China Denies Shipping Marinated Human Flesh in Cans to Be Sold as FOOD in Africa

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China has strenuously denied reports that it’s routinely canning human flesh and selling it as food to African nations.

A top official has dismissed reports in Zambia which queried the provenance of some ‘meat products’ being shipped from China to the African continent.

In the media reports, an unnamed Zambian woman living in China reportedly issued warnings to Africans not to eat corned beef.

She claimed that dead human bodies were being collected and marinated before being canned and labelled as corned beef for human consumption .

But the statement, issued by the Chinese Ambassador to Zambia, Yang Youming, blames people spreading “malicious” rumours. (Read more from “China Denies Shipping Marinated Human Flesh in Cans to Be Sold as FOOD in Africa” HERE)

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What’s That Smell? Mystery Odor Has Officials Looking for Answers

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Residents in north Marana, particularly in the Gladden Farms area, are complaining of a strange smell and accompanying white smoke. The smell began a few weeks ago and has been so bad in some areas that residents have been forced to stay indoors and close windows.

The smell occurs in the morning, usually between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m., and has been described by residents as a “chemical smell” or as resembling diesel exhaust. A number of Gladden Farm homeowners took to a Facebook group to share their frustration and compare notes and all reported seeing white smoke or exhaust at the same time the smell is present.

“It is very strong and irritates my throat,” said Gladden Farms resident Christy Hollinger. “I am pretty tolerant to smoke, exhaust, pollen so was a bit surprised this affected me.”

Hollinger said that she was out walking her dogs when she encountered the smell the first time and by the time she got home, her entire home had the exhaust smell. Others have reported having to roll up windows and turn off the air in the car when driving in the area.

Most believed the smoke to be coming from of two plants off Tangerine Road, either the Cal-Portland Cement plant or the plant belonging to Granite Construction, with several residents insisting that the smoke was coming from the Granite plant, where they make asphalt, among other things. (Read more from “What’s That Smell? Mystery Odor Has Officials Looking for Answers” HERE)

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Girl Is Multi-Millionaire at Age 9

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Self-made millionaire Isabella Barrett enjoys splashing the cash on designer shoes and expensive labels – despite being just nine years old . . .

Isabella became a millionaire at just six years old after launching her own clothing and jewellery line . . .

Isabella’s mum, Susanna, said: “As far as what she’s worth tangible you know, it would probably be equal to several million dollars . . .
“So she is the major stakeholder in ‘Glitzy Girl’, which was our first company that came out. The second company was ‘Bound By the Crown Couture'” . . .

Now the The fashion-obsessed young socialite has over 1.6 million online followers and considers herself a successful businesswoman in her own right. (Read more from “Girl Is Multi-Millionaire at Age 9” HERE)

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Why Does President Obama’s Twitter Account Follow Porn Stars?

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President Obama’s Twitter account, which is run by his “Organizing for Action” staff, follows 636,000 accounts. Many of them you might expect: Michelle Obama, Joe Biden, John Kerry. Even Mariah Carey and Snoop Dogg don’t really raise an eyebrow. But several accounts on the presidential follow list fit a different theme: Asa Akira, a porn star who has 653,000 followers and, in her Twitter bio, states “I have an award-winning a******.” Joanna Angel (390,000 followers), who describes herself as a “multiple award winning punk porno princess;” Penthouse Pet Of The Year Nikki Benz (808,000 followers); and Ashley Steel (138,000 followers), who writes that she is a “Porn Star, Doggy mama, Happiness Junkie, XXX Model, Buddhist, & Total nerd” . . .

Neither the Organizing for Action campaign nor the White House immediately responded to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Joe Rospars, Obama’s principal digital strategist for both presidential campaigns, said that he was not available to comment.

The most likely culprit is a piece of Twitter etiquette known as the “follow back.” Some consider it polite to follow your followers, and until recently, only Twitter accounts that followed each other could communicate through direct messages, which added a practical component to the tradition. Twitter once had an “auto-follow” feature that handled this process on behalf of users by automatically following any new followers. Twitter removed that auto-follow feature from its own site in 2009, but the capability stuck around in its API until 2013, allowing many third-party tools to set accounts to “auto-follow” regardless . . .

