘Meteorological observations from the Antarctic Peninsula research stations only cover the last 60 years or so. If we are to get a better idea of the long-term trend we need to look back in time.

‘The ice core record helps us see how the climate evolves over the longer term. We can also look at the levels of carbon dioxide and other chemicals that were in the atmosphere and compare them with observations from today.’

‘Climate model simulations predict that if greenhouse gas concentrations continue to increase at currently projected rates their warming effect will dominate over natural variability (and the cooling effect associated with recovering ozone levels) and there will be a warming of several degrees across the region by the end of this century.’

SOURCE  

Absence of 21st century warming on Antarctic Peninsula consistent with natural variability

John Turner et al.

Since the 1950s, research stations on the Antarctic Peninsula have recorded some of the largest increases in near-surface air temperature in the Southern Hemisphere1. This warming has contributed to the regional retreat of glaciers2, disintegration of floating ice shelves3 and a ‘greening’ through the expansion in range of various flora4. Several interlinked processes have been suggested as contributing to the warming, including stratospheric ozone depletion5, local sea-ice loss6, an increase in westerly winds5, 7, and changes in the strength and location of low–high-latitude atmospheric teleconnections8, 9. Here we use a stacked temperature record to show an absence of regional warming since the late 1990s. The annual mean temperature has decreased at a statistically significant rate, with the most rapid cooling during the Austral summer. Temperatures have decreased as a consequence of a greater frequency of cold, east-to-southeasterly winds, resulting from more cyclonic conditions in the northern Weddell Sea associated with a strengthening mid-latitude jet. These circulation changes have also increased the advection of sea ice towards the east coast of the peninsula, amplifying their effects. Our findings cover only 1% of the Antarctic continent and emphasize that decadal temperature changes in this region are not primarily associated with the drivers of global temperature change but, rather, reflect the extreme natural internal variability of the regional atmospheric circulation.

Nature 535, 411–415 (21 July 2016) doi:10.1038/nature18645

British woman sent naked selfies to five teens after grooming them on social media



A WOMAN paedophile who sent naked selfies to five teenage boys in the UK before going on to have sex with one of them has been jailed for two years.

Twisted Gail Wright, 44, sent explicit images of herself to the youngsters after getting in touch with them on Facebook.

Nottingham Crown Court heard she met the boys, while they were aged 14 and 15, in 2015 and struck up a relationship with them.

She befriended the first teen who said he felt he could “talk to her about things” but it escalated into sending naked snaps of herself and making sexually explicit comments.

A court heard the victim used a friend’s phone to talk to her one day and didn’t log out of Facebook.

When his friend came across the messages, he made contact with Wright and she also sent nude photos and videos containing sexual acts.

She also bought one of the lads Nike Air trainers and clothes for his 16th birthday - after she had begun a sexual relationship with him.

Wright was only rumbled when the dad of one of the boys saw the pictures on his phone and reported the matter to police.

Officers searched Wright’s home and found 42 images on her iPad, which she had sent to the youths and she was arrested.

She pleaded guilty to one count of sexual activity with a child under 16, four counts of causing a child to look at an image of sexual activity and two counts of possessing an indecent photograph of a child at a previous hearing.

Wright, of Shireoaks, Notts., was jailed for two years and ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years.

After the case, Detective Inspector Pete Quinn, from Nottinghamshire Police, said: “This was an unusual case in that the perpetrator was a woman.

“But this goes to show that although the overwhelming majority of sexual exploitation cases brought to the attention of police are perpetrated by men against girls, we cannot be complacent about the fact that it can happen to anyone, anywhere.

“The teenagers in this case have shown courage and maturity in disclosing what happened and I hope that the sentence handed down today will help them and their families move on from a very distressing time.”

SOURCE

This $1 million Australian coin sold just 2 days after it went on the market



At $A1 million, perhaps this coin made by the Perth Mint is small change for an Emirati sheikh driving his Bugatti Veyron around Dubai.  But even the mint's CEO, Richard Hayes, sounded a little surprised when the coin - made from 1kg of 99.99% pure gold, and with a 0.54 carat red diamond from Rio Tinto’s Argyle mine in Western Australia embedded in it - sold within 48 hours of going on the market last week.

