[Daily Caller] Exporting companies are using Chinese ships, planes, and trucks to transport dead Americans across the world for research purposes, according to a Thursday report from Reuters.
A Hong Kong flagged cargo ship departed South Carolina in July carrying 6,000 pounds of human remains valued at $67,204. The container’s temperature was set to 5 degrees Fahrenheit to prevent the parts from spoiling. Relatives of the dead, meanwhile, did not realize their loved ones’ remains were being dismembered and sent to Europe and elsewhere, the report notes.
Body brokers like Oregon-based MedCure rely on lax regulations to export heads, shoulders, knees and toes to Mexico, China, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, among several other countries. Plastic surgeons in Germany use heads to practice new techniques, while thousands of parts are shipped overseas annually.
"There are people who wouldn’t necessarily mind where the specimens were sent if they were fully informed," Brandi Schmitt, who directs a body donation system at the University of California, told reporters about the trade, which is still shrouded in mystery. "But clearly there are plenty of donors that do mind and that don’t feel like they’re getting enough information."
The FBI raided MedCure in November, which culminated in a federal investigation.
#2
transport dead Americans across the world for research purposes
Why? They're full of additives and god knows what contamination from drinking water polluted with disposed birth control chemicals. It's not like there's going to be a solid baseline to study from.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/10/2018 13:25 Comments ||
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#11
#7Don't they have enough of their own dead people? --Abu Uluque
The Communist Rationalist World-View still has to deal with millennia of Confucianism and messing with your relatives bodies is a big No-No (as in Death Penalty for Grave Robbing). Barbarians, , who cares?
[FOX] Boston authorities said they seized more than 33 pounds of fentanyl‐enough to kill millions of people‐in connection with one of Massachusetts’ biggest drug busts ever.
In announcing the results of a six-month wiretap probe called "Operation High Hopes," prosecutors said the synthetic opioid was being sold on the street by a drug gang with links to Mexico’s notorious Sinaloa Cartel, the drug organization once led by Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán.
"I want to be clear about the size and scope here," District Attorney Daniel Conley said at a news conference Thursday. "Massachusetts’ fentanyl trafficking statute covers quantities greater than 10 grams. That threshold represents less than 1/1000 of the quantity we’ve taken off the street."
He said the number of overdoses the seized fentanyl could have caused "is truly staggering."
"Individuals who buy and sell at this level aren’t users," Conley said. "They’re not small-time dealers, either. They’re certainly not selling to support a habit. They’re trafficking in addictive substances that claim more lives in Massachusetts than all homicides, all suicides, and all car crashes, statewide, combined."
Three more than last year, making it the highest in seven years. The Daily Mail is trying to scandalize the reader by using such a small sample size rather than giving the historical perspective of the last fifty or one hundred years. And since they are giving the years as April to March, they could have as easily done calendar years (January-December), and got nearly to the present day — surely British government statistics have been calculated through the end of the year, or very nearly.
[PRESSTV] Scientists say our Sun will likely enter a cooldown cycle as soon as 2050, but the phase has almost no effect on global warming.
Physicist Dan Lubin at the University of Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, San Diego and two of his colleges managed to collect and observe relevant data for the past 20 years and came to the conclusion that the giant burning ball of gas in our planetary system might enter a "grand minimum" period of decreased ultraviolet radiation that would last for some 11 years by mid-century.
"The cooldown... [is] a periodic event during which the Sun’s magnetism diminishes, sunspots form infrequently, and less ultraviolet radiation (UV) makes it to the surface of the planet," researchers noted in a statement earlier this week, adding that "the event is triggered at irregular intervals by random fluctuations related to the Sun’s magnetic field."
The study, whose results were published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, said the Sun is likely to be 6.9 percent cooler than its usual lowest amount of activity in the grand minimum.
According to the researchers, the cooldown phase could echo those experienced in Europe ...also known as Moslem Lebensraum... in the mid-17th century, called the "Maunder Minimum," or the prolonged sunspot minimum, during which temperatures were low enough to cause London's River Thames to freeze over on a regular basis and to freeze the Baltic Sea to such an extent that Swedish troops were able to invade Denmark in 1658 on foot by marching across the sea ice.
Thank goodness for anthropogenic global warming. Imagine how impossibly cold it would have become without it!
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
The development of plastic mats on the oceans to retain core heat are coming along nicely.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/10/2018 13:12 Comments ||
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#4
Dr. Rhodes Fairbridge (the guy who commissioned the original tree ring study) told them about this in the '90's. There's no way to scam money based on it, so the scientific community ignored it.
