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Mike Ruppert's Collapsenet latest video update
http://player.vimeo.com/video/27459520?byline=0
Scientists Create 52 Artificial Rain Storms in Abu Dhabi Desert
By: JOSH SANBURN
http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/01/03/scientists-create-52-artificial-rain-storms-in-abu-dhabi-desert/
Fifty-two storms in Abu Dhabi this summer were artifically created.
Hail, lightning and gales came through the state's eastern region this summer thanks to scientist-puppetmasters.
As part of a secret program to control the weather in the Middle East, scientists working for the United Arab Emirates government artificially created rain where rain is generally nowhere to be found. The $11 million project, which began in July, put steel lampshade-looking ionizers in the desert to produce charged particles. The negatively charged ions rose with the hot air, attracting dust. Moisture then condensed around the dust and eventually produced a rain cloud. A bunch of rain clouds.
(See TIME's pictures of the year 2010)
On the 52 days it rained in the region throughout July and August, forecasters did not predict rain once.
While fascinating, this is not the first time scientists have attempted to mess with Mother Nature. China has been tinkering with cloud seeding for years, not always successfully.
But the idea that countries in the Middle East could actually create rain in this water-poor region could go a long way to solving the area's problems with drought and is considered to be cheaper than desalination. But how controllable the weather can be is still in doubt, and the consequences of meddling with nature at this level are yet to be seen.
Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/01/03/scientists-create-52-artificial-rain-storms-in-abu-dhabi-desert/#ixzz1UPNaOHl4
APMEX has suspended weekend sales pending the Asian mkt opening.
Ya that was a pretty big mess when this happened a few weeks back. We were having rolling blackouts at home because the North Side was diverting power to the Greek side. It's ended now but I don't know how functional their power facility actually is now.
China Says Restaurant Attack Was Terror
By Bloomberg News - Aug 1, 2011 5:25 AM GMT+0200
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-01/china-says-restaurant-attack-was-terror-after-18-die-in-violence.html
(apparently in China not having guns doesn't seem to stop them from making a point)
Violence in western China’s Xinjiang region in the past two days killed at least 18 people in the city of Kashgar, with police calling one of the incidents a “premeditated terrorist attack,” according to the official Xinhua News Agency and the city government.
Yesterday a “group of terrorists” entered a restaurant in Kashgar, the westernmost city in China near the border with Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, killing the owner and a waiter and setting fire to the restaurant, the Kashgar government said on its website. The attackers then killed four people and injured another 12 in knife attacks outside the restaurant before five of them were killed by police, the report said. Another four suspects were arrested, Xinhua said.
The attacks yesterday followed a July 30 late-night knife attack in Kashgar that left six bystanders and one suspect dead and injured another 28 people, according to the city government. In that incident, two people allegedly stabbed a truck driver to death at a traffic light before turning on the crowd, the report said. Less than two weeks earlier, a July 18 riot in the city of Hotan, also in Xinjiang, left at least four people dead.
Xinjiang, where the central government in Beijing faces sporadic challenges to its power, was the scene of clashes two years ago between the mostly Muslim Uighur minority and the majority Han ethnic group that left almost 200 people dead. Muslim Uighurs share ethnic ties with the Turkic peoples of central Asia and make up less than half of Xinjiang’s population of about 20 million. The two reports didn’t identify the ethnicity of the attackers in Kashgar.
The Kashgar government is offering a 100,000 yuan ($15,539) reward for anyone who gives tips that lead to the arrests of two suspects involved in the two attacks, according to a statement on its website today.
Old City Demolition
Two years ago the government announced plans to demolish much of the old city center of Kashgar, which was once a stop on the Silk Road. The government said the centuries-old dwellings and shops pose a safety hazard. Uighur groups said the plan is designed to disperse the ethnic population and stymie the transmission of cultural traditions from generation to generation.
Official reports of violence in Xinjiang often differ from accounts given by Uighur groups based outside of China. A spokesman for the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress didn’t immediately respond to an e-mailed request for comment on the violence in Kashgar.
Uighurs complain of discrimination by the Han, China’s dominant ethnic group, and unfair allocation of the region’s resources. The reports didn’t identify the ethnic group of the restaurant owner.
Years of central government policies encouraging migration of China’s majority Han ethnic group to areas such as Tibet and Xinjiang have stoked ethnic tensions. China views groups pushing for greater independence as seditious.
--Michael Forsythe. Editors: Peter Hirschberg, Patrick Harrington
To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Michael Forsythe in Beijing at +86-10-6649-7580 or mforsythe@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bloomberg News at jliu42@bloomberg.net; Peter Hirschberg at phirschberg@bloomberg.net.
Want to save this for later?
I might know a human who's going to try this. He's been diagnosed with lung cancer, no insurance and no money. If he decides to go this method I'll let you know what happens.
China is screwed.
I giggled at the donation pitch too.
I thought it was well worth the watch though.
Interesting how the shift is now away from blaming the FED to calling out the Treasury Dept. I see that they gave a tip of the hat to Greenspan in a backhanded way as well.
So is this guy and Bix Weir (Road to Roota Theory) on the right track or is this more subterfuge?
We're seeing more and more FED = Good Guys stuff as we go along. Think it's going to save their necks when it all comes down?
One thing though that bothered me in the 5th video was the AIDS thing........ while I will admit that there are things about the AIDS epidemic of the 80's that didn't make sense and still do not make sense I would have to do a lot of digging to be convinced that the propaganda I've been fed about it being virally based (whether naturally occurring or more popular in circles like this, engineered) that it was truly something that was caused by the over use of drugs. I think they could have left that part completely out and maintained their credibility a bit better. When you've got an issue as complex and as debated as AIDS it's hard to just throw that theory out there and not sort of stop people in their tracks. I will admit though that when AIDS was raging that most of the guys I knew who died were pretty heavy into drugs and in my entire nursing career I think I've only seen one female patient in the hospital so the ratio of men to women is decidedly out of whack and the official excuses for the difference in male to female ratios completely full of holes.