The coin, dubbed the Kimberley Treasure, is legal tender in Australia because it has Queen Elizabeth's effigy on the "heads" side, and a red kangaroo holding the gemstone on the "tails" side".

The Kimberley Treasure sold to Tiara Gems and Jewellery DMCC chairman Ashish Vijay Jain, who plans to show off his newly prized possession in Dubai. “We are honoured to bring this prestigious collectable to Dubai, the luxury hub of the Middle East,” Jain said in a statement on news of the sale."

Source

An aptly named fraud is exposed

"Krebs" is German for cancer. The UK's Committee on Climate Change (CCC) has published a new report on the risks facing the UK from climate change. In a video announcing the report, chair of the CCC's Lord Krebs highlighted the 3 main risks identified by the report.  But below are the actual facts from the GWPF



Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Total abandonment of science by the Congressional Left

The professional Warmists at DeSmog Blog have put up here a number of pages from the Congressional Record that report testimony on climate change by Harry Reid, Elizabeth Warren and other well-known scientists.  The testimony by Harry Reid is a particular hoot.  He has repeated for the umpteenth time his sweeping condemnation of the Koch Bros.  They are a worm in Harry's brain. He can't get past  them.  According to him they are responsible for all climate skepticism.

And Pocohontas is not much better.  She aims her spray rather more widely, with Lord Monckton coming in for a big blast.  She claims that he is not a scientist and seems to think that what he says is therefore worthless  -- quite overlooking the fact that she is not a scientist either.  Is her opinion worthless?  I think so but I'm betting that she does not.

But  in the end the whole session is just "ad hominem" argument, argument which is of zero logical force.  The pages concerned are awash with sweeping and unreferenced  personal vilification. When Pocohontas says that a Monckton claim has been disproved, we might have expected the name or names of the person/s who did the disproving.  But no such luck. And nowhere is there any mention of a single climate datum, fact or figure.

It's all rather Satanic, actually: An unending flow of hate and nothing but hate.

An amusing example of superficial analysis from the Left

The author below makes a mistake very common among even academic Leftist writers:  Assuming that correlation is causation and that they "know" in which direction the causal arrow points.  One of the first things you learn in Statistics 101 is that correlation is NOT causation and cannot determine causation. 

The finding concerned below is a correlation between anti-Muslim sentiment among the host population and pro-ISIS sentiment among the local Muslim population. Inferred from that is that anti-Muslim sentiment drives Muslims into the arms of ISIS. And indeed it may do.  But let's look a bit further back along the causal chain.  Could it be that anti-Muslim sentiment is high in some areas because Muslims seem particularly obnoxious in certain areas?  So the causal chain runs:  Obnoxious Muslim behaviour ==> Anti-Muslim sentiment ==> ISIS-liking Muslims.  Or maybe ISIS-liking Muslims ==> Obnoxious Muslim behaviour ==> anti-Muslim sentiment.

It could be any or all of those things. The case is indeterminant without proper before-and-after research. I append to the article below the academic journal abstract and I note that the author there quietly admits towards the end of the abstract that the results are largely driven by "reverse causation", which I take to mean the sort of causal chains I have outlined. But it's all just opinion, of course.

Finally, let me flesh out out briefly what I suspect really underlay the findings.  Anti-Muslim sentiment is huge in the old East Germany.  Why would that be?  Because the East retains at some level the values drummed into them by their old Communist regime: which are values of brotherhood and solidarity between people.  And Muslims breach that.  By holding themselves apart in so many ways, they destroy social solidarity.  They offend against basic East German values.  So even if they are not in fact unusually obnoxious in the East Muslims will be seen as unusually obnoxious there

So the East German case is pretty clear.  In other countries other or similar influences may be at work.  In Britain, for instance, anti-immigrant sentiment is by far the strongest in the North, as we saw in the Brexit vote.  And where is the North ideologically?  Solidly socialist.  They are the great redoubt of the British Labour party.  And as such they too have strong values of brotherhood and social solidarity.  So we see again that anti-Muslim sentiment is in fact associated with LEFTISM.  Not the Leftism of the elites, of course, but the Leftism of the people. The gulf between the Leftism of the elites and the Leftism of the people has of course been much discussed in the aftermath of the Brexit vote.

