Video: Woman films herself having a stroke – Telegraph

After being misdiagnosed with stress, Stacey Yepes took this video selfie which helped doctors correctly diagnose that she was having a mini-stroke

via Video: Woman films herself having a stroke – Telegraph.

“Plastic-eating” microbes help reduce marine debris: researchers – Channel NewsAsia

Coming soon: The Dixie Cup that Ate Cleveland!

Microscopic creatures could be helping reduce marine garbage on the ocean surface, not only by “eating” plastics but by causing tiny pieces to sink to the seafloor, Australian researchers said on Thursday.

The plastic-dwellers appear to be biodegrading the millions of tonnes of debris floating on waters worldwide, according to oceanographers at the University of Western Australia.

via “Plastic-eating” microbes help reduce marine debris: researchers – Channel NewsAsia.

Middle East “Expert” – US military force against ISIS in Iraq ‘is no longer avoidable’ – France 24

{Not volunteering to serve or be on any front line}

Paradoxically, the current conflict in Iraq and the changing geopolitical dynamics could accelerate the process of ending the civil war in Syria. To that end, the US must seize upon this opening and spearhead the delivery of weapons to the rebels to stop Assad from continuing his indiscriminate bombing of rebel hideouts while killing thousands of civilians in the process.

For this reason, once the US commits to preventing ISIS from achieving its goal, it cannot do so incrementally. All countries in the region have a common interest to bring an end to ISIS’ unseemly ambition. They must now set aside their differences and rally under American leadership to achieve their common objective.

Alon Ben-Meir is a professor of international relations at the Center for Global Affairs at NYU.

via Middle East – US military force against ISIS in Iraq ‘is no longer avoidable’ – France 24.

Water Cut-off in Detroit Violates Human Rights, Say Activists | Inter Press Service

“This is unprecedented,” said Maude Barlow, founder of the Blue Planet Project, a group that advocates water as a human right.

“I visited the city and worked with the Detroit People’s Water Board several weeks ago and came away terribly upset,” she told IPS.

“Water bills are regressive, so low-income households pay a disproportionate amount of their income for water service.” — Mary Grant, researcher at Food & Water Watch

She pointed out that hundreds of thousands of people, mostly African Americans, are having their water ruthlessly turned off.

Families with children, the elderly and the sick, cannot bathe, flush their toilets or cook in their own homes, she added.

“This is the worst violation of the human right to water I have ever seen outside of the worst slums in the poorest countries in failed states of the global South,” said Barlow, a one-time senior advisor on water to a former President of the U.N. General Assembly.

Last March, the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) announced plans to shut off water service for 1,500 to 3,000 customers every week if their water bills were not paid. And on Tuesday, the City Council approved an 8.7-percent water rate increase.

According to a DWSD document, more than 80,000 residential households – in a city of 680,000 people – are in arrears, with thousands of families without water, and thousands more expected to lose access at any moment.

via Water Cut-off in U.S. City Violates Human Rights, Say Activists | Inter Press Service.

Sierra Leone News: Health Minister Miatta Kargbo Mocks Nurse who died of Ebola: Sierra Leone News

Sierra Leone’s Minister of Health and Sanitation Miss Miatta Kargbo has appeared in Parliament yesterday June 17th 2014 to speak on the Ebola menace now ravaging Kailahun district and posing a threat to Sierra Leone. Whilst she appeared with many facts to defend her ministry, the minister went on to shock many by describing two of her deceased staff with promiscuous references of illicit, extra-marital sexual affairs. As citizens listened in horror, she openly identified the male staff by name and went on to say the female staff died because she was in a sexual relationship with the male staff. However, her claims were to be swiftly debunked by the elected parliamentarian for Daru.

via Sierra Leone News: Health Minister Miatta Kargbo Mocks Nurse who died of Ebola: Sierra Leone News.

News from The Associated Press

By 1900, there we no passenger pigeons left in the wild. By 1914, there was just 29-year-old Martha at the Cincinnati Zoo. People lined up to see her. She was a star.

Then on Sept. 1, 1914, Martha was found lying on the bottom of her cage. The passenger pigeon was now extinct. It had gone from billions of birds to zero in about one century, probably less.

via News from The Associated Press.

Wolfowitz’s Noble Lies

An ignoble lie again to keep from being prosecuted as a war criminal or being indicted for fraud.

The Dish

I tend not to hold the somewhat conspiratorial view that followers of Leo Strauss, the guru of the neocon intelligentsia, actively believe in deceiving the American people in the pursuit of statecraft. Strauss argued that many critical texts in Western civilization were written with an esoteric teaching for the intelligent few, while presenting a less radical and palatable public doctrine for the masses. Hence the Straussian penchant for a noble lie – one that is good for the people to believe but which the elite knows is bullshit. Perhaps the classic example of this is the Straussian support for public religion, while the bulk of them are atheists. For them, religious faith is entirely instrumental – a way to lie your way to social order and cohesion.

In the case of the Iraq war, several untruths were told. Among them: there is no sectarianism in Iraq; it will cost next…

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Abbas: ‘We will find the missing settlers, get them back and punish those responsible’

The Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas declared today that the Palestinian authorities are coordinating with the Israeli authorities to find the three missing Israeli settlers in the West Bank. The security coordinator is trying to protect the Palestinians from a 3rd Intifada.

He made this statement during his speech in the Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers that is taking place in Saudi Arabia. He also said that the three missing settlers are humans like the rest of us, and the Palestinian authority is searching for them to take them back to their families. He added that the people responsible will be punished for this operation as the kidnapers are trying to destroy the Palestinian authority.

Abbas said that the security coordination with the Israeli authorities benefits the Palestinians, and that Palestinians should be committed to it as they committed to the Palestinian Unity government.

via Abbas: ‘We will find the missing settlers, get them back and punish those responsible’.

Celebrating the Introduction of Bill to Protect San Gabriel Mountains and Rivers | Ramya Sivasubramanian’s Blog | Switchboard, from NRDC

Against the backdrop of the San Gabriel Mountains, I joined supporters at Peck Water Conservation Park along the Rio Hondo River on Saturday, June 14th to celebrate Congresswoman Judy Chu’s recent legislation to permanently protect over 615,000 acres of the San Gabriel Mountains, rivers, and parks. Co-sponsored by Rep. Adam Schiff and Rep. Tony Cárdenas, supporters include local governments, school districts, water agencies, businesses, residents, and organizations like San Gabriel Mountains Forever. And it’s easy to see why.

via Celebrating the Introduction of Bill to Protect San Gabriel Mountains and Rivers | Ramya Sivasubramanian’s Blog | Switchboard, from NRDC.