The solar wind is a mild 347 km/sec and there are six sunspot clusters on the Sun today with AR2051 has a 'beta-gamma-delta' magnetic field that harbors energy for X-class solar flares. We need some flares to feed ions into the upper atmosphere. In fact, this process actually helps build the atmosphere and the protective layer around us. X-Flares are a little too intense, however. The frequencies can knock out the electrical grid and ruin an Earth day in a nanosecond. Earth is entering a stream of debris from Halley's Comet, source of the annual eta Aquarid meteor shower. Forecasters expect the shower to peak on the night of May 5-6 with as many as 60 meteors per hour in the southern hemisphere and half that number in the north. No matter where you live, the best time to look is during the dark hours before local sunrise on May 6th.

Lights out for the Human Brain

Scientists have developed an “off-switch” for the brain to effectively shut down neural activity using light pulses. In 2005, Stanford scientist Karl Deisseroth discovered how to switch individual brain cells on and off by using light in a technique he dubbed 'optogenetics'.

Research teams around the world have since used this technique to study brain cells, heart cells, stem cells and others regulated by electrical signals.

However, light-sensitive proteins were efficient at switching cells on but proved less effective at turning them off.

Now, after almost a decade of research, scientists have been able to shut down the neurons as well as activate them.

Mr Deisseroth’s team has now re-engineered its light-sensitive proteins to switch cells much more adequately than before. His findings are presented in the journal Science.

Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, which funded the study, said this improved “off” switch will help researchers to better understand the brain circuits involved in behavior, thinking and emotion.

“This is something we and others in the field have sought for a very long time,” Mr Deisseroth, a senior author of the paper and professor of bioengineering and of psychiatry and behavioural sciences said.

“We’re excited about this increased light sensitivity of inhibition in part because we think it will greatly enhance work in large-brained organisms like rats and primates."

The new techniques rely on changing 10 of the amino acids in the optogenetic protein.

“It creates a powerful tool that allows neuroscientists to apply a brake in any specific circuit with millisecond precision, beyond the power of any existing technology,” Mr Insel explained.

This technique could help scientists develop treatments for patients with some brain diseases as it could allow problematic parts of the brain to be switched off with light and tackled with minimal intrusion.

Merab Kokaia, PhD, a professor at Lund University Hospital in Sweden who has used optogenetics to study epilepsy and other conditions praised the research.

"These features could be much more useful for behavioral studies in animals but could also become an effective treatment alternative for neurological conditions where drugs do not work, such as some cases of severe epilepsy and other hyper-excitability disorders," he said.

The Truth About Silver

Ted, you're widely recognized as the foremost expert on manipulation in the silver futures market. How do you define manipulation, and how are the main players benefiting from that?

Manipulation is another way of saying someone controls and dominates the market by means of an excessively large position. So, just by holding such a large concentrated position, the manipulation is largely explained. In real terms, whenever a single entity or a few entities come to dominate a market, all sorts of alarms should be sounded. This is at the heart of U.S. antitrust law. It is no different under commodity law.

Price manipulation is the most serious market crime possible under commodity law. In fact, there is a simple and effective and time-proven antidote to manipulation that has existed for almost a century, and that solution is speculative position limits. Currently, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission(CFTC) is attempting to institute position limits in silver, but the big banks are fighting it tooth and nail.

As far as any benefits the manipulators may reap, it varies with each entity. But if you dominate and control a market by means of a large concentrated position, you can put the price wherever you desire at times, and that's exactly what the silver manipulators do regularly. This explains why we have such wicked sell-offs in silver; because the big shorts pull all sorts of dirty market tricks to send the price lower.

Could you tell us when and how you got started researching this matter?

It started around 1985, when a brokerage client asked me to explain how silver could remain so low in price (in the single digits) when the world was consuming more metal than was being produced. I accepted the intellectual challenge, and it took me more than a year to figure out that the paper short positions on the COMEX were so large as to constitute an almost unlimited supply. It was this paper supply that was depressing the price.

Who are the main players in this manipulation scheme? On average, what percentage of COMEX silver contracts are "controlled" by these main players?

Under U.S. commodity law, the names of individual traders are kept confidential. However, it is no secret that the commercial traders are the big shorts. It is also no secret that these big commercial shorts are mostly money center banks and financial institutions. Based upon government data and correspondence, the largest such short almost certainly is JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), who inherited their big silver short position from Bear Stearns when JPM took over that firm in 2008.

Together, the eight largest commercial silver shorts on the COMEX generally account for 50% to 60% of the entire net COMEX silver market, with JPMorgan alone holding around 25% or more of the entire market. I would hold that those percentages of concentration and control constitute manipulation, in and of themselves. By the way, there is no comparable concentration on the long side; only the short side of silver.

What exactly are the dominant players doing to manipulate the price?

The current exact mechanism they use to suddenly rig the price lower is High Frequency Trading (HFT). This is the placing of sell orders in great quantities by computer programs that suddenly appear as legitimate orders, but are really mostly "spoofs," or orders entered and canceled immediately (in the fractions of a second). When the sell orders first appear, they spook others into selling as they give the appearance of great selling about to hit the market. Instead, it is all a bluff, intended only to scare others into selling, as the vast majority of these original sell orders are never executed, nor were they ever intended to be executed. They were designed for one purpose only - to scare others into selling.