And who in history was by far the greatest hater of minorities?  The socialist Hitler.  Hitler united socialist and nationalist thinking in the propaganda placard below -- a Wochenspruch for the Gau Weser/Ems. The saying is, "Es gibt keinen Sozialismus, der nicht aufgeht im eigenen Volk" -- which I translate as "There is no socialism except what arises within its own people". You need social solidarity to have real socialism, in other words. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.




MANY PEOPLE WANT their political leaders to take a harder line with immigrants and Muslims, but new research suggests that this approach may, as President Obama has repeatedly asserted, make us less safe.

A political scientist (who “worked four years as a counterterrorism research officer in the Israeli Directorate of Military Intelligence”) scoured about 15,000 accounts of ISIS activists and their social networks on Twitter. She “matched users’ location data to local-level administrative data” and found that “local-level vote share for far-right, anti-Muslim parties in France, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Belgium is a significant predictor of online radicalization.

In substantive terms, an increase of one percentage point in the local-level vote share for far-right parties is associated with a 6 percent, and 3 percent increase, respectively, in the probability of a user being flagged as ISIS-affiliated and being among the top 1 percent posters of radical content.”

Local unemployment or immigration were not associated with pro-ISIS Twitter activity; in fact, “the proportion of asylum seekers and/or asylum seeker centers in a location is negatively linked to these radicalization outcomes.”

The fact that pro-ISIS Twitter activity increased right after anti-Muslim protests across Europe on Feb. 6, 2016 — but only in those areas with high levels of far-right, anti-Muslim voting — suggests that local voter attitudes are driving local radicalization, not the other way around.

SOURCE

From Isolation to Radicalization: The Socioeconomic Predictors of Support for ISIS in the West

Tamar Mitts

Abstract:    

The steady stream of foreign fighters from Western countries to join the Islamic State has gripped the attention of scholars and policymakers around the world. In this paper, I provide the first systematic micro-level study of the socioeconomic predictors of online radicalization and support for ISIS in Europe. I argue that lack of integration in Western countries, coupled with anti-Muslim discrimination and hostility, drives individuals to support ISIS on social media. From December 2015 to May 2016, I collected real-time data on the activity of thousands of ISIS activists and the full social network of their followers on Twitter, a central platform for the organization’s recruitment efforts. I captured and analyzed the online activity and textual content produced by ISIS supporters before their accounts were deleted from the Internet. Using data on the geographic location of ISIS supporters, I matched online radicalization indicators with offline data on voteshare for far-right, anti-Muslim parties in Europe to examine whether the intensity of anti-Muslim hostility at the local level predicts support for ISIS on Twitter. Results show that local-level support for far-right parties is a significant and substantively meaningful determinant of pro-ISIS radicalization online, including posting tweets sympathizing with ISIS, describing life in ISIS-controlled territories, discussing foreign fighters, and expressing anti-West sentiment. An event study of the marches organized by the anti-Muslim movement PEGIDA in 2016 suggests that the results are not entirely driven by reverse causality. Of particular relevance to the current debate over refugee policy, I also find that the number of foreigners or asylum seekers in a locality are not significant predictors of radicalization.

SOURCE

A university promotion in Russia



A video of women in bikinis and skimpy dresses has been released in a bid to entice young Russian men to study in their home town. Education officials launched the clip to encourage school leavers to favour universities in Tyumen in south-central Russia over more glamorous establishments in Moscow and St Petersburg.

But instead of focusing on facilities, staff and educational courses, the crude footage showed female students sunbathing in bikinis and horse riding in tight clothes. The video was intended to show off the benefits of studying locally in the Tyumen Oblast region.

The video does also show a male medical student - riding a skateboard in his white medical uniform.  And at one point, a sexy female student can be seen on horseback wearing a white T-shirt with the logo: 'Study in Tyumen'"

Source

A hedge worth crowing about! Cockadoodle the sculpted yew has watched over this cottage for 100 years



"When it comes to ruling the roost, Cockadoodle the sculpted yew has more experience than most. For well over 100 years, he has watched over this grade II-listed cottage thanks to successive owners who have passed down the topiary tradition. Today he is around 20ft tall – almost as high as the cottage – and has become so famous he is visited by tourists and schoolchildren.

