Bonjour Planet Earth: July 2016

Sunday, July 31, 2016

Tales of a child bride: 'My father sold me for 12 cows'

So common are the practices of abduction, rape and forced marriage of girls in northern Tanzania that a single word is used to encapsulate them all: kupura. It is a word used by people from the Sukuma tribe to describe the snatching of girls in broad daylight as they walk to school; a three-syllabled euphemism that downplays their long-term physical and sexual abuse.

And yet here in the region of Shinyanga, the practice of kupura is validated by the oft-recited motto of Sukuma men: alcohol, meat and vagina.

"This slogan is in their blood and a way of life," says Revocatus Itendelebanya. "These are the three things they feel entitled to as men."

Itendelebanya, the legal and gender officer for the local NGO, Agape, says this sense of entitlement, in what is a perennially patriarchal society, also explains why passers-by don't intervene when they witness an abduction. Full story...

Related posts:

Child marriage sets girls up for a lifetime of abuse...

4-year-old girl married in India and divorced at 8! WTF!

She's only 10, but she's already been married, raped, beaten and divorced!!

Saudi men buying Syrian refugee children as brides and prostitutes...

Chennai street food - King of Bread omelette ...

Related posts:

The flying parathas of South India!!!

Mumbai's lunch-box men, the dubba wallahs...

Malaysia's roadside "mamak" food stalls... (BBC video)

Mumbai's amazing culture of outdoor eating...(BBC video)

When superpowers court Rodrigo Duterte...

"I will be chartering a [foreign policy] course [for the Philippines] on its own and will not be dependent on the United States," exclaimed Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines' firebrand president shortly after winning a historic election in May.

After almost a century of strategic dependence on the US, the Philippines was now interested in charting its own destiny. Duterte presented himself as a fully fledged maverick, willing to shake up the Southeast Asian country's state of affairs, even if it came at the expense of estranging traditional allies.

Not long ago, though, the Philippines' newly elected president was dismissed by many across the globe as a foul-mouthed provincial mayor.

Many analysts questioned his competence to lead one of the world's fastest-growing economies. Others feared he lacked the requisite strategic knowledge to handle major foreign policy issues such as the South China Sea disputes.

A month into office, however, he has found himself on the receiving end of proactive courtship by global powers, both the US and China, who are eager to win Duterte's goodwill. Full story...

Related posts:

BREXIT BOOM continues: Now 27 countries around the world want trade deal with UK...

BRITAIN's Brexit boom has hit new heights with 27 countries announcing that they want a trade deal with the UK and a tourism bonanza expected this summer because of the cheaper pound.

With the UK on the brink of a new era of prosperity free from Brussels rule, new figures have revealed that the euro zone continues to be the dead weight of the world economy.

According to eurostat, the 19 country currency zone at the heart of the failing EU project only grew by 0.3 per cent in the last quarter, just half the rate of the UK.

According to reports 27 countries with a combined GDP of more than £40 trillion - over two thirds of the global economy - now want to take advantage of Brexit and strike new trade deals with the UK.

The vast economic potential dwarfs the EU's single market worth around £12 trillion, just 22 per cent of the world's GDP. Full story...

Related posts:

Just put the phone down and walk away, Ma’am…

Cell phones and the Internet of Things. We are told that they are here to make our lives easier. To aid us in our quest for freedom and control of our own lives. But are we really in control, or are we the ones being controlled? Are we aiding in our own demise by allowing the creation to rule the creator, and have our creations actually become weapons of mass destruction?

We are like mice in a maze, given the illusion of freedom in nibble-sized scraps that keep us focused on remaining in the maze, never questioning if that maze is really a trap.

Driven to conform by a series of rewards and punishments, each mouse is kept in line. That is, except for the atypical mouse. Every now and then a mouse looks up from the endless maze and catches a glimpse of the handlers and will not conform as intended. These are the ones who begin to understand how the maze works and instead of blind obedience and support, go along to keep from being extinguished while searching for a door leading to the exit. A way out. They know instinctively that there is something more and will never be satisfied with the status quo. They question each command with open eyes searching for the truth, rejecting the lies. Full story...

