No trace of chemical weapons at alleged attack site in Douma – Russian military

A child is treated in a hospital in Douma, eastern Ghouta in Syria, after what a Syria medical relief group claims was a suspected chemical attack April, 7, 2018 © Reuters

The Russian military has found no trace of chemical weapons use after searching parts of Syria’s Douma allegedly targeted by an “attack.” Photos of victims posted by the White Helmets are fake, Russia’s Defense Ministry said.

Experts in radiological, chemical and biological warfare, as well as medics, on Monday inspected the parts of the Eastern Ghouta city of Douma, where an alleged chemical attack supposedly took place on Saturday, the Russian Reconciliation Center for Syria said in a statement.

The specialists “found no traces of the use of chemical agents” after searching the sites, the statement said. The center’s medical specialists also visited a local hospital but found no patients that showed signs of chemical weapons poisoning. “All these facts show… that no chemical weapons were used in the town of Douma, as it was claimed by the White Helmets,” the statement said, referring to the controversial “civil defense” group that was among the first to report about the alleged attack.

“All the accusations brought by the White Helmets, as well as their photos… allegedly showing the victims of the chemical attack, are nothing more than a yet another piece of fake news and an attempt to disrupt the ceasefire,” the Reconciliation Center said.

READ MORE: https://www.rt.com/news/423627-russian-military-checks-chemical-douma/

The Tragedy of James Comey

James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee in June.CreditDoug Mills/The New York Times

James Comey is about to be ubiquitous. His book will be published next week, and parts may leak this week. Starting Sunday, he will begin an epic publicity tour, including interviews with Stephen Colbert, David Remnick, Rachel Maddow, Mike Allen, George Stephanopoulos and “The View.”

All of which will raise the question: What, ultimately, are we supposed to make of Comey?

He may be the most significant supporting player of the Trump era, and his reputation has whipsawed over the last two years. He’s spent time as a villain, a savior and some bizarre combination of the two, depending on your political views.

I think that the harshest criticisms of Comey have been unfair all along. He has never been a partisan, for either side. Over a long career at the Justice Department, he was driven by its best ideals: upholding the rule of law without fear or favor. His strengths allowed him to resist political pressure from more than one president of the United States.

Yet anybody who’s read Greek tragedy knows that strengths can turn into weaknesses when a person becomes too confident in those strengths. And that’s the key to understanding the very complex story of James Comey.


Long before he was a household name, Comey was a revered figure within legal circles. His rise was fairly typical: first a federal judge’s clerk, then a prosecutor, eventually a political appointee. But he was more charismatic than most bureaucrats — six feet eight inches tall, with an easy wit and refreshing informality. People loved working for him.

If you read his 2005 goodbye speech to the Justice Department, when he was stepping down as George W. Bush’s deputy attorney general, you can understand why. It’s funny, displaying the gifts of a storyteller. It includes an extended tribute to the department’s rank and file, like “secretaries, document clerks, custodians and support people who never get thanked enough.” He insists on “the exact same amount of human dignity and respect” for “every human being in this organization,” and he quotes the 18th-century preacher John Wesley: “Do all the good that you can.”

Above all, though, the speech is a celebration of the department’s mission. Many Justice Department officials, from both parties, have long believed that they should be more independent and less political than other cabinet departments. Comey was known as an evangelist of this view. To be a Justice Department employee, he said in his goodbye, is to be “committed to getting it right, and to doing the right thing, whatever the price.”

It wasn’t just an act, either. Comey sometimes chided young prosecutors who had never lost a case, accusing them of caring more about their win-loss record than justice. He told them they were members of the Chicken Excrement Club (or something like that). Most famously, in 2004, he stood up to Bush and Dick Cheney over a dubious surveillance program.

But as real as Comey’s independence and integrity were, they also became part of a persona that he cultivated and relished.The reason that people knew about his defiance of Bush and Cheney is that Comey himself told Congress, at a stage-managed 2007 hearing. As a former Justice official later told the journalist Garrett Graff, “Jim Comey always has to be positioned oppositional to those in power.”


With this background, you can understand — though not excuse — Comey’s great mistake. He was the F.B.I. director overseeing the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server. He and his team decided that she had not done anything that warranted criminal charges. And he knew that Republicans would blast him as a coward who was trying to curry favor with the likely future president.

So he decided to go public with his explanation for not charging Clinton and to criticize her harshly. He then doubled down, releasing a public update on the investigation 11 days before the election, even as other Justice officials urged him not to. Department policy dictates that investigators aren’t supposed to talk publicly about why they are not bringing charges. They especially don’t do so when they could affect an election.