Through HFT, the commercials are able to push prices suddenly lower on very little actual volume. But once prices are put lower, the outside selling (from those who are frightened by the drop in prices) hits the market. It is that outside selling from technical traders that the commercials then buy. In a nutshell that's the HFT scam in silver. It is important to grasp the fact that the actual selling (and commercial buying) takes place AFTER the price drops. Most people think great selling is what causes the price to decline, but that's not true. The great selling only comes in after the price has been put lower, which is the purpose behind HFT in silver.

What impact, if any, has the arrival of silver ETFs had on the silver price, manipulated or otherwise?

A giant impact. The introduction of the big silver ETF in 2006 is probably the single biggest reason behind the climb in silver prices from the $7 area the year before. Investors have purchased close to 600 million ounces of silver in all the silver ETFs over the past six years. Without that buying, I doubt we would have made it over the $10 mark. While silver is still manipulated due to the concentrated short position on the COMEX, the introduction and success of the various silver ETFs has impacted the price tremendously. That should continue.

Eric Sprott has indicated that 143 times the amount of silver is traded in the paper markets

versus mine supply. What implications does this have for facilitating silver price manipulation?

There are two distinct forces exerting artificial control of the price of silver. One is the concentration on the short side of the COMEX. The other is the ascension of the mindless and destructive computer trading of HFT. This was behind the "flash crash" in the stock market on May 6, 2010.

The difference in HFT is how the regulators react to it. When it occurred in the stock market, the regulators, the SEC and CFTC, rushed to make sure such meltdowns didn't recur in the stock market. Instead, the HFT practitioners were given free rein to disrupt the silver market. All the big sell-offs in silver are related to HFT to aid those holding large short positions. The simple and undeniable fact is that the commercials are always big buyers whenever gold and silver sell off sharply. These commercials trick others into selling after prices have been deliberately pushed lower. Because the commercials are always the big buyers on every big sell-off, that proves they are rigging the price, as it is not possible for them to always be the buyers on these pre-arranged sell-offs.

What, if any, reasons can you think of that would explain why so much more paper silver is traded than physical silver?

Investors who hold physical silver don't buy and sell often; they hold. Only paper silver holders, because they only put up a fraction of the full value as margin, can be regularly tricked into selling their paper contracts on price declines. The big commercial shorts know this and that's what the game is all about - taking paper long traders to the cleaners.

Also, there is more paper traded than real silver because there is a very limited amount of real silver and an infinite supply of paper silver. It's important to know the difference and that difference is what makes physical silver superior to any paper alternative.

If one day large numbers of silver futures contract holders choose to take physical delivery, would that overwhelm the physical market? Who would be the party/parties on the hook at that point, and could they default, or how could this be resolved if there's insufficient physical silver to fill those contracts? What do you think that would do to the silver price?

Absolutely, large demands for physical delivery could overwhelm any market, including silver. The key is who would be demanding delivery. If it was a large single entity, then I suppose the regulators could cry foul and claim an attempt to manipulate prices higher. It would be much better if things continued as they have to date, where great numbers of smaller investors grab a piece of the physical silver market.

The shorts would be on the hook in that event and there is a risk, but not a guarantee, of a default. Default or not, if there is insufficient silver to meet demand, then the price must explode to cool off demand and bring sellers into the market. That's the way the law of supply and demand works.

I've read more suspicious activity just recently took place, on February 29th, in the silver futures market. My understanding is that large commercial traders, using high-frequency trading, manage to influence the price to their advantage. Can you explain what's really going on?

You've described it perfectly. The key ingredient, which many people miss, is that the large commercial traders don't sell heavily on such big down days. They just pretend to sell, by rigging prices sharply lower in order to scare and induce others into selling, in order for the commercials to buy. Everyone thinks the commercials are selling on these big down days, but in reality they are buying every contract they can trick others into selling. That's at the heart of this scam.

The proof of this is in government data, specifically the Commitment of Traders Report (COT), published by the CFTC weekly. These reports show that on every big down move, the commercials are always the big net buyers. This provides the reason and rationale for the sell-offs, namely, they are pre-planned events intended to allow the commercials the opportunity of buying whatever they can trick others into selling. If there's another reason that fits the documented facts, I haven't heard it.

The War Unwar

The last separatist barricade at Kramatorsk was an impressive affair; four giant fuel tankers behind a wall of tyres and stone. The armoured personnel carriers of the government forces, lined up ahead, opened fire without warning; a salvo from a main gun streaking down the street.

The wall disintegrated and burst into flames, the tankers were sliced open as if with a can opener, the severed parts of each one left lying across the road. One round overshot and hit a car, leaving it a smoking heap, another went whizzing by a petrol station. The number of casualties, considering the scale of the damage, was relatively low. There were two dead, the driver of the car and an elderly man still clutching his plastic bag of shopping; around half a dozen were injured, two seriously.

There was an interlude of near silence as people who had thrown themselves to the ground and to the grass verge on the side of the road slowly picked themselves up, glad to be alive, and began to help bloodied figures into cars to be taken to hospital. Those who had thought that the horrific events in Odessa, with more than 40 dead, many of them trapped in a burning building, would lead to a lull in the strife in eastern Ukraine – a pause for reflection – found themselves mistaken.

In Odessa on Friday four people were killed, at least three shot dead, in running battles between Kiev supporters and pro-Russian activists. The clashes ended with separatists holed up in the trade union building. Regional police chief Petro Lutsiuk said more than 130 people had been detained and could face charges ranging from participating in riots to premeditated murder.