Related posts:

Welcome to 'the Internet of Things'

10 reasons why nothing you do on the internet will ever be private again...

Pokémon Go, the CIA, “totalitarianism” and the future of Surveillance...

If anyone doubted that a percentage of the global population are akin to zombies, the incidents following the release of Pokémon Go have surely convinced you. Despite the game only being released in early July, we have already seen a man driving into a tree and a women getting locked in a graveyard whilst chasing these furry little creatures.

Pokémon describes the game on their website in the following way:

“Travel between the real world and the virtual world of Pokémon with Pokémon GO for iPhone and Android devices. With Pokémon GO, you’ll discover Pokémon in a whole new world—your own! Pokémon GO is built on Niantic’s Real World Gaming Platform and will use real locations to encourage players to search far and wide in the real world to discover Pokémon… In Pokémon GO, the real world will be the setting!”

The company behind Pokémon Go is a San Francisco software developer called Niantic, Inc, which was formed in 2010 as an internal startup at Google. The founder and current CEO of Niantic is John Hanke, a man who has connections both to the State Department and the CIA. Full story...

Related posts:

Is the world turning against the elite?

By now, it’s undeniable: America’s frustration with political elites is upending party loyalty. And now, this phenomenon is taking on global proportions.

According to a recent poll, nearly half of Bernie Sanders’s supporters will not vote for Hillary Clinton, while 22 percent are backing Donald Trump. “I’m a registered Democrat,” one respondent explained, “but I cannot bring myself to vote for another establishment politician like Hillary.”

Based on media coverage, it’s easy to label this distaste purely domestic. However, from the U.K.’s “Brexit” referendum to political movements in France, Italy, and the republic of Georgia, voters have been rising up against an out-of-touch, technocratic elite.

In each of these cases, political insiders have responded with doomsday predictions. Voting against the establishment, they argue, will lead to a swift collapse of our most precious institutions. The anti-establishment movement is not devoid of risk, but when the status quo is failing, it must be challenged. Embracing these protest movements as opportunities to enact reform is the only way our institutions can endure. Full story...

Related posts:

A girl in the river... (Honour killings in Pakistan)

Related posts:

Pakistani man shoots dead his own sisters on the eve of their weddings in horrific double honour killing...

A Pakistani man shot dead his own sisters the day before their weddings because they chose their own husbands.

Nazir Hussaid, 35, from the central Punjab province, shot Kosar and Gulzar Bibi, 22 and 28, in the horrific double honour killing, and is now on the run.

The two women were preparing to marry men they had chosen themselves, senior police officer Mehar Riaz said today.

Hussaid objected to the love matches and had wanted the women to marry someone within the extended family. Full story...

Related posts:

Pope Francis tells 'drowsy and dull' children to get off the sofa...

Pope Francis urged “drowsy and dull kids” to swap their sofas and video games for walking boots on Saturday at an international Catholic youth festival in Poland.

He warned sitting-room furniture gave the illusion of safety from pain, fear or worries, allowing the sitter to kick back and lose themselves for hours in the latest television show or their smartphones.

“For many people it is easier and better to have drowsy and dull kids who confuse happiness with a sofa,” he told an estimated one million people gathered at a vigil in a vast plain near Kraków.

“Dear young people, we didn’t come into the world to vegetate ... We came for another reason: to leave a mark,” he said.

“The times we live in do not call for young couch potatoes but for young people with shoes, or better, boots laced.” Full story...

Related posts:

People not talking to each other because of smartphones...

My students don't know how to have a conversation...

Are our children the next generation of zombies?

10 reasons why you shouldn't let your child play with smartphone or iPad...

10,000 unemployed Indians facing 'food crisis' in Saudi...

Nearly 800 Indian workers are reportedly starving for the last three days in Saudi city of Jeddah after losing their jobs and Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh is traveling to the Gulf nation to sort out the issue. However External Affairs Sushma Swaraj corrected that the number of starving people was 10,000.

"The number of Indian workers facing food crisis in Saudi Arabia is over Ten Thousand," Sushma Swaraj said in a tweet.

"It is not 800 as is being reported," she said.

