In March 2018, Albina Iskakova and Alina Kusmangaliyeva of Berezovka, Kazakhstan were examined at the Semashko Children’s Center for Diagnosis and Treatment...in Moscow, Russia. The girls underwent comprehensive medical consultations and diagnostic...
...[T]he Children or Oil? Coalition launched a letter writing campaign addressed to the companies responsible for poisoning children from the village of Berezovka, Kazakhstan on November 28, 2014. Parents of the affected children, environmentalists,...
Kazakhstan: NGO says poisoning of children likely caused by toxic emissions from Karachaganak oil & gas field, operated by KPO consortium; includes company comments
On November 28, 2014, 25 children of Berezovka village simultaneously felt ill during school hours. They reported dizziness and suffered convulsions and loss of consciousness. According to prosecutors of the Western Kazakhstan Region, gas emissions...
Newly released records suggest that former President John F. Kennedy was wearing a back brace that may have aided his assassination.
Doctors believe Kennedy’s back brace largely immobilized his torso, preventing him from collapsing to the floor of the car in which he was shot, which allowed him to be shot, fatally, in the head.
Newly released records suggest that former President John F. Kennedy was wearing a back brace that may have aided his assassination in Dallas, Texas in November 1963.
Kennedy, who faced myriad health issues, including scarlet fever and collitis as a child, suffered from chronic and severe back pain as an adult.
His back issues began after he was tackled while playing football in college at Harvard, and they were exacerbated by his years in the Navy. He also had surgeries in his 30s and 40s. Kennedy wore a back brace for much of his adult life to help make up for his weak muscles.
One spinal surgery in 1954 nearly killed the then-senator, who became reliant on routine injections of numbing agents and amphetamine-based pain killers, which were thought to have some methamphetamine in them.
By the end of 1961, as concern about Kennedy’s reliance on the injections grew, the White House physician brought in a new doctor to manage Kennedy’s pain, Dr. Hans Kraus, known today as the father of sports medicine, who put Kennedy on a strict weight-lifting, swimming, and strength-training regimen. The new strategy relieved much of Kennedy’s chronic pain and helped wean him off the pain killers.
But in August 1963, the president strained his back and began using the brace again, despite his doctor’s advice. The president was wearing the brace as he rode in the back of an open-top car in a parade in Dallas on November 22, 1963.
“Kennedy said to Kraus, ‘Look, I tell you what, when I come back from Dallas, I’ll get out of the brace, but I gotta wear it for this trip. I gotta look good.’ He wanted to be able to sit up tall and wave at people,” Dr. Thomas Pait, a spinal neurosurgeon who co-authored a paper about the former president’s back issues, told CNN. “And of course, we’ll never know if he would have survived if he’d followed the doctor’s advice and gotten rid of it.”
Pait believes the back brace largely immobilized Kennedy’s torso, preventing him from collapsing to the floor of the car after he suffered the first shot to his neck. It was the second shot, to Kennedy’s head, that killed him.
“The brace was a firmly bound corset, around his hips and lower back and higher up,” Pait said. “He tightly laced it and put a wide Ace bandage around in a figure eight around his trunk. If you think about it, if you have that brace all the way up your chest, above your nipples, and real tight, are you going to be able to bend forward?”
Some of the world’s wealthiest, most powerful and most famous men are still eligible and looking for love.
Imagine a night of dining at the most expensive restaurants, weekly galas, summering on yachts off the coast of Europe and all the other perks that come with having a billionaire boyfriend.
Many of the men on the list are self-made millionaires through start-ups and investments, but others are old money, having inherited their wealth from their families or royal lines.
Net Worth: The royal family does not disclose their net worth, but since Amedeo is pretty dreamy we decided to include him. Plus he's royalty!
Source of Wealth: His blood line in the Belgium Royal Family. He's also a descendant of the Austrian, Italian, French, Swedish, Danish, British, Portuguese, Spanish, and German royal families.
What to do to impress him: Enjoy the water, since Stavros is a professional kiteboarder. He's been tied to Paris Hilton, Mary Kate Olsen, and Lindsay Lohan.