The forces of the Kiev administration continued their "anti-terrorist operation" yesterday, with mixed successes but deepening enmity among the many residents who believed themselves to be targeted. Vasyl Krutov, head of a Kiev government's "anti-terrorist centre" behind the operation

in the east, told a news conference: "What we are facing... is not just some kind of short-lived uprising, it is in fact a war."

One positive development on a grim Saturday was the release of seven inspectors from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) who had been held by militants for more than a week. Released with them were five Ukrainian officers. There had been apprehension that these men might be kept back as hostages.

The separatists announced that they had carried out the release "without conditions". The statement was repeated by the men's jailer, Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, who had earlier made bellicose conditions for setting them free. The pro-Moscow, self-appointed mayor of Slovyansk had become the centre of attention recently, taking prisoners, accused of being involved in the murder of a local politician, threatening violence to all who opposed the cause. Now, he is a much-reduced figure, his city surrounded by government troops, some fighters openly disparaging his authority.

The OSCE observers were handed over near Donetsk, the capital of the "People's Republic of Donbass". One of them, Colonel Axel Schneider, a German, said he and his colleagues had been treated "as good as possible" in what was a "miserable situation". The Kremlin had sent an envoy, Vladimir Lukin, to negotiate the release. He said he hoped the "voluntary act" by the separatists would be reciprocated by Kiev. "I would very much like the military action to end." But for those on the frontline there was no sign of that .

The village of Andrievka, on the outskirts of Slovyansk, had been the scene of a confrontation between Ukrainian forces and local people on Friday. It went on for hours, sometimes heated but non-violent. Then, just after 8pm, something went terribly wrong. The shooting that followed claimed between seven and 10 lives, from differing accounts, and left around 20 hurt.

How it started remains unclear. According to some, the soldiers began firing into the ground, people were hit by ricochets, stones were thrown in response, direct shots into the crowd ensued. Others claimed one soldier from the airborne brigade shot someone on his own side, a member of the National Guard, possibly by mistake, and panic ensued. The residents insisted that there had been no action from separatist fighters, but this could not be ruled out.

By Saturday morning, the troops and their armour had disappeared from the bridge above a stream that they had taken over. Left behind were spent cartridges, some of it heavy calibre; ground stained by pools of blood; some body parts and one body that had yet to be removed, a man with bullet wounds to his stomach, a coarse blanket half draped over him, lying beside a railway track.

It was the afternoon before the body of Andrei Balotski was identified. "He had come up from Kramatorsk to join us here when we were invaded by the soldiers. He has ended up like this," said Aleksei Viktorovich, 35, who lived near by. "We have contacted his family, but they cannot come because there is shooting in Kramatorsk and they are afraid to leave their homes.

"We don't know what to do with him, it is a hot day and we don't want to leave him here. My house is the nearest, but it would be difficult to take a dead body home with children there. My little boy is very scared by all the gunfire. I don't know how to explain these bad things to him."

It has become the practice among protesters to blame the spate of recent killings on the Right Sector, an ultra-nationalist group accused of carrying out dirty work on behalf of the Kiev administration. The separatist leadership has been keen to disseminate this narrative. But, looking at the body, Nicolai Alexanderovitch, 30, exclaimed: "Don't talk to me about the Right Sector. The Right Sector didn't kill this man, it was done by the Ukrainian army."

The Kiev administration had repeatedly accused the police service in Donbass of failing to counter the separatists and of often actively colluding with them. There were no police to be seen near Slovyansk or Kramatorsk as the Ukrainian forces faced protesters. I eventually ran into some at a side road, where a checkpoint has become notorious for journalists being taken hostage.

They were, they said yesterday, on their way to provide security to the place where the OSCE observers were being released. In the meantime they had been in deep and friendly conversation with three masked men with Kalashnikovs. "We are just making sure everyone remains calm," explained a sergeant. "These guys are being provoked, they are angry." Who is provoking them? I asked. "The Ukrainian army, of course, the rest of us want none of this bloodshed," the policeman responded.

CIA, FBI agents 'advising Ukraine government': report

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A man crosses the Central Intelligence Agency logo in the lobby of CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia, …

Berlin (AFP) - Dozens of specialists from the US Central Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation are advising the Ukrainian government, a German newspaper reported Sunday.

Citing unnamed German security sources, Bild am Sonntag said the CIA and FBI agents were helping Kiev end the rebellion in the east of Ukraine and set up a functioning security structure.

It said the agents were not directly involved in fighting with pro-Russian militants. "Their activity is limited to the capital Kiev," the paper said.

The FBI agents are also helping the Kiev government fight organised crime, it added.

A group specialised in financial matters is to help trace the wealth of former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, according to the report.

The interim Kiev government took charge in late February after months of street protests forced the ouster of Kremlin-friendly Yanukovych.

Fierce battles between Ukrainian soldiers and pro-Russian separatists in the country's east have left more than 50 people dead in recent days.

Last month the White House confirmed that CIA director John Brennan had visited Kiev as part of a routine trip to Europe, in a move condemned by Moscow.

Wednesday ahead of high-level talks on the crisis in Ukraine as a military operation ordered by Kiev to oust pro-Moscow separatists in its eastern regions collapsed.

A concerned NATO said it was deploying more forces in eastern Europe and called for Russia to stop "destabilising" the former Soviet republic, which has been in deep turmoil since the ouster of pro-Kremlin president Viktor Yanukovych in February.