Swaraj said the Indian Embassy in Saudi Arabia has been directed to serve food to them and that she was monitoring the situation on an hourly basis. Full story...

Related posts:

Employer chops off hand of Tamil Nadu woman for trying to escape torture...

India moves to stop flow of housemaids to Saudi Arabia after hand-chopping...

Video of weeping Indian goes viral, Saudi government jails him...

1,000 Indian workers dead. The grim reality of Qatar's FIFA World Cup dream...

Harrowing photos from inside a Filipino jail show the reality of President Rodrigo Duterte's brutal war on drugs...

Harrowing photos have emerged showing the “inhuman” conditions inside prison in the Philippines.

The facility, Quezon City Jail, in Manila, is home to 3,800 inmates – nearly five times more people than it was designed for.

It is a reflection of a criminal justice system in chaos, set to worsen as the state engages in an aggressive war on drugs instigated by the country's hardline president, Rodrigo 'The Punisher' Duterte.

Prisoners – caught up in trials which take years – can be seen crammed body-to-body on concrete floors and stairwells. More + photos...

Related posts:

Manny Pacquiao dropped by Nike after homophobic rant...

The country training people to leave...

Turkey coup attempt: Government cancels 50,000 passports amid international concern over crackdown...

The Turkish government has cancelled the passports of around 50,000 people to prevent them leaving the country as a crackdown continues following a failed coup.

Efkan Ala, the interior minister, said more than 18,000 have so far been detained over the attempt to oust President Tayyip Erdogan, while thousands of government staff are under investigation.

The purges have provoked alarm in the international community, presenting a major stumbling block for Turkey’s campaign to join the European Union.

Amid calls for restraint from the US and European allies, hundreds of listed conscripts were released from detention and Mr Erdogan announced he was dropping prosecutions against around 2,000 people alleged to have “insulted him”. Full story...

Related posts:

Saturday, July 30, 2016

“Too big to go to Jail”: The revolving doors- from HSBC to the Clintons...

Related posts:

UN rights body 'concerned' over Malaysia's controversial security law...

The United Nations Human Rights Office for Southeast Asia says it is "gravely concerned" that the Malaysian government is to enact a security law that grants it extraordinary emergency powers.

"We are gravely concerned that... the act may encourage human rights violations," Laurent Meillan, the officer-in-charge of the UN office, said in a statement on Friday.

Meillan said the law, which will come into force on August 1, could lead to "unjust restrictions" on free speech and the right of assembly.

"We call on the government to revise the act to bring it in line with international human rights norms and standards."

The administration of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak pushed the parliament to approve the National Security Council Act in December 2015. Full story...

Related posts:

A decade of evidence demonstrates the dramatic failure of globalisation...

According to wikipedia, Globalisation is the process of international integration arising from the interchange of world views, products, ideas and other aspects of culture. However, over the last ten years there has been a sea change decline in all the indicators that would measure the success of this model. Democracy, economic growth, freedom and an interchange of world views and culture has all but been abandoned to a vice like grip of globalisation driven more by the corporate principles of power and greed resulting in war, terrorism, a biblical refugee crisis, fear and a fully co-opted media.

The Economist has just published its annual index on democracy. They found that out of 167 countries, only twenty are “full democracies”. Less than 13 per cent of the world’s countries can now claim to be a democracy. Given that America has graciously forced so much democracy on the world, one could be forgiven for thinking all is not well.

In the meantime, Freedom House have published their annual Freedom Index that makes for just as sobering reading. It found that the number of countries showing a decline in freedom for the year, 72 to be precise, was the largest since the 10-year slide began. Over the past 10 years, 105 countries have seen a net decline. Think about that fact for a moment.

Unsurprisingly, ratings for the Middle East and North Africa region were the worst in the world during the course of 2015, followed closely by Eurasia. It also found that over the last decade, the most significant global reversals have been in the rule of law. Full story...

Related posts:

Globalization’s few winners and many losers...

Gates Foundation accused of 'dangerously skewing' aid priorities by...

The doctrine of ‘humanitarianism’ is not as benign as you might think...

Behind Bilderberg, Trilateral: the Globalists have a major problem...