Is this like Crewton Ramone's House of Math but for language? :)
Maybe part of his plan is martyrdom.
He is 75 years old after all. :)~
Why is it that something that used to work very well no longer works at all? What's the point of that here? What are they covering up on ihub?
Ya but Soros is removing himself from the hedge fund game, says he didn't want to have to register with the SEC next year for managing others' money (granted it was only $4 billion)........... now that might be a telling move. *lol*
Well that surly didn't come off even though there was quite a sheeple buzz going on over the weekend about it. That sort of proves that hardly any sheeple are actually in the market anymore. *lol*
The ihub search used to work GREAT. I used to be able to find all kinds of stuff and now it is shit. Basically nothing comes up even when you're looking for simple things.
I'm going to be looking for a small engine to try it out on. :)
So who thinks the markets are going to fall off the cliff in the morning like the MSM doomsayers are predicting? It's so bad even the sheeple are saying it over and over again like some sort of mantra on Facebook.
Millions of habitable planets in the galaxy and oceans of H2O out in space........... I think we're safe as long as the universe isn't reaching some sort of advanced species over population tipping point.
God I am so tired. I didn't realize I'd written that. *lol*
It's way past my bedtime.
Night.
Anything funny when you try to access???
Police Seek Details On Strange #AntiSec Graffiti Promoting Group Set On Spreading Mayhem Showing Up.
http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2011/06/21/strange-graffiti-promoting-group-set-spreading-mayhem-showing-place-information-call-police-29731/
All of the sudden I"m being directed to a page that says,
"Cookies must be enabled to use this page.
One more step to access blog.alexanderhiggins.com"
Oh you know......... the justification everyone is making on the net, even amongst skeptics is that you know, those Danes speak very good English and read soooo many English books because so few are really written in their own language. :)~
Anders Behring Breivik's Manifest (Made by Anders Behring Breivik)
Soda bottles become electricity-less "light bulbs" for the poor
Maggie Koerth-Baker at 1:46 PM Tuesday, Jul 19, 2011
http://www.boingboing.net/2011/07/19/soda-bottles-become.html
In many of the world's poor neighborhoods, homes are built out of whatever materials people can get their hands on, often without windows or electricity. That means the buildings are awfully dark during the day, reducing quality of life, safety, and productivity.
But the situation can be improved with only a used soda bottle, some water, and some bleach. Check out this clever solution, developed by MIT and distributed by the Liter of Light project.
Via Grist
Video Link
http://uk.reuters.com/video/2011/07/11/bringing-light-to-the-poor-one-liter-at?videoId=216968892&videoChannel=82
Chinese Bullet Trains Collide, At Least 11 Killed, Hundreds Injured
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/23/2011 11:20 -0400
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/chinese-bullet-train-derailed
Update: it appears that the crash was the result of two bullet trains colliding. From Reuters: "At least 11 people have died after two high-speed trains crashed into each other in China's eastern province of Zhejiang on Saturday, causing two carriages to fall off a bridge, state news agency Xinhua said."
It was only a matter of time before China's pursuit of infrastructure perfection for the sake of merely recycling trade surplus dollars ended up in casualties. And while its now innumerable ghost cities are unlikely to hurt anyone since they are, well, vacant, the same can not be said about its infrastructure. Earlier today, China's D-Train, a first generation of its bullet train, travelling the Hangzhou to Wenzhou route derailed, with two of its carriages falling off a bridge. The precise number of casualties is as of this moment unknown, although the latest report from Reuters is of 11 killed and 89 injured. We expect the number to be far higher in the end. Just like in the US where none of the massive infrastructure spending as part of ARRA actually went to infrastructure, so China is about to realize that mixing unprecedented corruption and ultra high speeds usually results in very catastrophic consequences.
From the Telegraph:
The train, travelling from Hangzhou to Wenzhou, went off the rails in eastern China's Zhejiang province around 8:30pm (1230 GMT), it reported, citing local firefighting sources.
The D train represents China's first-generation bullet trains. Running on regular track, they are capable of travelling at 150kph and are not part of the new high-speed network.
China is spending billions on building a high-speed rail network, with Premier Wen Jiabao on June 30 formally opening a flagship $33 billion line from Beijing to Shanghai.
That line has suffered problems with delays caused by power outages, sparking a slew of criticism online and in Chinese media.
The huge investment has made the sector a hotbed for corruption. China's state auditor has said construction companies and individuals last year siphoned off 187 million yuan ($29 million) from the Beijing-Shanghai project.
It's a no brainer that it's bullshit. i was just waiting for some good articles to really surface. Thanks for those two. :)
Hmmmmmm, that was pretty powerful.
We're hiring Hessians now.......
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/07/iraq-merc-army
Organic v. Monsanto (270,000 Farmer Sue)
7/18/2011 5:28:48 PM
by Danielle Magnuson
http://www.utne.com/Environment/Agriculture-Organic-Farmers-Lawsuit-Monsanto.aspx
More than 270,000 organic farmers are taking on corporate agriculture giant Monsanto in a lawsuit filed March 30. Led by the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association, the family farmers are fighting for the right to keep a portion of the world food supply organic—and preemptively protecting themselves from accusations of stealing genetically modified seeds that drift on to their pristine crop fields.
Consumers are powerful. For more than a decade, a cultural shift has seen shoppers renounce the faster-fatter-bigger-cheaper mindset of factory farms, exposéd in the 2008 documentary Food, Inc. From heirloom tomatoes to heritage chickens, we want our food slow, sustainable, and local—healthy for the earth, healthy for animals, and healthy for our bodies.