His conclusion is that it's a periodic event likely caused by orbital mechanics, i.e. the major planets exerting tidal effects on the sun, and the position of said planets in orbit being distributed evenly around the sun, making for less turbulence in the tidal bulges. IIRC
Posted by: ed in texas ||
02/10/2018 13:20 Comments ||
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For the first time ever, every big missile shown has been flown and validated to some degree. And yes, the largest of Kim Jong Un's weapons, the first intercontinental ballistic missile ever fired by the country, the Hwasong-14 (HS-14) was on full display, as was its menacing bigger brother, the Hwasong-15 (HS-15).
Kim Jong Un, wearing all black with his signature fedora, was the center of attention as always. He gave a brief speech and then took in the display with his regime henchmen by his side. His wife Lee Seol-ju was also in attendance, which is a fairly rare occurrence for an event like this.
After the normal military parade ground pomp and circumstance, a formation of AN-2 biplanes—a seemingly innocuous aircraft that is actually a key weapon in North Korea's arsenal—made a fairly impressive flyover. The formation spelled out "70" and coordinated flare releases looked very nice, which also spelled 70 one after another. The picture doesn't do it justice, it looked very well done. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the party and the North Korean nation as we know it today. Later on a formation of Su-25 ground attack jets also did a large fan-break over the parade ground. Once again, for a country supposedly suffocating from fuel shortages, this was surprising.
These vehicles and their missiles were interesting. They look like KN-02 short-range ballistic missiles, or an evolution of that system, but mounted two per vehicle instead of one. The carriage layout is similar to that of Russia's Iskander tactical ballistic missile system. These smaller missiles don't get the same hype as their larger cousins, but they will be the ones that rain down en masse on South Korea during a conflict, and will be used to strike targets beyond the range of North Korea's traditional artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems arrayed along the DMZ. With this in mind, this could be a new system altogether which would be a troubling development.
Now we are getting into the heaviest hardware, the intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). The HS-14, North Korea's first ICBM that flew twice last July, made an appearance in the parade, but instead of being on a large TEL, the missiles were transported on the back of semi truck tractor-trailers.
Now to the finale, and the system most analysts were waiting to see, the massive HS-15. The ICBM was seen on its purpose-built nine axle TEL. There is no denying that the missile looked impressive as it was wheeled down the street, and it really does represent a new point in what has been a seemingly unbelievable arch in North Korean weapons development over the last two years.
Fact: Kim Jong Un no longer has to scare us with hollow missiles riding atop trucks, he now has the real thing.
The big takeaway here should be: "Underestimate the North Koreans at your own peril."
#1
The lesson from watching that video for a young North Korean male is very clear: Learn to play a trumpet, trombone, drum or tuba. If you can do that maybe they won't expect you to carry a gun and then you might be safe.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/10/2018 12:47 Comments ||
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[DailyStar] In April last year, the US military detonated a GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) dubbed the "mother of all bombs" on ISIS tunnels in Afghanistan.
Dramatic footage of the extraordinary attack ‐ the first time the large-yield 18,000-pound bomb had been used on the battlefield ‐ stunned the world.
Developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory, the MOAB was described by analysts as the largest non-nuclear weapon in the US arsenal at the time.
However, another colossal explosive called the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) has trumped the MOAB, according to Michael T Klare, a professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College.
The apocalyptic weapon, known as the "father of all bombs" (FOAB), is packed with 30,000 pounds of explosives ‐ heavier than two African elephants.
Initially, the Pentagon intended to use the FOAB to destroy underground nuclear facilities in Iran.
Now, amid simmering tensions on the Korean Peninsula, the "GBU-57 is being readied for use against North Korea", Mr Klare, a defence commentator, said.
Writing for The Nation, security expert Mr Klare considered the possibility the US military is planning to use the FOABs to destroy Kim Jong-un’s cache of underground nuclear weapons.
He wrote: "It is no secret that the Defense Department is preparing for possible preventive attacks on North Korean nuclear and missile facilities, supposedly intended to prevent the Kim Jong-un regime in Pyongyang from developing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of delivering nuclear warheads to the continental United States.
"National Security Adviser HR McMaster has openly called for strikes of this sort, sometimes described as the ’bloody nose’ option."
The FOAB may be the "solution" to the problem of provoking "massive retaliation" by North Korea that could result in "vast numbers of civilian casualties", he said.
