‘Worse than death row’: Gitmo hunger strike reaches Day 100
As the Guantanamo hunger strike enters its 100th day, the number of voices, both in the US and around the world, to close the facility are growing stronger and louder. Lawyers acting for prisoners in Guantanamo say the real figures may be higher, but officially of the 166 inmates in Guantanamo, 102 are currently on [...]
Leaving Earth: 78,000 apply for a one-way ticket to Mars
The Mars One project to establish the first human settlement on the Red Planet by 2023 has received 78,000 applications in just two weeks, with as many as 500,000 expected to apply by the time applications close on August 31. Mars One, a Dutch not-for-profit organization, is planning theproject to have no return ticket back to [...]
Pentagon’s DARPA reveals their most human-like robot yet
The Pentagon’s army of space-age robot warriors is getting a lot more real. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, has released video footage of a project that’s been long in the works and really starting to now take shape. The Protection Ensemble Test Mannequin — or “PETMAN,” for short — is the subject [...]
US news media has devolved to ‘carnival act’ – Hedges
Chris Hedges, author, columnist and former Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist for The New York Times spoke with RT about how FCC deregulation during the Clinton administration allowed a handful of corporations to dominate US media. RT: I want to start off by reading a quote from one of your articles on this very topic, you say: “The [...]
Punxsutawney Phil might face execution for wrong weather forecast
Groundhog Phil might have made a fatal mistake when he predicted that spring will come early this year. Disturbed by the rodent’s false forecast, an Ohio prosecutor has filed court documents seeking the death penalty for Punxsutawney Phil. The famous groundhog emerged from his home in Gobbler’s Knob, Pa., on a cloudy Feb. 2 and [...]
Major US retailers reject ‘frankenfish’
A number of top US grocery stores, including Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods, have pledged to reject selling the genetically engineered “frankenfish” if it is allowed on the market in April. The mutant fish was engineered by scientists at a company called AquaBounty, which has spent more than 15 years and $50 million researching and perfecting the [...]
Students claim exploitation after they paid thousands to work for McDonalds
A 27-year-old Argentinian student claims he was “exploited” by a work-study program offered by a Pennsylvania McDonald’s. The student claims he paid thousands to come to the US, only to find himself on call at all times and working overtime without pay. “We have been exploited by McDonald’s because we have been working for McDonald’s [...]
Censored cupcakes: US school removed toy soldiers from kid’s birthday cake over violence fears
Toy soldiers featured on birthday cupcakes of a nine-year-old US boy have spoiled the appetite of school officials at a Michigan elementary school, whose staff said the cakes were inappropriate in the wake of the Sandy Hook school shooting. School officials at Schall Elementary rushed to remove Hunter Fountain’s plastic soldiers, designed to spice up [...]
Shocker: Eighty percent of NYC graduates unable to read
New York City’s literacy rates are on the decline: nearly 80 percent of high school graduates lack basic skills like reading, writing and math and are required to relearn them before qualifying for community college. During his most recent State of the City address, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg hyped about the large investment [...]
DEA chiefs urge Obama to nullify Washington and Colorado pot laws
Former Drug Enforcement Administration chiefs are urging the Obama administration to nullify marijuana laws in Colorado and Washington, which recently legalized the recreational use of pot. The eight former DEA heads fear that the states’ marijuana laws will instigate a “domino effect”, causing other states to pass their own laws legalizing the recreational use of [...]