Source of Wealth: His blood line to the Thurn and Taxis thrones and assets in real estate, art, a tech company and 30,000 hectares of woodland in Germany.
What to do to impress him: Learn some fiscal responsibility. He first appeared in the Forbes rank at age 8.
What to do to impress him: Beat him at a hand in poker, like ex-girlfriend Erica Albright did. But unfortunately, you'll have to work pretty hard to get this guy because he's been dating Priscilla Chan for quite a while.
What to do to impress him: Party hard and fulfil philanthropic duties. Take some lessons from his sister-in-law Kate Middleton on how to break into the royal clan.
Source of Wealth: His family's pipelines. His father, Dan Duncan, was founder of Enterprise Products.
What to do to impress him: Scott is one of the few billionaires on the Forbes 400 list who is younger than 30 and whose fortune is not connected to Facebook. If you friend him, he probably won't be impressed. We couldn't find a photo of him anywhere, so good luck finding him yourself.
What to do to impress him: If you enjoy hanging by the pool in St. Tropez, or know how to change his facebook relationship status to 'In a relationship,' you'll be set.
What to do to impress him: Be well-traveled. Fahd is a Lebanon citizen, currently living in Paris with business ties through out Europe and in Houston.
What to do to impress him: He enjoys race cars, swimming, and skiing. You'll have to be great at those things, since the Prince has been linked to model Sofia Hellqvist since 2008.
What to do to impress him: Enjoy documentaries and indie films. Johnson had directed three about the super rich.
Source of Wealth: Co-founder of Revision3, Digg, Pownce. He's also invested in Twitter, Facebook, and Four Square.
What to do to impress him: Invite him over for tea and impress him with your knowledge of Earl grey versus Green. He loves to drink the stuff.
What to do to impress him: Make sure you know your way around MOMA. Rodriguez is a savvy art collector.
What to do to impress him: Know how to play chess. He was ranked a master by the U.S. Chess Federation.
What to do to impress him: Have a good sense of humour. Balazs dated comedian Chelsea Handler for about seven months.
It's back: That pesky rumor that Microsoft (MSFT) might make its own cellphone. The latest bits involve a special Nvidia processor called Tegra, and a Zune-based gadget codenamed "Pink."
One argument against it: Industry observer Michael Gartenberg thinks Microsoft won't make its own cellphone because doing so would potentially destroy its partnerships with companies that sell Windows Mobile-based devices, like Motorola (MOT), Palm (PALM), and HTC. "Microsoft now has traction with more than 20 million licenses out there and a great stream of partners and new phones for consumer and business use," Gartenberg says.
The problem: Windows Mobile isn't Windows, lacking both its market share and price tag. Those 20 million licenses don't make much for Microsoft, which only charges $8 to $15 per phone, according to research firm Strategy Analytics. Even at the high end of that range, selling 20 million licenses in a year is just $300 million in revenue for Microsoft. That's couch lint for a company whose sales are expected to near $70 billion next year.
Meanwhile, Apple (AAPL) just shipped 6.9 million iPhones last quarter for $4.6 billion in revenue. Plus whatever revenue Apple gets from selling "halo" Macs to iPhone owners, iTunes songs, and iPhone App Store purchases. Plus whatever goodwill synergy Apple gets with its other products, like using the iPhone as an awesome Mac remote.
So, about that Windows Mobile partner stream? Microsoft would have to sell 300 million Windows Mobile licenses -- almost one third of the mobile market -- at $15 apiece to near $4.6 billion in revenue. And that's not happening next year, 2010, or any time soon. (Moreover, we're not convinced someone like HTC would ditch Microsoft if it were still making money selling Windows Mobile phones.)
Can Microsoft build an iPhone? Probably not. But it doesn't have to build an iPhone yet. It just has to build something better than the phones that currently run Windows Mobile, Palm OS, and lesser phones. Which can't be be that hard, especially with the help of Danger, the mobile platform company Microsoft bought earlier this year.