Three B-2 stealth bombers were sent to Andersen Air Force Base in the US territory of Guam ‐ just miles from North Korea ‐ in January.
The US Air Force regularly dispatches military aircraft to the island, in the Western Pacific, for routine displays of its firepower.
B-2 stealth bombers, however, are understood to be the only US war plane sanctioned to carry and discharge the 30,000-pound FOAB.
Referring to the deployment of the B-2s, Mr Klare said "it is impossible to view this move without considering possible plans for attacks on North Korea".
He added: "In any scenario involving a preemptive strike on North Korea, the B-2 would be expected to play a pivotal role, flying well into enemy airspace to deliver its payload on high-value targets, presumably underground nuclear and missile facilities.
"As the only bomber capable of delivering the GBU-57, their presence on Guam at this time is, to say the least, highly provocative."
The US Air Force has refused to comment on whether FOABs have been deployed to Guam.
But given the "rushed enhancement" of the FOAB, Klare said the prospect of a preemptive attack on North Korea should "have us all highly concerned".
Two US Northrop Grumman E-8 Joint STARS planes have been sent to the Korean Peninsula on a US Air Force mission, military aircraft trackers show.
The £175million ($244million) aircraft were deployed from Kadena Air Base, in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture, at around 7.32pm local time (10.32am GMT).
Details of the mission were not immediately available, but the state-of-the-art aircraft are designed to gather intelligence on enemy positions prior to an attack.
#9
Three B-2 stealth bombers were sent to Andersen Air Force Base in the US territory of Guam ‐ just miles from North Korea
According to Google, Guam is about 3430 KM, or 2100 miles. Of course, it is closer than flying from the US or Diego Garcia, but then, isn't anywhere in the world "just miles from North Korea"?
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
02/10/2018 18:25 Comments ||
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[AP] SAN SIMONE DI VALLEVE, Italy (AP) ‐ San Simone, a tiny village in the Italian Alps, once had a thriving ski trade. But financial issues kept the lifts closed this winter. The local hotel now houses about 80 African asylum-seekers who were assigned to live there when they arrived in Italy.
But restaurant owner Davide Midali saw promise in both his village and its new residents. To lure tourists back, he set out to build igloos that could be rented overnight, like ones he had seen in Sweden. That’s how a handful of immigrants unaccustomed to the cold picked up the art of igloo-making.
"When some of them saw me creating these blocks of snow, they voluntarily decided to give a hand to reach a common goal," Midali said.
Working with a small crew of volunteers, Midali built six igloos, each taking four or five days to complete. Omar Kanteh, a Gambian citizen who has been in Italy for nine months, is among the newcomers who embraced the construction project, as well as its friendly foreman.
#3
I just moved to Florida. The locals can't handle 45 Fahrenheit. How the F do these Africans deal with it? Easier when no one's shooting or something?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/10/2018 13:17 Comments ||
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#4
It looks like lovely mountain hiking in the summer. link
#5
Didn't stop Hannibal's (Iberian, Celtic, African) boys from getting to the area. [It may have been a 'bit' warmer back then, but don't even suggest that to the climate-nazis]
A Russian who offered stolen National Security Agency cyber weapons and compromising information on President Donald Trump bilked US spies out of $100,000 last year, the New York Times reported on Friday, citing US and European security officials.
The money was delivered to a Berlin hotel room in September and was intended as the first installment of a $1 million reward, according to US officials, the Russian and communications reviewed by the Times, the newspaper reported.
CIA spokesman Dean Boyd denied the story on Saturday, saying," "The fictional story that CIA was bilked out of $100,000 is patently false." It was more than $100,000?
[War Zone] The U.S. Coast Guard’s only operational heavy icebreaker, the USCGC Polar Star, is still providing critical services to various U.S. government agencies in Antarctica despite suffering an engine failure and flooding. The incident is a worrying reminder of both how vital these types of ships are and the stark limitations of America’s capabilities in this regard, all as the service is struggling to move ahead with plans to buy all-new vessels.
According to a press release the Coast Guard published on Feb. 6, 2018, Polar Star departed her homeport in Seattle on Nov. 30, 2017 for a cruise that is still scheduled to wrap up in March 2018. The ship’s main mission during the trip has been to cut a path from the open ocean through the ice, which can be 10 feet thick or more, to an improvised ice pier that serves the U.S. Antarctic Program’s McMurdo Station. She has subsequently kept this channel clear of potentially dangerous ice so that other ships, including those under contract to the U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command, can safely bring supplies to and from the frigid base.