But with patented seeds infiltrating the environment so fully, organic itself is at risk. Monsanto’s widely used Genuity® Roundup Ready® canola seed has already turned heirloom canola oil into an extinct species. The suing farmers are seeking to prevent similar contamination of organic corn, soybeans, and a host of other crops. What’s more, they’re seeking to prevent Monsanto from accusing them of unlawfully using the very seeds they’re trying to avoid.
“It seems quite perverse that an organic farmer contaminated by transgenic seed could be accused of patent infringement,” says Public Patent Foundation director Dan Ravicher in a Cornucopia Institutearticle about the farmers’ lawsuit (May 30, 2011), “but Monsanto has made such accusations before and is notorious for having sued hundreds of farmers for patent infringement.”
Even as the megacorporation enjoys soaring stock, the U.S. justice department continues to look into allegations of its fraudulent antitrust practices (The Street, June 29, 2011):
Monsanto, which has acquired more than 20 of the nation’s biggest seed producers and sellers over the last decade, has long pursued a strict policy with its customers, obligating them to buy its bioengineered seeds every year rather than use them in multiple planting seasons. Farmers who disobey are blacklisted forever.
It’s a wide net Monsanto has cast over the agricultural landscape. As Ravicher points out, “it’s actually in Monsanto’s financial interest to eliminate organic seed so that they can have a total monopoly over our food supply.” Imagine a world devoid of naturally vigorous traditional crops and controlled by a single business with a appetite for intellectual property. Did anyone else feel a cold wind pass through them? Now imagine a world where thousands of family farmers fight the good fight to continue giving consumers a choice in their food—and win.
Cyber Combat: Act of War
Pentagon Sets Stage for U.S. to Respond to Computer Sabotage With Military Force
MAY 31, 2011
By SIOBHAN GORMAN And JULIAN E. BARNES
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304563104576355623135782718.html
WASHINGTON—The Pentagon has concluded that computer sabotage coming from another country can constitute an act of war, a finding that for the first time opens the door for the U.S. to respond using traditional military force.
WSJ's Siobhan Gorman has the exclusive story of the Pentagon classifying cyber attacks by foreign nations as acts of war. Photo: THOMAS KIENZLE/AFP/Getty Images
The Pentagon's first formal cyber strategy, unclassified portions of which are expected to become public next month, represents an early attempt to grapple with a changing world in which a hacker could pose as significant a threat to U.S. nuclear reactors, subways or pipelines as a hostile country's military.
In part, the Pentagon intends its plan as a warning to potential adversaries of the consequences of attacking the U.S. in this way. "If you shut down our power grid, maybe we will put a missile down one of your smokestacks," said a military official.
Recent attacks on the Pentagon's own systems—as well as the sabotaging of Iran's nuclear program via the Stuxnet computer worm—have given new urgency to U.S. efforts to develop a more formalized approach to cyber attacks. A key moment occurred in 2008, when at least one U.S. military computer system was penetrated. This weekend Lockheed Martin, a major military contractor, acknowledged that it had been the victim of an infiltration, while playing down its impact.
The report will also spark a debate over a range of sensitive issues the Pentagon left unaddressed, including whether the U.S. can ever be certain about an attack's origin, and how to define when computer sabotage is serious enough to constitute an act of war. These questions have already been a topic of dispute within the military.
One idea gaining momentum at the Pentagon is the notion of "equivalence." If a cyber attack produces the death, damage, destruction or high-level disruption that a traditional military attack would cause, then it would be a candidate for a "use of force" consideration, which could merit retaliation.
The War on Cyber Attacks
Attacks of varying severity have rattled nations in recent years.
June 2009: First version of Stuxnet virus starts spreading, eventually sabotaging Iran's nuclear program. Some experts suspect it was an Israeli attempt, possibly with American help.
November 2008: A computer virus believed to have originated in Russia succeeds in penetrating at least one classified U.S. military computer network.
August 2008: Online attack on websites of Georgian government agencies and financial institutions at start of brief war between Russia and Georgia.
May 2007: Attack on Estonian banking and government websites occurs that is similar to the later one in Georgia but has greater impact because Estonia is more dependent on online banking.
The Pentagon's document runs about 30 pages in its classified version and 12 pages in the unclassified one. It concludes that the Laws of Armed Conflict—derived from various treaties and customs that, over the years, have come to guide the conduct of war and proportionality of response—apply in cyberspace as in traditional warfare, according to three defense officials who have read the document. The document goes on to describe the Defense Department's dependence on information technology and why it must forge partnerships with other nations and private industry to protect infrastructure.
The strategy will also state the importance of synchronizing U.S. cyber-war doctrine with that of its allies, and will set out principles for new security policies. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization took an initial step last year when it decided that, in the event of a cyber attack on an ally, it would convene a group to "consult together" on the attacks, but they wouldn't be required to help each other respond. The group hasn't yet met to confer on a cyber incident.
Pentagon officials believe the most-sophisticated computer attacks require the resources of a government. For instance, the weapons used in a major technological assault, such as taking down a power grid, would likely have been developed with state support, Pentagon officials say.
More
Digits: A News Spate of Hack Attacks
Hackers Broaden Their Attacks
More: Cyber Crime
The move to formalize the Pentagon's thinking was borne of the military's realization the U.S. has been slow to build up defenses against these kinds of attacks, even as civilian and military infrastructure has grown more dependent on the Internet. The military established a new command last year, headed by the director of the National Security Agency, to consolidate military network security and attack efforts.
The Pentagon itself was rattled by the 2008 attack, a breach significant enough that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs briefed then-President George W. Bush. At the time, Pentagon officials said they believed the attack originated in Russia, although didn't say whether they believed the attacks were connected to the government. Russia has denied involvement.
The Rules of Armed Conflict that guide traditional wars are derived from a series of international treaties, such as the Geneva Conventions, as well as practices that the U.S. and other nations consider customary international law. But cyber warfare isn't covered by existing treaties. So military officials say they want to seek a consensus among allies about how to proceed.