Comey, however, decided that he knew better than everyone else. He was the righteous Jim Comey, after all. He was going to speak truth to power. He was also, not incidentally, going to protect his own fearless image. He developed a series of rationales, suggesting that he really had no choice. They remain unpersuasive. When doing the right thing meant staying quiet and taking some lumps, Comey chose not to.

His tragic mistake matters because of the giant consequences for the country. He helped elect the most dangerous, unfit American president of our lifetimes. No matter how brave Comey has since been, no matter how honorable his full career, he can never undo that damage.

As he takes over the spotlight again, I’ll be thinking about the human lessons as well the political ones. Comey has greater strengths than most people. But for all of us, there is a fine line between strength and hubris.

SOURCE: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/08/opinion/james-comey.html

How the Beach Benefits Your Brain, According to Science

 

 

Science proves that heading to the beach can help you be more mentally fit.

 

CREDIT: Getty Images

There is something soothing about the sound of ocean waves, the smell of salt water, and the feeling of warm sand beneath your toes. Having grown up near the beach, I always classified my happiness on the beach as no more than nostalgia. Yet, recent studies prove that a beach-type environment can have a profound impact on our brains and mental health.

Although few people deny the importance of brain health, most of us don't focus as much effort on taking care of our brains as we do our bodies. The misnomer that physical fitness trumps mental health is at our detriment. The reality is that we need balance, both mentally and physically.

Numerous studies help us appreciate why the beach may be the premier destination for us to unwind and recharge our minds. 

Listen to Crashing Waves

Several months ago I partook in a deprivation float (the practice that many superstars such as, Steph Curry swear by). As my mind reached a meditative state, I could not help but hear a sound similar to that of waves crashing gently on the beach. This repetitive sound that was created as a result of  my rhythmic breaths and my ears being submerged in salt water instantly put me at ease.

"These slow, whooshing noises are the sounds of non-threats, which is why they work to calm people," says Orfeu Buxton, an associate professor of biobehavioral health at Pennsylvania State University. "It's like they're saying: "Don't worry, don't worry, don't worry." The sound of waves can help you achieve a meditative state, which is proven to heal and strengthen your brain.

Remove the Blues

Studies have shown that different colors often produce different psychological, emotional, and physical effects. The color blue, for instance, is often used in marketing material to convey a sense of calmness. The Global Healing Center advises individuals to actually surround themselves in blue as a way to reduce stress. 

According to Richard Shuster, PsyD, clinical psychologist, he agrees that blue has a profound calming effect on people. "Staring at the ocean actually changes our brain waves' frequency and puts us into a mild meditative state," says Shuster. 

Smell the Ocean Mist

When you first step out on the sand and allow your lungs to be filled with salty misty air, your brain may be receiving instant benefits. The negative ions (oxygen ions with an extra electron attached, produced via water molecules) in the ocean air can actually help calm your brain.

Negative ions have been shown to have a pronounced anti-depressant effect as well. As early as 1932, American research engineer Dr. Clarence Hansell noticed that the mood of one of his colleagues fluctuated in response to the type of ions - cheerful when subjected to positive ions and gloomy when subjected to negative ones.

Subsequent studies have found that the act of negatively ionized air -- the kind you receive when you get outside for a gulp of fresh air -- can alleviate symptoms of seasonal affective disorder (SAD).  

Feel the Sand Between Your Toes

Grounding, otherwise known as walking barefoot, has been proven to have a number of stimulating benefits to our bodies and minds. The reason is that our feet contain a rich network of nerves and acupuncture points. Our feet are able to absorb free ions on the earth surface in much the same way that our lungs are able to absorb ions in the air.

A report in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine shed some more light on these benefits. The earth is negatively charged, so when you walk barefoot, you're connecting your body to a negatively charged supply of energy. The result is one that many of us feel as soon as we kick off our shoes. Walking barefoot on the beach can trigger tingling warm sensations produced as a result of us "grounding" to earth.

"There are all these cognitive and emotional benefits that we derive every time we spend time by water" said Wallace J. Nichols, a marine biologist and best-selling author of the Blue Mind. "Once you get into it, you realize that it's chemistry, it's biology, it's physiology. It's deeply personal but it's also strong science."

In 2012, a University of Exeter study found that simply living within close proximity to a beach improves one's health and wellbeing. While it may be unreasonable for some of us to uproot and move to a beach town, prioritizing getting outdoors and connecting with the earth will still help you stay mentally fit.