Twitter follow lists are technically public, but within the Twitter interface, followers can only be viewed by scrolling through every account: quite a task when you are following several hundred thousand people. “I would assume [someone in Obama’s position] doesn’t even know that they’re following those accounts,” says Stephanie Abrams Cartin, the founder and CEO of a New York City-based social media PR agency called Socialfly. Though social media audience management tools that make it easy to pinpoint an account’s following habits—including SocialRank, Little Bird, and Crowdfire—weren’t around when Twitter was getting started, they can reveal mistakes made in those early days of auto-follow that might have otherwise been forgotten. “There are smart things to automate like reporting and analytics—but follows, likes, tweets —smart social media managers and brands stay away from that; just too much that can go wrong,”says SocialRank CEO and Founder Alex Taub. (Read more from “Why Does President Obama’s Twitter Account Follow Porn Stars?” HERE)

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Doctors Remove 7-Inch Tree Branch From Man’s Eye Socket

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A man who claims he was blinded by an oncoming car’s high-beam lights while riding his electric bicycle is recovering after having a 7-inch tree branch removed from his right eye socket.

Wu Xuan, 34, said he accidentally drove into the branch, which was protruding from a tree, during a thunderstorm, Central European News (CEN) reported. He said he was blinded after a driver flashed his lights at him twice.

He then rode directly into the branch which became wedged in his eye socket and down his throat, CEN reported. Despite the gruesome injury, Xuan was able to ride to the hospital for help where he told doctors he could feel the branch in his throat. (Read more from “Doctors Remove 7-Inch Tree Branch From Man’s Eye Socket” HERE)

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FDA Fast-Tracks Treatment That Uses Polio Virus to Fight Brain Cancer

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The Food and Drug Administration has given so-called “breakthrough” status to a treatment that uses the once-feared polio virus to target aggressive forms of brain cancer, in the hope of speeding it to market.

The therapy, developed at Duke University, hopes to use the virus’ debilitating properties to help fight cancer instead of harming its host, CBS News reported Thursday.

The experimental treatment was the brainchild of molecular biologist Matthias Gromeier. By removing a certain genetic sequence and replacing it with material from the common cold virus, the polio would not be able to cause the incapacitating symptoms that once afflicted President Franklin D. Roosevelt and numerous others because it would be unable to reproduce in normal cells.

However, the altered version of polio could still reproduce in cancer cells—therefore making the cancer susceptible to Lipscomb’s and other patients’ immune systems.

“All human cancers … develop a shield of protective measures that make them invisible to this immune system,” Gromeier told CBS. “By infecting the tumor, we are actually removing this protective shield and enabling the immune system to attack.” (Read more from “FDA Fast-Tracks Treatment That Uses Polio Virus to Fight Brain Cancer” HERE)

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Post-Legalization, Marijuana-Related Fatal Crashes Double in This State

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The number of fatal crashes involving drivers who had recently used marijuana doubled in Washington after the state legalized the drug, according to new research. But the impact of impaired drivers on the state’s roads remains unknown.

Those are the conclusions from a pair of new studies conducted by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. More than anything, the organization’s dual findings illustrate the complexity of determining impairment in marijuana-using drivers and, more broadly, how difficult it is to measure the scope of stoned driving.

With at least 20 states considering marijuana legalization this year, the studies’ findings heighten concerns about drugged driving spreading across a nation already grappling with a historic rise in traffic fatalities, but they also show early approaches in trying to legislate solutions might be wrong-headed.

While increases in blood-alcohol content correlate with decreases in driving abilities, there’s no such correlation with THC, the active component of marijuana, in the bloodstream. AAA says there is no scientific evidence that drivers perform more poorly behind the wheel at a certain level of marijuana use. As a result, arbitrary thresholds “could result in unsafe motorists going free and others being wrongfully convicted for impaired driving.”