The Ukrainian government's decision to put down a separatist uprising in its industrial heartland appeared to backfire spectacularly after an earlier warning from Moscow that Kiev was dragging the country to the brink of civil war.

Ukraine's defence ministry said Moscow-backed militants blocked and seized six armoured vehicles that had been dispatched to root out the separatists.

The commandeered vehicles, some adorned with Russian flags, were then stationed in the centre of the town of Slavyansk surrounded by dozens of armed men in camouflage claiming to be volunteers and Ukrainian army defectors, an AFP reporter said.

In another apparent embarrassment on the outskirts of the nearby town of Kramatorsk, Ukrainian troops -- some weeping -- handed over the firing mechanisms of their rifles to pro-Moscow protesters who had surrounded their column of 14 armoured carriers in return for a promise they could leave in their vehicles, an AFP reporter said.

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Pro-Russian activists block a collumn of Ukrainian men riding on Armoured Personnel Carriers in the  …

As the government's push to reclaim authority unravelled, NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen announced the alliance would deploy additional forces in eastern Europe.

"We will have more planes in the air, more ships on the water... and more readiness on the land," he said, while adding that a political solution was the only way forward.

The Ukrainian government ratcheted up the verbal attacks on Russia, with Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk accusing Moscow of trying to build "a new Berlin Wall".

Yatsenyuk demanded Moscow halt its support for the separatists and said Kiev would take a tough line at Thursday's crunch talks between the top diplomats of Russia, the European Union, the United States and Ukraine in Geneva.

"There is only one directive for the Ukrainian foreign ministry: the Russian government has to immediately withdraw its commando groups, condemn the terrorists and demand they leave the installations," he said.

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Map of Ukraine showing eastern cities hit by separatist action (AFP Photo/)

Russia lashed out at the White House ahead of the summit, claiming the Obama administration was backing Kiev's "war on its own people" in strident language that makes any concession at the talks seem unlikely.

"In Washington they have to be aware of the catastrophic consequences of their reckless support for their underlings in Kiev," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.

But the United States demanded that Russia stop its "provocation" in eastern Ukraine and threatened that it was actively preparing new sanctions against the Kremlin.

- 'Shoot-to-kill' policy -

As Kiev's operation against the separatists floundered, Ukraine's acting Defence Minister Mykhailo Koval headed out to the east in a bid to salvage the situation.

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Pro-Russian activists block a collumn of Ukrainian men riding on armoured vehicles in the eastern ci …

The military in Kiev also pledged a firm response after two serviceman were allegedly taken hostage by pro-Russian forces in the Lugansk region.

The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) claimed in a statement that Russian commanders in the east had issued pro-Kremlin militants with "shoot-to-kill" orders.

Vitaliy Naida, a spokesman for the service's counter-intelligence department, said some 40 Russian spies had been uncovered and stopped since the operation in the east began.

Elsewhere, pro-Moscow gunmen stormed the mayor's office in the regional capital Donetsk, according to an AFP reporter.

- 'Sharp escalation' -

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Armed pro-Russia activists stand guard on April 16, 2014 inside the city state building they seized  …

On Tuesday, confident authorities in Kiev had launched what they called the "anti-terrorist operation" to much fanfare, sending tanks towards Slavyansk -- which has been under the control of pro-Russian gunmen for several days -- in a high-risk strategy sharply condemned by the Kremlin but supported in Washington.

The display of military hardware was the most forceful response yet by the Western-backed government to the pro-Kremlin militants' occupation of state buildings in nearly 10 cities across Ukraine's rust belt.

But the move drew a sharp response from Putin in a telephone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"The Russian president remarked that the sharp escalation of the conflict has placed the country, in effect, on the verge of civil war," the Kremlin said in a statement.

The White House on Tuesday described Ukraine's decision to deploy troops as a "measured" response to a lawless insurgency that had put the government in an "untenable" situation.

- Threat of counterstrike -

Kiev's untested interim leaders -- who took power in February after four months of pro-European protests ousted Yanukovych -- have struggled to deal with the high-stakes insurgency in the east.

The breakaway move could potentially see the vast nation of 46 million people break up along its historic Russian-Ukrainian cultural divide.

Moscow last month annexed the largely Russified region of Crimea after deploying military forces there and backing a hasty local referendum calling for the Black Sea peninsula to be absorbed into the Russian Federation.

Ukrainian intelligence said Wednesday it had intercepted communications showing that the same Russian agents who oversaw the seizure of Crimea were now coordinating the unrest in the east.

Moscow has repeatedly claimed it has no ties to the Russian-speaking gunmen who have proclaimed the creation of an independent republic in the east.

But a forceful military response by Kiev could prompt a devastating counterstrike by Russian troops who are waiting to act on Putin's vow to "protect" Russian-speakers in the neighbouring state.

Benghazi: The Crack Letting the Light Into the Darkest House

On Wednesday, an email emerged from White House in which national security aide Ben Rhodes instructed UN Ambassador Susan Rice – copying President Obama’s entire political team at the White House – that her goal on the Sunday shows following the September 11, 2012 terrorist attacks in Benghazi should be to “underscore that these protests are rooted in an Internet video, and not a broader failure of policy.”