SOURCE: https://www.inc.com/anne-gherini/how-beach-benefits-your-brain-according-to-science.html

Trump once fought legislation requiring sprinklers in NYC buildings

President Trump has a complicated history with the life-saving sprinklers the Trump Tower residential quarters lacked during a deadly fire Saturday.

Nearly two decades ago, Trump, then one of the Big Apple’s most prominent real estate moguls, lobbied against Mayor Rudy Giuliani-era legislation that considered whether sprinklers should be installed in all residential buildings after two fatal fires in Brooklyn and Manhattan.

The 1998 fires, which sparked sweeping building code changes, killed three firefighters at the NYCHA-run housing for seniors and four more died of smoke inhalation at an Upper West Side high-rise where child actor Macaulay Culkin's family lived.

Donald Trump (seen in 2005 showing Trump World Tower) once battled an NYC bill that suggested requiring all residential buildings to install sprinklers.

 (JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGES)

The Brooklyn home had sprinklers but they were turned off at the time of the blaze. The 51-story Manhattan building also had sprinklers, but only on the first 10 floors for commercial tenants.

Trump Tower blaze kills man on floor without sprinklers

Trump called city officials like famed Queens politician Archie Spigner, whose council committee compiled the bill, to argue that sprinklers were too expensive — at $4 per square foot — to install throughout an entire building, the New York Times reported at the time.

A man died in a 50th floor apartment at Trump Tower, which lacks sprinklers, on Saturday.

 (PETER GERBER)

Early talks for the proposed bill suggested that all residential buildings be required to install sprinklers, which irked developers, including Trump.

The future president backed off on panning the proposal after it was tweaked to grandfather existing buildings — such as Trump Tower — or structures for which building permits had already been filed, such as the Trump World Tower. Construction on the 72-floor building opposite the United Nations began in 1999.

Residents from a high rise apartment building on New York's West 60th Street try to keep warm on Dec. 23, 1998, after a fire broke out in two apartments in the building. Four people were found dead in the smoke-filled hallways on the 27th and 29th floors.

 (JEFF GEISSLER/AP)

He ultimately spent $3 million on sprinklers for his Trump World Tower.

Fire breaks out on Trump Tower roof

Even then, Trump admittedly failed to see the purpose that sprinklers served in high- rise buildings like his own.

The other 1998 blaze left three firefighters dead in NYCHA-run housing for seniors in the Canarse, Brooklyn.

 (ARTHUR DEGAETA FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS)

"People feel safer with sprinklers," Trump said, according to the Times. "But the problem with the bill is that it doesn't address the buildings that need sprinklers the most. If you look at the fire deaths in New York, almost all of them are in one- or two-family houses."

Giuliani signed the bill in March of that year, with a provision that required developers to install sprinklers when high-rise rentals undergo renovations.

Trump spent $3 million on sprinklers for his Trump World Tower.

 (BRYAN PACE FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS)

The fire that erupted inside Trump Tower on Saturday killed art dealer Todd Brassner at his 50th floor pad, where the law never mandated sprinklers to be equipped.

FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said at a press conference that even though building's residential units lacked sprinklers, the building "stood up quite well."

Trump mirrored Nigro's remarks in a tweet that applauded firefighters, before news of the fatality surfaced.

"Fire at Trump Tower is out," Trump tweeted. "Very confined (well built building). Firemen (and women) did a great job. THANK YOU!"

The cause of Brassner’s death was not immediately known.

SOURCE: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/trump-fought-legislation-requiring-sprinklers-nyc-buildings-article-1.3921642

Diamond And Silk Are Told By Facebook That Pro-Trump Content Is Too “Unsafe”, They Strike Back

Pro-Trump social media personalities Diamond and Silk got censored by Facebook. According to Facebook, being pro-Trump is ‘unsafe’ for the community. However, Diamond and Silk aren’t going to take this lying down. They went to Twitter to expose all of Facebook’s corruption.

“@DiamondandSilk have been corresponding since September 7, 2017, with @facebook (owned by Mark Zuckerberg), about their bias censorship and discrimination against D&S brand page. Finally after several emails, chats, phone calls, appeals, beating around the bush, lies, and giving us the run around, Facebook gave us another bogus reason why Millions of people who have liked and/or followed our page no longer receives notification and why our page, post and video reach was reduced by a very large percentage,” they explained.

“Here is the reply from Facebook. Thu, Apr 5, 2018 at 3:40 PM: “The Policy team has came to the conclusion that your content and your brand has been determined unsafe to the community.” Yep, this was FB conclusion after 6 Months, 29 days, 5 hrs, 40 minutes and 43 seconds,” they tweeted.