When he was first pictured in 1910, he was missing quite a few feathers, and by the middle of the 1920s, his head had been pruned to a few twigs. But now there’s not a gap to be seen in his plumage – and his spectacular comb is positively bristling with pride"

Source

Why is it that only a tiny minority of Muslims in the Western world take up terrorism?

I wrote a post on the topic above recently.  In reply, a  fellow psychologist has also addressed his mind to the question.  See below:

I think many more Muslims are involved in Jihad than is visible. All things are part of spectrums between extremes, and aggression and Jihad are too. The bulk of Muslims support the few active Jihadis in ways ranging from conscious active support through passive support to the most unconscious subtle encouragement of it.

I think Islam is to Jihad what HIV is to AIDS. One arises from the other, inevitably and automatically, as the fulfilment of its nature. Beliefs are the drivers of individuals and nations. Islam is driven by its beliefs in its scriptures.

Depending on the individual and their place in the collective, the attitudes, thoughts and behaviour resultant from those beliefs may be active or passive, conscious or barely conscious, but is still of the same beliefs, and is made active and conscious in its circumstances, order, or in its turn.

Not every HIV virus is involved in actively destroying the infected body as AIDS, but they are all at least passively involved. I don’t think Islam is a cancer in the body of the west, it is more like a virus, although it eventually makes Islamic no-go zones that are like tumours, its main behaviour is more as a virus waging its war on the body of the West rather than as a cancer as some say Islam is.

Every individual virus by its existence in the infected body is supporting those viruses that are actively attacking the body, because each unit of the virus in its own way is part of the spectrum of activity from most unconscious/subtle activity to most conscious/active. Naturally those virus units most active are the least numerous, but they are being produced and replaced by the lesser active reservoir of viruses from which they come, and which must have greater number.

I think the only solution is to cause Islam to turn against itself. Its leaders must reform it, must make Jihad an individual effort against oneself, against one’s own bad habits and lesser aspects, or against one’s own internal infidels, rather than a group effort against us external infidels. That is the only change that will keep roughly in keeping with the Koran, for that book is always going to drive them.

So far no Islamic leaders are voluntarily stepping up to the plate to do that job, though some like Ayaan Hirsi Ali seem to be preparing the ground. What happens in individuals is reflected in the collective, so, such a movement of individual internal jihad within islam will reflect itself in a division across collective Islam, possibly a greater intra islamic divide or a war which may or may not be fully external/hot.

Their leaders may need severe prompting to do this, and so applying extreme external pressure, even to threaten their survival, may be required. So I agree nuclear bombs may have to be part of the solution as destroying one city after another may indeed be the motivation necessary to turn Islam against itself and bring forward the Islamic leaders it needs to lead it in a reforming direction.

Other pressures may be needed too, or better suited – containment, famine, starvation, disease? But something powerful and clearly death dealing will probably have to be used to motivate them.

They are not smart like the Japanese. Generally, the Japanese's intelligence is stronger than his emotions, his ability to restrain himself is at least as strong as his ability to let loose. The average Japanese can reason, can foresee, and has an internal locus of control.

Muslims/Arabs lack these qualities and abilities. They are generally of low intelligence, their emotions and impulses are stronger than their intelligence and ability to restrain and redirect themselves. Their locus of control is not within their own faculty of conscious choice, of which they are unaware, but is outside of themselves, and they actually believe it is and cannot see it any other way, which is why the males believe their sexual control depends on how females dress, and why they blame others for everything they feel and do.

Whereas the Japanese substantially changed within one generation’s lifespan, I think the Muslims/Arabs are unlikely to do that. The Japanedse were concentrated in their islands and that made change easier.

Muslims are dispersed around the world and millions are across Europe. That could make changing their attitude more difficult and take long time. Civil strife, even civil wars, in western countries between Muslim and non-Muslims could be part of the picture.