"We had less ice this year than last year," U.S. Coast Guard Captain Michael Davanzo, said in the press release. But "we had several engineering challenges to overcome to get to the point where we could position ourselves to moor in McMurdo."
"Engineering challenges" is a euphemism that doesn’t do justice to the problems Polar Star had to deal with just getting to McMurdo and the work that the ship’s crew did to make sure the ship could continue its mission. The first issue cropped up on Jan. 11, 2018 when one of the icebreakers three main gas turbines failed. More, including videos, at link.
#4
The ship is over 40 years old and has crunched through a lot of ice in less than optimal conditions for its infrastructure. In addition to that, as P2k said, 'starved for upkeep'.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
02/10/2018 8:39 Comments ||
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#5
"Hey, with all the global warming, who needs icebreakers, amirite?"
[engadget] Earlier this week, a Reuters report suggested that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) had halted its investigation into last year's massive Equifax data breach. Reuters sources said that even basic steps expected in such a probe hadn't been taken and efforts had stalled since Mick Mulvaney (pictured above) took over as head of the CFPB late last year. Now, 31 Democratic senators
Ah. It’s a party thing.
and one Independent have written a letter to Mulvaney asking if that is indeed the case and if so, why.
[DAWN] The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday handed over the custody of a minor Christian girl, who was allegedly kidnapped and forced into a marriage by a Moslem man, back to her parents.
According to a court order issued on Friday, the 12-year-old girl failed to convince the court that she had willingly converted to Islam in order to marry the man.
Earlier, the girl's parents had approached a local court with a petition stating that their daughter had been kidnapped by the Moslem man.
At the time, the lower court had ordered that the girl be sent to live in a Darul Aman while the accused, his father and the nikahkhwan (marriage officiator) be incarcerated ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... The girl's family had then petitioned the IHC with a request that their daughter be returned to them.
As a result of the petition, the girl was produced before the court on Thursday. When asked what her name was, the girl gave a Moslem name and she stated that she had embraced Islam "for the purpose of marriage only", the court order, a copy of which is available with DawnNews read.
The girl told the court that the Prophet Isa (Jesus) was her prophet and was unable to name any other prophet. She also said that she was not literate.
Records from the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) showed that the girl was born on May 20, 2005, meaning that she is currently below the age of 13, the order noted.
Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui of the IHC wrote in the order that he was not convinced that the girl had embraced Islam of her free will and in a secure environment; "rather it appears to be result of inducement and compulsion".
"I am constrained to observe that this sort of act of abduction and taking [the] shelter of Islam is totally uncalled for and unacceptable," the judge wrote, adding that Moslems, Christians and all other citizens are equal when it comes to constitutional guarantees.
Upon examination, it appeared prima facie that the accused Moslem man and his father connived with each other to abduct the girl, the judge observed, directing the police to investigate the matter further and arrive at a conclusion.
The court also ruled that the validity of the minor girl's nikah with the accused is questionable, and needed to be resolved by a family court.
In light of the facts, the judge handed over the girl's custody to her parents, who were warned by the court against inflicting any type of torture or harm on the girl. The girl subsequently agreed to accompany her parents to their home.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2018 00:00 ||
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[phys.org] The Pacific nation of Tuvalu‐long seen as a prime candidate to disappear as climate change forces up sea levels‐is actually growing in size, new research shows.
A University of Auckland study examined changes in the geography of Tuvalu's nine atolls and 101 reef islands between 1971 and 2014, using aerial photographs and satellite imagery.
It found eight of the atolls and almost three-quarters of the islands grew during the study period, lifting Tuvalu's total land area by 2.9 percent, even though sea levels in the country rose at twice the global average.
Co-author Paul Kench said the research, published Friday in the journal Nature Communications, challenged the assumption that low-lying island nations would be swamped as the sea rose.
"We tend to think of Pacific atolls as static landforms that will simply be inundated as sea levels rise, but there is growing evidence these islands are geologically dynamic and are constantly changing," he said. Can any prediction of global warmists survive examination?
#3
Atolls and reefs are former volcanic islands. Over time erosion and other natural forces wash all that volcanic soil into the ocean and the islands shrink. It has nothing whatsoever to do with global warming or rising sea levels. Hopefully the hot spots under the earth's crust at the bottom of the ocean create new volcanoes and new islands as tectonic forces pull the older islands away from the hot spot.
The Hawaiian Islands are prime examples.
