Japanese Sex Super Bug Jumps To Hawaii– Worse Than AIDS: Will Kill Over 30,000,000 A Year

May 7, 2013, 4:55 am

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‘Worse than AIDS’ – sex ‘superbug’ discovered in Japan called disaster in waiting “This might be a lot worse than AIDS in the short run because the bacteria is more aggressive and will affect more people quickly,” Alan Christianson, a doctor of naturopathic medicine, told CNBC.

The new strain of gonorrhea, H041, was first discovered in 2009 after a sex worker fell victim to the superbug in Japan. Medical officials reported that the medication-resilient ‘sex superbug’ was discovered in Hawaii in May 2011, and has since spread to California and Norway, the International Business Times reports.

Nearly 30 million people die from AIDS-related causes each year, and the H041 superbug could have similar consequences, according to Alan Christianson, a doctor of naturopathic medicine.

“Getting gonorrhea from this strain might put someone into septic shock and death in a matter of days,”Christianson said. ”This is very dangerous.”

The gonorrhea strain has not yet claimed any lives, but the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have asked Congress for $54 million to find an antibiotic to treat the strain.

In a Capitol Hill briefing last week, health officials said an education and public awareness campaign is crucial in minimizing the effective of HO41. William Smith, executive director of the National Coalition for STD Directors, said that if the ‘sex superbug’ spreads, it could quickly kill many people before a treatment is discovered. And that risk becomes increasingly more likely if Congress does not provide the funds to find a cure, he said.

“It’s an emergency situation. As time moves on, it’s getting more hazardous,” he told members of Congress.

“We have to keep beating the drum on this,” he added. ”The potential for disaster is great.”

In the United States, there are 20 million new STD infections each year, which results in about $16 billion in medical costs, the CDC reports. More than 800,000 of these cases gonorrhea infections, most of which occur in young people ages 15 to 24. Gonorrhea is sometimes difficult to detect, since it shows no symptoms in about half of all women. Those who fall ill to the deadly strain may not notice it until it’s too late.

“That’s what’s kind of scary about this,” Smith said. Although health officials have widely reported that cases of H041 were discovered in California, Hawaii and Norway, the CDC has disputed those claims and told CNBC on Monday that the infection has not been confirmed anywhere outside of Japan. The CDC did, however, make an announcement in 2011 that it was noticing greater gonorrhea bacterial resistance to certain types of antibiotics in Hawaii and California.

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Long Hidden, Vatican Painting Linked To Native Americans

May 7, 2013, 5:14 am

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For close to 400 years, the painting was closed off to the world. For the past 124 years, millions of visitors walked by without noticing an intriguing scene covered with centuries of grime.

Only now, the Vatican says a detail in a newly cleaned 15th century fresco shows what may be one of the first European depictions of Native Americans.

The fresco, The Resurrection, was painted by the Renaissance master in 1494 — just two years after Christopher Columbus first set foot in what came to be called the New World.

Antonio Paolucci, director of the Vatican Museums, told the Vatican daily L'Osservatore Romano that after the soot and grime were removed, in the background, just above the open coffin from where Christ has risen, "we see nude men, decorated with feathered headdresses who appear to be dancing." One of them seems to sport a Mohican cut.

The image dovetails with Columbus' description of having been greeted by dancing nude men painted black or red.

Commissioned By The Pope
The painting was commissioned by . Anyone who has followed the TV series The Borgias knows he was the infamous Rodrigo Borgia, a Spaniard who fathered several children and became a symbol of church corruption.

Alexander VI became pope in 1492, only a few months before Columbus made landfall.

Art historian Paolucci is convinced the entire Pinturicchio fresco cycle for the Borgia Apartments inside the Vatican had been completed by the end of 1494.

"The Borgia pope was interested in the New World, as were the great chancelleries of Europe," Paolucci told L'Osservatore Romano.

Columbus' four trips to the New World were financed by the Spanish royals Ferdinand and Isabella.

On his return to Spain in March 1493 from his first journey, Columbus handed over his travel journal to the sovereigns who, according to Paolucci, had every interest in keeping it secret.

A Secret That Spread Quickly

But word of Columbus' sensational discovery soon spread throughout Europe.

"It is hard to believe," Paolucci said, "that the Borgia papal court would be unaware of what Columbus saw when he reached the ends of the earth."

Hence, the art historian believes, the dancing figures in Pinturicchio's Resurrection could be "the first depiction of Native Americans."

The Borgia pope's links to the New World do not end there.

Alexander VI played a key role in determining how history would play out in what would become The Americas and who would reap the benefits: While Pinturicchio was painting his cycle, Alexander was busy drafting the Tordesillas treaty of June 1494 that divided up the newly discovered territories between the two major naval powers of the time, Spain and Portugal.

One can't help but imagine Alexander pondering the implications of Columbus' discovery while Pinturicchio was concentrating on his brush strokes on the fresh plaster of the Vatican walls.

Pope Alexander has a prominent position in the painting — he's the large figure in ornate robes kneeling on the left, his hands clasped in prayer.

But it's not clear whether he's more transfixed by the image of the risen Christ or by the potential spoils of the New World, represented by the nude dancing figures.

Until now, it was believed that the first known were those of the , who was governor of the colony at Roanoke Island.

But he wasn't even born until nearly half a century after the discovery of the New World.

Pinturicchio's nude figures remained forgotten because the Borgia Apartments were sealed off after Pope Alexander's death in 1503. His successor, Julius II, said he would never live in the rooms of the pope who had so tainted the church's reputation. And Julius ordered that all paintings made for the Borgias be covered in black crepe.

It was not until 1889 that the Borgia Apartments were reopened and dedicated to the display of religious art.

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Russian Bombers Fly Within US Defense Zone Near Alaska

May 7, 2013, 8:28 am

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According to defense and military officials, strategic bombers from Russia flew within the defense zone close to northern Alaska and the Aleutian Islands last week.

The Washington Free Beacon reports:

Two Bear H nuclear-capable bombers were detected flying into the military’s Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) near the Aleutians, where a strategic missile defense radar is located, and Alaska’s North Slope region by the Arctic and Chukchi Seas on April 28 and 29, military officials told the Washington Free Beacon.

Lt. Cmdr. Bill Lewis, a spokesman with the U.S. Northern Command, confirmed the fighter intercept of the latest bomber incursion but declined to provide details.

“Two U.S. F-22′s from Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, were launched and visually identified Russian aircraft on the night of April 28, as the Russian Air Force flew standard out of area flights near Alaska,” Lewis said.

The bombers did not enter U.S. airspace, he said.

However, the Alaska ADIZ is a formal national security zone used by the military to monitor both civilian and military aircraft. The dispatch of F-22s is an indication the bomber flights posed a potential threat to U.S. territory.

The bombers were “were visually identified by NORAD fighters,” Pentagon spokesman Capt. John Kirby said.

This is the second incident involving Russia and the airspace near Alaska, and the fifth incident involving Russian bombers since June. Back in late June, two Tu-95 Bear H bombers near Alaska were conducting “war games,” which included mock simulated attacks on air defenses and strategic facilities, according to a Russian military spokesman.

Back in February, I reported that two Russian Bear bombers circled the U.S. territory of Guam, which is a key U.S. military hub in the Pacific.

While the current panderer-in-chief is set to make concessions to the Russians on missile defenses, just two days after this incident Northern Command announced issued a press release that it would be cooperating with Russian military in implementing plans for a joint U.S.-Russian flight exercise that would be designed to counter hijacked aircraft.

“The VIGILANT EAGLE exercise series has been an extraordinary and historic opportunity for NORAD and the Russian Federation to coordinate on the response to a mutually acknowledged hijacking threat,” said Joe Bonnet, Director of Joint Training and Exercises for NORAD and U.S. Northern Command. “From a participant’s perspective, it is more than a military exercise; it is creating lasting bonds and partnerships extremely valuable for the security of our nations.”

“This year’s exercise will continue building and strengthening the cooperation and partnership established between the two countries,”the statement reads.

To me this has to be one of the stupidest things to do. In fact, it’s next to the stupid ideas we have about bringing foreign troops on our soil to engage in counter terrorism training or training Afghan police officers. All the while we are teaching them exactly how we do things. They are not teaching us how they do things. In fact, it seems not only stupid to me, but incredibly foolish.

Others have a problem with the way the Obama administration is working with the Russians as well.

“The Russians continue to play the administration like a fiddle, sending signals that they still have a strategic air force and can project power while the U.S. continues to ground alert squadrons and unilateral disarms,”said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Tom McInerney, a former Alaska Ari Command commander.

“Is this the administration’s idea of ‘reset relations’ with Russia?”he asked.

Back in April McInerney said, “Russia continues to conduct aggressive offensive missile training in the Pacific against U.S. and Allied Forces.”

“We should understand that they look at ‘reset’ differently than we do,” said the retired three-star general. “They look at it as regaining their previous USSR position as a superpower while this administration is moving towards unilateral disarmament.”

Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Trey Obering, a former director of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), who has since left government, said that he has continued to take part in talks with the Russians on missile defense cooperation in much the same manner as he did previously.