"Act of war" is a political phrase, not a legal term, said Charles Dunlap, a retired Air Force Major General and professor at Duke University law school. Gen. Dunlap argues cyber attacks that have a violent effect are the legal equivalent of armed attacks, or what the military calls a "use of force."
"A cyber attack is governed by basically the same rules as any other kind of attack if the effects of it are essentially the same," Gen. Dunlap said Monday. The U.S. would need to show that the cyber weapon used had an effect that was the equivalent of a conventional attack.
James Lewis, a computer-security specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies who has advised the Obama administration, said Pentagon officials are currently figuring out what kind of cyber attack would constitute a use of force. Many military planners believe the trigger for retaliation should be the amount of damage—actual or attempted—caused by the attack.
For instance, if computer sabotage shut down as much commerce as would a naval blockade, it could be considered an act of war that justifies retaliation, Mr. Lewis said. Gauges would include "death, damage, destruction or a high level of disruption" he said.
Culpability, military planners argue in internal Pentagon debates, depends on the degree to which the attack, or the weapons themselves, can be linked to a foreign government. That's a tricky prospect at the best of times.
The brief 2008 war between Russia and Georgia included a cyber attack that disrupted the websites of Georgian government agencies and financial institutions. The damage wasn't permanent but did disrupt communication early in the war.
A subsequent NATO study said it was too hard to apply the laws of armed conflict to that cyber attack because both the perpetrator and impact were unclear. At the time, Georgia blamed its neighbor, Russia, which denied any involvement.
Much also remains unknown about one of the best-known cyber weapons, the Stuxnet computer virus that sabotaged some of Iran's nuclear centrifuges. While some experts suspect it was an Israeli attack, because of coding characteristics, possibly with American assistance, that hasn't been proven. Iran was the location of only 60% of the infections, according to a study by the computer security firm Symantec. Other locations included Indonesia, India, Pakistan and the U.S.
Officials from Israel and the U.S. have declined to comment on the allegations.
Defense officials refuse to discuss potential cyber adversaries, although military and intelligence officials say they have identified previous attacks originating in Russia and China. A 2009 government-sponsored report from the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission said that China's People's Liberation Army has its own computer warriors, the equivalent of the American National Security Agency.
That's why military planners believe the best way to deter major attacks is to hold countries that build cyber weapons responsible for their use. A parallel, outside experts say, is the George W. Bush administration's policy of holding foreign governments accountable for harboring terrorist organizations, a policy that led to the U.S. military campaign to oust the Taliban from power in Afghanistan.
Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304563104576355623135782718.html#ixzz1Sv0yHuDz
You hack, we shoot: Pentagon discusses armed counterstrikes to cyberattacks
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Military/2011/0721/You-hack-we-shoot-Pentagon-discusses-armed-counterstrikes-to-cyberattacks?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+feeds%2Fcsm+%28Christian+Science+Monitor+%7C+All+Stories
Lawmakers and some Pentagon officials argue that the US should shift cyberdefense from 'How to build the next best firewall' to an offensive message: Those who attack US computers risk 'land-based attack'.
Sen. John McCain (R) of Arizona, ranking Republican on the the Senate Armed Services Committee, and committee chairman Sen. Carl Levin (D) of Michigan, seen here at a committee hearing on June 28, jointly wrote a letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta saying that the Pentagon had not fulfilled Congress's demand for a cyberwar strategy.
J. Scott Applewhite / AP / File
By Anna Mulrine, Staff writer / July 21, 2011
Washington
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have delivered a stark warning to the Pentagon: its failure to address key questions surrounding how the United States military would respond to a cyberattack – and what precisely constitutes an act of war in cyberspace, for that matter – remains a “significant gap” in US national security policy.
Skip to next paragraph
Related stories
Pentagon unveils its new cyberstrategy. Well, some of it, anyway.
A US cyberwar doctrine? Pentagon document seen as first step, and a warning.
Cyberwar and defense against it
Topics
Internet Technology Military and Defense Policy Computer Security Politics Science and Technology Government and Politics
Senior Pentagon officials for their part are griping, too, that the current Defense Department approach to cyberwarfare is “way too predictable.” Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently lamented that, in cyberspace, “there is no penalty for attacking [the US] right now. We've got to figure out a way to change that.”
To that end, some senior defense officials are increasingly pushing for the US to retaliate against cyber-sieges with counterstrikes – that could ultimately include launching a “land-based attack” on the perpetrator.
RECOMMENDED: Epsilon security breach: 5 signs it's only the tip of the iceberg
These signs point to a growing challenge within the Pentagon to the assumption that what happens in cyberspace stays in cyberspace, say analysts.
An armed counterstrike to a cyberattack “sounds so provocative,” says Kristin Lord, director of studies at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS).
But it may also be stabilizing, she argues. “What the Pentagon and White House are trying to do is say that, in a circumstance when we have been attacked in a way that inflicts damage equivalent to an armed attack, we reserve the right to respond in kind,” explains Dr. Lord, who has co-authored a recent CNAS report on “America’s Cyber Future.”
The Pentagon’s new strategy should focus on threatening retaliation, rather than improving defense against cyber-incursions, Cartwright said in remarks at a Defense Writers Group breakfast on July 14. The current approach is “way too predictable. It’s purely defensive."
While the strategy now focuses on defending networks, Cartwright says the next phase must deliver a message "to the attacker, ‘If you do this, the price to you is going to go up.' ”
Lawmakers, for their part, have been urging the Pentagon to spell out how the military would respond if a particular cyberattack was indeed an act of war.
Although Congress last year demanded a “Strategy for Operating in Cyberspace” by March, Defense officials did not deliver their final report until last week – and what they did deliver, say lawmakers, was dangerously lacking in details.
