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 Pravda: The UFO phenomenon never existed in the former USSR, at least in the official records. There were numerous stories about unidentified flying objects which could be heard from susceptible individuals, but Soviet cosmonauts never said anything on the subject, although they had a lot to share.
Former Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Kovalenok appeared at a press conference devoted to unusual and anomalous phenomena in space. He said that he had witnessed something inexplicable during his work on board the Salyut orbital station. The cosmonaut said that he once saw a strange object on Earth’s orbit. He asked his partner, Viktor Savinykh, to fetch a camera.
While Savinykh was trying to find the camera, the object exploded in front of Kovalenok’s eyes. The object split into two parts and had something like a bridge connecting those parts. The dumbbell-like object disappeared before the other cosmonaut was ready to photograph it. A strong radioactive emission was registered on Earth soon after the explosion of the mysterious object.
Kovalenok said that many of his colleagues had witnessed something unusual on a number of occasions, but they decided not to bring those issues to the public attention. read more
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Unexplained Phenomena
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'Beneath the surface of this Southern town, with its lush evergreens and winding riverbanks, is a largely forgotten legacy of pain, secrecy and human indignity. "My heart still bleeds, and it will forever bleed, because of what had happened to me," local resident Elaine Riddick said. Riddick was one of thousands of people secretly sterilized by the state between 1929 and 1974. From the early 1900s to the 1970s, some 65,000 men and women were sterilized in this country, many without their knowledge, as part of a government eugenics program to keep so-called undesirables from reproducing.' read more
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Human Rights
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 If the Mumbai terror assault seemed exceptional, and shocking in its targets, it was clear from the Thanksgiving Day reports that we weren't going to be deprived of the familiar, either. Namely, ruminations, hints, charges of American culpability that regularly accompany catastrophes of this kind.
Soon enough, there was Deepak Chopra, healer, New Age philosopher and digestion guru, advocate of aromatherapy and regular enemas, holding forth on CNN on the meaning of the attacks.
How the ebullient Dr. Chopra had come to be chosen as an authority on terror remains something of a mystery, though the answer may have something to do with his emergence in the recent presidential campaign as a thinker of advanced political views. Also commending him, perhaps, is his well known capacity to cut through all sorts of complexities to make matters simple. No one can fail to grasp the wisdom of a man who has informed us that "If you have happy thoughts, then you make happy molecules." read more
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Researchers say they have located the world's oldest stash of marijuana, in a tomb in a remote part of China.
The cache of cannabis is about 2,700 years old and was clearly "cultivated for psychoactive purposes," rather than as fibre for clothing or as food, says a research paper in the Journal of Experimental Botany.
The 789 grams of dried cannabis was buried alongside a light-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian man, likely a shaman of the Gushi culture, near Turpan in northwestern China. The extremely dry conditions and alkaline soil acted as preservatives, allowing a team of scientists to carefully analyze the stash, which still looked green though it had lost its distinctive odour. read more
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Journal of Experimental Botany.
The 789 grams of dried cannabis was buried alongside a light-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian man, likely a shaman of the Gushi culture, near Turpan in northwestern China. The extremely dry conditions and alkaline soil acted as preservatives, allowing a team of scientists to carefully analyze the stash, which still looked green though it had lost its distinctive odour.">
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AP (BRUSSELS, Belgium): European patients had to pay about 3 billion euros ($3.87 billion) more for medicines in 2000-2007 because pharmaceutical companies deliberately stalled the sale of cheaper generic versions, EU antitrust regulators said Friday.
An investigation of major pharmaceutical companies — including Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi Aventis — showed they had blocked or delayed generic drugs from entering the market to prevent losing revenue on their more profitable drugs, the European Commission said.
The drug companies used costly legal action to stall generic drug companies from making their own versions of medicines once patents had expired, the European Commission said. It said they launched disputes, lawsuits and multiple patent applications for the same drug. In one case, 1,300 applications were filed.
Drug companies also struck deals that limited how the generic versions could be sold, sweetened with payments of more than 200 million euros from the drug majors to generic rivals. All in all, the EU said these tactics stopped a process where a drug's price typically falls 20% in the first year that a generic version becomes available. read more
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Eoin O'Carroll writes on the Christian Science Monitor's Bright Green Blog:
After five days of tinkering, astronauts aboard the International Space Station ran their first successful test of equipment that turns urine into drinking water. Delivered to the station by the Space Shuttle Endeavour, the $154 million water recycling system, which also processes sweat and moisture from the air, is designed to quench astronauts’ thirst while requiring fewer costly resupply missions. Samples of the recycled water will be tested back on earth before astronauts aboard the station can start drinking from the system’s tap.
