20 Tons of Pot Found Near Tunnel by US Border
January 25, 2011 by Andrew
Filed under Government
January 25th, 2011
AOL News
By: Julie Watson
Federal authorities in San Diego have made one of the largest marijuana seizures in the United States, confiscating 20 tons of pot near an underground tunnel connecting warehouses on either side of California’s border with Mexico, officials said Wednesday.
Mexican authorities seized another four tons of pot from the warehouse on their side of the border.
In total, between 25 and 30 tons of marijuana were seized from both sides – worth more than $20 million if sold on the streets of San Diego, said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton. The bricks of pot were packaged for sale.
“This is obviously the work of a cartel,” said Morton, who held a news conference outside the warehouse in an industrial park near the Otay Mesa truck crossing, across from Tijuana.
Officials said the lightening-speed, 12-hour operation started Tuesday night when U.S. authorities watching a warehouse under surveillance followed a tractor-trailer as it left the building.
ICE agents called in the California Highway Patrol, whose officers stopped the rig near Temecula, Calif., about 60 miles way. Authorities say they found 10 tons of marijuana inside the tractor-trailer. The driver, a U.S. citizen, and his Mexican wife were arrested and will be arraigned in San Diego on Thursday.
Authorities quickly obtained a federal search warrant to enter the warehouse, where they discovered 10 to 15 more tons of marijuana, Morton said.
They also found the opening to the tunnel, which ran the length of six football fields under the border and ended at a warehouse in Mexico, Morton said. The tunnel had lighting, ventilation and a rail system to send loads of illegal drugs into California.
The clandestine passageway was too low to stand up in and was believed to be in operation for only a brief time, Morton said.
Officials said the seizure was the largest ever in California and was believed to be the second-largest in the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents seized 33 tons of marijuana in Oregon in 2008, DEA special agent Ralph W. Partridge said.
Wednesday’s announcement comes a little over a week after Mexican officials made their largest marijuana seizure ever, confiscating a massive 134 tons believed to belong to the powerful Sinaloa cartel.
Morton said officials haven’t determined whether the two major busts were from the same group of traffickers.
Click here for the full report from AOL News
The Ten Biggest American Cities That Are Running Out Of Water
January 25, 2011 by Andrew
Filed under Government
January 25th, 2011
247WallStreet.com
By: Charles B. Stockdale, Michael B. Sauter, Douglas A. McIntyre
Some parts of the United States have begun to run low on water. That is probably not much of a surprise to people who live in the arid parts of America that have had water shortages for decades or even centuries. No one who has been to the Badlands in South Dakota would expect to be able to grow crops there.
The water problem is worse than most people realize, particularly in several large cities which are occasionally low on water now and almost certainly face shortfalls in a few years. This is particularly true if the change in global weather patterns substantially alters rainfall amounts in some areas of the US.
24/7 Wall St. looked at an October, 2010 report on water risk by environmental research and sustainability group, Ceres. We also considered a comprehensive July, 2010 report from the National Resources Defense Council which mapped areas at high risk of water shortage conflict. 24/7 Wall St also did its own analysis of water supply and consumption in America’s largest cities, and focused on the thirty largest metropolitan areas. One goal was to identify potential conflicts in regions which might have disputed rights over large supplies of water and the battles that could arise from these disputes. And, 24/7 Wall St. examined geographic areas which have already been plagued by drought and water shortages off and on.
The analysis allowed us to choose ten cities which are likely to face severe shortages in the relatively near-term future. Some of these are likely to be obvious to the reader. The area around Los Angeles was once too dry to sustain the population of a huge city. But, infrastructure was built that allowed water to be pumped in from east of the region. Las Vegas had similar problems. It was part of a great desert until Lake Meade was created by the Hoover dam built on the Colorado river.
Severe droughts that could affect large cities are first a human problem. The competition for water could make life in some of America’s largest cities nearly unbearable for residents. A number of industries rely on regular access to water. Some people would be out of work if these industries had poor prospects for continued operation. The other important trouble that very low water supplies creates is that cities have sold bonds based on their needs for infrastructure to move, clean, and supply water. Credit ratings agencies may not have taken drought issues into account at the level that they should. Extreme disruptions of the water supply of any city would have severe financial consequences.