TPP, the secret corporate takeover...

IMF slammed by own watchdog over ‘political’ handling of eurozone crisis...

Top brass at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have been criticized for misjudgments over Greece, being overly enthusiastic about the euro, ignoring signs of an impending crisis, and for being influenced by national political concerns.

The criticism comes from the Fund's own watchdog, the Independent Evaluation Office (IEO).

The IEO, which answers solely to the board of executive directors, accuses the IMF of misleading the board.

The report looked into how the IMF handled the eurozone crisis, which kicked-off with the May 2010 bailout of Greece, and subsequently spread to Ireland, Portugal and Cyprus.

The IEO found the “IMF’s pre-crisis surveillance identified the right issues but did not foresee the magnitude of the risks that would later become paramount.” Full story...

Related posts:

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer's payday is even more insane than you think...

After the Verizon ( VZ 1.00% ) deal was announced on Monday, the Internet erupted in outrage that Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer could collect as much as $55 million. That’s the figure Yahoo ( YHOO -0.86% ) stated in April that Mayer could collect if the company were sold and more-than enough to get observers who think Mayer has not done a great job to declare her pay unfair, and another sign that corporate compensation is corrupt.

But, here’s the thing, that widely reported $55 million figure grossly understates what Mayer is likely to pocket after the deal closes.

The real number: $122,578,795.

(...)

If Mayer’s incredibly golden parachute doesn’t convince you executive compensation is broken in America, I’m not sure what else will. Full story...

Related posts:

The sickest Establishment cover-up of all: How the great and the good let Jeremy Thorpe get away with sex abuse... and gave a green light to monsters like Cyril Smith and Jimmy Savile...

Sex, lies and a murder plot hatched in Westminster. The Thorpe affair was the trial of the century, and — as John Preston’s devastating new book, A Very English Scandal, sets out in forensic detail — subject to a poisonous cover-up that infected nearly every corner of the British Establishment, with monstrous consequences...

The darkly handsome but rather disturbed-looking young man strode into the Chelsea police station and announced that he had come to report a serious offence.

He’d had homosexual relations with a prominent politician, which, back then in 1962, was a criminal offence.

And as he was under 21 and a minor at the time, what had taken place was technically rape.

A detective inspector and a sergeant noted down the graphic physical details he gave — when, where (at the accused’s mother’s home in Surrey and in a hotel in Devon), the Vaseline and Kleenex that had been used and how he had bitten the pillow to stop himself screaming out in pain. Full story...

Related posts:

Media ‘gagged over bid to report MP child sex cases’

The dying art of professional mourning...

Related posts:

Switzerland: Exit, or the right to die...

John Pilger: A world war has begun. Break the silence....

(...)

How many people are aware that a world war has begun? At present, it is a war of propaganda, of lies and distraction, but this can change instantaneously with the first mistaken order, the first missile.

In 2009, President Obama stood before an adoring crowd in the centre of Prague, in the heart of Europe. He pledged himself to make "the world free from nuclear weapons". People cheered and some cried. A torrent of platitudes flowed from the media. Obama was subsequently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

It was all fake. He was lying.

The Obama administration has built more nuclear weapons, more nuclear warheads, more nuclear delivery systems, more nuclear factories. Nuclear warhead spending alone rose higher under Obama than under any American president. The cost over thirty years is more than $1 trillion.

A mini nuclear bomb is planned. It is known as the B61 Model 12. There has never been anything like it. General James Cartwright, a former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said, "Going smaller [makes using this nuclear] weapon more thinkable."

In the last eighteen months, the greatest build-up of military forces since World War Two -- led by the United States -- is taking place along Russia's western frontier. Not since Hitler invaded the Soviet Union have foreign troops presented such a demonstrable threat to Russia. Full story...

Related posts:

John Pilger: USA, UK and France gave birth to ISIS monster...

Pilger: Break the silence: a world war is beckoning...

Following fools blindly into war...again and again!

When propaganda fail, humanity awakens ... the fall of the mainstream media...

The media war behind the Ukraine crisis...

Muslims have refused to bury one of the terrorists who murdered a French Catholic priest as he celebrated Mass...