This raises a question: Can we build these things on earth? Maybe even for a little less than $154 million?
A thirsty planet: There’s definitely a need. According to the World Health Organization, some 1.1 billion people lack access to clean water. That’s almost 1 in 6 human beings. And according to the United Nations Development Programme, women and girls in developing countries collectively spend more than 10 million “person-years” hauling water from remote sources each year.
Three Gorges Dam in Yichang, Hubei province, China read more
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Lame duck President George W. Bush scores a hattrick when recently speaking to ABC News' Charlie Gibson. Some interview excerpts:
Gaffe No. 1: "I think I was unprepared for war," Bush told ABC News' Charlie Gibson in an interview airing on World News. In other words, I didn't campaign and say, 'Please vote for me, I'll be able to handle an attack,'" Bush said. "In other words, I didn't anticipate war. Presidents — one of the things about the modern presidency is that the unexpected will happen."
Gaffe No. 2: "I'm sorry it's happening, of course," Bush said in a wide-ranging interview with ABC's World News. "Obviously I don't like the idea of people losing jobs, or being worried about their 401(k)s. On the other hand, the American people got to know that we will safeguard the system. I mean, we're in. And if we need to be in more, we will."
Gaffe No. 3: I think it was a repudiation of Republicans," he told Charlie Gibson. "And I'm sure some people voted for Barack Obama because of me. I think most people voted for Barack Obama because they decided they wanted him to be in their living room for the next four years explaining policy." read more
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World News. In other words, I didn't campaign and say, 'Please vote for me, I'll be able to handle an attack,'" Bush said. "In other words, I didn't anticipate war. Presidents — one of the things about the modern presidency is that the unexpected will happen."
Gaffe No. 2: "I'm sorry it's happening, of course," Bush said in a wide-ranging interview with ABC's World News. "Obviously I don't like the idea of people losing jobs, or being worried about their 401(k)s. On the other hand, the American people got to know that we will safeguard the system. I mean, we're in. And if we need to be in more, we will."
Gaffe No. 3: I think it was a repudiation of Republicans," he told Charlie Gibson. "And I'm sure some people voted for Barack Obama because of me. I think most people voted for Barack Obama because they decided they wanted him to be in their living room for the next four years explaining policy."">
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 Kathleen Pender, SF Gate:
The federal government committed an additional $800 billion to two new loan programs [last] Tuesday, bringing its cumulative commitment to financial rescue initiatives to a staggering $8.5 trillion, according to Bloomberg News.
That sum represents almost 60 percent of the nation's estimated gross domestic product.
Today, however, the Fed is more worried about deflation than inflation and is willing to flood the market with money if necessary to prevent an economic collapse.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke "has ordered the helicopters to get ready," said Axel Merk, president of Merk Investments. "The helicopters are hovering and the first cash is making it through the seams. Soon, a door may be opened."
Please click the image for a breakdown of where taxpayer money is going. Further reading here: madison.com.
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Kathleen Pender, SF Gate:
The federal government committed an additional $800 billion to two new loan programs [last] Tuesday, bringing its cumulative commitment to financial rescue initiatives to a staggering $8.5 trillion, according to Bloomberg News.
That sum represents almost 60 percent of the nation's estimated gross domestic product.
Today, however, the Fed is more worried about deflation than inflation and is willing to flood the market with money if necessary to prevent an economic collapse.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke "has ordered the helicopters to get ready," said Axel Merk, president of Merk Investments. "The helicopters are hovering and the first cash is making it through the seams. Soon, a door may be opened."
Please click the image for a breakdown of where taxpayer money is going. Further reading here: madison.com.
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JENNIFER PELTZ, AP: One man showed up at a federal building, asking for release from the reality show he was sure was being made of his life.
Another was convinced his every move was secretly being filmed for a TV contest. A third believed everything — the news, his psychiatrists, the drugs they prescribed — was part of a phony, stage-set world with him as the involuntary star, like the 1998 movie The Truman Show.
Researchers have begun documenting what they dub the "Truman syndrome," a delusion afflicting people who are convinced that their lives are secretly playing out on a reality TV show. Scientists say the disorder underscores the influence pop culture can have on mental conditions.
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