That email demonstrates that the White House lied when it said it did not skew for political reasons the talking points provided to Rice; Rice then appeared on the Sunday shows and claimed that a YouTube video lay at the root of the terrorist attacks. Although White House press secretary Jay Carney suggested that the White House talking points merely reflected the best available information provided by the CIA, that was clearly untrue; CIA deputy director Michael Morell testified last month that when Rice “talked about the video, my reaction was, that’s not something the analysts have attributed this attack to.”

But that’s hardly the only lie from this White House surrounding Benghazi. Here, then, are the top six top lies told by the White House with regard to the terrorist attacks that ended in the murder of four Americans, including Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens.

The Obama Administration Did All It Could To Protect American Personnel in Benghazi. Thursday on Capitol Hill, retired Air Force Brigadier General Robert Lovell, who was Deputy Director for Intelligence and Knowledge Development Directorate for AFRICOM during Benghazi, testified:

There are accounts of time, space and capability discussions of the question, could we have gotten there in time to make a difference. Well, the discussion is not in the “could or could not” in relation to time, space and capability—the point is we should have tried. As another saying goes: “Always move to the sound of the guns.” It is with a sense of duty as a retired General officer that I respectfully submit these thoughts and perspectives.

Lovell further testified that the State Department submitted no request for military force to the best of his knowledge. In 2013, Deputy Ambassador Gregory Hicks stated that Special Operations Command Africa commander Lt. Col. Gibson were going to board a C-130 to head to Benghazi “when [Col. Gibson] got a phone call from SOCAFRICA which said, ‘you can’t go now, you don’t have the authority to go now.’ And so they missed the flight…”

That’s a far cry from the consistent claim from the Obama administration that everything that could have been done was done on that night.

Furthermore, the biggest unanswered question of all remains: why weren’t there sufficient forces on the ground in the first place to protect American personnel?

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Did All She Could To Protect State Department Personnel. In her now-infamous testimony before Congress, Clinton shouted, “What difference, at this point, does it make?” with reference to the source and rationale for the attacks. Obviously, it made a difference to the White House, which wanted focus on the YouTube video rather than on “broader foreign policy” issues.

But Hillary has never answered where exactly she was that night. According to Hicks, after speaking briefly with Hillary Clinton at 2 a.m. on the night of the attacks, she never called back to find out the latest developments. Barack Obama, too, is absent from the Benghazi story; we now know he never entered the Situation Room.

Then-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta testified that he met with Obama on the afternoon of September 11, told him about what was happening in Benghazi, and never checked back in. Panetta says that Obama left the details on the handling of Benghazi “up to us.” The White House, Panetta said, never called for an update on the situation. Panetta had no conversations with Clinton.

The YouTube Video Was Involved. Susan Rice’s repeated statements on national television blaming a YouTube video called “The Innocence of Muslims” for the terrorist attacks in Benghazi were untrue. Rice and company maintained throughout the fallout that her statements were based on the best available intelligence. But that was a lie. Within hours, intelligence on the ground knew that this was a terrorist attack. At no point did the CIA connect even the early reports of protests with the YouTube video. The YouTube video may have been instrumental in protests in Egypt and other areas around the Muslim world. But it had nothing to do with Benghazi.

President Obama Called The Benghazi Attacks Terrorist Attacks. This, of course, was Obama’s contention in the aftermath of the Benghazi blow-up; in a debate with Mitt Romney, he and Candy Crowley famously double-teamed Romney with the claim that Obama had labeled Benghazi a terror event. But that was untrue, as Crowley later admitted. In fact, when Obama was asked by CBS News on the day after the attack whether it was a terrorist attack, he demurred. CBS News excised that portion of the tape, and released it only months later.

There Was No Political Manipulation of Susan Rice’s Talking Points. The State Department requested changes to an initial draft of talking points from the CIA, which included the statements that the government “know[s] Islamic extremists with ties to al Qaeda participated in the attack,” as well as noting that press reports “linked the attack to Ansar al Sharia.” It also included statements that there had been threats against the American embassy in the past. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland wrote back that she worried that if this information was included, Congress would blast the State Department for “not paying attention to Agency

warnings.” The CIA then removed the references to Ansar al Sharia. The White House then got involved and wanted further changes. Morrell then cut all language referring to “Islamic extremists,” information about warnings about al Qaeda, and reference to jihadists. So was language about attacks.

And all of that is leaving aside Rhodes talking points mentioned above, which apparently constitute a different set of talking points entirely.

The Obama Administration Has Been Fully Transparent About Benghazi. While the White House bills itself as the most transparent in history, it’s now obvious that it is anything but. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) has now subpoenaed Secretary of State John Kerry about the State Department’s initial refusal to turn over the Rhodes talking points document. Hicks testified under oath that the State Department had excoriated him for talking to Congress, and had insisted that a State Department lawyer be present for any such conversations. Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) said that the Obama administration had blocked Benghazi witnesses.

These are merely the lies, not the open questions. The open question include:

Was there gunrunning through the annex in Benghazi? Why was there no armed protection for American personnel in Benghazi? Where exactly were Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama during the event, and what did

they do to help the men under fire? Why did the Obama administration insist for weeks that a YouTube video had driven the

Benghazi attacks?

Then there’s the biggest question of all: why didn’t the media care about any of this before the election of 2012?

A long, long time ago.I can still remember, how America used to make me smile

And, I knew if we had a chance, that we could make the people dance,& Maybe they'd be happy once again.

But, November made me shiver.With every paper I'd deliverBenghazi on the doorstep. I couldn't take one more step.

