disinformation

The “Act Of Terror” Of Filming The London Police

JacobSloan — Sat, 25 May 2013 19:00:51 +0000

In 2010, Londoner Gemma Atkinson was restrained, handcuffed, and threatened with arrest for an “act of terror” after using her phone to film police as they engaged in a random stop-and-frisk of her boyfriend. She launched a legal battle, and, with the money from a settlement, produced the following short film about her experience and how to resist police abuse of power:

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Murdered Soldiers and the Mythology of Terrorism

James Curcio — Sat, 25 May 2013 17:00:56 +0000

From Mr VI on Modern Mythology:

Wednesday 22nd 2013, 1421 – Woolwich, South London.

That’s when the call was placed to police – that’s when the authorities became aware that two men were hacking another to death with machetes. But there were witnesses to this act – it happened in broad daylight. Bloodstained hands were caught on camera-phones, tweets going viral while the perpetrators explained why they had done it, to passers by.

They didn’t run, they waited for police. Fourteen minutes later, armed police showed up, and were charged by at least one of the perpetrators. They promptly shot him. Both perpetrators are now in hospital, under guard.

The dead man was a serving soldier. The perpetrators were young black men, who were Muslims. Media makes much of them shouting ‘God is Great’ in Arabic, and their statements that the reason for this is Western troops in Muslim countries.

There will be countless other editorials on this act, and terrorism in general, for many years to come, but as a Briton of a certain age, I grew up with mainland terrorism. Irish Republican paramilitary groups were making threats and blowing things up and killing people throughout my childhood. It’s nothing particularly new, because ultimately, yesterday’s act was an ideological murder.

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The Psychic Mormon Dream Mine In The Mountains Of Utah

JacobSloan — Sat, 25 May 2013 16:00:03 +0000

Via Utah.gov, the bizarre story behind the “Dream Mine” built by a nineteenth-century Mormon bishop-prophet famed for his dreams that predicted the future:

The so-called Dream Mine is located east of Salem in Utah County.

In August 1894, John H. Koyle experienced a dream in which he was visited by a figure from another world. The visitor carried him to a high mountain east of Koyle’s house and into the mountain, showing him the various strata and explaining the meaning of the minerals. The visitor showed Koyle an ancient “Nephite” mine with large rooms of mined-out ore bodies. The rooms contained treasure and artifacts of an extinct civilization.

Koyle was instructed that he was to open a mine and extract gold for the welfare of “his” people. The riches would be found and released to him and his followers during a time of world crisis. The wealth would be spread to others through Koyle and the people organized around the mine. In this way the name “Relief Mine” was attached to the project.

The dream was repeated for a total of three times. Koyle talked of his dream to friends and others for support. In 1909 the Koyle Mining Company was formed with 114,000 shares of stock issued at $1.00 per share.

Koyle’s dreams continued. He predicted the First World War and the economic crash of October, 1929. He foresaw “horseless carriages” bigger than railroad cars going down the road at great speeds. He especially received instruction on how to develop the mine. Plans included air shafts, escape ways and drainage tunnels.

By 1910, Koyle was appointed bishop of the Leland Ward in Spanish fork. The mining activities closely coupled with his church work attracted attention from the Mormon Church leaders. Apostle James E. Talmage, a geologist by training, came to look at the Dream Mine claims and could find no evidence that precious metals would ever be found in the strata being explored.

The Mormon Church spoke out against the Koyle mine and associated activities and released John H. Koyle from the bishopric. However, Koyle’s ongoing success as a seer and visionary continued to attract supporters and money, including some members of the Mormon Church leadership.

For a time, Koyle moved some members of his family to Idaho to pursue farming and while there Koyle was appointed to another bishopric as a councilor, but released when the Mormon leadership learned of the appointment. He continued to attract opposition from the Church for the rest of his life.

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Monsanto Found Guilty of Chemical Poisoning in Landmark Case

majestic — Sat, 25 May 2013 15:05:07 +0000

Monsanto finally loses in court! Report via REALfarmacy.com:

A French farmer who can no longer perform his routine farming duties because of permanent pesticide injuries has had his day in court, literally, and the perpetrator of his injuries found guilty of chemical poisoning. The French court in Lyon ruled that Monsanto’s Lasso weedkiller formula, which contains the active ingredient alachlor, caused Paul Francois to develop lifelong neurological damage that manifests as persistent memory loss, headaches, and stuttering during speech.

Reports indicate that the 47-year-old farmer sued Monsanto back in 2004 after inhaling the Lasso product while cleaning his sprayer tank equipment. Not long after, Francois began experiencing lasting symptoms that prevented him from working, which he says were directly linked to exposure to the chemical. Since Lasso’s packaging did not bear adequate warnings about the dangers of exposure, Francois alleged at the time that Monsanto was essentially negligent in providing adequate protection for its customers.

To the surprise of many, the French court agreed with the claims and evidence presented before it, declaring earlier this year that “Monsanto is responsible for Paul Francois’ suffering after he inhaled the Lasso product … and must entirely compensate him.” The court is said to be seeking expert opinion on how to gauge Francois’ losses in order to determine precisely how much Monsanto will be required to compensate him in the case.

