Chinese Companies Forced to Falsify Data, Government Says

China’s statistics bureau said local officials forced some hotels, coal miners and aluminum makers to report false numbers, highlighting flaws in data tracking the world’s second-largest economy.

Statistics officials in Hejin city in northern Shanxi province gave companies “seriously untrue” numbers to submit for 2011, the Beijing-based National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement on its website dated March 12. Read More

The Coming Crisis called it: Massive quakes now appearing approximately every 188 days (New posts appear below until Wed, midnight)

From as far back as the Elenin incidents of 2011, the Coming Crisis was shouting from the mountain tops that there was some strange synchronicity to these major quakes. At first we thought it might have to do with something with Elenin itself, but we now realize that some other unseen force is behind these major quake events that repeat themselves exactly every 188 days or so. In its latest schedule, it was 187 days:

February 27, 2010: Chile, 8.8 mag
September 3, 2010: New Zealand (Christchurch), 7.0 mag (188 days later)
March 11, 2011: Japan, 9.0 mag, (189 days later)
September 15, 2011: Fiji, 7.3 mag, (188 days later)
March 20, 2012: Mexico, 7.9 mag, (187 days later)
September 24, 2012: ?

What makes this especially disturbing is that the 188-day quakes have just begun to occur these past couple of years, and yet show no sign of abating. What's causing them? The next such event, if it were to occur, would take place around September 25, 2012 according to this schedule.

We will continue observing this situation to see what other connections we can find. In the mean time, take a look at this previous post of ours that we published just two days ago suggesting that a major quake event (like the one that happened in Mexico today) would take place.

http://thecomingcrisis.blogspot.ca/2012/03/strange-coincidences-are-major.html

Agree? Disagree? Let us know what you think.

Scientists finally solve 75-year-old riddle of how controversial electric shock treatment can treat severe depression

Scientists have finally discovered how one of psychiatry's most controversial treatments can help patients with severe depression.

Researchers at Aberdeen University have discovered that ECT - or electro-convulsive therapy - affects the way different parts of the brain involved in depression 'communicate' with each other.

They found that the treatment appears to 'turn down' an overactive connection between areas of the brain that control mood and the parts responsible for thinking and concentrating.

This stops the overwhelming impact that depression has on sufferers' ability to enjoy normal life and carry on with day-to-day activities.

This decrease in connectivity observed after ECT treatment was accompanied by a significant improvement in the patient's depressive symptoms.

The ECT treatment, which is 75-years-old, involves an electric shock being passed through the cortex of a severely-depressed patient to 'cure' them. Read More

PsyWarfare: "The Battle for the Mind"

As with all totalitarian regimes, the black/white or the good/bad Baby Bush “You’re either with us or you’re with the Terrorists” – binary rhetoric lies at the heart of the Global Power Elite’s PsyWar technology.

In 2004, Denis Boneau, a French journalist writing for the Voltaire Network, published an article called “The Science of World Domination” (www.voltairenet.org/The-Science-of-World-Domination), making an excellent summary of key milestones in the development of the United States’ post-World War II Global Psychological Warfare Strategy.

He starts by describing the Truman Doctrine of “Containment” of the former Soviet Union that was based on the so-called “long telegram” sent to the State Department in 1946 by an advisor in the US embassy in Moscow – and key Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) scholar – George S. Kennan.

Shortly afterwards, Kennan was called back to the US to brief his superiors more fully and his recommendations were finally published in the July 1947 issue of Foreign Affairs, the official journal of the CFR, as “The Sources of Soviet Conduct.” This became known as the “X” article because that’s how Kennan signed it, as there was still heated debated as to whether it would become official US foreign policy.

It did. With his highly influential article, Kennan gave birth to the US policy of “Containment” of the Soviet Union which consisted in blocking the expansion of communism through the control of national emancipationist movements that could lead to greater power to pro-socialist or nationalist leaders. Read More

A pill that could prevent racism? They should find a pill for stupid researchers

British researchers found that a common heart disease drug lowers more than blood pressure - it lowers racist attitudes as well.

Researchers at Oxford University say that volunteers who took small doses of the beta blocker propranolol scored lower on tests used to detect "subconscious" racism than volunteers who took a dummy pill, London's The Telegraph reported.

Propranolol is used to reduce blood pressure, and can also manage panic and anxiety disorders.