Also, and significantly, Leftists of influence in the media, politics, academia, in community work fields,... are currently using Muslims as pawns, as foot soldiers to do their dirty work by proxy, subtly and cunningly encouraging and manipulating Muslims towards their worst, bring out in them their propensity towards resentment and envy, and subsequent hostility towards the West, which extreme leftists want to see fall.

The Japanese didn’t have Leftists smarter than themselves manipulating them and trying to undermine their change for the better. Any persuading force applied by the West upon Islam to prompt its change is going to have to come from a West that has largely silenced its Left or is unaffected by its Left – perhaps a temporary excursion to the Right, even by the Left, which the Left could easily do. Of course all this is surmising. Something different altogether might occur.

Woman deemed incompetent to stand trial on sexual assault charges

Criminal charges against a woman accused of performing oral sex on a 13-year-old boy were dropped Wednesday after she was ruled incompetent to stand trial.

Ashley Shipps, 22, of East Bangor was charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault on a person under 16 and corruption of minors after Pittston police alleged Shipps performed oral sex on the teen several times in an apartment on Elizabeth Street.

In April, a county judge ordered an IQ test on Shipps after her attorney, Mary Deady, said her client appeared “somewhat mentally handicapped.” A psychologist examined her and found she was not competent to stand trial.

In court Wednesday, Assistant District Attorney Jenny Roberts said the prosecution concurred with the findings of the report, and Judge Joseph F. Sklarosky found Shipps incompetent.

The judge asked whether she should be re-evaluated for competency at a later date, but the attorneys agreed that would not be necessary. Deady said Shipps’ condition will not improve because she is handicapped as a result of having meningitis as a child.

As a result, prosecutors dropped all charges against Shipps and the judge ordered her discharged.

SOURCE  

Australia's First Modern Decline In Life Expectancy Due To Obesity

The headline above is as it appeared in the Puffington Host.  It is a crock.  You would think from it that Australian lifespans HAVE decreased.  They have not.  It is just another stupid Leftist theory that they might decrease -- even though they never have in recent decades.  There are many influences on lifespan, with obesity being only a minor one.  

And a supreme piece of idiocy in the article below is that it takes no account of the TREND in obesity.  It takes no account of the fact that in many populations, obesity has stopped rising, and has even been declining in some populations over the last 10 years.  So even if we treat every word below as gospel, we don't know WHEN it refers to.  It may simply be a description of how things WERE.

Saying that lifespans will be reduced on the basis of a questionable assumption that obesity levels will increase is therefore an unsupported extrapolation and is very likely a wrong one for at least some groups -- a false prophecy.

I append the underlying journal article.  There is much of interest in it.  It is for a start a meta-analysis and it is amazing what people can get and do get out of a meta-analysis -- by selecting what you decide to include or exclude. Authors are very good at excluding from their analysis articles whose conclusions they dislike.

The original article appeared in the "Lancet", which was once a rightly respected journal.  Sad to say, the "Lancet" these days is Left-led. It even involved itself in propaganda about the Iraq war.  So biased meta-analyses in service of a "good cause" can be expected from it.  The obesity "war" is definitely a "good cause".

Secondly, there is much dispute now over whether BMI is a good index of obesity.  Very fit people can sometimes have a high BMI even though they have virtually no fat on them.

Thirdly, all the effects were very small, with Hazard Ratios below 2.0 except for the grossly obese.  The Federal Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence, Second Edition says (p. 384): "the threshold for concluding that an agent was more likely than not the cause of an individual's disease is a relative risk greater than 2.0."

So the only real concern is for the GROSSLY obese. That is in line with much previous research so the whole article below is just puffery. There are no substantial grounds to be concerned for the health of anybody over nearly all of the weight range


Australia has experienced an unprecedented collective weight gain over the last three decades and it could lead to the first modern decline in life expectancy.

A new mega-study on four million adults proved for the first time that an unhealthy Body Mass Index had a direct correlation with premature death.

The study published in British medical journal The Lancet found that for every increase in BMI unit after the overweight range, there was an increase in the risk of premature death by around one third.

This increased risk related to coronary heart disease, stroke, respiratory disease, diabetes complications and cancer.