What's the payout? Even if Microsoft can sell just 1 million Microsoft-brand phones next year at a very low, $300 wholesale price -- half of the iPhone's -- it could equal that $300 million in hypothetical Windows Mobile revenue. Plus commissions on app sales, a few pennies of search revenue from built-in Live Search, potential Xbox tie-ins, etc. Not the dumbest idea we've ever heard.
Microsoft would risk alienating its Windows Mobile partners if it made its own cellphone. But if it ever wants to make any money, it has to.
On Monday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused enemy countries of destroying rain clouds before they reach his drought stricken nation, reports CNBC.
With little to no rain in parts of the Islamic Republic, Ahmadinejad placed the blame on his enemies, dismissing any effect by climate change or the fact that Iran is already one of the driest countries in the world.
"The enemy destroys the clouds that are headed towards our country and this is a war Iran will win," said Ahmadinejad.
Iranian Iranian Vice President and Head of Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization Hassan Mousavi accused the West of similar acts in July and in May of last year, Ahmadinejad claimed Europe was using technology to drain rain clouds of their precipitation before they reached Iran, reports the Telegraph.
That announcement, given at the opening ceremony for a new dam, was ironic. Moments after the speech, it began to rain.
In the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris, David Cameron has announced plans to introduce significant new surveillance powers in the UK, the Independent is reporting. The British Prime Minister also signalled he intends to crack down on encrypted communications the government can't crack — suggesting a slew of popular communications platforms could be outlawed in Britain.
Speaking on Monday, the Prime Minister asked whether "we want to allow a means of communication between two people which even in extemis with a signed warrant from the home secretary personally that we cannot read? ...My answer to that question is no, we must not. The first duty of any government is to keep our country and our people safe."
Cameron says the government needs to "modernise" the law to address the threat of terrorism, and that if his party wins the next General Election he will introduce new legislation to give law enforcement new powers. His remarks have been criticised by some, with Big Brother Watch director Emma Carr saying that it is "wholly unacceptable for this tragedy in Paris to be used as a means to call for a return of the snooper's charter."
It's already illegal for Britons to refuse to surrender their passwords or encryption keys, and you can be jailed for doing so. But if someone's refusing to talk (or they can't be found), and police need to gain access to someone's communication urgently, then this isn't much help.
For this reason, some encryption software and communication platforms offer secret "backdoors" in their products, which can be used to give law enforcement access when required — but many others don't. For example, PGP is a widely-used encryption tool that facilitates secure communication between people by exchanging "public" encryption "keys." It's frequently used by journalists, whistleblowers and dissidents, and there's no way to decrypt a user's communications unless you have their "private" key — even with a warrant.
If the Conservatives win the General Election and bring in the planned legislation, Apple might also feel the consequences. The Cupertino company recently introduced encryption into their iOS devices that is impossible for them to undo, even if law enforcement has a warrant. They came under some criticism for the move, with one senior American police officer saying this lack of access will make the iPhone the "phone of choice for the paedophile."
Under Cameron's plans, Apple, for instance, would have to adapt its UK devices, or risk breaking the law. The Android version of messaging app WhatsApp would also fall foul of the proposed ban.
We've reached out to the Conservative Party for clarification, and will update this story when they get back to us.
This 30-year-old Warren Buffett quote explains why you should be an active investor - Business Insider
REUTERS/Rick Wilking"What could be more advantageous in an intellectual contest - whether it be bridge, chess, or stock selection than to have opponents who have been taught that thinking is a waste of energy?" -Warren Buffett, 1985 Berkshire Hathaway Letter to Shareholders
More than thirty years removed from that quote and it has never been more relevant than it is today. Investors today are flocking to strategies founded on the idea that "thinking is a waste of energy" giving investors willing to do otherwise a terrific advantage.
Everywhere you turn these days you will find articles, advertisements and other sorts of solicitations to abandon "active investing" in favor of "passive investing." Before I go any further, however, I need to clarify one thing: There is no such thing as "passive investing."
…then "passive investing" becomes an oxymoron simply because "passive" doesn't allow for the sort of "thorough analysis" which promises "safety of principal" or "adequate return." In fact, it eschews just this sort of process.