The AAA studies are the latest in a growing body of research that shows Americans should be concerned about stoned driving, but that quantifying both risks and solutions is a confusing process. (Read more from “Post-Legalization, Marijuana-Related Fatal Crashes Double in Washington” HERE)

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END OF THE WORLD FEARS: Mercury Transit Linked to Biblical ‘Destruction’ Prophecy

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YouTube channel The Prophetico said the way in which the planets will align in conjunction with star constellations could mean the end is near.

The planet Mercury is set to pass in front of the Sun in line with Earth on May 9 in a natural phenomenon which occurs 13 times a century . ..

The narrator begins by describing how May 6 marks the start of a new moon cycle, with it also being a super-moon – where the moon reaches its closest point in its orbit to Earth.

It goes on to say that three days later, on May 9 when the Mercury transit is in full swing, the moon is in a crescent, or sickle, state to viewers from Earth.

The number three is significant here as according to BibleStudy.org it is related to sex sins in the Bible. (Read more from “END OF THE WORLD FEARS: Mercury Transit Linked to Biblical ‘Destruction’ Prophecy” HERE)

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Why the Obama Administration’s Most Notable Photograph Was Almost Nixed

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Embedded photographers, in the eyes of some, are the unsung heroes when historic events occur. Reflecting on the achievements of war photographers, one may not soon forget the photo taken as the U.S. flag was being raised over Iwo Jima by soldiers after the tiny South Pacific island was taken from the hands of the Japanese. And during the Obama presidency, no single photograph taken by a photographer may be as important as the one taken by Pete Souza when the president’s staff was in the situation room as Osama bin Laden’s compound was being infiltrated by U.S. personnel.

After all, it had been nearly 10 years since bin Laden claimed responsibility for attacking the World Trade Center and the Pentagon using hijacked commercial airliners as flying missiles. Bin Laden’s whereabouts had been the question on the minds of many, including the military, which was engaged in a manhunt of the FBI’s most wanted man.

But the famous photo almost didn’t get released, according to a new book written by Josh King titled Off Script. According to the Washington Examiner, King wrote that Souza knew he had a winner when he shot the photo that showed Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and other military and administration officials apparently watching attentively as live video feeds of the assault were broadcast directly to the situation room on May 2, 2011, the day bin Laden was killed in the raid, which involved a stealth helicopter insertion of two dozen Navy Seals. . .The problem with the photo arose when it was realized a classified document was on the desk in front of Clinton, the details of which were also captured by the photo. (Read more from “Why the Obama Administration’s Most Notable Photograph Was Almost Nixed” HERE)

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What Really Happens to Your Body on a Flight

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From oxygen deprivation and cosmic radiation to loss of taste, your body can suffer some worrying effects during air travel. But how can they be avoided? . . .

Dr Richard Dawood, Telegraph Travel’s travel health expert, says the “virtually moisture-free” conditions inside a plane cabin increase your vulnerability to airborne infection. You’re more susceptible to colds and respiratory infection, and viruses which are known to thrive in conditions of low-humidity.

The findings of Auburn University in Alabama in 2014 revealed that disease-causing bacteria can survive for up to a week inside plane cabins, on surfaces such as seat pockets, tray tables, window shades and armrests. Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a bacteria that could cause infections, skin disease, pneumonia and sepsis, lived the longest (168 hours). Escherichia coli (E. coli), which can cause urinary tract infection, respiratory illness and diarrhoea, was found to survive for 96 hours . . .

Aircraft cabins are pressurised to 75 per cent of the normal atmospheric pressure, a recent study claimed. Lower levels of oxygen in your blood can lead to hypoxia, which can leave you feeling dizzy, fatigued and with headaches . . .

A third of your taste buds are said to become numb at high altitudes, while dryness and cabin air pressure also affect your ears, sinuses and sense of taste, according to the latest research. (Read more from “What Really Happens to Your Body on a Flight” HERE)

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