In the study, a group of 18 white students were given 20 mg doses of the drug before taking a test to gauge prejudice attitudes, while another group was given a placebo. Source

Ice cream as 'addictive as drugs' says new study...Sounds to me like they wasted more money on more useless research

Everyone knows that a spoonful of ice cream leaves you wanting more but research indicates that it may truly be addictive as illegal drugs.

Researchers concluded that cravings for the dessert were similar to those experienced by drug addicts.

They found that the brain was left wanting more while eating ice cream in the same way as a person who regularly uses cocaine.

Their study, published online in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, appears to add weight to previous studies that people can be left feeling "addicted" to some foods.

Dr Kyle Burger, from the Oregon Research Institute, in Eugene, about 110 miles south of Portland, said overeating "high-fat" or "high-sugar" foods appeared to change how the brain responded and in turn downgraded the mental "reward".

"This down-regulation pattern is seen with frequent drug use, where the more an individual uses the drug, the less reward they receive from using it," said Dr Burger, the study's co-author. Read More

Climate change made the drought worse, scientists say

Several scientists at NASA and the state climatologist say the record-setting heat and drought of last summer in Texas was made worse by climate change.

More than just providing bragging rights that Texas now holds the record for hottest summer ever recorded in the United States, that conclusion adds another layer of uncertainty for water planners.

James Hansen of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Columbia University's Earth Institute titled his still unpublished climate analysis, “Perceptions of Climate Change: The New Climate Dice.”

“We conclude that extreme heat waves, such as that in Texas and Oklahoma in 2011 and Moscow in 2010, were ‘caused' by global warming, because their likelihood was negligible prior to the recent rapid global warming,” he wrote in the paper that is still undergoing peer review. “We can say with a high degree of confidence that these extreme anomalies were a consequence of global warming.” Read More

In climate wars, advocacy by some researchers brings risks

Everybody talks about the weather, as Mark Twain is famously quoted as saying, but nobody does anything about it.

No single event politicized climate researchers more than the posting of more than 1,000 pirated e-mails from the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit in 2009. The incident, which became known as Climategate, portrayed several prominent researchers as clubby and dismissive of their colleagues. It convinced researchers such as Spencer that his opponents had “crossed a line” by lobbying the editors of scientific journals not to publish the work of climate skeptics. Source

Ghadafi gov't used cluster bombs against civilians: U.N.

BRUSSELS -- The ousted Libyan government of Col. Moammar Ghadafi deployed cluster bombs and landmines against civilians, the U.N. Human Rights Council said in a report on international investigations into Libya's human rights record.

Because unexploded cluster bombs are causing civilian casualties, a global cluster munitions pact is now in place to deter and reduce such casualties. Human rights groups have long accused Libya of using cluster bombs against civilians. But this is the first time that the United Nations has formally recognized the use of cluster bombs in Libya, which is not party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

The International Commission of Inquiry on Libya said after looking into alleged violations of international human rights law in the country that cluster bombs caused serious damage to ordinary civilians.

According to the report released March 2, members of experts from the Human Rights Council confirmed unexploded Spanish-made cluster bombs and fragments in Misrata in northwestern Libya and determined that the Ghadafi government used cluster combs in April last year. Experts say they disposed of 82 unexploded cluster bombs although the rate of unexploded cluster bombs was relatively high at 9.5 percent. Read More

Castro knew JFK was about to be killed, claims retired CIA intelligence chief

Fidel Castro had advance knowledge that President John F Kennedy was about to be killed, according to an explosive new book about the 1963 assassination soon to be published by a retired CIA agent.

Rumours about the Cuban dictator’s involvement in a plot to murder his fierce adversary have swirled for almost half a century since communist sympathiser Lee Harvey Oswald shot the US president during a trip to Dallas in November that year.

Now author Brian Latell, who studied Cuban affairs as a CIA analyst in the 1960s and later became the agency’s chief intelligence officer for Latin America, says he is certain that Castro at least knew the attack was going to happen.

On the morning of November 22, 1963, the day Kennedy was killed, Castro ordered a senior intelligence officer in Havana to stop listening for non-specific CIA radio communications and concentrate instead on 'any little detail, any small detail from Texas,' Mr Latell claims in his new book Castro’s Secrets – the CIA and Cuba’s Intelligence Machine, set for release next month.