Last month he told the Beacon, “These efforts were met with Russian intransigence. The Russian opposition and now simulated attacks “means to me that there is no way the Russians want to cooperate on missile defense in any meaningful way. We should not be conceding anything to the Russians. We should be pursuing our national security interests to defend this country and our allies.”

In other words, Obering believes Moscow will not be cooperating in any meaningful way with the United States. What a surprise, not!

The US should be looking after her own interests, not making concessions with the former Soviet Union.

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'Beemageddon' Threatens US With Food Disaster

May 7, 2013, 11:18 am

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US honey bees have been dying by the tens of millions, with annual death rates of about 30 percent. With fewer bees to pollinate fruits and vegetables each year, 'beemageddon' may soon cause the collapse of the agriculture industry.

Honey bees pollinate more than 100 US crops, including apples, zucchinis, avocados and plums, that are worth more than $200 billion a year. Since 2006, about 10 million bee hives at an average value of $200 each have been lost in what scientists call the Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), according to a new report by the US Department of Agriculture.

There are currently about 2.5 million honey bee colonies in the US, which is a drastic decrease from the 6 million that existed in 1947 and the 3 million that existed in 1990. Last winter alone, the honey bee population declined by 31.1 percent, with some beekeepers reporting losses of 90 to 100 percent. In the previous two winters, beekeepers lost about 22 percent of their populations.

“Currently, the survivorship of honey bee colonies is too low for us to be confident in our ability to meet the pollination demands of US agricultural crops,” the USDA report states.

 California’s almond crop, which blooms toward the end of winter, would suffer the most. About 80 percent of the global almond supply comes from the Golden State’s orchards, and 70 percent of the state’s crop is marketed overseas.

US beekeepers truck about 1.5 million out-of-state colonies to the almond orchards each year, which depend on the insect’s pollination. The colonies are tasked with pollinating about 760,000 acres of almond trees at the end of each winter. It takes 60 percent of all US bee colonies to pollinate the $4 billion crop.

Zac Browning, a beekeeper, told NPR that the almond orchards have become “ground zero in commercial beekeeping” and that many beekeepers drive over from their home base in the Midwest.

But with a bee shortage that gets worse every year, many of the almond orchards will never be pollinated, which could eventually cause a global almond shortage and economic consequences for the US.

The USDA knows how the agriculture industry will be affected by the large-scale bee die-offs, but does not know why exactly they are dying in such numbers. The report cites “multiple factors… including parasites and disease, genetics, poor nutrition and pesticide exposure”, while also citing last summer’s drought as a contributing factor.

“Undernourished or malnourished bees appear to be more susceptible to pathogens, parasites, and other stressors, including toxins,” the USDA report states.

During CCDs, surviving adult bees abandon their hives, leaving behind the queen bee, brood and food stores.

“Bees across the country are not in as good a shape as last year,” Eric Mussen, a University of California bee specialist, told the Christian Science Monitor. “When you stress them far enough, the bees just give in.”

After large-scale honey bee die-offs each winter, beekeepers try to restore their populations in the summer. But with the populations dropping so low, the economic ramifications are almost unavoidable.

The European Commission suspects that neonicotinoids, a class of insecticides chemically related to nicotine, might be responsible – at least partially – for the die-offs and the CCDs. Honey bees have also died off in unusually large numbers in Europe, prompting the commission to impose a two-year ban on neonicotinoids last month to give scientists time to review the chemicals’ impact on bee health.

But US officials have stated that they don’t have enough evidence to ban neonicotinoids. And with a drastically decreasing honey bee population, ‘beemageddon’ might be just around the corner.

“We are one poor weather event or high winter bee loss away from a pollination disaster,” Jeff Pettis, the USDA’s bee research leader, said in the report.

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Analysis Finds 55% Ground Beef, 39% Chicken Contaminated with Superbugs

May 7, 2013, 12:17 pm

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Would you still eat that turkey burger if you knew it contained antibiotic resistant bacteria? Maybe not. But if you eat turkey, there’s a good chance you are ingesting some of these potentially lethal “super bugs”. The same holds true for beef, chicken, and pork, according to a recent analysis from the Environmental Working Group.

The EWG analyzed tests recently released from the federal government, and what they found was that a great deal of American meat is contaminated with antibiotic-resistant bacteria. More specifically, the EWG found the following contamination levels:

• 81% of raw ground turkey
• 69% of pork chops
• 55% of raw ground beef
• 39% of raw chicken

With the vast majority of U.S.-made pharmaceuticals going into livestock production, how could this possibly be? It’s because the superbugs are created in part by an overabundance of antibiotics. Sounds a little backwards, right? Well, bacteria are living things; they evolve and change to survive just like humans or animals do. And to this end, when something threatens them, they adjust to build defenses. This is how powerful bacteria become impervious to potent antibiotics.

MedicalNewsToday reports that 30 million pounds of antibiotics were sold in 2011. This marks an increase of 22% since 2005. And somewhere around 80% of those drugs went to meat production. As we pump more and more antibiotics into the food system, we will likely see a greater concentration, variety, and fallout of these superbugs.

The EWG says the source of the problem isn’t being addressed. The cause of proliferation of illness and bacteria among livestock is largely the conditions in which we raise them. In other words, large scale feeding operations where cattle, chicken, and other livestock are forced to live on top of each other in their own filth certainly does nothing to encourage healthy animals.

“Congress should also fully fund the Conservation Stewardship Program, which encourages conservation activities on grassland, pastureland and rangeland. This program, run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, could be used to support ranchers who raise animals on pasture and employ practices that fortify health.

For example, unlike operations that confine a large number of animals to a small area, rotational grazing allows animals access to open space. This practice improves herd health and reduces the risk of infection or sickness that would otherwise spread easily,” the Environmental Working Group reports.

Antibiotic resistant superbugs found in livestock can and will make their way into humans. One already has. Known as Pig MRSA, Methcillin-resistant Staphoylococcus aureus CC398 is no longer just for pigs. That having been said, if you knew your turkey burger was infected with a “superbug”, would you still eat it?

Until the issue is addressed, it’s important to consider limiting meat consumption. Some farmers are doing their part by not only being independent from large-scale CAFO’s, but also by replacing antibiotics with natural substances like cinnamon and oregano oil.

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‘Catastrophic Threat’: UK Government Calls Antibiotic Resistance a ‘Ticking Time Bomb’

May 7, 2013, 12:33 pm

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On the heels of the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control declaring emerging antibiotic resistance a “nightmare,” the U.K.’s Chief Medical Officer released a report in which she calls resistance a “catastrophic threat” which poses a national security risk as serious as terrorism. In an interview published overnight, she warns that unless resistance is curbed, “We will find ourselves in a health system not dissimilar to the early 19th century” in which organ transplants, cancer chemotherapy, joint replacements and even minor surgeries become life-threatening.

The lengthy report (152 pages) constitutes the second half of the Chief Medical Officer’s annual report to the country; apparently the first volume is a report on existing conditions, and in the second, the official occupying the post chooses one major health threat to focus on. This year, Professor Dame Sally Davies chose “Infections and the rise of antimicrobial resistance” — and as with CDC Director Frieden last week, is unusually direct in her statement of the threat.

The report is co-written by U.K. researchers and representatives of the U.K.’s Health Protection Agency, and provides a sobering view of the advance of resistance in Britain. (Recall that the HPA was the first national health agency to sound the alarm about NDM-1, the “Indian supergene” which confers resistance to almost all antibiotics.) The key point — TL;DR here — is that it enumerates 17 specific actions that Davies wants the U.K. government and private sector to take to counteract the threat. No. 1 on the list: “Put antimicrobial resistance on the … National Security Risk Assessment,” enshrining it alongside terrorism and pandemic flu as a border-crossing threat which demands immediate action.

This report is supposed to be followed up shortly by a new “Five Year Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy and Action Plan,” which will set out national guidelines and targets. The Plan is previewed in an editorial in the BMJ that is blunt about the difficulties that serious attempts to control resistance will face. The authors say the new rules will enforce screening any patients who have received any healthcare in other countries — probably by rectal swab since the most serious resistant organisms are gut-dwelling — and enacting national standards for prescribing existing drugs, in order to preserve them as long as possible. It adds that those prescribing standards will be made for specific “bug-drug” combinations, making the U.K. the first country to do that.

What the U.K. is doing here appears to be more urgent, and also more top-down, that what any health agency in the U.S. has managed. (This is one of the effects of having a government-funded health system.) An analysis that is also published in the BMJ  says these steps will barely be in time if we are to avoid having antibiotic resistance bankrupt healthcare and undermine societies. Here’s just one example:

…The costs of resistance could be much higher than (existing) estimates (of $55 billion per year in the US) suggest. As an example we estimated the consequences of having no antibiotics for patients having a total hip replacement. Because antibiotics have been used as prophylaxis and treatment for hospital-acquired infection since hip replacements were first performed, we looked at information relating to limb amputation, as a proxy for what infection rates might have been with and without antimicrobials.

…Currently, prophylaxis is standard practice, and infection rates are about 0.5-2%, so most patients recover without infection, and those who get an infection have it successfully treated. We estimate that without antimicrobials, the rate of postoperative infection is 40-50% and about 30% of those with an infection will die. Thus, removal of antibiotics would increase postoperative infection by 1-50% and deaths by 0-30%.