The Pentagon's obligations "remain unmet," wrote the Senate Armed Services Committee in a letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta Wednesday.
This letter came on the heels of a lively confirmation hearing Tuesday for Madelyn Creedon as assistant secretary of Defense for global strategic affairs. Sen. John McCain, the top Republican on the committee, repeatedly pressed Ms. Creedon illustrate a potential consequence of a cyberattack against the US.
“If we knew who did it ... maybe it could be something that would deal with their ability to attack us further,” she said. “It could be a land-based attack.”
Creedon cited Cartwright's estimation that 90 percent of the Pentagon’s approach to cyberattacks is, in his words, “How to build the next best firewall,” while 10 percent is “What we might do to prevent them from attacking us.”
Those figures should be inverted, she told lawmakers, and the responsibilities shared.
“We need to shift from a mostly defensive position to ... at least 50-50 on the part of the US government," she said, with "90 [percent] offense and 10 percent defense” for the military.
She added: "It's one of those longer-term goals."
Explorers find bizarre, spaceship-like object at the bottom of the Baltic Sea
(video)
http://io9.com/5822917/treasure-hunters-find-bizarre-spaceship+like-object-at-the-bottom-of-the-baltic-sea
Annalee Newitz — Several days ago, we reported that a Swedish team of shipwreck hunters discovered a strange, circular object at the bottom of the Baltic Sea that looks sort of like the Millennium Falcon. The group was using sonar to plumb the depths of the waters, hoping to find shipwrecks that might contain treasures they could sell. The Ocean Explorer team isn't sure what to make of this strange discovery that some are calling a crashed UFO, but they've released more information about it.
Here you can see Peter Lindberg, from the Swedish Ocean Explorer team that discovered the object, explaining what they found. Earlier, he told reporters:
At 87 meters down, between Sweden and Finland, they saw a large circle, about 60 feet in diameter. You see a lot of wierd stuff in this job but during my 18 years as a professional I have never seen anything like this. The shape is completly round…a circle.
Apparently there are tracks about 300 meters long leading up to the object, leading Lindberg to speculate that the object has moved. So far nobody has explored the object yet, so hopefully we'll be learning more about this as the story develops.
Radiation in Japan: Chinese Tourists Are Back, Because They WANT Radiation
THURSDAY, JULY 21, 2011
(I suppose there are easily 1,900 Chinese this stupid, it's plausible)
http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/07/radiation-in-japan-chinese-tourists-are.html
On a lighter note, Chinese tourists are back in Japan, particularly young couples, according to an article that appeared in Shukan Post, a Japanese weekly magazine. Chinese were among the first to depart en masse from Japan after the earthquake/tsunami/nuke plant disaster, and they avoided Japan altogether in April.
Why are they back now? Because they WANT to get exposed to radiation. Why? Because they believe that would get them a baby boy. It's got to be another "baseless rumor"; high-IQ and rich Chinese wouldn't do such a silly thing as trying to be intentionally exposed to artificial radiation hoping that would get them a boy, would they?
From Shukan Post article (July 22/29 issue) as appeared in Iza:
????????????????????????????
We hear that tours to Japan are becoming very popular among young Chinese couples.
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We still remember the local airports crowded with Chinese citizens returning home upon the recommendation from their government. Why would the Chinese, who fled in a radiation panic, come back? There seems to be a reason behind it which we cannot totally be happy about.
?????????????????????????????????????????????(???????????????)
"It's because a German study was reported in a Chinese paper that radiation exposure increase the chance of conceiving a baby boy", says a China-based Japanese journalist.
???????6?8?????????????????>??????????????????????1960~1970?????????·????????????????2???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
On June 8, Beijing Evening News carried the article titled "Radiation increases male babies". The article cited a dubious study that the ratio of male babies increased in Europe and the US during 1960s and 1970s when nuclear testing was done frequently, in Beralus 2 years after the Chernobyl accident, and in Germany and Switzerland in areas near nuclear power plants.
???????????????????????????????????????????????>????????????????>?????????????????>???????????????????????????????????????????>?????????????
Net-savvy Chinese immediately responded to the article. The Chinese version of Twitter [I suppose it has nothing to do with Twitter but a Twitter-like service in China] was flooded with messages like "If you want a boy, go to Japan", "I'm going to buy a airline ticket to Japan right now", "Travel agencies should arrange "Boy Conception Tours"." And conspiracy theories like "It must be the false information concocted by "small" Japanese to revive the tourism from China."
??????????????????4??????????????????5??23??6??1900???????????
We inquired the Japanese Consul in Shenyang. There was no issuance of visitor's visa to Japan, and only 23 in May. But in June the number exploded to 1,900.
??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????“???????????”?????????“??????????”???????????????????????????????
A tour guide at a Japanese travel agency that cater to group tours from China says with a wry smile, "When I guided the Mount Aso in Kyushu, a newly wed Chinese couple asked me, 'How high is the radiation level?" When I told them there was nothing to worry about there, they were very disappointed. They said they wanted to have a baby boy."
This particular couple probably didn't bother to look at the map of "small Japan". The island of Kyushu is as far away as you can get from Fukushima I Nuke Plant. They should be enjoying the hot spring resort near the plant with the "Genpatsu Gypsy" workers (read the Guardian report).
The Japanese version of the same "baseless rumor" about radiation and conception is that if you work in a nuclear power plant you are more likely to get a baby girl, not boy. Maybe it's different with Chinese.
Let The Sun Shine
TSA Morons Conduct Bomb Drill in Minnesota Airport, But Don't Tell Police
by Mike Adams
Natural News
http://www.lewrockwell.com/adams-m/adams-m19.1.html
(TSA should have been criminally charged for this incident)
With their guns draw and packing live ammo, police officers at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport surrounded a man smuggling a bomb in a carry-on bag. Although details are sketchy because the TSA is trying to downplay this incident, the cops were no doubt yelling at the man to hit the floor and surrender. Had this man acted in any sort of threatening-looking way, the cops would have certainly opened fire on him.