Four hours later, the airwaves came alive with news that Kennedy was dead. Read More

Single Bullet-Casing, Bullet-Mark Found in Osama Compound: Report

Islamabad: Abbottabad Commission has raised serious question in its findings over US version about its raid in Abbotabad that killed Osama bin Laden on May 2 last year, a BBC Urdu report said on Thursday.

According to the report, a member of the commission has completed recording his findings based on statements from bin Laden’s family, his neighbours, and the government officials who entered the area after the raid.

Questioning the American position on the raid, the details contradict, and are different from, the version of events described by the US. The findings will also be the first official version of the events from the Pakistani side.

A major question raised in the report is the finding that only a single bullet-casing and bullet-mark was found from the room which was allegedly filled with more than half a dozen armed companions of the former al Qaeda chief.

The bullet mark was found on a wall in bin Laden’s bedroom, the same room where he was killed. The mark is so high on the wall that it appears as if the man firing bullet was on his knees. The commission’s experts have concluded that this bullet caused bin Laden’s death, and possibly hit the wall after tearing through a part of his skull.

Other than this, no other bullet-casing or bullet-marks were found from the compound. However, the commission’s members found more than a dozen Klashnikov rifles – some less than a yard away from the dead bodies, adds the report. Read More

Pentagon says it has no records of bin Laden's death; CIA hasn't answered open records request

WASHINGTON - The hunt for Osama bin Laden took nearly a decade. It could take even longer to uncover U.S. government emails, planning reports, photographs and more that would shed light on how an elite team of Navy SEALs killed the world's most wanted terrorist.

Ten months after that electrifying covert mission, an administration that has pledged to be the most transparent in American history is refusing to release documents about it under the Freedom of Information Act. The records could provide insights into how bin Laden died, how the U.S. verified his identity and how it decided to bury him at sea, as well as photographs taken during and after the May 2011 raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Government officials have openly discussed details of the mission in speeches, interviews and television appearances, but the administration won't disclose records that would confirm their narrative of that fateful night. The Obama administration has not said even where in Washington's bureaucracy all the documents might be stored.

Requests for bin Laden materials were among the most significant of any filed last year under the open records law, which compels the government to turn over copies of federal records for free or at little cost. Anyone who seeks information under the law is generally supposed to get it unless disclosure would hurt national security, violate personal privacy or expose business secrets or confidential decision-making. The law has been the focus of extra attention since Sunday, the start of Sunshine Week, when news organizations promote open government and freedom of information. Read More

CIA Chief: We’ll Spy on You Through Your Dishwasher

More and more personal and household devices are connecting to the internet, from your television to your car navigation systems to your light switches. CIA Director David Petraeus cannot wait to spy on you through them.

Earlier this month, Petraeus mused about the emergence of an “Internet of Things” — that is, wired devices — at a summit for In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital firm. “‘Transformational’ is an overused word, but I do believe it properly applies to these technologies,” Petraeus enthused, “particularly to their effect on clandestine tradecraft.”

All those new online devices are a treasure trove of data if you’re a “person of interest” to the spy community. Once upon a time, spies had to place a bug in your chandelier to hear your conversation. With the rise of the “smart home,” you’d be sending tagged, geolocated data that a spy agency can intercept in real time when you use the lighting app on your phone to adjust your living room’s ambiance.

“Items of interest will be located, identified, monitored, and remotely controlled through technologies such as radio-frequency identification, sensor networks, tiny embedded servers, and energy harvesters — all connected to the next-generation internet using abundant, low-cost, and high-power computing,” Petraeus said, “the latter now going to cloud computing, in many areas greater and greater supercomputing, and, ultimately, heading to quantum computing.” Read More

Valerie Nash: Woman Used Chainsaw To Commit Suicide

PALMS (CBS) — A Westside woman was found dead on Thursday after she apparently killed herself by using a chainsaw, police said.

KNX 1070′s John Brooks reports the gruesome death was discovered early Thursday morning by the victim’s sister.

Valerie Nash, 47, was found about 12:40 a.m. by her sister in the bedroom of her townhome in the 3600 block of Keystone Avenue near Overland Avenue in Palms, said Sgt. Richard Parks of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Pacific Station.

Nash was discovered with a chainsaw wound on her neck, Parks said.

“At this point, we’re investigating it as a suicide, as she left a suicide note,” he added. Read More

Strange coincidences: Are major earthquakes taking place every 188 days? Is March 22-23, 2012, next? Fact or fiction?