The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) report takes the following into account when assessing the likelihood of water shortages: “The risk to water sustainability is based on the following criteria: (1) projected water demand as a share of available precipitation; (2) groundwater use as a share of projected available precipitation; (3) susceptibility to drought; (4) projected increase in freshwater withdrawals; and (5) projected increase in summer water deficit.”
The ten cities on this list are the ones with the most acute exposure to problems which could cause large imbalances of water supply and demand. There are a number of metropolitan areas which could face similar problems but their risks are not quite as high. The water problem for US cities is, although it may not be evident, one of the largest issues that faces urban areas over the next ten years.
These are the ten largest cities by population that have the greatest chance of running out of water…
Click here for the full report from 247WallSt.com
Man Gets 7 Years For Guns He Legally Owned
January 25, 2011 by Andrew
Filed under Government
January 25th, 2011
Examiner
By: Bill Belew
Brian Aitken was separated from his wife.
He moved from Colorado to New Jersey to be close to his child since the soon to be ex-wife had taken his son there.
He moved in with his mother temporarily until he could find a permanent residence.
He mentioned to his mom he was depressed – and who wouldn’t be having their child taken from them in a custody battle – and left the house.
His mom dialed 911, then thought better and hung up the phone. The police arrived, illegally searched his car where he had legally purchased guns and ammunition, and arrested Brian when he arrived back at his mother’s place later in the day.
RightPundits comments: How is it that absolutely no common sense was used in this case? How did an upstanding citizen, with a clean record who went about things the right way end up being sentenced to 7 years in prison for simply carrying unloaded, locked firearms in his trunk? By living in a very progressive State with harsh anti-gun policies that’s how.
The 912 Project tells us: The guns Brian owned were purchased legally while living in the state of Colorado after going through the normal FBI and CBI background checks to be approved to purchase the firearms…… Brian has an Uncle who served in law enforcement who made sure he was fully aware of the need to contact the New Jersey State Police to see if there were any special requirements needed to register or license. Which he did and was informed that he did not have to register the guns.
Freedom Watch with the Judge reports: To make things worse this illegal imprisonment and false charges became the impetus for Mr. Aitken losing his custodial rights of his young son…..the Judge then Ordered that Brian no longer be able to see his son, except for 1 hour/per week in the presence of law enforcement officers inside the Ocean County Family Court.
Brian Aitken was tried by a judge who didn’t allow Brian’s lawyer to present evidence of New Jersey’s own law that said Brian was on the right side of the law.
Superior Court Judge James Morley also did not allow Aitken’s lawyer to present proof he was still in the process of moving.
Judge Morley was not reappointed to the bench by the governor New Jersey due to poor decisions in other trials.
Most recently, Judge Morley dropped animal cruelty charges against a man accused of having sex with some calves because Morley had no way of finding out whether the calves were “puzzled or tormented” by the sex act.
Brian Aitken remains in jail pending an appeal.
Click here for the full report from the Examiner
Thousands Honor 2 Slain Miami-Dade Officers
January 25, 2011 by Andrew
Filed under Government
January 25th, 2011
Miami Herald
By: Elinor J. Brecher
The “last call” came long after darkness had fallen over a Miami Lakes cemetery on Monday.
A dispatcher announced over the police radio: “All units stand by for a moment of silence.”
She then called out their names and badge numbers: Amanda Haworth, 2700. Roger Castillo, 1725.
Children and parents, a wife and a partner, siblings, grandparents, friends and fellow cops sobbed, ending the daylong rite of remembrance for the two Miami-Dade detectives who had lost their lives in the line of duty.
The two detectives were assigned to the career criminal unit of the department’s Warrants Bureau. Thursday, the murder suspect they were trying to arrest shot and killed them.
Earlier in the day, as many as 9,000 mourners came to pay their respects at AmericanAirlines Arena, including the governor, a U.S. Senator, the county mayor, a Catholic archbishop, and law enforcement personnel from as far away as Chicago and Canada.
With church-like solemnity and military precision, with tears, prayers and the occasional chuckle — and a dab of hand sanitizer — the lost officers were eulogized in a ceremony that lasted nearly 3 ½ hours.