This all took place at a TSA security checkpoint at the airport. There's only one problem with it: The whole thing was a TSA security drill – but nobody informed the cops!
Gee, let's stage a bomb drill but don't tell the cops
So here are the TSA morons, who behave as if they are cops even though they are not in any way sworn law enforcement officers, running their own bomb drill in an airport, surrounded by innocent members of the public. They send a guy into the TSA security checkpoint, at which point he probably screams out "I have a bomb!" or something similar. The airport cops, who are of course on the lookout for precisely this kind of threatening behavior, pull their pistols and hit their radios to bring in more cops. The result was a surrounding of the bomb carrier and a tense scene of law enforcement getting very, very close to letting loose with live fire in an international airport.
I'm sure every beat cop and law enforcement professional reading this will agree with me on this point: These TSA goons are complete morons. You don't run a bomb drill in a public airport without notifying the cops first!
TSA endangers police officers
Through their completely idiotic actions, they put the lives of both police officers and members of the public in great danger. The TSA actually engineered a situation that could have very easily resulted in a loss of life. Had the "bomber" made a sudden move, he could have easily been shot by a cop who would then, no doubt, be investigated for the killing and probably stripped of his badge and retirement merely for doing his job.
This is yet another reason why the TSA is so dangerous. It is a rogue agency that runs around acting like law enforcement but has absolutely NO law enforcement training or skills. The TSA is a group of perverts, criminals, pornography distributors and power-trip wannabe cops who suddenly and magically have been given the obscene power to reach down your pants and feel your genitals. If a Sheriff, a cop, or an FBI agent pulled that maneuver, they'd be fired from their job and probably brought up on criminal charges. But for some reason the TSA is allowed to pull this stunt every day, even though TSA agents are not sworn law enforcement officers!
The TSA is a rogue agency that now threatens not just the safety of the public, but also the safety of legitimate law enforcement personnel. This is why the TSA must be stopped, and Texas is trying to do something about it by passing a law to criminalize the TSA's actions.
TSA's actions are already crimes under federal law
Technically, the TSA reaching down your pants is already a federal crime, it's just that no one has yet been prosecuted for it. Jesse Ventura has a lawsuit pending against the TSA for sexual assault, but that has not been resolved yet.
TSA agents have been caught stealing items out of peoples' luggage and, planting fake cocaine in their bags, feeling up infants and now running bomb scares right in the middle of an international airport, with innocent people standing around and potentially in harm's way. What's next for this rogue agency? Are they going to run LIVE bomb drills and demand they start carrying their own pistols and rifles?
You are watching the rise of the secret police
The American people don't get this yet, and the mainstream media is totally clueless about this, but what's really happening right now is that we are watching the rise of the new Amerikan Secret Police. They are the TSA. They're already expanding into train stations and stadiums. Soon, these government goons will be the people checking your papers at every street corner, lifting cash out of your wallet or feeling down the pants of young women just because they can.
If we don't stop the TSA right now, they will rise up to become the new Nazi criminals in America. We've seen it all before in history, and history is now repeating itself. This is the Nazi police state growing and expanding right before our very eyes.
Remember, the TSA already claims it rules supreme over state law and that the states have zero power to stop the TSA from reaching down your pants and molesting you and your children. Right now, there is absolutely nothing stopping the TSA from becoming the new secret police organization that conducts illegal searches and engaged in routine sexual molestation of innocent people, all while claiming it has the "supreme" right to do so under the U.S. Constitution! Incredible...
Folks, if you're not listening to Alex Jones on this topic, you're not fully informed about the depth of the TSA tyranny. Alex pulls together an amazing spectrum of relevant facts from history that teach us how the TSA is becoming the new Nazis of Amerika. If we don't stop these tyrants now, we are going to be overrun by these federal agents who will stop at nothing to expand their power.
Was the TSA testing the police response?
I wouldn't be surprised if the TSA is already planning to fake a bomb incident in order to make itself seem more important. This drill in Minnesota may have actually been a way to test the police response to determine how much the TSA can get away with.
All it will take is one TSA plot to set off a live bomb at some airport in America, and suddenly they will be granted the power to carry guns or conduct full-body cavity searches without any warrants or reasons whatsoever. We are just one engineered "terror event" away from the next expansion of TSA tyranny. You can bet the people who run this agency – who are already lawless tyrants with zero respect for the Fourth Amendment – are working on ways for them to take away more rights of the people, hire more enforcement agents and become even more powerful throughout American society.
I pray we can stop these thugs before it turns to bloodshed. Because in the end, I know the American people will not tolerate tyranny for very long, and a public backlash could end up being quite bloody. To avoid that, we need to pass laws right now across all the U.S. states to outlaw the TSA and their criminal activities. Evict the TSA from our states immediately!
Stay tuned to NaturalNews.com and InfoWars.com to learn more about the tyranny of the TSA. We will absolutely not stop reporting on this issue until the TSA is evicted from our states and prevented from abusing us any longer.
The cops, by the way, are with us on this issue. Same with active and retired military. Nobody likes the TSA except the TSA itself. Even the media has to largely fabricate positive spin stories on this rogue agency to try to create the impression that people actually enjoy being treated like terrorists at the airport. Even the pilots are fed up with the whole thing.
Reprinted with permission from Natural News.
May 21, 2011
Mike Adams is a natural health author and award-winning journalist. He has authored and published thousands of articles, interviews, consumers' guides, and books on topics like health and the environment. He is the editor of Natural News.
GM foods not served in Monsanto cafeteria
Last Updated: Friday, November 10, 2000 | 11:48 PM ET CBC News
Food Fight ( I know this is old but I thought still worth the post)
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/1999/12/22/gmfood991222.html#.TiSx3PqrnZY.facebook
The fight to ban genetically modified foods has won more converts -- some employees of Monsanto the company that is doing the most to promote GM products.