Deakin University's World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention professor Anna Peeters said the study pointed to a population-wide catastrophe in Australia.

"With two thirds of Australian adults overweight or obese this underscores the seriousness of current obesity rates for future life expectancy in Australia," Peeters said.

"If we needed yet another reason to step up our efforts to prevent obesity, this is it."

Cancer Council Australia chief executive Sanchia Aranda said cancer was one of the ways morbidity increased the risk of mortality.

"Given the unprecedented population weight gain in Australia over the last 30 years, we can expect to see the number of cancers and cancer deaths related to obesity and overweight increase in the future unless we take action," Aranda said.

SOURCE

Body-mass index and all-cause mortality: individual-participant-data meta-analysis of 239 prospective studies in four continents

Summary

Background

Overweight and obesity are increasing worldwide. To help assess their relevance to mortality in different populations we conducted individual-participant data meta-analyses of prospective studies of body-mass index (BMI), limiting confounding and reverse causality by restricting analyses to never-smokers and excluding pre-existing disease and the first 5 years of follow-up.

Methods

Methods

Of 10 625 411 participants in Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Europe, and North America from 239 prospective studies (median follow-up 13·7 years, IQR 11·4–14·7), 3 951 455 people in 189 studies were never-smokers without chronic diseases at recruitment who survived 5 years, of whom 385 879 died. The primary analyses are of these deaths, and study, age, and sex adjusted hazard ratios (HRs), relative to BMI 22·5–<25·0 kg/m2.

Findings

All-cause mortality was minimal at 20·0–25·0 kg/m2 (HR 1·00, 95% CI 0·98–1·02 for BMI 20·0–<22·5 kg/m2; 1·00, 0·99–1·01 for BMI 22·5–<25·0 kg/m2), and increased significantly both just below this range (1·13, 1·09–1·17 for BMI 18·5–<20·0 kg/m2; 1·51, 1·43–1·59 for BMI 15·0–<18·5) and throughout the overweight range (1·07, 1·07–1·08 for BMI 25·0–<27·5 kg/m2; 1·20, 1·18–1·22 for BMI 27·5–<30·0 kg/m2). The HR for obesity grade 1 (BMI 30·0–<35·0 kg/m2) was 1·45, 95% CI 1·41–1·48; the HR for obesity grade 2 (35·0–<40·0 kg/m2) was 1·94, 1·87–2·01; and the HR for obesity grade 3 (40·0–<60·0 kg/m2) was 2·76, 2·60–2·92. For BMI over 25·0 kg/m2, mortality increased approximately log-linearly with BMI; the HR per 5 kg/m2 units higher BMI was 1·39 (1·34–1·43) in Europe, 1·29 (1·26–1·32) in North America, 1·39 (1·34–1·44) in east Asia, and 1·31 (1·27–1·35) in Australia and New Zealand. This HR per 5 kg/m2 units higher BMI (for BMI over 25 kg/m2) was greater in younger than older people (1·52, 95% CI 1·47–1·56, for BMI measured at 35–49 years vs 1·21, 1·17–1·25, for BMI measured at 70–89 years; pheterogeneity<0·0001), greater in men than women (1·51, 1·46–1·56, vs 1·30, 1·26–1·33; pheterogeneity<0·0001), but similar in studies with self-reported and measured BMI.

Interpretation

The associations of both overweight and obesity with higher all-cause mortality were broadly consistent in four continents. This finding supports strategies to combat the entire spectrum of excess adiposity in many populations.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(16)30175-1

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Greedy mouse gets trapped in a bird feeder after scoffing so many seeds he couldn't fit back through the gap



A couple were bemused when they returned home to find a mouse had eaten all the seeds in their bird feeder - and had become so bloated it couldn't get back out.  The tiny rodent had to be rescued, but not before an amusing image was snapped which shows its little face peering out from inside the contraption.

