Jihadists cut down a 150-year-old oak tree in Atme, on Syria’s border with Turkey, after they accused locals of worshipping it, a pro-jihadist source said. “Thank God almighty, the tree… aged more than 150 years has been removed, after people were worshipping it instead of...
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
↧
Jihadists cut down 150-year-old oak in Syria
↧
French prime minister puts wine up for auction
After a path-breaking wine auction by the French presidential palace of some of the best bottles from its cellar, the prime minister will follow suit in December, the Drouot auction house said Friday. A total of 1,400 bottles from the prime minister’s official Matignon residence in Paris will...
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
↧
↧
Massive gamma-ray burst has scientists’ theories ‘going down the drain’
Scientists witness massive gamma-ray burst, don’t understand it (via The Christian Science Monitor) This image shows an artist’s rendering on how a gamma-ray burst occurs with a massive star collapsing and creating a black hole, beaming out focused light and radiation bursts....
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
↧
Dick Dynasty V: Making up is hard to do
Wyoming arriviste Liz Cheney, whom you may know by one of her WWE Raw fighting names (Baby Dick or Princess Snarlyface or Daddy’s Little Deferment or Not The Lesbian One, Yeah Her, That One) has had a very horrible not-good really-awful stepped-in-dog-shit-and-tracked-it-into-the-house kind...
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
↧
Forensics expert says ‘original files’ are missing from security cameras at dead Georgia teen’s school
At least an hour of footage is missing from each of the four surveillance cameras at Kendrick Johnson’s high school, and the original footage showing how the Georgia teenager died might be gone, CNN reported on Thursday. “Those files are not original files,” forensics video...
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
↧
↧
United Nations: 1.5 million Filipino children face malnutrition after typhoon
The United Nations warned Friday that 1.5 million children are at risk of malnutrition in typhoon-ravaged areas of the Philippines and called for greater efforts to provide food and water. A UN appeal to cope with Typhoon Haiyan has been increased from $301 to $348 million as the extent of the...
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
↧
Serbia’s financial crisis forces it out of Eurovision singing contest
Cash-strapped Serbia, winner of the 2007 Eurovision song contest, will abstain from next year’s glitzy competition because of the high costs involved, Serbian state television said Friday. “This decision was made because of financial reasons, notably the high costs necessary to...
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
↧
Author Henry Giroux tells Bill Moyers: Modern politics turns people into ‘the walking dead’
In explaining the title of his latest book, author and scholar Henry Giroux told Bill Moyers on Friday that modern politics are sapping democracy of its vitality, and citizens of their souls. “It turns people into zombies,” Giroux, author of Zombie Politics and Culture in the Age of...
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
↧
Twitter toughens encryption to thwart online snooping
Twitter on Friday announced it has toughened the encryption of traffic at the globally popular one-to-many messaging service to thwart online snooping. Twitter followed in the footsteps of Google and Facebook, adding a layer of security called Perfect Forward Secrecy to protect data that users...
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
↧
↧
Argentina to slap steep taxes on luxury imports
The Argentine government said Friday it will slap stiff tax increases on luxury cars, boats and planes, in its latest bid to staunch a flight of hard currency. “We will send a bill to Congress to modify the tax code, with the goal of increasing taxes on luxury cars, boat and tourist...
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
↧
Prince Harry lands in Antarctica ahead of South Pole charity trek
Britain’s Prince Harry arrived in Antarctica on Friday ahead of a grueling trek to the South Pole with injured troops. The 29-year-old royal landed at Novo airbase, near the coast of the frozen continent, after storms delayed his departure from South Africa by two days, according to the...
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
↧
Alan Grayson and Ed Schultz rip Issa’s anti-Obamacare events: ‘They’re smear junkies, that’s all they ever do’
Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) and MSNBC host Ed Schultz teed off on Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) on Friday for what they referred to as a “traveling circus” supposedly focusing on the problems with the Affordable Care Act while ignoring people who are benefitting from it. “The Republicans...
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
↧
Holiday job market off to strongest start in 14 years
Holiday hiring picks up, could lead to full-time jobs (via The Christian Science Monitor) Shopper Roxanna Garcia, center, waits in line to pay for her over a $1,000.00 gifts at the Target store in Burbank, Calif. Holiday hiring is expected to be at its highest in 14 years this season. (Damian...
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
↧
↧
John Kerry flies to Geneva to try to seal Iran nuclear deal
Final few sticking points believed to be dwindling as officials note ‘a strong will to find common ground’ John Kerry and William Hague were due to arrive in Geneva on Saturday morning to join other foreign ministers in negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme. The Russian foreign...
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
↧
Meet the dinosaur that could bully a T-Rex
Here’s a dinosaur that scared even the tyrannosaurs (via The Christian Science Monitor) Paleontologists say that Siats might be the second largest North American carnivorous dinosaur ever discovered. (Jorge Gonzales) Paleontologists report this week in Nature Communications the find of a new...
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
↧
Texas Board of Education holds up biology book over evolution debate
The Texas Board of Education voted on Thursday to nominate a three-person expert panel to determine whether a prospective biology text contains “errors” as relates to the theory of evolution, the Associated Press reported. Some of the board’s more conservative members opposed...
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
↧
Dan Savage tells Bill Maher: The Cheneys need a Dick to settle a feud between a lesbian and her straight sister
Columnist and author Dan Savage lambasted both Liz and Mary Cheney during an interview with Real Time host Bill Maher on Friday, noting the irony of their arch Republican father Dick Cheney being thrust into the middle of their dispute. “It’s funny that you need a Dick to adjudicate a...
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
↧
↧
Friday music thing
On Saturday morning…
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
↧
National emergency: New mass graves in Mexico dredge up plight of missing
Amid Mexico’s continuous drug conflict, the recent discovery of dozens of bodies in mass graves has led some to describe the plight of the country’s disappeared as a national emergency. At least 54 corpses have been recovered in clandestine pits in three states this month alone,...
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
↧
Pakistan charges doctor who helped CIA find Osama bin Laden with murder
Authorities in northwest Pakistan have charged the doctor who helped the CIA find Osama bin Laden with murder and fraud, officials and a defence lawyer said Saturday. “A murder and fraud case was registered against Shakeel Afridi this week after a tribal woman accused him of killing her...
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
↧