It’s worth saying that again: If antibiotic resistance continues to rise unchecked, one-sixth of people who undergo hip replacements — now a major, but routine, surgery — might die. There are 800,000 hip replacement per year in the US; 43 million Americans have arthritis and another 23 million have other chronic joint problems, the conditions for which hip replacements are performed. If antibiotic resistance continues unchecked, then just one of its effects would likely be a sharp drop in medicine’s willingness to perform major joint replacements, just as the largest and most athletic generation in history reaches the age when those operations are needed. And that could lead to more pain, less mobility, and a potential society-wide conversion from what we now think of as fun-filled retirement to the kind of old age we used to dread.

Changes like that are what lie behind the alarm that the CDC raised last week and the HPA today. Just as with last week’s news, we have to hope that people are listening, and that the alarm has been sounded in time.

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East Coast Of US braces For Billions-strong Cicada Swarm

May 8, 2013, 1:20 am

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A vast swath of the east coast is bracing for the arrival of billions of large, winged insects known as cicadas that will begin emerging after 17 years of living underground.

Areas between the states of Georgia and Connecticut will experience massive swarms of the one-inch-long insects, all members of what is known as “Brood II,” one of seven species of the insect whose larvae (or nymphs) have spent nearly two decades feeding on roots.

The peak of their arrival should come towards the end of May, at which point the red-eyed, noisy bugs will be well on their way to outnumbering the number of people living in the region from North Carolina to Connecticut by 600-to-1.

The insects, though harmless, are considered a nuisance both for their size and sheer numbers, not to mention the noise pollution that has been measured at up to 94 decibels, loud enough to drown out the sound of overhead planes according to the Associated Press.

The massive brood now preparing to make its debut went into the ground in 1996, one of eleven other broods that spend 13 or 17 years before reaching their mature form. Once the ground temperature reaches 64 degrees Fahrenheit, the cicadas are ready to burst out for a mating frenzy.

The intense buzzing noise let off by the swarms is all part of an elaborate mating ritual that will last for six weeks before their deaths.

Female cicadas will lay up to 600 eggs on tree branches after mating, and the offspring will fall to the ground and burrow to begin the 17-year cycle once more and return in 2030.

Scientists are fascinated both by the mathematical accuracy of the cicada life cycle and emergence above ground, as well as the ecological impact of the massive broods, which both reproduce and die in vast numbers.

The decomposing bodies of the adult cicadas will trap nutrients close to tree roots, which will act as a fertilizer for plant life. At the same time, those nutrients will feed the new generation of cicadas now developing underground, a process scientists say can slow tree growth by up to 30 per cent.

Meanwhile, the small tunnels that cicadas bore on their way to the surface are thought to act as soil aerators, trapping rainfall during the summer season.

Additional effects linked to the cicada mating swarms include higher yield for fruit trees, beneficial tree pruning, as well as an increase in bird populations.

Despite the scientific mysteries that still delight the scientists that study them, most residents of the Eastern Seaboard will simply think of the hundreds of cicada husks they'll be left to shovel off their properties.

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Swedish Woman Has Sex With Skeletons and is Arrested

May 8, 2013, 8:18 pm

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A Swedish woman has sex with skeletons and is arrested as authorities state the woman had a collection of skeletons in her apartment that she used in a sexual manner.

According to Bizarre News, a Swedish woman has sex with skeletons and it arrested for her bizarre sexual acts as authorities allege the woman is a necrophiliac and charged her with disturbing the peace of the dead. The 37-year-old brunette from Gothenburg denies any wrongdoing however, as she claims that she collected the bones out of historical interest.

Prosecutors say the woman at least six skulls, a spine, and a large number of other bones in a secret compartment along with a drill, body bags and pictures from a mortuary. A local newspaper also alleges that the woman in question wrote on an online forum a few years ago

“My morals set my limits and I’m prepared to take the punishment if something should happen…It’s worth it. I want my man like he is, whether he is dead or alive. He allows me to find sexual happiness on the side.”

The woman faces up to two years in prison if found guilty which will likely be the case as police recovered a photo of the woman licking a skull in its mouth.
Swedish Woman Has Sex With Skeletons and is Arrested.

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‘Brazilian Atlantis’: Scientists Discover Traces Of Sunken Continent Under Atlantic Ocean

May 9, 2013, 4:21 am

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Granite formed on dry land has been discovered beneath the ocean off the coast of Brazil. Scientists suggest that it might be part of a sunken continent which disappeared millions of years ago and already branded it ‘Brazilian Atlantis’.

A Japanese-manned submersible discovered a large mass of granite and a large amount of quartz sand 900 miles off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, according to the announcement made by The Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) and the Geology Service of Brazil (CPRM).


These materials, normally found on dry land, suggest that a continent once existed in the region and then sank.

“It is unusual because it is granite rock,” CPRM geology director Roberto Ventura Santos as quoted by ‘The Telegraph’. “And you don’t find granite on the seabed. It is more usual to find it on the mainland.”


The granite was discovered in a seabed that was estimated to have disappeared under the ocean waters tens of millions of years ago.

“South America and Africa used to be a huge, unified continent. The area in question may have been left in water as the continent was separated in line with the movements of plates,” said Shinichi Kawakami, a professor at Gifu University, Japan Times reports.

The material was reportedly found more than 8,000 feet beneath the sea in a region known as the Rio Grande Elevation.

“This is the region that has been least explored worldwide,” added Kawakami. “So, we believe it is very important to research it.”

"From an analysis, we began to see that the area could be a piece of the continent that disappeared into the sea millions of years ago," Santos said as quoted by AFP.

“This could be Brazil’s Atlantis. We are almost certain, but we need to strengthen this hypothesis.”

The fabled island was first mentioned by Greek philosopher Plato in his dialogues ‘Timaeus’ and ‘Critias’, written about 360 BC. According to Plato, Atlantis was situated in front of the Pillars of Hercules, the phrase that was applied in Antiquity to the promontories that flank the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar. The civilization of Atlantis conquered many parts of Western Europe and Africa approximately 9600 BC. But the continent is believed to have sunk during a catastrophic natural disaster.

Scientists plan to drill for more samples later this year, as further conformation is needed. Experts still remain cautious about jumping to conclusions.

“We speak of Atlantis more in terms of symbolism,” Santos noted. “Obviously, we don’t expect to find a lost city in the middle of the Atlantic.”

Though the researchers are still hopeful that the discovery may clarify many questions.

“If it is the case that we find a continent in the middle of the ocean, it will be a very big discovery that could have various implications in relation to the extension of the continental shelf,” Santos said.

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Runny Nose Turns Out To Be Leaking Brain Fluid

May 9, 2013, 8:25 am

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A perpetual runny nose turned out to be leaking brain fluid for a man in Arizona recently. What Joe Nagy assumed was allergies was actually a condition known as cerebrospinal fluid leak, caused by a small hole in the membrane surrounding his brain.

One morning in 2011, Nagy rose from his bed to find a clear, tear-like liquid leaking from his nasal passages. Soon it was happening once or twice each week. When the problem worsened into a constant runny nose, he chalked it up to allergies, began taking allergy medicine, and kept a constant supply of tissues on hand.

At times, Nagy would find nearly a teaspoon’s worth of the liquid leaking from his nose. “I was scared to death if you want to know the truth,” he confessed in regards to his nagging nasal problem.

Eventually the frustration, puzzlement, and fear of what might be behind the constant dripping prompted him to seek out medical advice from a specialist.

Once the drainage was tested, Nagy was shocked to discover that his chronic runny nose was the result of leaking brain fluid.

Peter Nakaji, a neurosurgeon with the Barrow Neurological Institute, was able to pinpoint the source as a miniscule hole in the membrane encasing Nagy’s brain.

The condition is considered rare, affecting roughly one in 100,000 to 200,000 individuals. It most often presents itself in cases involving head trauma or following surgery to the brain or spine. In some instances, no definitive cause is found.

 Because the human body continually produces sufficient fluid for the brain, the actual leaking of such liquid is not particularly dangerous. However, the condition can prove fatal if the brain fluid becomes infected.

According to Dr. Alexander G. Chiu, chief of the division of otolaryngology at the University of Arizona Medical Center, “It can be fatal when there is a connection between the cleanest part of the body, the brain, and the dirtiest part, the nose.”

Such was the case with Joe Nagy, who unfortunately developed a near-fatal bout of meningitis that caused his brain fluid to become infected. He was forced to undergo treatment for the illness before he could have the hole in his brain repaired through surgery.

Luckily, Nagy responded well to treatment, allowing Dr. Nakaji to perform the procedure necessary to stop the leak. The neurosurgeon described how he utilized a small bit of cartilage from Nagy’s nose to plug the membrane hole:

“Nowadays we do quite a bit of surgery on the brain and base of brain through the nose. We never have to cut up into the brain. We’re getting a needle up into the space to check it out, and then to put a little bit of glue. This is just a bit of cartilage from the nose that we can get to repair over it and then the body will seal it up.”

According to Nagy, the surgery effectively stopped the brain fluid from leaking out his nose. “I was waiting for the dribble, this leaking cause I was so used to it every day,” he explained. “I got my hankie. Nothing. It’s never come back.”