Community leaders in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray said they did not want to "taint" Islam by having any association with Adel Kermiche, the 19-year-old jihadist who killed Fr Jacques Hamel in his hometown in northern France.

Mohammed Karabila, president of the local Muslim cultural association and imam of one of the town's mosques, told Le Parisien: "We're not going to taint Islam with this person.

"We won't participate in preparing the body or the burial."

Muslims in the town were supportive of the decision.

Khalid El Amrani, a 25-year-old technician, said he thought it was "normal" that the mosque would refuse to help with the burial.

"What this young man did was sinful, he is no longer part of our community," he said. Full story...

Related posts:

What I learned as a young Muslim reading Salman Rushdie's 'The Satanic Verses'

Iran's Rouhani says it's up to Muslims to correct Islam's image

'There is a massive paranoia': UK Muslims on life after Paris...

Muslims all over the world condemn terrorism, express solidarity with French...

Israel proves the desalination era is here...

One of the driest countries on earth now makes more freshwater than it needs

Ten miles south of Tel Aviv, I stand on a catwalk over two concrete reservoirs the size of football fields and watch water pour into them from a massive pipe emerging from the sand. The pipe is so large I could walk through it standing upright, were it not full of Mediterranean seawater pumped from an intake a mile offshore.

“Now, that’s a pump!” Edo Bar-Zeev shouts to me over the din of the motors, grinning with undisguised awe at the scene before us. The reservoirs beneath us contain several feet of sand through which the seawater filters before making its way to a vast metal hangar, where it is transformed into enough drinking water to supply 1.5 million people.

We are standing above the new Sorek desalination plant, the largest reverse-osmosis desal facility in the world, and we are staring at Israel’s salvation. Just a few years ago, in the depths of its worst drought in at least 900 years, Israel was running out of water. Now it has a surplus. That remarkable turnaround was accomplished through national campaigns to conserve and reuse Israel’s meager water resources, but the biggest impact came from a new wave of desalination plants. Full story...

Related posts:

Man in India marries three wives ... so that they can fetch water!!!

Plastic bag use has plummeted in England since the introduction of a 5p charge ...

Plastic bag use has plummeted in England since the introduction of a 5p charge last year, the government says.

In the six months after the levy was brought in last October, 640 million plastic bags were used in seven major supermarkets in England, it says.

In 2014, the waste reduction charity Wrap estimated the same supermarkets had used 7.64 billion bags.

The government says if the trend continues over the year, six billion fewer bags will be used.

It follows the pattern seen in the rest of the UK since the introduction of charges for bags. Full story...

Related posts:

The ozone scare was a dry run for the global warming scare...

Owning one pet goldfish is illegal in Switzerland - and the reason might make you feel guilty...

Most of us will have had a pet or two as we were growing up - and lucky kids will have had even more.

Many families will have been delighted to win a goldfish as a prize at a funfair, happily putting it in a bowl and feeding it every day after school.

But they could have been guilty of animal cruelty without even knowing it.

Goldfish might get a bad reputation of being boring pets - and having rubbish memories - but they're more clued up than we realise.

In Switzerland, it has been illegal to own one solitary goldfish since 2008, when the country introduced a whole host of animal rights' legislation. Full story...

Related posts:

Is your guinea pig feeling lonely? In Switzerland you can rent a partner!

In Switzerland, plants have a right to live their lives with dignity...

Weaving the Bridge at Q’eswachaka...

Related posts:

2 million using free wi-fi at railway stations in India: Sundar Pichai...

Nearly two million Indians are using high-speed Wi-Fi services at 23 railway stations across the country that Google provided as part of its project, the technology giant revealed on Friday.

Speaking during Google-owned multinational conglomerate Alphabet's 2016 second quarter earnings call, India-born CEO Sunder Pichai said that Google is with Indian Railways and RailTel to bring high-speed wireless access to millions of people who use railway stations.

"There are already two million people logging in every month. They are using as much as 15 times the data that they would otherwise use in a full day on their cellular networks." Mr Pichai said.

Owned by Indian Railways, RailTel focuses on providing broadband and virtual private network (VPN) services.