With that out of the way, let's get back to the point of this piece and that is that "passive" has never been more popular than it is today. Just look at the list of the largest money managers on the planet and it's a who's who of index fund providers: BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street, etc. More money is allocated to passive today than ever before and by a very large margin.
Furthermore, the shift to passive is only accelerating. Yesterday, we learned that, despite the S&P 5oo hitting new, all-time highs, investors are now abandoning active funds at the greatest rate since the heart of the financial crisis, when stock prices were plunging.
In other words, more investors are shunning "thinking" for "not thinking" than ever before and at the greatest rate ever seen. If you are one of the few "thinking" investors left today, this can only be seen as a wonderful advantage, perhaps the greatest advantage any "thinking" investor has ever seen before.
For the few left in the "thinking" camp, this phenomenon has already provided some wonderful opportunities in gold and long bonds. I expect we will continue to see these sorts of opportunities arise as prices are increasingly driven by dogma rather than discipline.
The disappearance Sunday of AirAsia Flight 8501 was the third air incident this year involving Malaysia, where budget carrier AirAsia in based. Here's a look at the two other disasters, as well as the latest missing flight, which went missing with 162 people aboard less than an hour after taking off from Surabaya, Indonesia, for Singapore.
The disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 on March 8 triggered one of modern aviation's most perplexing mysteries. Flight 370, carrying 239 people from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, vanished without a trace, sending searchers across vast areas of the Indian Ocean. An initial multi-national operation to locate the wreckage far off Australia's west coast turned up empty, without a single piece of debris found.
After a four-month hiatus, the hunt resumed Oct. 4 with new, more sophisticated equipment, including sonar, video cameras and jet fuel sensors aboard three ships that will spend up to a year in a desolate stretch of the sea, about 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles) west of Australia.
The 60,000-square-kilometer (23,000-square-mile) search area lies along what is known as the "seventh arc" — a stretch of ocean where investigators believe the aircraft ran out of fuel and crashed, based largely on an analysis of transmissions between the plane and a satellite.
Officials initially ruled out terrorism, but conspiracy theories have endured. Until the wreckage is found and examined, it will be impossible to say for sure what happened to the plane.
Debris from Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 is shown smouldering in a field July 17, 2014 in Grabovo, Ukraine near the Russian border. Flight 17, on its way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur and carrying 295 passengers and crew, is believed to have been shot down by a surface-to-air missile, according to U.S. intelligence officials and Ukrainian authorities quoted in published reports.
All 298 passengers and crew aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 were killed when the Boeing 777 was shot down over rebel-held eastern Ukraine on July 17.
The plane was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when, according to Dutch air crash investigators, it was likely struck by multiple "high-energy objects" that some aviation experts say is consistent with a missile strike.
Hunks of the wreckage were transported to the Netherlands by trucks and will be reassembled in a hangar. However, international teams seeking to retrieve remains and salvage evidence have had difficulty reaching the crash site due to clashes between Ukrainian government troops and Russian-backed separatist rebels. Six victims have yet to be identified.
A high-ranking rebel officer has acknowledged that rebels shot down the plane with a ground-to-air missile after mistaking it for a Ukrainian military plane. Russian media, however, claim the plane was shot down by a Ukrainian jet.
The Dutch Safety Board's final report may rule out one or the other scenario, but it will not seek to attribute responsibility.
Dutch prosecutors, meanwhile, are coordinating an international criminal investigation into the downing, but have yet to name any suspects or say when or how charges might be brought.
An Indonesia AirAsia flight with 162 people aboard, most of them Indonesians, disappeared Sunday over the Java Sea, triggering a search involving several Southeast Asian nations.
Contact with Flight 8501 was lost about 42 minutes after the single-aisle, twin-engine A320-200 jet took off from Surabaya airport in Indonesia for Singapore.
Malaysia-based AirAsia, led by Malaysian businessman Tony Fernandes, has dominated cheap travel in the region for years. AirAsia Malaysia owns 49 percent of its subsidiary, AirAsia Indonesia. It said the plane was on the submitted flight plan route when the pilots requested deviation due to weather before communication was lost.