  

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World War 3 – CIA Plants Seeds To Invade Saudi Arabia

May 9, 2013, 8:32 pm

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As the end game is in sight for Uncle Sam’s post-911 war plans the CIA begins planting seeds of propaganda to for the next phase in America’s global conquest – the occupation of Saudi Arabia.

Realizing Saudi Arabia will not voluntarily maintain its current relationship supporting the petrodollar monopoly as we move closer everyday to the Peak oil, the shadow government is positioning itself to sack Saudi Arabia in an attempt to perpetuate the relationship by force.

For those not familiar with the petrodollar monopoly the following video is a much watch as it does a good job of explaining it, although there are a few details in the this author takes exception to.

In the early days following 9/11 General Wesley Clark revealed the United States had plans to invade several nations first – Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, And Iran.

As General Clark explains those plans were given to him within days after 9/11 which is a damning indictment they had been drawn up long before 9/11 since the plans must have taken years to put together.

Soon after Americans were brainwashed into believing Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction, in large part due to the Anthrax false flag that started the Iraq War.

Fast-forward to today and the United States is still spreading the same lies about WMDs in Syria to justify an invasion with the latest incident being chemical weapons that originated from the CIA bases in Turkey and the west totally ignoring the UN report blaming the CIA-backed terrorists.

Clearly the end game is in sight for those post 9/11 war plans. Indeed Iraq and Libya have now been sacked. Somalia and Sudan, along with Yemen, have been beaten into near submission by an onslaught of drone bombings that are barely even mentioned by the media.

Lebanon has been entirely infiltrated by the CIA who is using the nation, alongside with Turkey, as a staging point to direct clandestine operations against Syria as Israel launches attacks from air

Those bombings by the Israeli air force are only being conducted because the west has recently given them a green light so Iran can be drawn into the conflict.

Indeed we are looking at an imminent checkmate in the original war plans and now we must begin look ahead to anticipate where World War III will move lear to its next phase.

Those following the news will note in the years immediately following 9/11 the government controlled corporate media was implicitly prohibited from tying the Saudi regime to the terrorists attacks that claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 people despite.

But as we draw closer to the next phase of World War III, those rules have now changed as both the corporate media and the alternative media is being manipulated by the CIA in spreading seeds of propaganda against Saudi Arabia.

Indeed, as the corporate media spreads the CIA’s propaganda the CIA is busy using front organizations such as Freedom House as a spearhead of the assault on Saudi Arabia.

These seeds will soon grow into an all-out call by the masses for the United States to take military action against the Kindgom of Saudia Arabia.

This clearly indicates that just over the horizon on the top of the United States has military objectives is an invasion of Saudi Arabia which will also accomplish the task of taking control of Saudi’s satellite states, most notably Qatar, Oman, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.

The reason is clear:

Putting that in perspective
Here’s the current production of oil controlled by the US and its close Allies.

An summarizing that here’s the combined control of Global Oil the US shadown government will control.

Such a massive control of the Global oil supply puts any nation at a severe disadvantage to be able to fend off the global military conquest as World War III escalates into an all out global conflict.

To see how these seeds are being planted, we need only take into account that just a few years ago nothing negative was in the corporate media about Saudi Arabia.

Soon we saw more indepedent outlets begin running stories about the nation being a repressive regime that does not respect human rights.

At the same time, the media also began expanding on the narrative of the Al Qaeda being just a small element of a much larger network of global Jihadists waging war in the the name of Saudi Arabia’s Salafist interpretation of Islam.

As time goes on the more and more stories will be aimed at Saudi Arabia to garner support for war against the nation.

Take some of CNN’s top news headlines yesterday.

Saudi prince: Blocking social media is a ‘losing war’

Saudi activists say kingdom trying to silence them

Amanpour: Can Twitter really change Saudi Arabia?

Read more: Saudi activists say kingdom trying to silence them

Saudis sanction sports for some girls

What it’s like to be a Mideast comic



These stories continue to regurgitate the same ideas which will conform the opinion of the massess into an anti-Saudi indoctrination:

* Saudi authorities have detained and intimidated hundreds of online political activists and online commentators, blocked and filtered sensitive political, religious or pornographic content from entering the Saudi Internet, and even recruited supporters online to campaign against calls for protests, the report said.

* Women in Saudi Arabia also cannot marry, leave the country, go to school or open bank accounts without permission from a male guardian, usually the father or husband. Much of public life is segregated by gender.

* Rights groups have criticized Saudi Arabia, a conservative kingdom, for its efforts to stifle online dissent.

Freedom House, a U.S.-based free speech advocacy group, highlighted the limits imposed on free expression by Saudi Arabia in its report last year on Internet freedoms around the world, “Freedom on the Net 2012.”

The kingdom was one of a number of countries in which “authorities imposed further restrictions following the political uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, in which social media played a key role,” it said.

Saudi authorities have detained and intimidated hundreds of online political activists and online commentators, blocked and filtered sensitive political, religious or pornographic content from entering the Saudi Internet, and even recruited supporters online to campaign against calls for protests, the report said.

Sanja Kelly, project director of Freedom on the Net, told CNN there had been an increasing number of arrests of Saudi Internet users who’ve posted critical remarks online, including on Twitter, since the report came out last September.

According to tracking by Freedom House, 51% of Saudi Internet users are active on Twitter, which is one of the highest ratios in the world.

“The Saudi authorities have been struggling for the past several years with decisions on how to deal with the growing and increasingly critical discussions online,” Kelly said.

“In recent months there have been increasing proposals by the authorities to either limit access to social media or to increase surveillance and decrease privacy for users.”

One proposal under discussion has been the introduction of a rule requiring each Saudi Twitter user to register using government ID, she said. It has not been implemented but has attracted a lot of attention because of the popularity of Twitter in the kingdom.

Clearly as we have seen in the past, this type of media coverage is the canary in the gold mine which indicates we will see a breakdown in diplomatic relations followed by an increase in rhetoric from Washington DC and the governments propaganda machine.

As time goes by, normally over the course of several years, the media portrays the situation as worse and worse eventually planting the idea the target nation and the United States are on brink of a war everyday.

During this time clandestine operations on the ground are used to ferment an environment of revolution.

After enough time passes an excuse is used, be it an actual event or a manufactured one, that draws the United States into a military conflict.

Keep your eye on Saudi Arabia and watch this unfold before your very eyes as time goes by.

SOURCE

Locust Plague Ravages Madagascar

May 10, 2013, 12:14 am

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For three quarters of an hour a giant swarm of locusts streams across the sky above southwest Madagascar.

Along National Route Seven, normally an artery for tourists enjoying breathtaking views of the island's vast open spaces, a 15-kilometer-long (9-mile) swarm clouds the sky.

Travelers today see little more than a natural disaster in progress -- a plague of locusts which has already destroyed half of the Indian Ocean island's crops.

Madagascar's worst locust plague in 60 years has infested about half of the island, destroying crops and raising concerns over food shortages.

"There's already little rice. Not many people have more than 10 hectares of crops, so after the locusts, there's nothing left for our women and children to eat," said local farmer Zefa Vilimana.

"The cattle have nothing left to eat either, so we're left with nothing once the locusts have been here."

In Ranohira, a village further to the south, Joseph Rakoto has lost half his rice crops since the swarms came.

"We buy pesticides against rice parasites ourselves but it doesn't work against locusts. The government doesn't give us anything," he said.

According to experts, there are currently 100 swarms across Madagascar, made up of about 500 billion ravenous locusts.

They get through around 100,000 tonnes of vegetation every single day.

"They can create a lot of damage, they eat the pastures, and then also the rice and the corn, which is about to be harvested," said Tsitohaina Andriamaroahina from the Ministry of Agriculture.

Andriamaroahina headed a joint scout mission into the plague with UN food agency FAO, ending in April.

"The facts drive me to my knees," he said, frustrated with the scale of the destruction.

Locals often eat the hoppers, which usually occur in moderate numbers in the southern and southwestern parts of the country.


When they became more numerous, the authorities declared a state of emergency in November and tried to kill them -- but the swarms were simply too big.

Then Cyclone Hurana hit Madagascar in February, and the floods created a perfect breeding ground for the locusts.

"Not enough measures were taken, and so we had a locust invasion. In one day, we counted five swarms over a distance of 20 kilometers (12 miles). It's extremely serious," Andriamaroahina added.

Around 13 million people -- over half the island's population -- face food shortages or malnutrition because of the destroyed crops, according to the FAO.

Madagascar developed a 3-year emergency plan with the agency to spray pesticides by air over the millions of hectares of contaminated land.

But it is still waiting for around $40 million (30 million euros) in aid to finance the project and donors have not yet given the green light.

"The big problem here is that we don't have money, so we can't buy pesticides and we can't buy enough fuel all at once," said Rakotovao Hasibelo, a regional official of the National Anti-Locust Centre.

"The field officers, the managers can't do their work, and while we're not working, the farmers suffer and the locusts multiply," he said.

The Agriculture Ministry points the finger at mismanagement for the lack of funds.

