Category Archives: Fail!

LBCI | Islamic State training pilots to fly in three jets – Syria monitor

Iraqi pilots who have joined Islamic State in Syria are training members of the group to fly in three captured fighter jets, a group monitoring the war said on Friday, saying it was the first time that the militant group had taken to the air.

The group, which has seized land in Syria and Iraq, has been flying the planes over the captured al-Jarrah military airport east of Aleppo, said Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Reuters was not immediately able to verify the report and US Central Command said it was not aware of Islamic State flying jets in Syria.

US-led forces are bombing Islamic State bases in Syria and Iraq. The group has regularly used weaponry captured from the Syrian and Iraqi armies and has overrun several military bases but this was the first time it had been able to pilot warplanes.

“They have trainers, Iraqi officers who were pilots before for (former Iraqi president) Saddam Hussein,” Abdulrahman said.

“People saw the flights, they went up many times from the airport and they are flying in the skies outside the airport and coming back,” he said, citing witnesses in northern Aleppo province near the base, which is 70 km (45 miles) south of Turkey.

It was not clear whether the jets were equipped with weaponry or whether the pilots could fly longer distances in the planes, which witnesses said appeared to be MiG 21 or MiG 23 models captured from the Syrian military.

“We’re not aware of (Islamic State) conducting any flight operations in Syria or elsewhere,” US Central Command spokesman Colonel Patrick Ryder said.

“We continue to keep a close eye on (Islamic State) activity in Syria and Iraq and will continue to conduct strikes against their equipment, facilities, fighters and centers of gravity, wherever they may be.”

Pro-Islamic State Twitter accounts had previously posted pictures of captured jets in other parts of Syria, but the aircraft had appeared unusable, according to analysts and diplomats.

The countryside east of Aleppo city is one of the main bases of Islamic State in Syria, where the al Qaeda offshoot controls up to a third of the country’s territory.

via LBCI | Islamic State training pilots to fly in three jets – Syria monitor.

Settlers Attacking Muslims in AL Aqsa Mosque

Since more than one week, Israeli occupation forces tighten the siege around the Muslims holy place in Jerusalem “Al Aqsa Mosque” .In addition of encouraging settlers to attack muslimes in Al Aqsa Yard.

That Israeli procedures Paves the way to control Al Aqsa mosque as it was happen in “the other Muslim holy place in Hebron city” Abraham Mosque” after one of the settlers killed 29 Palestinian inside that mosque in 1994

Actual settlers attacking against Al Aqsa started 6 months ago, when Israeli Police decided to deport 300 young Palestinian from praying in the mosque for allowing settlers invaded it and celebrate their Feasts inside the Muslims holy place

via Settlers Attacking Muslims in AL Aqsa Mosque.

Check for any corn ingredients and then choose something else to eat – EPA Approves Popular Weed Killer For Genetically Modified Crops

The Environmental Protection Agency has approved a new version of a popular weed killer to be used on genetically modified corn and soybeans.

The EPA said Wednesday that it will allow the use of a 2,4-D weed killer called Enlist Duo, a new version of the popular herbicide used since the 1940s. It is designed to be used on corn and soybeans grown with engineered seeds approved by the Agriculture Department last month. When used together, farmers can spray the fields after the plants emerge, killing the weeds but leaving crops unharmed.

The agriculture industry has anxiously awaited the approvals, as many weeds have become resistant to glyphosate, an herbicide commonly used on genetically modified corn and soybeans now. Enlist includes a combination of both 2,4-D and glyphosate.

Critics say they’re concerned the increased use of 2,4-D could endanger public health and more study on the chemical is needed. The USDA has said that if both the seeds and herbicide are approved, the use of 2,4-D could increase by an estimated 200 percent to 600 percent by the year 2020.

via EPA Approves Popular Weed Killer For Genetically Modified Crops.

Eurosurveillance – CONCURRENT OUTBREAKS OF DENGUE, CHIKUNGUNYA AND ZIKA VIRUS INFECTIONS

CONCURRENT OUTBREAKS OF DENGUE, CHIKUNGUNYA AND ZIKA VIRUS INFECTIONS – AN UNPRECEDENTED EPIDEMIC WAVE OF MOSQUITO-BORNE VIRUSES IN THE PACIFIC 2012–2014

A Roth ()1, A Mercier1, C Lepers1, D Hoy1, S Duituturaga1, E Benyon1, L Guillaumot2, Y Souarès1