I can't remember if I cried.When I read about his widowed brideSomething touched me deep inside.The day the 'Heros' died

So, bye bye Miss American Pie.Drove my Chevy to the tresry.But the tresry was dry.Them good ol' boys were drinking Colt 45's, singing.Will this 'Video' be 'my' big 'lie'...?Will this be the day, I 'get high'...?

Did you write the Bill of Care &. did you 'leave' those, people THERE Did the 'Pollster' tell you tooo?

Now, do you believe in 'shuck in jive'?Could 4 years more save your, fiscal hide? & Can you teach me how & why real...slow?

Well, I know that you're loven' him, cause I saw you 'dancing' in the gym...You all kicked off your shoes man. While I heard all the lies & news...

I'm a lonely, tax payen' buck.with a empty wallet and a pickup truck, but.I knew I was out of luck.The day the 'Hero's, died.

I started singing, bye bye Miss American Pie.Drove my Chevy to the tresry,but the tresry, was dry.Them good ol' boys were drinking C-45's and , singing... This'll be the day that I lie.This'll be the day that they 'died'..!

Now for, four years we've been on our own.& Pol's grew fat on a 'Pollsters Tone', but...That's not how it used to beee.

When the Speaker sang for the 'king and queen'in a vote $he borrowed from, 'future teen'sOn a vote that came from you and yours.

Oh, and while the King was looking down.The Speaker $tole the futures' dawn.The 'Peoples House' was adjourned -as the vote was returned.

& while Lenin read a book on Marx.The Due-o dance'n in the park, and... In 'Benghazi', they fought the dark, the day, our 'Hero's', died.

We are singing, bye bye Miss American PieDrove my Chevy to the tresry, but the tresry, was dry.Them good ol' boys were drinking C-45's, singing... This'll be the day that I buy.This'll be the day, I get high.

Helter Skelter in 'Mid-East' swelter -The 'Drones' flew off.With a 'Pollster Helper'.Two Miles High and filming fastIt scanned 'Heros', their last 'gasp'...

The players tried for a forward pass.with their 'Leader' on the sidelines, with his 'Cast'.Now, the 'TV's air was tweaked.While 'His Surrogates', their, marching 'weak.

We we're all in a trance.The Seals, never...had a chance.'Cause the players had, facts to 'HIDE'.In 'Benghazi', our people 'DIED

Do you recall what was revealed,the day, 'our Heros' died?We started singing, bye bye Miss American Pie.Drove my Chevy to the tresry, but the tresry was dry.

Them good ol' boys were drinking C-45's, singing. This'll be the day that I buy.This'll be the day, I get high .

And, there we were, all in one place -generations' Lost in Space.With no time left to start again.

So, come on, Vote be nimble, Vote be quick.Votes Flash sat on a Candlestick, 'cause.Lying is the 'Lefties' only friend.

And, as I watched them on the tube my hands were clenched in fists of rage

No angel born in H ell could break that Satan's spell...And, as the flames climbed high into the night,to 're-elect', sacrificial rite. I saw, Satan laughing with delight. The day the 'Hero's' died.

He was singing, bye bye Miss American Pie.Drove my Chevy to the tresry.& RE-ELECTED, am I....

Them good ol' boys were were trying yet.'sad' they must die, singing... This'll be the day that I 'LIE'This'll be the day that I 'LIE'

I met some girl's who sang the Blues.And I asked them for some happy news.Hillary, Valarie & 'Rice', just smiled & turned away.

I went down to the sacred store.Where I'd heard the music years before but.The man there said the music wouldn't play.

And, in the streets the children screamed.The lover's cried, and the poets dreamed, but.Not a word was spoken.The church bells all were broken.

And, the three people I despise most.Elected, the 'pol's', sure did toast. The day, the 'country', died.

And, they were singing.Bye bye Miss American Pie.Them good ol' boys were drinking C-45's. singing.This'll be the day I get high.

In 'Benghazi', "this is why they died...

No Jobs? How about no Workers?

While the White House and many like-minded media commentators are touting that the unemployment drop from 6.7 to 6.3 percent is good news, the reality is other economic indicators reveal the 6.3 number is terrible for the long-term health of the U.S. economy. The number that matters most—the labor participation rate—has dropped to a shocking low of 62.8 percent.

The unemployment number is used because it’s a simple statistic that’s easy to repeat on television, but it’s relatively useless as an indicator of the national job market. It counts as “employed” those who are underemployed with, for example, a part-time job that pays $18,000 a year, when that worker is seeking a full-time job paying $45,000 to be economically secure.

But more fundamentally, it measures the percentage of people who are actively looking for a job at the moment, yet cannot find one. It does not factor in those who are capable of working, but are not trying to work.

The relevant number—and one that commentators need to focus on until it becomes the baseline figure for discussion with the American people—is the labor participation rate (also called the labor force participation rate or the workforce participation rate). The short description of this metric is the percentage of Americans who are able to work who have a job or are actively trying to secure a job. (It still counts the underemployed, but it’s more useful than the unemployment rate.)

There were encouraging aspects about the May 2 report on the labor market. Employers added an estimated 288,000 jobs in April, on top of 203,000 added in March. Today’s numbers beat the forecast of 218,000. Hiring is accelerating, at least in the short-term. (Note, also, that these numbers are just tentative and will be revised in a few weeks.)