Last month, on the occasion of the inaugural World Wi-Fi Day by the Wireless Broadband Alliance that aims to provide a platform to help bridge the digital divide, Google celebrated the success of its project with Railtel to provide high speed Wi-Fi at railway stations across India. Full story...

Related posts:

The Question Box, rural India's Oracle...

The Hole in the Wall, or how kids teach themselves...

The Philippines' new president Duterte promised bloodshed — and hundreds are now dead...

Rodrigo Duterte took office as president of the Philippines one month ago on Friday, promising death to drug dealers and a nationwide expansion of the brutal, death-squad approach to crime that made him famous as mayor of

"If I become president, there would be no such thing as bloodless cleansing," he promised during the campaign.

That promise wasn't campaign rhetoric. It turned out to be literal.

In the 30 days since he took office, 35 suspected criminals have been killed every day on average on the streets of Filipino cities, either by police or by self-appointed vigilantes. That's as many dead each day as in the entire first five months of the year.

"Shoot him and I'll give you a medal," Duterte had said about drug dealers. Full story...

Related posts:

Cops already acting on Philippine president-elect’s death-to-thugs vow...

Manny Pacquiao dropped by Nike after homophobic rant...

The country training people to leave...

Ireland jails three top bankers over 2008 banking meltdown...

Three senior Irish bankers were jailed on Friday for up to three-and-a-half years for conspiring to defraud investors in the most prominent prosecution arising from the 2008 banking crisis that crippled the country's economy.

The trio will be among the first senior bankers globally to be jailed for their role in the collapse of a bank during the crisis.

The lack of convictions until now has angered Irish taxpayers, who had to stump up 64 billion euros - almost 40 percent of annual economic output - after a property collapse forced the biggest state bank rescue in the euro zone.

The crash thrust Ireland into a three-year sovereign bailout in 2010 and the finance ministry said last month that it could take another 15 years to recover the funds pumped into the banks still operating.

Former Irish Life and Permanent Chief Executive Denis Casey was sentenced to two years and nine months following the 74-day criminal trial, Ireland's longest ever. Full story...

Related posts:

Death threats sent to Geneva bank managers...

The real bank robbers got away...

Iceland jails former bank bosses...

How Iceland goes after the bankers that brought down its economy...

Breastfeeding within hour of birth provides baby’s ‘first vaccine,’ says UNICEF...

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned today that some 77 million of the world’s newborns – or 1 in 2 – are not breastfed within the first hour of birth, depriving them of essential nutrients and antibodies and thus exposing them to an increased risk of death.

According to the agency, delaying breastfeeding by two to 23 hours after birth increases the risk of dying in the first 28 days of life by 40 per cent. Delaying it by 24 hours or more increases that risk to 80 per cent.

“Early breastfeeding can make the difference between life and death,” France Bégin, UNICEF Senior Nutrition Adviser, said today in a press release.

“If all babies are fed nothing but breastmilk from the moment they are born until they are six months old, over 800,000 lives would be saved every year,” she added. Full story...

Related posts:

Chinese mum bathes her baby in her breast-milk!!!

Angry breast-feeding mums to storm Facebook...

Does breast-feeding lead to increased intelligence?

Friday, July 29, 2016

Drama as Zimbabwe woman demands hubby's sperm from his girlfriend!!!

A wife's barber caused a stir in Bulawayo recently as she pounced on one of the student hairdressers demanding her husband's sperms.

According to B-Metro the incident unfolded after the husband had spent the weekend with the suspected girlfriend.

It is alleged that the woman, only identified as NaNafi and married to Hebert White, was not amused when she got news that her husband had deserted her for a student hairdresser.

After digging some information, she then descended on the unsuspecting girlfriend and thoroughly beat her up.

However, her behaviour resulted in the two lovebirds getting closer as Hebert reportedly went AWOL the whole weekend.

Sources from the salon said: "Hebert fell in love with the student hairdresser and it seems he was no longer supporting his family."The woman who is a vendor got information about the relationship and on Friday came fuming at the salon." It is reported that on the day in question she later went on a hunt for the girlfriend and meted instant justice on her. Full story...

