November 2015

 Books

Useful Enemies By Richard Rashke

Reviewed by Carl Dow

Useful Enemies is a gold mine for conspiracy theorists that fails because this brilliantly written exposé is backed by thoroughly researched facts, figures, and a narrative that unfolds like a best-selling novel.

During November, as we mourn the loss of the men and women who made the supreme sacrifice in two world wars, and in subsequent blood-letting, it is important to recognize how their sacrifice has been betrayed by those who have since led millions more to death and misery under false flags.

Media war intensifies

Russia refutes Western claims it hit hospital killing 13

Countering the dangerous mainstream media

(mis)perceptions of the bloody Syrian conflict

Up until quite recently, much of the media towed the government line, suggesting Assad and the terrorists must go — even though those same terror groups entered Syria to overthrow the government. The grossly misleading implication here is that the Syrian government, ISIS and other terror groups are one and the same. They are not.

Just recently and coincidentally timed with Russia coming to Syria’s aid, the Western MSM has suddenly changed its tune a bit: (More)

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Nudies no more

Playboy magazine to stop

publishing pictures of naked women

‘Provocative’ images will still feature in redesigned magazine, but editors say founder Hugh Hefner has agreed that fully nude shots are ‘passé’

 

By Amanda Meade

The Guardian

Playboy, sans nudes? When 'I read it for the articles' becomes editorial policy — Clem Bastow

Tuesday 13 October 2015 — In an interview with the New York Times, CEO Scott Flanders said founder Hugh Hefner, 89, had agreed with a proposal to stop publishing images of naked women from March 2016.

The redesigned Playboy, 62 years after it was launched by Hefner, will still feature a Playmate of the Month and provocative pictures of women, but they will be rated PG-13 (a rating that cautions that material may be inappropriate for children under 13). (More)

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RT media proves that honesty is the best policy

While Western media wallow in propaganda spin

RT’s 2016 budget announced, down from 2015, MSM too stumped to spin?

RT

10 October 2015 — RT — a publicly-funded, autonomous non-profit organization — has been allocated 19 billion rubles, or just over 300 million USD, in the just-announced 2016 Federal Budget of the Russian Federation.

The budget represents a nearly 2-billion ruble cut from 2015. Western media, usually so eager to discuss RT’s “lavish” financing, has remained surprisingly quiet about this news, at least for now. (More)

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Times of Troubles

How anti-Russia 'experts' change tune to suit the market

RT Editorial

20 October 2015 — Recently, The Moscow Times — the Russian capital's only English-language daily — has been on something of an anti-RT crusade. Could this stem from frustration over RT’s success?

Like the British rock band The Smiths, opinions of RT can ‘oscillate wildly’. Pundits hope to convince their readers with harrowing stories that RT is about to take over the world. On other occasions, RT is casually dismissed as an outlet that nobody watches or reads.

Amusingly, it seems that both narratives can apparently co-exist in the same publication. (More)

Health Watch

Coca-Cola spends millions buying scientists

‘to manipulate public’ on sugar-obesity link

RT

09 October 2015 — Coca-Cola has spent millions of pounds funding research institutes and scientists who cast doubt on the link between sugary drinks and obesity.

The soft drinks firm is said to have links to more than a dozen British scientists, including government health advisers, who counter claims that its drinks contribute to obesity.

The revelation of Coca-Cola’s scientific funding comes weeks after the government rejected a tax on sugar-sweetened drinks, despite support from Chief Medical Officer Dame Sally Davies, the British Medical Association, and TV chef Jamie Oliver. (More)

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Why you’re out of breath walking up stairs — fit or not

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Pollutants lurking in your house

can make you seriously miserable

The air in your home may be hazardous to your health

23 October 2015 — While your home may feel like the safest place you could be, the air may contain a number of indoor air pollutants that can cause respiratory problems like asthma, or even diseases like lung cancer.

Here are six of the most common air pollutants found in homes and ways to reduce or eliminate them. (More)

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18 foods you don't need to buy organic

Buying organic helps keep pesticides out of your diet, but it can also drain your wallet

22 June 2015

In 2013, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) tested 3,015 produce samples and found that almost two-thirds contained pesticide residues. The Environmental Working Group (EWG), a non-profit, non-partisan advocacy group for human health and the environment, calculated that USDA tests found a total 165 different pesticides on thousands of fruit and vegetables in the 2013 sampling.