But the number that puts a heavy damper on the whole economic outlook (without even discussing taxes, spending, or deficits) is that 800,000 Americans dropped out of the labor force altogether last month. Almost 1 million Americans who are able-bodied and willing to work—and who previously had been looking for a job—have now given up, and are living off others or off the taxpayers through government welfare.

For example, some media outlets are crowing that the 6.3 percent unemployment is the lowest since September 2008, before the collapse of Lehman Brothers. But the labor participation rate in that month was 66.0 percent, far higher than today.

Today, with the same 6.3 percent unemployment, millions more Americans are without a job. The last time the labor rate was this low was 36 years ago, in 1978. Currently, there are almost 100 million adult Americans without a job.

One of the essential pillars of America’s long-term economic superpower status is this country’s entrepreneurial economy, in which there are countless millions of self-employed workers and

very small (two, five, or ten-person) businesses, along with the traditional lineup of large, medium, and small businesses. It enables America to come as close as possible to full employment, where the vast supermajority of Americans make a paycheck, are fully self-sufficient as individuals or provide for an immediate family, and contribute to the economic well-being of the local community and the nation.

Instead, we are witnessing the growth of the entitlement state and a lower-income lifestyle. The Obama administration and Democratic congressional leadership are feeding a self-indulgent lifestyle mentality, touting massive (and massively expensive) government entitlements as the way people can choose to be poets or novice artists and spend their days doing those things that they have not built careers sufficient to financially accommodate.

This is most damaging to the younger generation, too many of whom are currently without a job and driving the disturbing numbers discussed here. In our economic system, those in their twenties get their first “real jobs” that they use to build their own professional skill set, establish their own household, start accumulating their own assets and wealth, and become productive members of society.

The age-20 decade lays a foundation that reaches full fruition in a person’s thirties and forties, and perhaps matures to a higher level in their fifties and sixties. If they cannot build this foundation, it impairs their ability to accumulate wealth and build a career for the rest of their lives, with implications for marriage, family formation, and other vitally important consequences for the entire nation. A 25-year-old who is living at home without a job, still on his parents' insurance policy, is not on a path to a successful career and family life.

But in a healthy free-market economy, everyone must either make an economically-prosperous full-time job out of those pursuits, or they must have a more conventional full-time job that pays the bills—and write their screenplays or novels in their leisure time at night or on the weekend. That is how to create wealth and achieve economic self-sufficiency. Work first; play later. And if they can find a way to make their play a form of financially-sustainable work, all the better.

We are, instead, moving toward a labor participation rate of 50 percent, where literally half the country works to support the other half. That means massive taxes on half the country’s citizens to subsidize the other half in terms of health care, housing, education, food stamps, and the like. It is the ultimate form of wealth redistribution. One might even say it amounts to “fundamentally transforming the United States of America,” if anyone has ever heard a national politician use such a phrase.

OPERATION AMERICAN SPRING – Washington, D.C.

Phase 1 – Field millions, as many as ten million, patriots who will assemble in a peaceful, non-violent, physically unarmed (Spiritually/Constitutionally armed), display of unswerving loyalty to the US Constitution and against the incumbent government leadership, in Washington, D.C., with the mission to replace with law abiding leadership.

Phase 2 – One million or more of the assembled 10 million must be prepared to stay in D.C. as long as it takes to see Obama, Biden, Reid, McConnell, Boehner, Pelosi, and Attorney General Holder removed from office. Consistent with the US Constitution, as required, the U.S. Congress will take appropriate action, execute appropriate legislation, deal with vacancies, or U.S. States will appoint replacements for positions vacated consistent with established constitutional requirements.

Phase 3 –Recommend appropriate charges against politicians and government employees of the U.S. Attorney General. Arrest them and unravel their regulations back to the date of January 1st, 2008. This means every regulation on every Federal book. Relieve every Secretary of every Agency, Department, Bureau, and Administration. Congress shall appoint new leadership accountable to the people of the United States.

Is it anarchy? Yes, in a way it is. There is no leader to this movement. There is no Palin or Cruze or Paul in charge of this. This is the people saying, “We have had enough of these media games. We have had enough of the lies and the 5th Amendment dodgeball from these corrupt cronies of this administration. No more. No more. Not another day of it. No more.”

The Galactic Plane

Quite by coincidence, the great circle of the ecliptic – the projection of the Earth’s orbital plane onto the celestial sphere – intersects the galactic equator near the solstice points. According to the computational wizard Jean Meeus*, the solstice points were in alignment with the galactic equator as recently as the year 1998 – in other words, they were closer on the sky’s dome then. But in 2011 and 2012, these points – the solstice point, and the point where the sun crosses the galactic equator – are near each other on our sky’s dome.

What is the ecliptic?

The galactic plane is the actual mid-plane or center line of our galaxy’s huge spinning disk of stars. We are not located on the exact mid-plane of the galaxy. It’s this exact mid-plane people are speaking about when they speak of crossing something.

How far are we from it? You might think that astronomers have this number at their fingertips, but they don’t. We’re at least several dozen light-years from it, maybe more. If you’re interested in how astronomers discuss these things, check out this letter from John Bachall and Safi Bachall printed in the journal Nature in 1985. It suggests our Earth and sun are currently above the plane (to the galactic North) by about 75 to 101 light-years. I tend to interpret the data a little differently. We have better instrument up there now, and with more than 70 active Space programs out there, with none of them sharing anything with one another, I can look from the outside and say that we are perhaps ten years into it, and no more. We will be in it for about 5-8 more years, and it is a gravel road in the galaxy. Main stream astronomers hold that the Earth passes through the galactic plane twice each year. Fringe astronomers say that we pass through it once every 26,000 years or so. That cycle would have taken place two years ago this Christmas. That is a cosmic wink of an eye.