“It is a historic decision in so far as it is the first time that a (pesticide) maker is found guilty of such a poisoning,” said Francois Lafforgue, Paul Francois’ lawyer, to Reuters earlier in the year…

[continues at REALfarmacy.com]

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Elite Boarding School’s Exam Asks Boys To Justify The Army Killing Protesters

JacobSloan — Sat, 25 May 2013 14:00:25 +0000

Eton College in England has groomed teenage boys for elite positions in society for nearly 600 years. (Recent alumni include Prime Minister David Cameron and the royal princes.) The Huffington Post UK reports that the school’s scholarship exam, presumably given to our leaders of tomorrow, has raised eyebrows:

Eton College asked 13-year-old boys competing for a scholarship to pretend to be Prime Minister and justify the army shooting dead 25 protesters as a “necessary and moral” decision, it has emerged.

Tony Little, headmaster of Eton College, said the school does not favour “any particular political viewpoint”.

The question was part of an exam to win one of 14 King’s Scholarships. The school, which Prince Harry and Prince William attended, charges more than £30,000 a year in fees.

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Australia As Bellwether For The New Global Climate

majestic — Fri, 24 May 2013 22:00:00 +0000

Extreme weather events in Australia are now commonplace and scientists believe it may be a bellwether for the rest of the world. Report from National Geographic:

In early 2012 once-in-a-century floods submerged swaths of Great Britain and Ireland, causing some $1.52 billion in damages. Then in June record-high temperatures in Russia sparked wildfires that consumed 74 million acres of pristine Siberian taiga. Months after that, Hurricane Sandy pummeled seven countries, killing hundreds and running up an estimated $75 billion in damages. Just this week, a tornado of virtually unheard of size and ferocity tore through a small city in Oklahoma, leaving 24 people dead.

Each of these one-off traumas was bad enough, wreaking havoc, but in Australia such events seem to be becoming commonplace.

The Lucky Country has experienced a major spike in extreme weather in the past few years, with a string of devastating incidents just since January.

That has people wondering if the island continent is somehow a perfect bellwether for the Earth’s changing climate. So scientists are bearing down on the problem with intensity, investigating Australia’s increasingly violent weather patterns and trying to figure out what they might portend for the rest of the world as our climate changes.

So Hot Even the Summer Got Angry

The rough-hewn sandstone buildings perched atop Observatory Hill have been keeping an eye on Sydney Harbor since 1858. They’ve pretty much seen it all—from the installation of the city’s first gaslights to the construction of the now iconic Sydney Opera House and Harbor Bridge.

But at 2:55 p.m. on January 18, 2013, meteorological equipment in the observatory registered something new: a read-out marking the hottest day in the city’s history: 45.8°C (114.4°F).

Much of the continent was languishing in the grip of a heat wave that would break 123 heat and flood-related records in 90 days—among them, the hottest summer on record and the hottest seven consecutive days ever recorded…

[continues at National Geographic]

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Boston: Privacy vs. Security

Abby Martin — Fri, 24 May 2013 21:00:55 +0000

On this episode of Breaking the Set, Ameera David reports on a call for more security and surveillance in the wake of the Boston tragedy.

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Meditate in the Lines

Brother Elias — Fri, 24 May 2013 20:00:31 +0000

Meditate in the lines from Daniele zanini on Vimeo.

via Daniele zanini on Vimeo

In all the lines you’ll see, there’s a perception of direction. If you found a line on a piece of paper, if you rotate it, the direction changes. Then think about yourself: what kind of direction are you in today, in this present moment, in your whereabout? Is That direction a choice you made or are you living in a line of another one? We are a point in that line, choosing our fate, everyday, in every direction we have chosen or even if we haven’t chosen.

- Made in After Effects with Trapcode MIR, Particular and Horizon.

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Obama Calls For End To “Perpetual War On Terror”

JacobSloan — Fri, 24 May 2013 19:00:29 +0000

A welcome development? Via Yahoo! News, the president announces new guidelines which will reduce the use of drone strikes and once again pushes for the closure of Guantanamo Bay:

Twelve years after the “war on terror” began, President Barack Obama wants to pull the United States back from some of the most controversial aspects of its global fight against Islamist militants.

In a major policy speech on Thursday, Obama narrowed the scope of the targeted-killing drone campaign against al Qaeda and its allies and took steps toward closing the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba.

He acknowledged the past use of “torture” in U.S. interrogations; expressed remorse over civilian casualties from drone strikes; and said that the Guantanamo detention facility “has become a symbol around the world for an America that flouts the rule of law.”

New U.S. drone rules are likely to reduce “signature” drone strikes, which target suspicious-looking groups. Those attacks are blamed for many civilian casualties in Pakistan’s tribal areas near Afghanistan and in Yemen. The number of drone strikes has dropped in the past year after peaking in the middle of Obama’s first term.

While Obama largely has a free hand as commander in chief to set U.S. drone policy, Congress has used its power of the purse to block him from closing Guantanamo. “There is no justification beyond politics for Congress to prevent us from closing a facility that should never have been opened,” Obama said.

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Sheeple: The Least Creative Put-Down of Our Time.

Gabriel Roberts — Fri, 24 May 2013 19:00:17 +0000

Disinfonauts! I offer up to you my latest short addressing the one of the most grating words in common use. From bottom of the barrel arguments about religion and politics, to discussions about war and drug use, it’s a catch-all term just about anybody can use to bolster their argument! Sheeple!!!

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