Related posts:

In China, 'mistresses' stripped nude, beaten and publicly shamed...

How China's scorned mistresses avenge corrupt lovers...

4 women take revenge on cheating lover ... with super-glue!!!

Three women kidnap man, rape him and steal his semen in South Africa...

Sperm Smugglers: Palestinian women get pregnant while husbands in Israeli jail...

Hillary: what Bill left out at the DNC...

Related posts:

Hillary Clinton under fire after Boeing gave her foundation $900,000 weeks...

New science confirms that eating curry (with turmeric) prevents dementia...

As reported by The Telegraph, eating curry at least once a week may help you to prevent dementia, according to new research published in the Journal of Nutrition. The study by Australian scientists shows that a weekly hit of spicy food will keep your mind sharper for longer.

Turmeric has been identified as the most important and beneficial component, and is an ingredient used in almost every curry – from your mild and creamy kormas to extra hot and spicy vindaloos. Great news if you are a lover of spicy food – but what exactly is it about turmeric that helps prevent dementia?

According to the Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's disease is the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S., and more than 5 million Americans are currently living with the debilitating disease. Even more terrifying is the fact that one in every three seniors dies with Alzheimer's or a similar form of dementia.

There is no known cure for the progressive disease, but scientists have found that there are various superfoods and natural remedies that can help slow down or prevent the development of the condition. The health benefits of turmeric are numerous, and it is thought that this spice alone is powerful enough to replace your entire medicine cabinet. The main component in the spice – curcumin – is thought to fight liver damage, cirrhosis, Parkinson's, various types of cancer and now, dementia. Full story...

Related posts:

Rolf Harris to stand trial again over more historic sex attacks including one on girl under 13...

Rolf Harris will stand trial again over historic sex offences after he was charged with sexually assaulting seven females including a girl believed to be under 13. The disgraced former BBC presenter appeared at Southwark Crown Court via videolink on Friday after he was accused attacks dating back more than 45 years.

The 86-year-old faces eight allegations against seven females dating from 1971 to 2004 – one of whom is said to have been under 13. He was charged earlier this year with seven counts of indecent assault and one of sexual assault as part of Operation Yewtree, the Met Police probe into child sex abuse.

Harris, who denies the charges, stands accused of assaulting the 13-year-old girl in 1977. The earliest complaint dates back to July 1971 when Harris is said to have indecently assaulted a girl under 16. A third teenage girl, also under 16 at the time, is alleged to have been a victim of Harris's assault on New Year's Eve, 1983.

Four other females have made claims against Harris relating to incidents in 1977, 1978, 2002 and 2004. He also faces a count of sexual assault relating to the 2004 incident. His trial is due to start on 9 January 2017 and is expected to last four weeks. Source...

Related posts:

25 Fox News employees come forward: forced dates, demands for oral sex...

Rolf Harris was dirty old man who abused victim for years...

Paedo pop star Gary Glitter hires three inmates to protect him from prison attacks...

Savile 'abused 63 people at Stoke Mandeville Hospital'

Revealed: how Jimmy Savile abused up to 1,000 victims on BBC premises...

Students Speak: the Rio Olympics come at a cost to Brazil's poorest...

(...)

The Olympic Games is a nightmare for Rio as a city and for the citizens, who suffer [due to] the precarious situation of the education and transport systems, and in particular the health system, where people die from not having medical staff, basic tools for procedures and blood transfusions.

Rio de Janeiro is flooded with projects to revitalise the south zone, central Rio and Barra da Tijuca (where most of the Games are taking place) to create that image of the “Wonderful City” to the international media and tourists. Behind all this, people die in the favelas in the north and west zones in Rio because of police confrontations with drug traffickers. They become just statistics.

The Olympic Games is a dream that became a nightmare. We, from Rio and the favelas, used to watch the Games and dream for it in 2016. This nightmare has come, and meanwhile, our mayor, Eduardo Paes, continues to cite the “Olympic legacy”. The only legacy I see is the blood of the poor people who are removed from their home to build stadiums (like Vila Autódromo), and the blood in the favelas as an attempt to [exert] control during the Games. I see the millions and billions spent on overpriced Olympics construction, which should be spent on education, health and projects for people of the favelas to have opportunities to grow and participate in the development of the whole city.