While these findings might increase your desire to always choose organic over conventionally grown produce, in fact, there are many traditionally grown fruits and vegetables that are fine to include in a pesticide-free diet. Of course, there are foods that you should always buy organic, like apples, peaches and nectarines — nearly 100 percent of these fruits have tested positive for at least one pesticide residue. The EWG has produced the Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce, which includes the "Dirty Dozen" and "Clean Fifteen" lists to help you decide what to buy organic and what's okay to buy non-organic.

Why do some types of produce have more pesticide than others? Richard Wiles, senior vice president of policy for the Environmental Working Group says, “If you eat something like a pineapple or sweet corn, they have a protection defense because of the outer layer of skin. Not the same for strawberries and berries.” (More)

Science

NASA studying 2015 El Nino event as never before

All 19 space earth-observation missions gather data

This year's El Nino is already strong and appears likely to equal the event of 1997-98, the strongest El Nino on record, according to the World Meteorological Organization. All 19 of NASA's current orbiting Earth-observing missions were launched after 1997. In the past two decades, NASA has made tremendous progress in gathering and analyzing data that help researchers understand more about the mechanics and global impacts of El Nino.

"El Nino is a fascinating phenomenon because it has such far-reaching and diverse impacts. The fact that fires in Indonesia are linked with circulation patterns that influence rainfall over the United States shows how complex and interconnected the Earth system is," said Lesley Ott, research meteorologist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland. (More)

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Greater than the sum of its parts

A new species is evolving right before our eyes

Millions of 'coydogs' thought to roam eastern North America

The Economist

RT Exclusive: Trail of bodies left behind

by jihadists in Syria running from Russian bombs

10 October 2015 — The Syrian Army has captured the village of Al-Bahsa in the Hama province. An RT crew went to witness the trail of destruction left behind by the militants over their two-month reign of terror.

The village was under control of the Al-Nusra Front, a group affiliated with Al-Qaeda. They retreated on Friday as the Syrian government forces, supported from the air by Russian warplanes, went on the offensive.

Dozens of bodies, many of them with their hands tied and apparently killed execution-style, were discovered by the advancing troops in Al-Bahsa. RT’s Murad Gazdiev and his crew went to the scene to witness the horrors as the battles continued mere kilometers away. (More)

Russia claims success in combat report

More than 1,600 terror targets destroyed

in one month of Russia's Syria operation

RT.com

30 October 2015 — The Russian Air Force says it has conducted some 1,400 sorties in Syria since the start of Moscow's anti-terror operation September 30 They have eliminated more than 1,600 terrorist targets in one month, Russia's military said on Friday 30 October.

Among the destroyed targets are 249 command posts, 51 militants' training camps, 131 ammunition and fuel depots and 786 field bases, Colonel General Andrey Kartapolov of Russia's General Staff said on Friday.

Twenty-eight of the "most odious" terrorist leaders have been eliminated, the military report said. With the help of Russian airstrikes, the Syrian army managed to free over 50 towns and villages in such provinces as Aleppo, Latakia, Idlib, Homs and Damascus, the General Staff official said, adding that the freed territories make up to around 350 square kilometers (350,000 hectares).

American action in Syria baffles Russian foreign minister

Sergey Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister, says he is baffled by what the U.S. is doing in Syria and why the results of its actions are so insignificant. "We have very few specifics that could explain what the U.S. is exactly doing in Syria. With 25,000 combat sorties one could blow the whole of Syria off the map." During a year of American action, the IS has expanded its occupied territory and its firepower. At the request of the Syrian government Russia launched its anti-IS military operation in Syria on Wednesday 30 September.

Despite Islamic State's "considerable losses and mass walkout," it's too early to talk about "complete victory" over the terrorists in Syria, Kartapolov stressed, adding the militants are continuing their stand against Syrian government troops in a number of regions. But "all their [terrorists'] efforts of counter attacks have been timely suppressed by the Syrian Army," the Russian military official said. (More)