"The National Anti-Locust Centre has a monthly budget of 2 billion ariary ($918 million, 700 million euro), but 1.5 billion ariary goes to salaries," said the ministry's Andriamaroahina.

Madagascar is no stranger to natural disasters. Droughts and cyclones regularly affect more than 70 percent of the population who live under the poverty line.

SOURCE

Russia Warns Obama: Global War Over “Bee Apocalypse” Coming Soon

May 10, 2013, 7:17 pm

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 The shocking minutes relating to President Putin’s meeting this past week with US Secretary of State John Kerry reveal the Russian leaders “extreme outrage” over the Obama regimes continued protection of global seed and plant bio-genetic giants Syngenta and Monsanto in the face of a growing “bee apocalypse” that the Kremlin warns “will most certainly” lead to world war.

According to these minutes, released in the Kremlin today by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation (MNRE), Putin was so incensed over the Obama regimes refusal to discuss this grave matter that he refused for three hours to even meet with Kerry, who had traveled to Moscow on a scheduled diplomatic mission, but then relented so as to not cause an even greater rift between these two nations.

At the center of this dispute between Russia and the US, this MNRE report says, is the “undisputed evidence” that a class of neuro-active insecticides chemically related to nicotine, known as neonicotinoids, are destroying our planets bee population, and which if left unchecked could destroy our world’s ability to grow enough food to feed its population.

So grave has this situation become, the MNRE reports, the full European Commission (EC) this past week instituted a two-year precautionary ban (set to begin on 1 December 2013) on these “bee killing” pesticides following the lead of Switzerland, France, Italy, Russia, Slovenia and Ukraine, all of whom had previously banned these most dangerous of genetically altered organisms from being used on the continent.

Two of the most feared neonicotinoids being banned are Actara and Cruiser made by the Swiss global bio-tech seed and pesticide giant Syngenta AG which employs over 26,000 people in over 90 countries and ranks third in total global sales in the commercial agricultural seeds market.

Important to note, this report says, is that Syngenta, along with bio-tech giants Monsanto, Bayer, Dow and DuPont, now control nearly 100% of the global market for genetically modified pesticides, plants and seeds.

Also to note about Syngenta, this report continues, is that in 2012 it was criminally charged in Germany for concealing the fact that its genetically modified corn killed cattle, and settled a class-action lawsuit in the US for $105 million after it was discovered they had contaminated the drinking supply of some 52 million Americans in more than 2,000 water districts with its “gender-bending” herbicide Atrazine.

To how staggeringly frightful this situation is, the MNRE says, can be seen in the report issued this past March by the American Bird Conservancy (ABC) wherein they warned our whole planet is in danger, and as we can, in part, read:

“As part of a study on impacts from the world’s most widely used class of insecticides, nicotine-like chemicals called neonicotinoids, American Bird Conservancy (ABC) has called for a ban on their use as seed treatments and for the suspension of all applications pending an independent review of the products’ effects on birds, terrestrial and aquatic invertebrates, and other wildlife.

“It is clear that these chemicals have the potential to affect entire food chains. The environmental persistence of the neonicotinoids, their propensity for runoff and for groundwater infiltration, and their cumulative and largely irreversible mode of action in invertebrates raise significant environmental concerns,” said Cynthia Palmer, co-author of the report and Pesticides Program Manager for ABC, one of the nation’s leading bird conservation organizations.

ABC commissioned world renowned environmental toxicologist Dr. Pierre Mineau to conduct the research. The 100-page report, “The Impact of the Nation’s Most Widely Used Insecticides on Birds,” reviews 200 studies on neonicotinoids including industry research obtained through the US Freedom of Information Act. The report evaluates the toxicological risk to birds and aquatic systems and includes extensive comparisons with the older pesticides that the neonicotinoids have replaced. The assessment concludes that the neonicotinoids are lethal to birds and to the aquatic systems on which they depend.

“A single corn kernel coated with a neonicotinoid can kill a songbird,” Palmer said. “Even a tiny grain of wheat or canola treated with the oldest neonicotinoid — called imidacloprid — can fatally poison a bird. And as little as 1/10th of a neonicotinoid-coated corn seed per day during egg-laying season is all that is needed to affect reproduction.”

The new report concludes that neonicotinoid contamination levels in both surface- and ground water in the United States and around the world are already beyond the threshold found to kill many aquatic invertebrates.”

Quickly following this damning report, the MRNE says, a large group of group of American beekeepers and environmentalists sued the Obama regime over the continued use of these neonicotinoids stating: “We are taking the EPA to court for its failure to protect bees from pesticides. Despite our best efforts to warn the agency about the problems posed by neonicotinoids, the EPA continued to ignore the clear warning signs of an agricultural system in trouble.”

And to how bad the world’s agricultural system has really become due to these genetically modified plants, pesticides and seeds, this report continues, can be seen by the EC’s proposal this past week, following their ban on neonicotinoids, in which they plan to criminalize nearly all seeds and plants not registered with the European Union, and as we can, in part, read:

    “Europe is rushing towards the good ol days circa 1939, 40… A new law proposed by the European Commission would make it illegal to “grow, reproduce or trade” any vegetable seeds that have not been “tested, approved and accepted” by a new EU bureaucracy named the “EU Plant Variety Agency.”

    It’s called the Plant Reproductive Material Law, and it attempts to put the government in charge of virtually all plants and seeds. Home gardeners who grow their own plants from non-regulated seeds would be considered criminals under this law.”

'This MRNE report points out that even though this EC action may appear draconian, it is nevertheless necessary in order to purge the continent from continued contamination of these genetically bred “seed monstrosities.”

Most perplexing in all of this, the MRNE says, and which led to Putin’s anger at the US, has been the Obama regimes efforts to protect pesticide-producer profits over the catastrophic damaging being done to the environment, and as the Guardian News Service detailed in their 2 May article titled “US rejects EU claim of insecticide as prime reason for bee colony collapse” and which, in part, says:

“The European Union voted this week for a two-year ban on a class of pesticides, known as neonicotinoids, that has been associated with the bees’ collapse. The US government report, in contrast, found multiple causes for the collapse of the honeybees.”

To the “truer” reason for the Obama regimes protection of these bio-tech giants destroying our world, the MRNE says, can be viewed in the report titled “How did Barack Obama become Monsanto’s man in Washington?” and which, in part, says:

    “After his victory in the 2008 election, Obama filled key posts with Monsanto people, in federal agencies that wield tremendous force in food issues, the USDA and the FDA: At the USDA, as the director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Roger Beachy, former director of the Monsanto Danforth Center. As deputy commissioner of the FDA, the new food-safety-issues czar, the infamous Michael Taylor, former vice-president for public policy for Monsanto. Taylor had been instrumental in getting approval for Monsanto’s genetically engineered bovine growth hormone.”

Even worse, after Russia suspended the import and use of an Monsanto genetically modified corn following a study suggesting a link to breast cancer and organ damage this past September, the Russia Today News Service reported on the Obama regimes response:

  “The US House of Representatives quietly passed a last-minute addition to the Agricultural Appropriations Bill for 2013 last week – including a provision protecting genetically modified seeds from litigation in the face of health risks.

The rider, which is officially known as the Farmer Assurance Provision, has been derided by opponents of biotech lobbying as the “Monsanto Protection Act,” as it would strip federal courts of the authority to immediately halt the planting and sale of genetically modified (GMO) seed crop regardless of any consumer health concerns.

The provision, also decried as a “biotech rider,” should have gone through the Agricultural or Judiciary Committees for review. Instead, no hearings were held, and the piece was evidently unknown to most Democrats (who hold the majority in the Senate) prior to its approval as part of HR 993, the short-term funding bill that was approved to avoid a federal government shutdown.”

On 26 March, Obama quietly signed this “Monsanto Protection Act” into law thus ensuring the American people have no recourse against this bio-tech giant as they fall ill by the tens of millions, and many millions will surely end up dying in what this MRNE report calls the greatest agricultural apocalypse in human history as over 90% of feral (wild) bee population in the US has already died out, and up to 80% of domestic bees have died out too.

SOURCE

Leaving Earth: 78,000 Apply For A One-way Ticket To Mars

May 10, 2013, 8:12 pm

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The Mars One project to establish the first human settlement on the Red Planet by 2023 has received 78,000 applications in just two weeks, with as many as 500,000 expected to apply by the time applications close on August 31.

Mars One, a Dutch not-for-profit organization, is planning the project to have no return ticket back to Earth due to a lack of technology, and the physiological changes the human body will undergo after it adjusts “to the 38% gravitation field of Mars, and be incapable of returning to the Earth's much stronger gravity,” the Mars One website explained.

The company has already received thousands of application from over 120 countries. The majority of applicants are from the US (17,324), followed by China (10,241), the United Kingdom (3,581), Russia, Mexico and Brazil.

“With seventy-eight thousand applications in two weeks, this is turning out to be the most desired job in history. These numbers put us right on track for our goal of half a million applicants,” Mars One Co-Founder and CEO Bas Lansdorp said in a press release. 

The funds for the $6 billion project are being raised through a planned reality TV show that will follow the applicants as they train and prepare for their one-way journey. The mission has currently raised $84,121.
The applicants have a wide range of personalities, professions and ages. “This is significant because what we are looking for is not restricted to a particular background,” Mars One Chief Medical Officer Dr. Norbert Kraft said.