In the front row, three teenagers and a 9-year-old who’d lost their parents leaned against relatives and each other, boys more comfortable in baseball uniforms than in dark jackets and ties.
“Heros, angels, saints,” they heard Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez call their mom and dad. “They are all of that and more. Their bravery in the face of danger is unquestioned, their dedication to duty is beyond reproach.
“They were special not only in the way they died, but because of how they lived.”
Castillo, 41, was remembered as a cutup who wrapped his sergeant’s car in crime-scene tape, and as a ventriloquist who delighted in confusing people with voices they couldn’t place.
Capt. Jorge Guerra recalled how, when they worked together in Central District, his friend spotted a pretty blond recruit named Debbie Perez, “and begged to train her. When Debbie walked in, it was love at first sight.”
Monday, a uniformed Debbie Castillo mouthed “thank you” to the police friends who vowed to help her care for sons Anthony, 15, Michael, 12, and Bryan, 9.
The Castillos were married for 16 years.
Lt. Jesus “J.R.” Ramirez, another close friend, joked that what Roger “lacked in [physical] stature, he made up for so much more.”
They worked together on the eviction squad and a tactical narcotics detail, and their families socialized.
“Debbie wanted me to remind everyone of what a strong marriage they had,” Ramirez said. “She told me, `I wasn’t finished loving him yet.’ ”
In an unscripted moment, Sgt. Rosie Diaz, Haworth’s companion of 10 years, took the stage with Haworth’s 13-year-old son, Austin, and Sgt. Jeri Mitchell, identified by friends as the mother of Austin’s half-brother, Jordon.
“It’s taken some time for each of us to believe it’s true,” Diaz said. “Each day I’ve asked God to give me a sign.”
She said she got it Monday morning as the funeral procession headed to the arena from the funeral home.
“As we were traveling on 57th Avenue. . . I started to notice more civilians were lined up on the side of road clapping and saluting, waving crying and smiling. We told the boys that’s why Roger and Amanda put a gun and badge on every day.”
Click here for the full report from the Miami Herald
Dr. Andrew Wakefield Finds Link Between Vaccines & Autism
January 25th, 2011
CBSNews.com
By: Neil Katz
Dr. Andrew Wakefield is either the victim of “a ruthless, pragmatic attempt to crush any attempt to investigate valid vaccine safety concerns” as he describes it or a huckster paid by lawyers in 1998 to falsify an autism study to make it appear vaccines were to blame for the disorder. The lawyers later sued the vaccine makers.
The huckster version of events is described in a British Medical Journal piece released this month which rips apart Wakefield’s study and his motivation for writing it.
“Such clear evidence of falsification of data should now close the door on this damaging vaccine scare,” said BMJ’s editor-in-chief Dr. Fiona Godlee in a statement.
The 1998 study, which appeared in the prestigious British journal the Lancet, was groundbreaking when it came out. Wakefield examined 12 children with regressive autism – they were developing normally and then went awry. Wakefield said their symptoms appeared soon after receiving a vaccination for measles mumps and rubella called an MMR. In rich nations, almost all children receive the shot.
Wakefield, a gastroenterologist, hypothesized that the vaccine caused both the autism symptoms and gut problems.
Parents with autistic children, desperate to find it’s cause and a cure, quickly rallied around Wakefield’s study. Vaccination rates dropped in Britain as well as the United States. New cases of measles rose.
And so did the cases of autism or at least its diagnosis.
Later studies tried to replicate Wakefield’s findings, but could not. Debate raged about the root causes of autism.
But the BMJ investigation by journalist Brian Deer found that five of the 12 children in Wakefield’s paper had symptoms before the MMR shots. One girl turned out to have a heart disorder. Her symptoms disappeared after it was treated. The report claims three of the children turned out to not have autism at all and only one was eventually diagnosed with the regressive form of it described in Wakefield’s paper.
The report also alleges that Wakefield falsified timeliness and when investigators showed Wakefield’s study to parents of the children involved, some claimed he misrepresented their stories.
Perhaps most damagingly, the report claims Wakefield developed his autism vaccine theory only after he was hired by lawyers planning to sue vaccine makers. BMJ claims he was paid more than half-a-million dollars for his efforts.