Rio does not need the Olympics. We need basic things that, unfortunately, are not in the interests of the politicians, who live in Leblon and Ipanema, facing the beach. Full story...

Related posts:

Stop drinking the Kool-Aid, America: political fiction in an age of televised lies...

It is a heavily scripted, tightly choreographed, star-studded, ratings-driven, mass-marketed, costly exercise in how to sell a product—in this case, a presidential candidate—to dazzled consumers who will choose image over substance almost every time.

This year’s presidential election, much like every other election in recent years, is what historian Daniel Boorstin referred to as a “pseudo-event”: manufactured, contrived, confected and devoid of any intrinsic value save the value of being advertised. It is the end result of a culture that is moving away from substance toward sensationalism in an era of mass media.

As author Noam Chomsky rightly observed, “It is important to bear in mind that political campaigns are designed by the same people who sell toothpaste and cars.” In other words, we’re being sold a carefully crafted product by a monied elite who are masters in the art of making the public believe that they need exactly what is being sold to them, whether it’s the latest high-tech gadget, the hottest toy, or the most charismatic politician.

Tune into a political convention and you will find yourself being sucked into an alternate reality so glossy, star-studded, emotionally charged and entertaining as to make you forget that you live in a police state. The elaborate stage show, the costumes, the actors, the screenplay, the lighting, the music, the drama: all carefully calibrated to appeal to the public’s need for bread and circuses, diversion and entertainment, and pomp and circumstance. Full story...

Related posts:

Americans are abandoning political parties...

Vote all you want, the secret government won’t change...

We don’t need a new president; we need a new consciousness and a new system...

Deep underground military bases? California hit by mysterious clockwork "booms" daily for years...

(...)

On top of that, not only are they clockwork, but these have been described as deep, low booms which can almost be felt by the people who live there. In fact, a friend who lives near Sonora said that sometimes they can actually see their windows warp during the booms.

So what is it? Lots of conspiracies are, of course, floating around including aliens (as per the usual).

But one in particular sounds a lot more plausible than an old weapons depot that’s a three-hour drive from Sonora: DUMBs.

Deep underground military bases.

We all know there’s an extensive network of them which has been significantly expanded since 9/11 and the creation of Homeland Security, and we’re all just supposed to put our fingers in our ears and go “la la la” and pretend like they don’t exist. Full story...

Related posts:

The Secret Mountain our spies will hide in when Washington is destroyed...

Underground data vault business booms in Switzerland...

Kjerag (Norway) from the air...

Related posts:

1MDB: The inside story of the world’s biggest financial scandal...

On 22 June 2015, Xavier Justo, a 48-year-old retired Swiss banker, walked towards the front door of his brand new boutique hotel on Koh Samui, a tropical Thai island. He had spent the past three years building the luxurious white-stone complex of chalets and apartments overlooking the shimmering sea and was almost ready to open for business. All he needed was a licence.

Justo had arrived in Thailand four years earlier, having fled the drab world of finance in London. In 2011, he and his girlfriend Laura toured the country on a motorbike and, two years later, they got married on a secluded beach. The couple eventually settled down in Koh Samui, a tourist hotspot, just an hour’s flight south of Bangkok. After trying out a couple of entrepreneurial ventures, Justo eventually decided that he would go into the hotel business. He bought a plot with an imposing house and began building: adding a gym, villas and a tennis court.

That June afternoon, he was expecting a visit from the tourism authorities to sign off on the paperwork. Instead, a squad of armed Thai police burst through the unlocked door, bundling Justo to the ground. The officers tied their plastic cuffs so tightly around Justo’s wrists that he bled on the dark tiled floor. The police quickly moved into his office, ripping out the computers and emptying the filing cabinets.

After two days in a ramshackle local jail, Justo was flown to Bangkok and paraded before the media, in a press conference befitting a mafia kingpin. Still wearing shorts and flip-flops, he was flanked by four commandos holding machine guns, while a quartet of senior Royal Thai Police officers briefed the assembled reporters on the charges against him. Full story...

Related posts: