Waking Times, By: Joe Wright, 11/13/2013

The story of a letter embedded in a package of Kmart Halloween decorations received by Oregonian Julie Keith immediately went ultra-viral as it detailed an excruciating cry for help from a prisoner of a Chinese forced labor camp. The letter brought to the forefront a part of the American economy that most of us would like to ignore, or simply hope is being dealt with appropriately behind the scenes: the fact that the low prices that are such a boon to the American consumer-driven economy have a terrible hidden price attached.

As a testament to the will of human freedom, the author of the letter has gone even further and has identified himself to the New York Times. For now, he’s simply “Mr. Zhang.” He is 47 years old and has more to tell about his time as a slave.

For more on this story visit www.wakingtimes.com

By: Michele Berger, 11/13/2013

Researchers in the Himalayas discovered the remains of the oldest known big cat. A fossil from Panthera blytheae, an animal closely related to the snow leopard and exhibiting characteristics similar to other big cats, lived nearly 6 million years ago, much earlier than previous estimates for animals of this lineage, according to a paper published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. It also came from Tibet rather than Africa, where the oldest fossils of this type have been found.

The researchers from the University of Southern California and several natural history museums in the United States and Canada, reported their findings online yesterday. “These new fossils fill in a huge time gap,” paleobiologist Jack Tseng of the American Museum of Natural History told National Geographic.

For more on this story visit www.wunderground.com

Waking Times, By: Sky Truth, 11/12/2013

Hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking, and other drilling practices have unlocked previously inaccessible reserves of oil and gas across the United States and the world. However, some of the debate over fracking is distorting public understanding of these practices and interfering with good decision-making about this recent boom in unconventional oil and gas production. We often hear statements like this from industry and pro-drilling politicians: America has drilled and fracked more than 1 million wells over the past 60 years, and in all that time there has never been a proven case of groundwater contamination caused by fracking.

Natural Society, By: Elizabeth Renter, 11/13/2013

On October 21, 2013, the European Network of Scientists for Social and Environmental Responsibility (ENSSER) posted a statement, “No scientific consensus on GMO safety”, to let the world know there are some very bright minds with very real oppositions to genetically modified organisms. In the short time that it’s been live, the number of signatures on the statement has grown considerably to 231, including one scientist who helped to commercialize the first GM food, the Flavr Savr tomato.

Dr. Belinda Martineau is a former member of the Michelmore Lab at the University of California Davis Genome Center, where she worked on the technology for the first GM-whole food. Now, however, she isn’t so convinced about its value. Martineau isn’t alone. Numerous other esteemed scientists have stepped forward to voice their concerns with GM technology. While companies behind genetically-modified foods would have you believe there is nothing to worry about and that all GMOs are risk-free, positive additions to the food system, they simply aren’t telling the whole truth.

Desmogblog.com, By: Sharon Kelly, 11/08/2013

Since the shale rush took off starting in 2005 in Texas, drillers have sprinted from one state to the next, chasing the promise of cheaper, easier, more productive wells. This land rush was fueled by a wild spike in natural gas prices that helped make shale gas drilling attractive even though the costs of fracking were high. As the selling price of natural gas sank from its historic highs in 2008, much of the luster wore off entire regions that had initially captivated investors, like Louisiana’s Haynesville shale or Arkansas’s Fayetteville, now in decline.

But unlike natural gas prices, oil prices remain high to this day, and investors and policymakers alike remain dazzled by the heady promise of oil from shale rock. Oil and gas companies have wrung significant amounts of black gold from shale oil plays like Texas’s Eagle Ford and North Dakota’s Bakken.

For more on this story visit www.wakingtimes.com