When applying, individuals were told to explain why they want go to Mars in a one minute video. Twenty-year-old private security contractor Benjamin Payne from the US describes himself as a “space cowboy” who wants to “explore new planets and new things.”

Undergraduate student Connor, 24, wants to be part of the first human colony on Mars because“it is groundbreaking, revolutionary, and historical. I feel it is our duty as human beings to maintain, advance and ensure the survival of the human species. Mars is a stepping stone for that,” he said in his video.

Even the older generation is interested in making the trip despite the lengthy training – at least seven years – plus the seven-month journey to Mars. Retired systems engineer Richard, 60, believes that Mars is “explorer’s golden ring for the next 25 to 30 years and I’d like to be a part of that experience.”
Successful candidates will receive at least seven years of training before leaving Earth, the company explained.

“Four rounds make the selection process, which will come to an end in 2015; Mars One will then employ 28-40 candidates, who will train for around 7 years. Finally an audience vote will elect one of groups in training to be the envoys of humanity to Mars,” Mars One said in its press release.

Once on Mars, settlers will be involved mainly in construction work such as installing greenhouses, maintaining the settlement’s systems and researching Martian climate and geological history – all in inhospitable environment with no breathable air, and with temperatures as low as -50 degrees Celsius.
The perfect candidate for the mission would not be a scientist with specific skill sets, but people with “a deep sense of purpose, willingness to build and maintain healthy relationships, the capacity for self-reflection and ability to trust,” Mars One explained.

This is not the only ongoing Mars project. Previously, Russian space agency Roscosmos signed a deal with the European Space Agency (ESA) to participate in the ExoMars project, a new attempt to discover life on the Red Planet. The mission will drill 30 times deeper beneath the surface of Mars than the currently operating Curiosity rover, reaching a depth of approximately 6.5 feet (2 meters).

In 2010 and 2011, Russia carried out the Mars-500 experiment: A group of six volunteers were locked inside a simulated spacecraft at the Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow for 520 days – the time it would take to travel to Mars and back.

SOURCE

House passes 'Pay China First' Act

May 10, 2013, 9:25 pm

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The Republican-controlled United States House of Representatives approved a bill on Thursday that would require the government to begin paying back foreign nations before spending funds on domestic items.

House Resolution 807, The Full Faith and Credit Act, mandates rules to go into effect should Congress fail to raise the country’s borrowing limit and the debt ceiling is reached.

If signed into law, the bill would outline an order in which the US would be required to pay off its debts: first people on Social Security and holders of US bonds would be compensated, and then items like Medicare and military benefits would be dealt with.

Because the government would have to settle up its debt with bond holders first, foreign nations — particularly China — would be the first to receive payment in theory. Opponents of the bill has thus labeled HR 807 the “Pay China First Act,” a moniker that House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) didn’t disagree with in an interview just days before it was passed.

“Those who have loaned us money, like in any other proceeding, if you will, court proceeding, the bondholders usually get paid first. Same thing here," Boehner told Bloomberg TV host Peter Cook on Tuesday.

"Our goal here is to get ourselves on a sustainable path from a fiscal standpoint," Boehner said. "I think doing a debt prioritization bill makes it clear to our bondholders that we’re going to meet our obligations."

But although a handful of Democrats in the House agreed to advance the bill, the largely left-leaning Senate is expected to shoot down the act when it arrives for discussion shortly. Additionally, the White House has warned that US President Barack Obama will veto the bill should it make it out of Congress and end up in the Oval Office.

In a statement issued earlier this week, the White House wrote that the administration opposes HR 807 because it would result in Congress refusing to pay some obligations it has already agreed to, instead prioritizing payments in a way that won’t favor the American people.

“American families do not get to choose which bills to pay and which ones not to pay, and the United States Congress cannot either without putting the Nation into default for the first time in its history,” the White House wrote. “This bill would threaten the full faith and credit of the United States, cost American jobs, hurt businesses of all sizes, and do damage to the economy.”

Both the White House and Senate democrats have condemned the bill because national security and veteran benefits would be put on the backburner in lieu of compensating China, who held roughly 8 percent of the money borrowed by the US government as of last September.

The House approved the act by a vote of 221-207. Congress has until around October to discuss how to pay the country’s bills — at which point it is expected to hit its borrowing limit.

SOURCE

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Science Will Destroy Humanity, Says Team Of Scientists

May 11, 2013, 1:10 am

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One of the primary goals of science is to advance knowledge and understanding to improve the human condition, but all too often this noble field of study has devolved into a profit-seeking quest for power, at the expense of mankind.

Indeed, the science of technology is perhaps the worst culprit, a team of mathematicians, philosophers and scientists at Oxford University's Future of Humanity Institute is warning.

The team, in a forthcoming paper titled, Existential Risk Prevention as Global Priority, says humankind's over-reliance on technology could lead to its demise, and that human beings are facing a risk to our own existence.

What's more, the team says humankind's demise is not far off; it could come as soon as the next century.

'Threats we have no track record of surviving...

"There is a great race on between humanity's technological powers and our wisdom to use those powers well," institute director Nick Bostrom told MSN. "I'm worried that the former will pull too far ahead."

Since our existence on this planet there have been those who have predicted the end of world as we know it, the latest "fad" in this realm being the hoopla surrounding the now-disproven 2012 Mayan prophesies. Still, folks can't seem to let go of the notion that, at some point in our future, life on Earth will cease to exist.

From Bostrom's paper:

Humanity has survived what we might call natural existential risks for hundreds of thousands of years; thus it is prima facie unlikely that any of them will do us in within the next hundred. This conclusion is buttressed when we analyze specific risks from nature, such as asteroid impacts, supervolcanic eruptions, earthquakes, gamma-ray bursts, and so forth: Empirical impact distributions and scientific models suggest that the likelihood of extinction because of these kinds of risk is extremely small on a time scale of a century or so.

In contrast, our species is introducing entirely new kinds of existential risk - threats we have no track record of surviving. Our longevity as a species therefore offers no strong prior grounds for confident optimism. Consideration of specific existential - risk scenarios bears out the suspicion that the great bulk of existential risk in the foreseeable future consists of anthropogenic existential risks - that is, those arising from human activity.

Continuing, Boston predicts that future technological breakthroughs "may radically expand our ability to manipulate the external world or our own biology."

"As our powers expand, so will the scale of their potential consequences - intended and unintended, positive and negative."

Bostrom goes onto say that well-known threats like an asteroid strike on the planet, supervolcanic eruptions and earthquakes likely won't threaten humanity in the near future. Even a nuclear explosion won't completely wipe out life; in that event, he says, enough people would survive to rebuild.

Rather, it is the unknowns that will wind up as a bane on the existence of humankind.

 Science has an obligation to serve mankind

Not all of the news is bad, Bostrom says.

"The Earth will remain habitable for at least another billion years. Civilization began only a few thousand years ago. If we do not destroy mankind, these few thousand years may be only a tiny fraction of the whole of civilized human history," he writes.

Mike Adams, The Health Ranger, notes in an Infographic posted here at NaturalNews that the onus for protecting humanity falls on those who are creating the technology.

"If an action or policy has a suspected risk of causing harm to the public or to the environment, the burden of proof that it is NOT harmful falls on those taking the action," the graphic says.


SOURCE

Woman Who injected COOKING OIL Into Her Own Face

May 11, 2013, 3:20 am

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She was so disfigured that her parents did not recognise her and her story featured on Korean television

A plastic surgery addict injected cooking oil into her face when doctors refused to give her any more silicone.

Former model Hang Mioku has been left permanently disfigured following the DIY beauty treatment.

After injecting an entire bottle of black market silicone into her face, Hang resorted to using cooking oil that left her face severely swollen and scarred.

Hang Mioku's face was left so swollen by the silicone and cooking oil, left, that her own parents did not recognise her. Despite 10 operations her face is still severely disfigured, right

Hang Mioku had her first procedure aged 28 when she was a natural beauty 

Her plights was featured on Korean television and viewers donated thousands of pounds to pay for corrective surgery.

During the first of 10 operations, surgeons removed 60g of silicone, oil and other foreign substances from her face and 200g from her neck.

However, Hang is still disfigured and she said she wishes she could have her old face back.

Hang had her first procedure aged 28 and then moved to Japan where she had repeated treatments.

She quickly became obsessed with having smoother and softer skin.

Doctors eventually refused to carry out any more work on her after her face became noticeably

However, she managed to get hold of a bottle of silicone and a syringe to self-inject but when that ran out she resorted to use cooking oil.

Her face was so altered that her own parents did not recognise her and local children also used to call her 'standing fan' because her face was so large compared to her small body.

Numerous operations paid for by donations have managed to reduce the size of her face and neck but she is still significantly disfigured.

Recently the former model was working in a recycled clothes shop, called The Beautiful Shop, and receiving handouts from the state.

  

SOURCE

Have Scientists Discovered a Way of Peering Into the Future?

May 11, 2013, 9:21 pm

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Deep in the basement of a dusty old library in Edinburgh lies a small black box that churns out random numbers. At first glance the box looks profoundly dull, but it is, in fact, the ‘eye' of a machine that appears capable of peering into the future.