It’s true that the sun on the December solstice doesn’t return to the same exact spot in front of the backdrop stars every year. The solstice point slowly but surely moves westward through the stars at about one degree per every 72 years. (For reference, the sun’s diameter equals about 1/2 degree.)

Therefore, the solstice point moves about 30o westward every 2,160 years. By the year 2269, the December solstice point will cross into the constellation Ophiuchus. Then the solstices won’t happen so near the location of the galactic equator in our sky.

Take a look at the sky chart at the very top of this post. If you could see the stars during the daytime, you’d see the sun in front of the constellation Sagittarius on each December 21 solstice. We show Sagittarius as a Teapot on this sky chart, because many people are able to see that pattern. On or near each December solstice, the sun crosses the galactic equator above the spout of the Teapot, a bit north of the galactic center. Can you see that intersection? If you were standing under the real sky on a dark, moonless night, you could see the great boulevard of stars that we call the Milky Way running astride the galactic equator.

Scientific studies indicate that the solar system lies at least several dozen light-years north of the galactic plane, possibly farther. What’s more, we are continuing to travel northward, away from the plane of our Milky Way galaxy, at some 7 kilometers per second. Therefore, we won’t be physically passing through the galactic plane in 2012 or anytime in the near future

Astronomers say they have discovered a star cluster that has been thrown in the direction of Earth at a speed of more than two million miles per hour.

The cluster, named HVGC-1, originated in the M87 galaxy and is expected to endlessly drift through space, rocketing through the voids between other galaxies.

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"Astronomers have found runaway stars before, but this is the first time we've found a runaway star cluster," said Nelson Caldwell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who is the lead author on a study which is set to be published in the The Astrophysical Journal.

HVGC stands for hypervelocity globular cluster. These clusters are groupings of thousands of stars contained inside a ball a few dozen light-years across.

The team found HVGC-1 using the MMT Telescope in Arizona after spending years studying the space around M87. A computer then calculated the speed of the cluster.

"We didn't expect to find anything moving that fast," said Jay Strader of Michigan State University, who is a co-author of the study.

The Milky Way Galaxy holds around 150 globular clusters, while the M87 galaxy holds thousands, according to a news release from Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Astronomers believe HVGC-1 could have reached its current speed after passing through two supermassive black holes at the center of M87, which acted like a slingshot, flinging the cluster away.

Now, this data leads to theories that dark matter could sling lethal meteors at Earth, potentially causing mass extinctions like the cataclysm that ended the Age of Dinosaurs, Harvard scientists say. The issue at hand is clocking these rocks. We only “see” them when light from the Sun reflects off of them. By then, we typically have a few months to track it and then predict if there is chance it will come close enough to cause problems. But at the speed of a million miles an hour, there may not be enough time to do anything. Not much of anything.

Physicists think the mysterious, invisible substance called dark matter makes up five-sixths of all matter in the universe. It was first detected by the strength of its gravitational pull, which apparently helps keep the Milky Way and other galaxies from spinning apart, given the speeds at which they whirl.

Scientists have recently suggested that a thin, dense disk of dark matter about 35 light-years thick lies along the central plane of the Milky Way, cutting through the galaxy's disk of stars. The sun travels in an up-and-down, wavy motion through this plane while orbiting the center of the galaxy.

Researchers suggest this disk of clouds and clumps made of dark matter might disturb the orbits of comets in the outer solar system, hurling them inward. This could lead to catastrophic asteroid impacts on Earth, of the kind that likely ended the Age of Dinosaurs, said theoretical physicists Lisa Randall and Matthew Reece at Harvard University.

Past research has suggested meteor bombardment of Earth rises and falls in a cycle about 35 million years long. In the past, scientists have proposed a cosmic trigger for this cycle, such as a potential companion star for the sun with the dramatic name "Nemesis."

Instead of blaming a "death star" for these catastrophes, Randall and Reese point out that this cycle of doom closely matches the rate at which the sun passes through the central plane of the Milky Way. This hints that the galaxy's "dark disk" may be the actual culprit.

The researchers analyzed craters more than 12 miles wide created in the past 250 million years, and compared their pattern against the 35-million-year cycle. They found that it was three times more likely that the craters matched the dark matter cycle than that they occurred randomly.

This cycle might have killed off dinosaurs about 67 million years ago. "The cycle is slightly off for that mass extinction, but we have an incomplete data set regarding impact craters, so maybe with more information the cycle might fit what we know better," Randall told Space.com.

Although a three-to-one chance sounds impressive, the researchers cautioned that this statistical evidence is not overwhelming.

The scientists note that the European Space Agency's Gaia mission could reveal the existence or nonexistence of a dark matter disk. Launched in 2013, this mission will create a precise 3D map of stars throughout the Milky Way, potentially confirming or denying the existence of a dark disk that gravitationally influences stellar motions.

"Even if it's a remote possibility that dark matter can affect the local environment in ways that have noticeable consequences over long periods of time, it's still incredibly interesting," Randall said.

The scientists detailed their findings online April 20 in the journal Physical Review Letters.