Secretariat of the Pacific Community, New Caledonia

Institut Pasteur de Nouvelle-Caledonie, Noumea, New Caledonia

Citation style for this article: Roth A, Mercier A, Lepers C, Hoy D, Duituturaga S, Benyon E, Guillaumot L, Souarès Y. Concurrent outbreaks of dengue, chikungunya and Zika virus infections – an unprecedented epidemic wave of mosquito-borne viruses in the Pacific 2012–2014. Euro Surveill. 2014;19(41):pii=20929. Available online: http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=20929

Date of submission: 26 September 2014

Since January 2012, the Pacific Region has experienced 28 new documented outbreaks and circulation of dengue, chikungunya and Zika virus. These mosquito-borne disease epidemics seem to become more frequent and diverse, and it is likely that this is only the early stages of a wave that will continue for several years. Improved surveillance and response measures are needed to mitigate the already heavy burden on island health systems and limit further spread to other parts of the world.

via Eurosurveillance – View Article.

Why do people print such crap!?! Crash-dieting more effective that gradual weight loss, study suggests – Telegraph

The number of people who regained weight after three years was also the same in both groups, 71 per cent, suggesting that crash dieting is better than gradual weight loss in the short term and no worse in the long term.

via Crash-dieting more effective that gradual weight loss, study suggests – Telegraph.

Both approaches fail nearly 3/4 of the time. So, dieting alone is not worth the time and effort. Increasing your amount of exercise bit by bit without doing much else at first, shows you that exercise helps you lose weight bit by bit. Exercise and make adjustments to eating habits and increase both efforts a bit over time and within a year and a half – you have a new life – PERIOD! 255 lbs. to 150 in 16 months 12 years ago. Walked away from hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and high cholesterol.

Climate Change & Ebola: “We’re Running Out of Time,” says World Bank President – myEARTH360 (the blog)

“Ebola and climate change have a few things in common,” he said. “Most importantly, we are running out of time to find solutions to both. Also, until very recently, the plans to fight them were either nonexistent or inadequate. And inaction is literally killing people–one because of the rapid spread of a deadly virus, the other from the poisoning of the atmosphere and the oceans. And finally, perhaps most critically from our point of view, resolving these problems is essential to development, whether from the perspective of human suffering, economic growth or public health.”

via Climate Change & Ebola: “We’re Running Out of Time,” says World Bank President – myEARTH360 (the blog).

Anita Sarkeesian, Video Game Critic, Cancels Speech After Threats of Massacre – NYTimes.com

Anita Sarkeesian, a feminist cultural critic who has become a target of harassment by gamers, canceled a public speech scheduled for Wednesday after the college holding the event received threats of violence.

Ms. Sarkeesian was set to speak at Utah State University in Logan. Even after school administrators received the threats against Ms. Sarkeesian and those who attended her speech, she planned to give her talk. Ms. Sarkeesian, who hosts an online video series that has challenged how women are portrayed in videogames, has been a frequent target of threats because of her work.

But Ms. Sarkeesian reconsidered and canceled the talk over security measures at the event, according to a tweet by Ms. Sarkeesian and a spokesman for the school.

via Anita Sarkeesian, Video Game Critic, Cancels Speech After Threats of Massacre – NYTimes.com.

Electronic Village: Jurors Award $4.65 Million in Taser-Torture Death of Marvin Booker

A federal jury found five Denver sheriff’s deputies used excessive force against a homeless street preacher who died in the city’s downtown jail and awarded his family a record $4.65 million in damages, a verdict an attorney said should send a message to law enforcement everywhere.

via Electronic Village: Jurors Award $4.65 Million in Taser-Torture Death of Marvin Booker.

IS indirectly supported by US and Saudi Arabia prior to 2007?

The USA and Saudi Arabia have been financing Lebanese Salafist groups, who are the worst enemies of the Shiite Hezbollah. An official in Beirut had admitted to US journalist Seymour Hersh back in 2007 that even al Qaeda type organizations were allowed “to have a presence here.”[5] In a conversation with Hersh, a former member of the US intelligence community complained, “in this process, we’re financing a lot of bad guys with some serious potential unintended consequences. It’s a very high-risk venture.” On the other hand, since 2012, at the latest, north Lebanese Salafists – who had been reinforced with western and Saudi aid – began supporting insurgents in the Syrian civil war. Up to 900 of them are said to have joined IS. It is unlikely that Berlin had not known of this buildup of the Lebanese Salafists by its US partner and its Middle East ally, Saudi Arabia, particularly given the fact that the German Bundeswehr has been operating in Lebanon since 2006 – hardly without its accompanying intelligence-gathering component. In any case, articles on this development began being published back in March 2007. At the time, the common priorities being set by the West were aimed at weakening Iran.

via www.german-foreign-policy.com.