STUDY: BRAIN SCANS REVEAL HIDDEN CONSCIOUSNESS IN PATIENTS

A  standard brain scanning technique is showing promise for helping doctors distinguish between patients in a vegetative state and those with hidden signs of consciousness.

A study released Thursday is the latest to investigate using technology to help meet the challenge of making that distinction, which now is generally based on a doctor’s bedside exam.

Patients in a vegetative state have open eyes and show periods of sleep and wakefulness, but they are unaware of themselves or others and unable to think, respond or do anything on purpose. Patients in a minimally conscious state show only intermittent and minimal signs of awareness of themselves or their environment.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MED_BRAIN_SCANS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-05-26-12-37-26

New Libyan government takes over more ministries

Libya’s new unity government on Monday took control of more ministries in Tripoli including foreign affairs as it seeks to assert its authority over the violence-plagued country.

Mohammad al-Amari, a minister of state in the Government of National Accord, signed documents passing control of the key foreign ministry complex in the north of the capital to the new government, an AFP journalist said.

The GNA also Monday took the ministries of planning and religious endowment.

Over the past week, the transport, social affairs, environment, and youth and sports ministries have likewise been transferred to the new government.

The international community sees the GNA as the best hope for oil-rich Libya, which has been roiled by turmoil since the 2011 ouster and killing of longtime ruler Moamer Kadhafi.

Libya’s State Council, the most senior consultative body created under a UN-brokered power-sharing deal in December, met for the first time on Friday.

NEW LIBYAN GOVERNMENT TAKES OVER MORE MINISTRIES

Mohammad al-Amari, a minister of state in the Government of National Accord, signed documents passing control of the key foreign ministry complex in the north of the capital to the new government, an AFP journalist said.

The GNA also Monday took the ministries of planning and religious endowment.

Over the past week, the transport, social affairs, environment, and youth and sports ministries have likewise been transferred to the new government.

http://www.infowars.com/new-libyan-government-takes-over-more-ministries/

 

FEDS SPENT $86 MILLION ON PLANE THAT CAN’T FLY

The Office of Inspector General for the Justice Department released a report Wednesday chronicling the boondoggle, which initially started as an $8 million project eight years ago.

“In fiscal year 2008 the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) expended nearly $8.6 million to purchase an ATR 42-500 aircraft (ATR 500) to support its counternarcotics efforts in Afghanistan,” the inspector general said. “The Department of Defense (DOD) agreed to modify the DEA’s ATR 500 with surveillance equipment and other capabilities to conduct such operations in the combat environment of Afghanistan in what became known as the Global Discovery program.”

http://www.infowars.com/feds-spent-86-million-on-plane-that-cant-fly/

Feds Spent $86 Million on Plane That Can’t Fly

The Department of Defense and Drug Enforcement Administration collectively spent $86 million to fight drug crime in Afghanistan on a plane that cannot fly.

The Office of Inspector General for the Justice Department released a reportWednesday chronicling the boondoggle, which initially started as an $8 million project eight years ago.

“In fiscal year 2008 the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) expended nearly $8.6 million to purchase an ATR 42-500 aircraft (ATR 500) to support its counternarcotics efforts in Afghanistan,” the inspector general said. “The Department of Defense (DOD) agreed to modify the DEA’s ATR 500 with surveillance equipment and other capabilities to conduct such operations in the combat environment of Afghanistan in what became known as the Global Discovery program.”

“Even though collectively the DEA and DOD have spent more than $86 million on the Global Discovery program, we found that, over seven years after the aircraft was purchased for the program, the aircraft remains inoperable, resting on jacks, and has never actually flown in Afghanistan,” the inspector general said.

http://freebeacon.com/issues/feds-86-million-plane-cant-fly/

Opinion: Negative interest rates put the global economy on a razor’s edge

Negative rates are now the policy of the European Central Bank, with a deposit rate of minus 0.40%. Ditto for Switzerland, where the rate is minus 0.75%. In Sweden, the rate is minus 0.35%. The Bank of Japan too has announced negative interest rates, of 0.10%.
More than $26 trillion of government bonds now trade at yields of below 1%, with around $7 trillion currently yielding less than 0%. Government bonds in Germany with a maturity of seven years are trading at negative yields, while Swiss and Japanese government bonds out to 10 years trade at negative yields.