“Oh and guess what else Facebook said: “This decision is final and it is not appeal-able in any way.” (Note: This is the exact wording that FB emailed to us.)” they wrote.

“So our questions to Facebook (Mark Zuckerberg) are: 1. What is unsafe about two Blk-women supporting the @POTUS @realDonaldTrump? 2. Our FB page has been created since December 2014, when exactly did the content and the brand become unsafe to the community? 3. When you say “community” are you referring to the Millions who liked and followed our page? 4. What content on our page was in violation?” they asked.

Read more: http://conservative101.com/diamond-silk-told-facebook-pro-trump-content-unsafe-strike-back/#ixzz5C5CpsDjb

BET Founder Says Trump Economy Is Great for Black American Jobs

Black Entertainment Television (BET) founder Robert Johnson said that President Donald Trump is one of the best things to ever happen to the job market for black Americans.

Appearing on CNBC’s Squawk Box, the self-made billionaire insisted that despite the current lower-than-expected number of jobs created in March, the Trump economy is strong.

“When you look at that [January report], you have to say something is going right,” said the Democratic entrepreneur.

Johnson then added that Trump has been a boon for the black community.

“You have to take encouragement from what’s happening in the labor force and the job market,” Johnson told Squawk Box. “When you look at African-American unemployment, … you’ve never had African-American unemployment this low and the spread between African-Americans and whites narrowing.”

The television pioneer added that Trump’s policies have brought back into the job market people who have been out for a long time, “some of it based on discrimination, some of it based on changes in education, access and technology changes.”

Johnson said that Trump’s tax cuts also helped bring this economy to full speed, saying: “Business is very good. I believe that if you take into account the Trump tax cut, you take into account the drop in unemployment, and particularly unemployment for African Americans — it’s the lowest it’s ever been in history — and you take into account the fact that interest rates are fairly stable, the economy is going to keep growing.”

He concluded saying that the Trump economy is “on a strong growth path.”

At the end of 2016, Johnson insisted that he turned down a position in Trump’s administration because he does not want any sort of government job.

“But I can’t work for the government,” he said that November, “because to me as an entrepreneur trying to work in a government structure where you got to go through 15 different layers of decision-making to get want you want done doesn’t fit my mold.”

During his campaign, Trump insisted that he would sponsor policies that would create a “new deal” for blacks in America. And Johnson himself added that Trump had committed to “reach out” to black Americans.

SOURCE: http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2018/04/06/black-entertainment-television-founder-says-trump-best-thing-happen-african-american-jobs/

New Zealand finish ahead of Australia in Test Team Rankings

Both Australia and New Zealand have 102 points but New Zealand lead their trans-Tasman neighbours on decimal points and occupy the third spot.

New Zealand have overtaken Australia to take third position in the MRF Tyres ICC Test Team Rankings after the Christchurch and Johannesburg Test matches, which has resulted in them getting a bigger purse from the International Cricket Council at the extended cut-off date of 3 April.

New Zealand’s 1-0 series win over England and Australia’s 3-1 loss to South Africa have resulted in both teams finishing on 102 points in the team rankings. However, New Zealand are ahead by a wafer-thin margin, as they are now on 102.263 points and Australia are on 102.2 points.

The change in rankings means that New Zealand will now get a prize money of $200,000 for finishing third while Australia will have to be content with $100,000.

South Africa had already assured themselves of the second place and $500,000 after having taken up a 2-1 lead in the series since only Australia could overtake them in the team list. Australia needed to win 3-0 or better to overtake South Africa while they had to avoid losing 3-1 or worse to ensure that neither New Zealand nor England could overtake them.

India have already been presented with the ICC Test Championship Mace and a $1 million prize money after they sealed the top spot following victory in the Johannesburg Test against South Africa in January. South Africa had won the series 2-1.

India and South Africa had also finished in similar rankings in 2017.

MRF Tyres ICC Test Team Rankings (as on 3 April, after the Christchurch and Johannesburg Tests)

Rank	Team	Points
1	India	121
2	South Africa	117 (+2)
3	New Zealand	102 (+2)
4	Australia	102 (-2)
5	England	97 (-2)
6	Sri Lanka	95
7	Pakistan	88
8	Windies	72
9	Bangladesh	71
10	Zimbabwe	1

(Developed by David Kendix)

*The cut-off for the annual rankings is generally 1 April but was extended this year owing to these two series ending on 3 April.

SOURCE: https://www.icc-cricket.com/media-releases/655853