The machine apparently sensed the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center four hours before they happened, and appeared to forewarn of the Asian Tsunami.

"It's Earth shattering stuff," says Dr Roger Nelson, Emeritus researcher at Princeton University in the USA. "But unfortunately we don't have a box for predicting the future that we can sell to the CIA. We're very early on in the process of trying to figure out what's going on here. At the moment we're stabbing in the dark."

Dr Nelson's Global Consciousness Project - originally hosted by Princeton University - is one of the most extraordinary experiments of all time. It aims to ‘sense' whether all of humanity shares a single unconscious mind that we all tap into without realizing it. Some might refer to it as the mind of God. But the machine has also thrown up another tantalizing possibility: that scientists may have unwittingly discovered a way of predicting the future.

Although many would consider the project's aims to be little more than fools' gold, it has still attracted a roster of 75 respected scientists from 41 different nations. Researchers from Princeton - where Einstein spent much of his career - work alongside scientists from universities in Britain, Holland, Switzerland and Germany. The project is also the most rigorous and longest running investigation ever into the paranormal.

"Very often paranormal phenomena evaporate if you study them for long enough," says physicist Dick Bierman of the University of Amsterdam. "But this is not happening with the Global Consciousness Project. The effect is real. The only dispute is about what it means."

The project has its roots in the extraordinary work of Professor Robert Jahn of Princeton University during the late 1970s. Professor Jahn was one of the first modern scientists to take paranormal phenomena seriously. Intrigued by such things as telepathy, telekinesis and ESP, he was determined to study the phenomena using the most up to date technology available.

One of these new technologies was a humble looking black box known was a Random Event Generator. This used sophisticated technology to generate two numbers - a one and a zero - in a totally random sequence, rather like an electronic coin-flipper. The pattern of ones and naughts - ‘heads' and ‘tails' as it were - can then be printed out as a graph. Pure chance dictates that the generators should churn out equal numbers of ones and zeros which produces a more or less flat line on a graph. Any deviation from this shows up as a gently rising curve.

During the late 1970s, Professor Jahn hauled strangers off the street and asked them to concentrate their minds on a number generator. In effect, he was asking them to try to make it flip more heads than tails. It was a preposterous idea at the time, and to many it still is.

The results, however, were stunning and have never been satisfactorily explained. Again and again, entirely ordinary people proved that their minds could influence the machines and produce significant fluctuations on the graph. According to all of the known laws of science, this should not have happened - but it did. And it kept on happening.

Dr Roger Nelson, also working at Princeton University, then extended Professor Jahn's work by taking the machines to group meditations, which were very popular in America at the time. Again, the results were shocking. The mediators somehow caused dramatic shifts in the numbers.

From then on, Dr Nelson was hooked. Using the Internet, he connected up 40 random event generators from all over the world to his laboratory computer in Princeton. These ran day in day out, generating millions of different pieces of data. Most of the time, the resulting graph on his computer looked more or less like a flat line. But during the funeral of Princess Diana something extraordinary happened: the graph shot upwards and reached for the sky. It was clear that they'd detected a totally new phenomena. The concentrated mental effort of millions of people appeared to be influencing the output of random event generators around the world. But how? Dr Nelson was still at a loss to explain it.

In 1998 he gathered together scientists from all over the world to try and understand the phenomena. They, too, were stumped and resolved to extend and deepen Jahn and Nelson's work. The Global Consciousness Project was born.

Since then, the project has expanded massively. A total of 65 Eggs (as the generators have been named) in 41 countries have now been recruited to act as the ‘eyes' of the project. And the results have been startling and inexplicable in equal measure. The Eggs not only ‘sensed' the moment that Princess Diana was buried, but also the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, the Kursk tragedy and America's hung election of 2000. The Eggs also regularly detect huge global celebrations such as New Year's Eve. Even more bizarrely, they sense the celebrations as they sweep through the Earth's different time zones.

The project threw up its greatest enigma on September 11th 2001. As the world stood still and watched the horror of the terrorist attacks unfold across New York, something strange was happening to the Eggs. Not only did they register the event as it happened, but the characteristic shift in the pattern of numbers began four hours before the two planes hit the Twin Towers.

"I knew then that we had a great deal of work ahead of us," says Dr Nelson.

The same happened with the Asian Tsunami. Twenty four hours before the tragedy unfolded, the characteristic shift in the pattern of numbers began. Curiously, it was at around this time that animals in the path of the tsunami began fleeing for their lives. Very few animals were killed in the tragedy, as you may remember, leading some to ask whether they had somehow foreseen the disaster.

So does the Global Consciousness Project really forecast the future? After all, cynics will quite rightly say that if you look at enough data then you will find correlations with something. After all, our world is full of wars, disasters and terrorist outrages, as well as the occasional global celebration.

The team behind the project say that they've thought of this. Using rigorous scientific techniques and powerful mathematics it is possible to exclude these chance connections. And they believe they have done so.

"Good scientists will ask what mistakes we've made," says Dr Nelson. "We're perfectly willing to discover that we've made mistakes. But we haven't been able to find any, and neither has anyone else.

"Our data shows clearly that the chances of getting these results by chance are one million to one against. That's hugely significant."

The Global Consciousness Project may have generated an incredible amount of compelling evidence, and garnered the support of eminent scientists, but many remain skeptical.

Professor Chris French, a psychologist and noted skeptic at Goldsmiths College in London, says: "The project has generated some very intriguing results that cannot be readily dismissed. I'm involved in similar work to see if we get the same results. We haven't managed to do so yet but it's only an early experiment. The jury's still out."

Strange as it may seem, there's nothing in the laws of physics that precludes the possibility of foreseeing the future. Time may not just move forwards - but backwards too. And if time ebbs and flows like the tides in the sea, it might just be possible to foretell the future.

"There's plenty of evidence that time may run backwards," says Professor Dick Bierman, a physicist at the University of Amsterdam. "And if it's possible for it to happen in physics then it can happen inside our heads too."

As a consequence says Professor Bierman, forecasting the future may not just be possible - it's something we do routinely without even realizing it.

Dr John Hartwell, working at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, was the first to uncover evidence that people could sense the future. In the mid 1970s he hooked people up to hospital EEG machines so that he could study their brainwave patterns. When these people were shown emotionally charged cartoons, characteristic patterns flickered through their brainwaves. Strangely, these patterns began to emerge a few seconds before they actually saw the pictures.

But it was to be another 15 years before anyone else took this work further. Dean Radin, working in America, connected people up to a machine that measured their skin's resistance to electricity. This is known to fluctuate in tandem with our moods, indeed, it's this principle that underlies many lie detectors. Radin repeated Dr Hall's work whilst measuring skin resistance. Again, people began reacting a few seconds before they were shown the pictures. This was clearly impossible, or so he thought, so he kept on repeating the experiments and getting the same results.

"I didn't believe it," says Professor Bierman. "So I repeated the experiment myself and got the same results. I was shocked. After this I started to think more deeply about the nature of time."

Bierman then devised an experiment to settle his mind once and for all. He decided to use a hospital brain scanner to peer inside people's minds as they were shown a series of photographs. Each person was randomly shown erotic or violent pictures, or neutral images of white fluffy clouds. Each of these pictures produced unique patterns in the patient's brainwaves. In effect, you could see inside the mind as it reacted to each picture.

What is remarkable is that the patients began reacting 1-2 seconds before they saw the images. This is clearly impossible, or so we're taught to believe. And yet it happened time and time again.

Obviously sceptics would love to demolish Bierman's work but have so far failed to do so. Nor is his research a one off that can be casually dismissed. To make matters even more intriguing, Bierman says that other mainstream labs have produced similar results but they are too frightened to go public.

"They don't want to be ridiculed so they won't release their findings, says Professor Bierman. "So I'm trying to persuade all of them to release their results together. That would at least spread the ridicule a little more thinly!" jokes the Professor.

If Bierman is right, then sensing the future may help explain such things as deja vu, intuition and a host of other paranormal phenomena. It may also open up a far more interesting possibility - enhancing psychic powers using machines. Just as we have built machines to replace muscle power, may we one day build a device to enhance psychic abilities?

Dr Nelson is optimistic - but not for the short term: "We may be able to predict that something is going to happen. But we won't know exactly what will happen or where it's going to happen," he says.

But for Dr Nelson, talk of psychic machines is of far less importance than the implications of his work for ordinary people. We may all be individuals, he says, but we are also part of something far, far greater.

"We're taught to be individualistic monsters," he says. "We're driven by society to separate ourselves from each other. That's not right. We may be connected together far more intimately than we realize."

SOURCE

HIV/AIDS: The US Government Bio-Weapons Project For Global Depopulation

May 11, 2013, 9:42 pm

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In 1962, the US Senate received a report concerning chemical and biological warfare. This is the government contract where HIV-like and Ebola-like viruses were bio-engineered by the US military and the bioweapons contracting lab Biomedics. They were producing viral immunosuppressive cancer in monkeys that could then be used through genetic engineering to infect humans.