The southwestern most island in the chain, the Big Island, is currently home to two active volcanoes and one of these has been in a constant state of eruption since 1983. Kilauea has been pouring lava down its slopes and into the ocean since then and making the island bigger as it does so.
To the northeast, past Kauai and Niihau, are a series of smaller reefs and atolls that were at one time millions of years ago probably as big as the Big Island but have since been eroded to their current state.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/10/2018 13:25 Comments ||
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#4
Our catastrophe isn't arriving on schedule. We will need more disaster aid...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/10/2018 13:41 Comments ||
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#5
This is definitely a sign of global warming. Like a wool sweater in a hot dryer, global warming is making the Earth shrink. This causes islands like Tuvalu to be more exposed and hence larger. It's Science, bitches!
People in Roudbar, northern Gilan province, hastily tried to withdraw deposits from Bank Melli amid ongoing rumors of banking collapse. Video posted today; date uncertain. #IranProtestspic.twitter.com/QoWLc9ryzz
h/t Instapundit
The #MeToo movement has brought many sexual abusers to justice, but it has also frayed working relationships between men and women, a new survey suggested. Unfortunately, it seems to have discouraged successful men from mentoring women.
"Almost half of male managers are uncomfortable participating in a common work activity with a woman, such as mentoring, working alone, or socializing together," LeanIn.org reported. Personally, I trace a lot of K-12 decline to discrimination against hiring male teachers
#1
I listened to a lefty commentator talking about #MeToo movement. What bothers me about this is the rush to judgement. The left is willing to toss people out of jobs and send them packing without a hint of evidence or any kind of due process.
#4
Moreover, if anyone doesn't pile on and condemn that individual who is being burned at the stake, they are guilty by association.
Exactly like members of a cult would do.
[Washington Examiner] The U.S. intelligence community spent $100,000 in the past year during an operation to recover stolen, classified National Security Agency documents from Russian operatives, according to reports Friday.
In early 2017, American intelligence officials opened a communications channel with a Russian operative who agreed to sell documents stolen from the NSA and also insisted on including damaging material gathered on President Trump, the Intercept reported Friday.
Intelligence officials reportedly made it clear that they were not interested in the material regarding Trump. However, after handing over $100,000 of the $1 million dollar deal they had struck with the Russian, the officials were given unverified information about Trump, including bank records, emails, and what appeared to be Russian intelligence data, according to the New York Times.
The American officials then cut off the deal, skeptical of the Russian operative and fearful of political fallout if it was reported that they were buying damning information about Trump.
The CIA declined to comment to the Washington Examiner. We'll leak our comments when we get good and ready.
During the early stages of the negotiations, an American businessman based in Germany acted as a liaison between America and the Russians. Officials spent months tracking the Russian's moves and the NSA used their official Twitter account to send coded messages to the Russian, the New York Times report said.
The Russian reportedly had a history of money laundering and owned a close-to-bankrupt company that sold portable grills as a cover-up.
#1
an operation to recover stolen, classified National Security Agency documents from Russian operatives
Does the CIA/NSA employ imbeciles? Because only an imbecile could come up with a cover story as lame as this one. "Sure, we'll sell you back your documents. Fortunately for you we never made any copies. Swearsies. Oh, by the way, here's some free dirt we made up, er, I mean, found, on Trump."
#5
The Daily Caller article now contains this update:
Update: The CIA is contesting The Times story and a similar one that appeared in The Intercept.
“The people swindled here were [Intercept reporter] James Risen and [New York Times reporter] Matt Rosenberg. The fictional story that CIA was bilked out of $100,000 is patently false,” CIA spokesman Dean Boyd told The Daily Caller News Foundation after this article was published. Boyd was unable to provide additional details because of the sensitivity of the topic.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[PRESSTV] Scientists say our Sun will likely enter a cooldown cycle as soon as 2050, but the phase has almost no effect on global warming. 
...also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
[War Zone] The U.S. Coast Guard’s only operational heavy icebreaker, the USCGC Polar Star, is still providing critical services to various U.S. government agencies in Antarctica despite suffering an engine failure and flooding. The incident is a worrying reminder of both how vital these types of ships are and the stark limitations of America’s capabilities in this regard, all as the service is struggling to move ahead with plans to buy all-new vessels.
[phys.org] The Pacific nation of Tuvalu‐long seen as a prime candidate to disappear as climate change forces up sea levels‐is actually growing in size, new research shows.
[Washington Examiner] The U.S. intelligence community spent $100,000 in the past year during an operation to recover stolen, classified National Security Agency documents from Russian operatives, according to reports Friday.