Negative yields mean that if an investor places a deposit with a bank, at maturity the investor receives an amount less than the original investment. In effect, the depositor pays to place money with the bank. In the case of bonds, negative yields mean that investors accept an economic loss, as the price paid by the investor is greater than the present value of the interest payments and principal repayment for a security.

Negative real rates entail return on the amount invested but loss of purchasing power because inflation rates are greater than the return. Negative nominal rates involve a guaranteed loss of capital invested.

Yet negative rates so far have not boosted growth or inflation. Instead the policy is creating serious economic and financial distortions.

The lack of impact on the real economy reflects the failure of these policies to materially increase consumption and investment. Heavily indebted or increasingly cautious households are reluctant to borrow to fund spending. Low business investment reflects lack of demand, over-capacity, and a reluctance to increase debt in a potentially deflationary environment.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/negative-interest-rates-put-the-global-economy-on-a-razors-edge-2016-03-29

U.S. appeals court declines to block Obama carbon emissions plan

Related: ELECTION 2016, POLITICS, ENVIRONMENT, GLOBAL ENERGY NEWS

In a big victory for the Obama administration, a U.S. federal court on Thursday rejected a bid by 27 states to block its Clean Power Plan, the centerpiece of its strategy to combat climate change by reducing carbon emissions from power plants.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued a brief order denying an application seeking to stay the rule while litigation continues.

The states, led by West Virginia, and several major business groups in October launched the legal challenges seeking to block the Obama administration’s proposal to curb carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.

More than a dozen other states and the National League of Cities, which represents more than 19,000 U.S. cities, filed court papers backing the Environmental Protection Agency’s rule.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-climatechange-idUSKCN0UZ2SX?utm_source=twitter

U.S. appeals court declines to block Obama carbon emissions plan: https://t.co/CZdKHdI0ij pic.twitter.com/gpzUpPbJs4

— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) January 22, 2016

Obama declares emergency in Michigan over bad water – White House

U.S. President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency in Michigan on Saturday and ordered federal aid for state and local response efforts in the county where the city of Flint has been contending with lead-contaminated drinking water.

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder had asked the president to declare both an emergency and an expedited major disaster in Genesee County to protect the safety of Flint residents.

Obama is authorizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief efforts there, the White House said in a statement.

The action is being taken to “lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in Genesee County,” it said.

Snyder sent the Michigan National Guard to distribute bottled water and other supplies in the area earlier this week.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-michigan-water-idUSKCN0UU13G?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=twitter

Obama declares emergency in Michigan over bad water – White House https://t.co/qmkdTqOyGG

— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) January 16, 2016

For China, climate deal is imperfect but huge step forward

Related: World, Environment, China, Global Energy News

For China, the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter, the global climate accord reached in Paris marked a huge step toward greener growth that safeguards its sovereignty while falling short on funding for cleaner energy.

Xie Zhenhua, Beijing’s senior climate change envoy, said he welcomed what he described as a flawed agreement, echoing a similar summation from U.S. President Barack Obama.

On Saturday, the global climate summit in Paris produced a landmark accord that set the course for an historic transformation of the world’s fossil fuel-driven economy within decades in a bid to arrest global warming.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-climatechange-summit-china-idUSKBN0TW0B320151213#wWbkMo3lMvDV8FSA.97

US proposes 17-year delay in start of Hanford nuclear cleanup — until 2039

The department submitted the 29-page plan in federal court as part of a suit to amend an agreement with the state that requires the plant to start operating in 2022.

A series of serious technical questions about the plant’s design have caused one delay after another. Two of the major facilities at the cleanup site, which resembles a small industrial city, are under a construction halt ordered in 2013 by then-Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

The plant, located on a desert plateau above the Columbia River, is designed to transform 56 million gallons of radioactive sludge, currently stored in underground tanks, into solid glass that could theoretically be stored for thousands of years.

The waste was a byproduct of plutonium production, which started with the Manhattan Project during World War II.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-11-year-hanford-nuclear-cleanup.html#jCp