Robert Gallo, working with the National Cancer Institute, was part of the project to manipulate feline leukemia viruses because of his knowledge of retroviruses and immunosuppressive cancers. According to an annual volume of the Special Cancer Virus Program, human experimentation with cancer-causing and immunosuppressive viruses was essential. With the “gay plague” and “gay cancer’, such experiments were no longer necessary. The deaths of thousands of gay men proved with these viruses caused cancer, immunosuppression, and were sexually-transmissible between people.

Millions of people have died from this US-sponsored government project to depopulate certain groups of people because of their ethnic heritage; and the US Congress knew about it, and endorsed its use.

Scientific teams from various institutions like the Scripps Research Institute, the Rockefeller University, NIAID’s Vaccine Research Center and Duke University are closely following how they can use the human body’s immune system against the array of HIV strains that keep popping up.

In the sub-Saharan region of Africa, drug resistant forms of HIV are being found which leave current treatments ineffective.

These researchers did not consult Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan ecologist and Nobel Peace Prize winner, who says that HIV was created deliberately in a laboratory as a biological weapon.

Dr. Alan Cantwell, MD, who has extensively researched the origins of HIV/AIDS has concluded that: “After the smallpox vaccine story hit the front-page of The London Times, the story was subsequently killed and never appeared again in any of the world major media. The smallpox eradication vaccine program sponsored by the World Health Organization was responsible for unleashing AIDS in Africa. About 100 million Africans living in central Africa were inoculated by the WHO. The vaccine was held responsible for awakening a ‘dormant’ AIDS virus on the continent. I am sure the ‘big business’ of vaccine makers had something to do with censoring the story. Also the Times story provided another explanation for the outbreak in Africa other than the widely-accepted ‘monkey in the African jungle’ theory of HIV/AIDS.”


Cantwell believes, based on years of research, that primates were injected with various cancer-causing and immunosuppressive viruses, as part of primate animal cancer research conducted by the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

The first cases of AIDS in gay men appeared in Manhattan in 1979, soon after the gay experiment began in Manhattan, New York City.”

Dr. Robert Strecker has explained in his books that Africans were infected with HIV during the smallpox vaccine distribution; as laid out by WHO in a memorandum from 1972. Prior to 1979, there were no reported cases of HIV/AIDS in Africa, according to Luc Montagnier, a French Pasteur scientist. By calculating Montagnier’s isolation of the first HIV case in Paris, France, the first cases of HIV must have begun in the fall of 1982.

While AIDS are first announced in 1981, there were yet no reported cases proving that there was an African epidemic.

In August, the Obama administration announced allocation of $80 million in grants to corporations working to produce AIDS related medication; essentially using taxpayer money to help pharmaceutical companies in an initiative called AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP).

The ADHP will conduct research to identify people affected by HIV/AIDS and place them on a government list to be medicated by pharmaceutical corporations. Under the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI) begun in 2002, the relationship between drug corporations and governments has expanded and the delivery of pharmaceuticals has increased, although the incidents of HIV/AIDS have not decreased. CHAI provides more access to medical healthcare, yet the issue is still running rampant.

HIV testing was allocated as the biggest proponent of capturing the scope of the effect this eugenics directed bioweapon is making on the over-population problem. Truvada was agreed to be the best vaccine available and supported by the conference attendees as a pharmaceutical worth investing in.

The suggestion was also made that women be forced to have a vaginal ring soaked in an “HIV-blocking drug” implanted should their husbands or partners refuse to wear condoms on a regular basis. African governments have approved the trials of US scientists working for Mircobide Trials Network and the US National Institute of Health will go into heavily populated areas and give women these rings dipped in dapivirine which is a drug that will slowly “ooze” out of the ring and lace the surrounding vaginal tissue.

On the east coast of America, volunteers from out-reach centers have begun going door-to-door in a community in Southwest Philadelphia telling residents to get HIV tested. They believe that by conducting these invasions of privacy for the sake of coercing more people to get tested for HIV, they can control the spread of the disease.

This year, in Southeast Asia, specifically Thailand, an AIDS-like “virus” has been found in people that are not infected with HIV. Those infected have their immune-system compromised. Health officials say that this new AIDS “virus” is not contagious, which begs the question: how did these people come down with this new strain of AIDS?

This infection does not spread the same as AIDS does, according to Dr. Sarah Browne, scientist with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Browne led the team of researchers in Thailand and Taiwan where the disease made its first appearance.

The disease appears to be directed at people of Asian descent; even those living in the US. Browne has concluded that the new AIDS causes those infected to produce autoantibodies that block interferon-gamma, a chemical signal that assists the human body in fighting infections. The new AIDS targets this chemical and leaves the victim unable to fight off any infection – leaving the person vulnerable to developing deadly sicknesses from even the common cold.

Browne is touting this new AIDS as “adult-onset” because “we do not know what’s causing [people] to make these antibodies.”

Merck, in 2007 conducted a trial for an HIV/AIDS vaccine that actually caused those inoculated to become more susceptible to the virus. Then in 2009, human experiments in Thailand pointed to drug corporations toward a powerful vaccine that utilized immune system generated anti-bodies as the answer to their dilemma.

Colonel Nelson Michael, director of the US Military HIV Research Program at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, who led the government experimentation of the RV144 trial, commented that since Merck’s vaccine trials “had chilling effect” that uncircumcised males at increased risk for infection prior to exposure to the vaccine. The WRAIR went into Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania to conduct human experimentation of compromising the human immune system under the cover of HIV/AIDS research for vaccination purposes.

Hayes’ research showed that vaccinated men and women developed antibodies in the region of the virus’s outer coat; which suggests that this element should be further studied. New experimental trials will take place in Thailand, using a Sanofi vaccine that has an additive from Norvartis.

Eugenicist institutions like the Scripps Research Institute, the Rockefeller University, NIAID’s Vaccine Research Center and Duke University are closely following how they can use the human body’s immune system against the array of HIV strains that keep popping up. US government intervention with the National Institutes of Health in 2005 identified the human immunodeficiency virus as the cause of AIDS. Dr. Barton Haynes, of Duke University and director of the Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology (CHAVI) asserted that: “We know the face of the enemy.”

In the end, this bio-weapon has spawned justification for propaganda purveyed not only by the mainstream media, but select alternative media outlets as well.

The success of HIV/AIDS depends on the continued ignorance of the public to the origin of this virus, its purpose as a tool for the eugenics agenda and how to treat it properly.

SOURCE

Strange Argentina Ghost Town That Was Underwater For 25 Years Re-emerges As Tourist Attraction

May 12, 2013, 12:53 am

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Buildings lay in ruins in Epecuen, a village that was once submerged by water in Argentina a quarter century ago. But as the lake recedes, a strange ghost village is seen emerging in the tides.

A strange ghost town that spent a quarter century under water is coming up for air again in the Argentine farmlands southwest of Buenos Aires.

Epecuen was once a bustling little lakeside resort, where 1,500 people served 20,000 tourists a season. During Argentina's golden age, the same trains that carried grain to the outside world brought visitors from the capital to relax in Epecuen's saltwater baths and spas.

Former resident and tourist guide Norma Berg walks by a street in Epecuen. People come to see the rusted hulks of automobiles and furniture, crumbled homes and broken appliances. 

The saltwater lake was particularly attractive because it has 10 times more salt than the ocean, making the water buoyant. Tourists, especially people from Buenos Aires' large Jewish community, enjoyed floating in water that reminded them of the Dead Sea in the Middle East.

Then a particularly heavy rainstorm followed a series of wet winters, and the lake overflowed its banks on Nov. 10, 1985. Water burst through a retaining wall and spilled into the lakeside streets. People fled with what they could, and within days their homes were submerged under nearly 10 meters (33 feet) of corrosive saltwater.

It only took 20 days for the town to submerge beneath almost 10 metres of water forcing everybody to leave. As the years passed, slowly the water started to recede.

Now the water has mostly receded, exposing what looks like a scene from a movie about the end of the world. The town hasn't been rebuilt, but it has become a tourist destination again, for people willing to drive at least six hours from Buenos Aires to get here, along 340 miles (550 kilometers) of narrow country roads.

People come to see the rusted hulks of automobiles and furniture, crumbled homes and broken appliances. They climb staircases that lead nowhere, and wander through a graveyard where the water toppled headstones and exposed tombs to the elements.

Trees are reflected in water in Epecuen. Many residents of Epecuen fled to nearby Carhue, another lakeside town, and set up new hotels and spas, promising relaxing getaways featuring saltwater and mud facials.

It's a bizarre, post-apocalyptic landscape that captures a traumatic moment in time.
One man refused to leave. Pablo Novak, now 82, still lives on the edge of the town, welcoming people who wander into the wrecked streets.

Tombs lay in the ruins of Epecuen, 25 years after the lake overflowed. Water burst through a retaining wall and submerged the lakeside streets in 10 meters of water. 

"Whoever passes nearby cannot go without coming to visit here," Novak said while showing The Associated Press around. "It's getting more people to the area, as they come to see the ruins."

Many residents of Epecuen fled to nearby Carhue, another lakeside town, and built new hotels and spas, promising relaxing getaways featuring saltwater and mud facials.

Buildings lay in ruins of the town that once served as a bastion for luxury-minded tourists.

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