On Wednesday, Wakefield fired back. Speaking to CNN’s Anderson Cooper, he claimed the report’s author was “a hit man who has been brought in to take me down” by big pharma.
According to the network, Deer signed a disclosure form claiming he has no financial interest in the matter, but freely admits he was paid by BMJ for his reporting.
“That’s what journalists do,” he told CNN.
Last year, the Lancet formally retracted Wakefield’s study. Ten of the 13 authors had earlier done the same. Wakefield has since been stripped of his medical license in Britain.
But for Wakefield’s supports, the battle drags on.
“I cannot imagine for a second that Dr. Wakefield would have any reason to falsify data,” Wendy Fournier, president of the National Autism Association, told CNN. “He’s a man of integrity and honesty and truly wants to find the answers for millions of children who have been affected by autism.”
Click here for the full report from CBSNews.com
Low Testosterone May Raise Risk of Early Death
January 25th, 2011
MSN
By: Robert Preidt
Men with low testosterone levels may be at increased risk for premature death from heart disease and all causes, a finding that challenges the current belief that testosterone is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, according to new research.
The study included 930 men with coronary artery disease who were followed-up for about seven years. At the start of the study, low testosterone levels were noted in about one-quarter of the men.
During the study period, one in five men (20 percent) with low testosterone levels died, compared with one in eight (12 percent) of those with normal levels of the hormone, according to the report in the Oct. 20 online edition of the journal Heart.
After taking into account other risk factors — such as age, co-existing health problems, smoking and weight — a low testosterone level was found to be an independent risk factor for premature death from heart disease and all other causes, reported Kevin Channer, of the department of cardiology at Royal Hallamshire Hospital Sheffield, in the United Kingdom, and colleagues.
Borderline levels of testosterone were also associated with increased risk of death, the study authors found.
Low, rather than high, levels of testosterone are associated with obesity, risky blood fats and insulin resistance, all of which are risk factors for diabetes and heart disease, the researchers noted in a news release from the journal’s publisher. They suggested that men at high risk for these diseases might have the most to gain from testosterone replacement therapy.
Click here for the full report from MSN
FDA Rescinds Avastin’s Approval For Breast Cancer
January 25th, 2011
SFGate.com
By: Catherine Larkin and Naomi Kresge
Roche Holding AG’s top-selling drug Avastin should no longer be used to treat breast cancer after recent studies failed to show a benefit, U.S. regulators said.
The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday that it is beginning the process to rescind Avastin’s accelerated approval in breast tumors. The medicine, also cleared for lung, brain and colon cancer, had global sales of nearly $6 billion in 2009.
Avastin, developed by Roche’s Genentech unit in South San Francisco, was granted conditional marketing approval for breast cancer in 2008 based on preliminary data. An FDA advisory panel recommended revoking that approval in July because follow-up studies found the medicine increased side effects and didn’t prolong survival when paired with chemotherapies.
The agency’s decision goes further than European regulators, who announced Thursday that they would limit the drug’s use in breast cancer.
“The limited effects of Avastin combined with the significant risks led us to this difficult decision,” Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a statement. “We encourage the company to conduct additional research to identify if there may be select groups of patients who might benefit from this drug.”
Switzerland’s Roche said it will request a hearing on the decision; the FDA will take at least through January to review the appeal. A hearing, if granted, would be the first of its kind, the agency said.
“It’s uncharted territory,” said Stefan Frings, Roche’s Avastin franchise director, in a telephone interview. “There’s no company ever that has done this in the context of an accelerated approval.”
The FDA urged doctors to review patients currently on the drug. If approval is revoked, U.S. doctors still would be able to prescribe Avastin for breast cancer as an off-label use, though Roche won’t be allowed to market it this way. Reimbursement from insurers and government health programs may also be challenging without regulatory approval. Treatment costs about $50,000 annually.
Avastin’s U.S. sales for breast cancer may decline to $200 million in 2015 from an estimated $600 million this year, said Jack Scannell, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in London.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if this trims European use as well, but not to zero,” Scannell said.