The Independent newspaper reports that there is a notice in the cafeteria of the Monsanto pharmaceutical factory is High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, advising customers "as far as practicable, GM soya and maize (has been removed) from all food products served in our restaurant. We have taken the steps to ensure that you, the customer, can feel confident in the food we serve."
The notice was posted by the Sutcliffe Catering Group.
Monsanto confirms the authenticity of the notice, but company spokesman Tony Coombes says the only reason for the GM-free foods is because the company "believes in choice." Coombes says in other Monsanto locations employees are happy to eat GM foods because they are "sprayed with fewer chemicals."
Adrian Bebb with Friends of the Earth says the notice in the Buckinghamshire plant is hard to misinterpret. "The public has made its concerns about GM ingredients very clear - now it appears that even Monsanto's own catering firm has no confidence in this new technology."
In China, Mortgage Slaves Curse U.S. Debt: World View
By Adam Minter Jul 21, 2011 5:50 PM
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-21/in-china-mortgage-slaves-curse-u-s-debt-world-view.html
(Funny, even Chinese bloggers think like me.
"A U.S. debt default has three purposes: first, to reduce the net value of the debt and eliminate China’s ‘U.S. debt nuclear weapon;’ second, to bring the debt crisis to China and drag down the Chinese economy; third, to dismember the euro and dissolve its potential threat.")
The list of trending topics on China’s leading, twitter-like microblog, Sina Weibo, is typically dominated by entertainment news, celebrity gossip and the daily grind. So it was unusual when, on July 7, 2011, news of China’s central bank's quarter-point interest hike went to the top of that list.
No, Chinese microbloggers weren’t rushing to discuss the macroeconomic consequences of the bank’s move. Rather, they were venting about how their mortgages, almost all of which are tied to that benchmark interest rate, had suddenly become less affordable. A Sina Weibo user, QingMu2010, shortly thereafter railed:
Interest rate has risen again. This is the third time and my mortgage payment has gone up RMB 80 per month (US$12.40)… The day that I cannot meet my payments is going to come sooner or later. Brother Salary, when will you learn from your elder brother, Interest Rate?
Brother Salary and Brother Interest Rate are on Chinese urban dwellers' minds these days, especially in light of the rising prices of pretty much everything. This includes, of course, housing. “One who doesn't have a house can’t afford one, and one who has bought a house can’t pay the mortgage!” Tweeted Dragon In Society on Sina. “It’s not easy to become a mortgage slave and one who has become a mortgage slave can't afford the pain.”
Best as I can determine, there are no publicly available statistics on private mortgage defaults in China. There has also been little coverage of this issue in the Chinese or foreign press. Perhaps that’s because there aren’t many private mortgage defaults; or perhaps it’s because those are the kinds of numbers that the Chinese Communist Party would prefer not to circulate. But whatever the reason, public concerns over debt is palpable these days.
In late June, the Party revealed that the post-2008 infrastructure binge that seemed to power much of the Chinese economy through the global economic crisis was largely financed on unsustainable and, in many cases, un-repayable, local government debt. In the weeks since, bloggers, microbloggers, and editorialists have pondered how China –- a developing country, let’s not forget –- became a major creditor to an American government seemingly hell-bent on defaulting on its public debt. For those who self-identify as "mortgage slaves" (or sympathize with them), the ironies are particularly painful.
“In this world, the poor borrow money to the rich,” tweeted Yu Liang, a North American correspondent for Xinhua, the Chinese state news agency. “I have decided that from now on, when Americans smile at me, I will shout at them: ‘Smiling for what! Hurry up and pay back our money!!!’”
Curiously, official voices featured in official Chinese media haven't said much on this subject. Many microbloggers, and a few commentators on established news sites, speculate that they are reluctant to say something that could damage China’s investment in U.S. debt.
On July 19, the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange issued a statement encouraging the United States to take “responsible” policy measures to increase confidence in U.S. government debt and the dollar, but offered no specific criticism. The self-declared government mouthpiece, People’s Daily, in a July 20 editorial, addressed the issue in the context of the Dali Lama's recent visit to the White House:
As the U.S. debt default will certainly cause serious harm to Chinese interests, China has expressed concern about this issue. Obama met with the Dalai Lama at a time when a series of high-level contacts between China and the United States are about to be launched. Therefore, this meeting will certainly have negative effects on the development process of the China-U.S. relations.
But People's Daily has yet to declare an explicit opinion on how America’s political class manages China's finances.
This week, HeXun, a leading financial Chinese news portal, featured a commentary that targeted the China Investment Corporation, which manages China’s sovereign wealth fund, for its caginess on the issue. HeXun reasoned it was due to shame: “Of course, their restrained attitude also reflects China's embarrassing identity as the largest creditor country of America.”
Meanwhile, at East Day, a Shanghai internet portal, Zhang Yunling, Director of the Asia-Pacific Research Institute at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, took the more nuanced approach that one would expect from an establishment figure. He suggested that the default risk calls for change in the global economic order:
[W]ill the U.S. use debt default as a threat to put pressure on other countries in the future? At a minimum, this is a huge potential systemic risk in the present international financial system. To shake off the risks inherent in a US dollar system is not only in the interest of creditor countries, but it is also a means for the global financial system to achieve stability and sustainable operations.
The China Securities Journal seemed less concerned. Its peculiar editorial, “No Need to Worry About the 1.15 Trillion US Debt,” tops even the most patriotic American analyst's confidence in U.S. debt. It said:
No matter how great their difficulty is, the [U.S.] never defaulted or breached their promise, even during the Second World War, when they repaid capital with interest on time. Therefore, U.S. Treasury Securities are considered to be the 'most reliable asset' by countries all over the world for their excellent reputation.