They spotted the mouse in the bird feeder which was hanging on a metal frame at the rear end of their garden in South Shields, near Newcastle.  Lisa, a bank cashier, believes the mouse could have been stuck for up to nine hours while they were out of the house. She said: 'The top and bottom of the bird feeder was still attached so he must have got in through the little hole which he ended up peering out of"

Source

We Saved Our Democracy

Pat Condell on Brexit

Hero intervenes to save toddler from being beaten to death by her dad



This courageous man almost definitely saved the little defenceless two year old girl’s life. When Don Gilbert walked outside his motel room armed with a baseball bat after hearing desperate screams – nothing could prepared him for what he was about to see.

Kyle Holder, 32, was beating and kicking his 2-year-old daughter in the parking lot of the Sunnyside Motel. Don didn’t even hesitate to intervene when he saw the out-of-control man senselessly attacking his tiny defenceless little girl.  “I hit him once in the back. He had the baby by his feet,” Don told American TV channel KPTV. “He took her to the curb and just slammed her down, and that’s when I cracked him in the skull three or four times.”

Police said the girl’s father was out of control when they arrived and they were forced to use a Taser gun to subdue the crazed man.  The toddler is in critical condition at a local hospital while her father is behind bars facing first degree attempted murder charges.

Not a clue

South Australian "green" energy faltering

When they shut down their last coal-fired electricity generator, S.A. crowed about how their electricity was now wholly "green". That was a typical Greenie lie from the beginning. They rely on importing electricity from Victoria when the wind isn't blowing. And that electricity is generated by burning "dirty" LaTrobe brown coal, the most polluting form of coal.

They thought they could get away with that but now they are hitting problems.  The interconnector from Victoria can only supply so much power and that is often not enough.  So they jack up the prices of their electricity when the wind is not blowing.  They equalize supply and demand by penalizing and hence restricting demand from big users -- businesses.

That's such an attack on business that they have begun to backtrack.  They are now asking for more output from a big private generator, powered by  -- guess -- a "fossil" fuel -- natural gas.  The Green is now pretty brown at the edges and it will get browner as the folly of "sustainable" power makes itself felt.  Blackouts are waiting in the wings

A private power station in Adelaide has been asked to boost its output because some of South Australia's biggest businesses have been struggling to cope with a huge jump in their electricity prices at times of peak demand.

The owner of Pelican Point Power Station in Adelaide's north-west, Engie, has been asked by the SA Government to provide an extra 239 megawatts of supply.

The Government said a planned outage of the Heywood power interconnector with Victoria, higher gas prices and severe cold weather were to blame for price volatility in the local energy market.

Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis said there was little the Government could do reduce price fluctuations because of past privatisation of the state's electricity assets.

But Opposition frontbencher Rob Lucas blamed the SA Government's reliance on renewable energy for the surge in electricity prices at times of peak demand.

    "The massive rush into wind energy and alternative energy in South Australia, without ensuring the continuation of base load power, is the major problem that we've got here in South Australia," he said.

SOURCE

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Sanders: “This election is about climate change"

And he said it with Hildabeest alongside him nodding like a bobble-headed doll.  Lets hope the both of them continue to hammer that message.  All the polls put climate change way down in people's priorities.  Trump has got the subject right:  Immigration.  It would be exquisite if climate change cost Hillary the election

Bernie Sanders officially threw in the towel on Tuesday in New Hampshire by endorsing Hillary Clinton for president. Hitting on the themes his campaign has stressed throughout the primaries, Sanders laid out what this election is really about. One of his themes has been climate change, which featured heavily in his speech:

"This election is about climate change, the greatest environmental crisis facing our planet, and the need to leave this world in a way that is healthy and habitable for our kids and future generations.

Hillary Clinton is listening to the scientists who tell us that if we do not act boldly in the very near future there will be more drought, more floods, more acidification of the oceans, more rising sea levels. She understands that we must work with countries around the world in transforming our energy system away from fossil fuels and into energy efficiency and sustainable energy — and that when we do that we can create a whole lot of good paying jobs.

Donald Trump: Well, like most Republicans, he chooses to reject science — something no presidential candidate should do. He believes that climate change is a hoax. In fact, he wants to expand the use of fossil fuel. That would be a disaster for our country and our planet"

The endorsement rally was kicked off by climate activist (and Grist board member) Bill McKibben. “Secretary Clinton, we wish you Godspeed in the fight that now looms,” McKibben said.

SOURCE

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).