Click here for the full report from SFGate.com
Kindness Breeds More Kindness
January 25th, 2011
Wired Science
By: Brandon Keim
In findings sure to gladden the heart of anyone who’s ever wondered whether tiny acts of kindness have larger consequences, researchers have shown that generosity is contagious.
Goodness spurs goodness, they found: A single act can influence dozens more.
In a game where selfishness made more sense than cooperation, acts of giving were “tripled over the course of the experiment by other subjects who are directly or indirectly influenced to contribute more,” wrote political scientist James Fowler of the University of California, San Diego, and medical sociologist Nicholas Christakis of Harvard University.
Their findings, published March 8 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, are the latest in a series of studies the pair have conducted on the spread of behaviors through social networks.
In other papers, they’ve described the spread of obesity, loneliness, happiness and smoking. But there was no way to know whether those apparent behavioral contagions were actually just correlations. People who are overweight, for example, might simply tend to befriend other overweight people, or live in an area where high-fat, low-nutrient diets are the norm.
The latest research was designed to identify cause-and-effect links. In it, Fowler and Christakis analyze the results of a so-called public-goods game, in which people were divided into groups of four, given 20 credits each, and asked to secretly decide what to keep for themselves and what to contribute to a common fund. That fund would be multiplied by two-fifths, then divided equally among the group. The best payoff would come if everyone gave all their money — but without knowing what others were doing, it always made sense to keep one’s money and skim from the generosity of others.
Only at the end of each game did players find out what the rest of their group had done. The game was run again and again, each time mixing group members and keeping their identities anonymous, so that decisions were never personal.
When one person gave, others in their group tended to be generous during the next two rounds of play. Recipients of their largess became more generous in turn, and so on down the chain. When a punishment round was added — players could spend their own money to reduce the rewards of selfish players — generosity lasted even longer.
“It is often supposed that individuals in experiments like the one described here selfishly seek to maximize their own payoffs,” wrote Fowler and Christakis. “The equilibrium prediction is to contribute nothing and to pay nothing to punish noncontributors, but the subjects did not follow this pattern.”
According to the the researchers, the explanation lies not in calculations of odds and rewards, but in simple behavioral mimicry: Monkey see, monkey do, human style. When people are irrationally generous, others follow suit.
The network described by Fowler and Christakis doesn’t necessarily replicate natural group dynamics, but suggests a general model for how behaviors spread. They suggest that researchers of altruism and cultural evolution study how different group configurations promote or limit the spread of behaviors.
However, the findings aren’t just a feel-good story. Selfish behavior spreads easily, too.
Click here for the full report from Wired
XWave Headset Lets You Control iPhone Apps With Your BRAIN
January 25th, 2011
Gizmodo
By: Kyle VanHemert
You could argue that the iPhone’s biggest UI leap was turning the user’s finger into a stylus. Now, with the PLX XWave headest, you can turn your BRAIN into the stylus. Or your finger? My head hurts already.
From what I can gather—and this is only from what I can gather—the PLX XWave is a sesnor-laden headset that plugs into your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad and lets you interact with apps simply by thinking. This promotional video shows a glowing orb appearing in the palms of users, but I’m pretty sure that doesn’t actually happen when you’re using it:
Here, according to the company’s site, is what actually happens:
XWave, powered by NeuroSky eSense patented technologies, senses the faintest electrical impulses transmitted through your skull to the surface of your forehead and converts these analog signals into digital. With XWave, you will be able to detect attention and meditation levels, as well as train your mind to control things. Objects in a game can be controlled, lights in your living room can change color depending on your mood; the possibilities are limited to only the power of your imagination.
I’m not sure how they make the leap to controlling lights, and I definitely wouldn’t say that the possibilities were only limited by one’s imagination, but hey, it’s MIND CONTROL, and that’s always fun. PLX is even serving up their APIs so developers can make their own brain-controlled apps. Doodle Jumping with your brain—if that isn’t the future than I don’t know what is. You can order an XWave for $100; it ships on November 1
Click here for the full report from Gizmodo
The Kevin Trudeau Show: 1-24-11
Today, you are witnessing history. For the first time in the show’s history, Kevin broadcasts LIVE in front of an audience on a Caribbean Cruise!
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