It’s awfully hard to find a similar opinion among the Chinese microblogging masses, where there’s flagrant anger at both the Chinese government for funding the U.S. debt and the U.S. government for luring them into such a lousy investment. For example, Sina user An Xinnuoxiao tweeted:
A U.S. debt default has three purposes: first, to reduce the net value of the debt and eliminate China’s ‘U.S. debt nuclear weapon;’ second, to bring the debt crisis to China and drag down the Chinese economy; third, to dismember the euro and dissolve its potential threat.
Plenty of other Chinese microbloggers have a more nuanced understanding of the American political deadlock, although that understanding has done little to increase their sympathy for the U.S. government system responsible it. In any case, for those netizens not latching onto conspiracies to explain a U.S. default, there reigns a sort of gallows humor, as exemplified by this Sina tweet from Bamboo Bear:
Casting aside the problem that China will be the victim, the default on U.S. bonds will become the funniest scene in the economic history of the world. The fire brigade catches fire! A man with a money press says that they have no money to pay their debt … I think it is better to take gold and oil as guarantees, but will the Americans agree with me?
Default risk or not, there’s absolutely zero indication that China’s investment managers have any intention of weaning themselves from U.S. debt in the short-term. Indeed, even as paranoia over U.S. sovereign debt increases, Chinese interest in purchasing U.S. assets –- debt, real estate, and companies –- continues to rise. An absence of viable and transparent investment vehicles in China, combined with the pragmatic risk-taking that’s characterized China’s economic development, seemingly convinced China’s leadership and its business class long-ago that its best bets should often be placed elsewhere.
Chen Zhiwu, a professor of finance at Yale University's School of Management offered this advice to his compatriots back home on Sina: “If the deadlock causes a U.S. bond default their financial markets will be a mess for one or two weeks and you should seize the opportunity to buy U.S. stock!”
A fine sentiment. That is, as long as you aren’t scraping by to find an additional RMB 80 (US$12.40) to meet this month’s mortgage payment.
(Adam Minter is the Shanghai correspondent for the World View blog. The opinions expressed are his own.)
To contact the author of this blog post: Adam Minter at ShanghaiScrap@gmail.com
To contact the editor responsible for this post: Katherine Brown at kbrown114@bloomberg.net
Average wage earners can afford fewer than in 2000 (Germany)
http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=de&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=de&tl=en&twu=1&u=http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/soziales/0,1518,775232,00.html&usg=ALkJrhiJfv5iY-9-cMheMwc3FScxVQhprg
AFP
Construction workers at the airport Berlin-Brandenburg: losses for the lower middle class
It is a sobering result: Germany may become in the last ten years, much more competitive, but the cost for employees is high. According to one study, almost all workers have since 2000 lost some of their massive buying power - sometimes up to 22 percent.
Berlin - The German labor market, there will be a massive upheaval. The number of unemployed has been falling for months in June were 2.89 million people without jobs - more than two million fewer than in 2005. But on the other hand there is a structural change that has many losers: The number of temporary workers, temporary workers and precarious employment has been rising for years.
ANZEIGE
The split is evident not only in the current upswing, but also from a consideration of the past decade: the majority of workers remained in the past year less than the salary still 2000th By contrast, a higher purchasing power could benefit top earners. The data show the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), the researcher Markus Grabka presented on Tuesday. Accordingly, the lower five income groups reported the heaviest losses. The average for all income groups the minus is between 2000 and 2010, 2.5 percent, in contrast, the bottom five groups 5 to 22 percent.
An example: If you had even a real 2000 net income of 835 €, came ten years later only to 705 € - 130 € or so has 16 percent less. That income earned someone who is in Germany for so-called lower middle class - for example, a seller, a hairdresser or someone who is employed as a security guard.
The figures are based on survey results of the socio-economic panel (see box in the left column). For his analysis of the German DIW researchers Grabka employees divided into ten equally sized groups. Then he calculated the average monthly real wages of all employees from each group and compared him over ten years. The real wage is composed of the net income minus the inflation . This means: If the prices rise faster than the earnings remains left at the end less for the employees. Its purchasing power decreases.
Real net income per month (in €)
2000 2010 Difference Difference%
270 211 -59 -21.85%
520 435 -85 -16.35%
835 705 -130 -15.57%
1073 963 -110 -10.25%
1258 1193 -65 -5.17%
1421 1412 -9 -0.63%
1601 1609 8 0.50%
1841 1836 -5 -0.27%
2219 2215 -4 -0.18%
3419 3446 27 0.79%
Source: German Institute for Economic Research, figures for 2010 are preliminary
According Grabka the lower middle class from the negative development is most affected. "This is mainly due to the increasing number of atypical employment relationships." In addition to temporary employment agencies are also temporary and minor, and part-time jobs, which is working under 20 hours per week. The number of these sites in Germany in 2010 rose to 7.84 million. Of 322,000 jobs that were created in 2010, according to the Federal Statistical Office temps were 182 000 sites - 57 percent. The number of temporary workers rose to a total of 742 000, reaching a new high.
Young professionals get less than before
ANZEIGE
Another reason for the loss of purchasing power, according Grabka that more and more women are employed - and these are usually paid below average. At the same time the growing service sector, where wages are also lower than in industry. "In addition, the unions in recent years were at the bargaining very cautious," says Grabka.
This was indeed the one hand meant that Germany was internationally competitive - because of stagnating or even declining wages for the company. The downside is that many workers have less money to spend. This affects not only the 400-euro jobs in the pub, but also well trained and experienced employees.
The trend is continuing, according Grabka but also young professionals: "Young people starting their careers today with much lower incomes than they did ten years ago." Even excellent qualifications and CVs are now strict no more insurance against narrow starting salaries.
JFSAG: Epic and Honest Mobile Home Commercial (Alabama)
No, no, no, I mean average people. Why can't I even get the folks who will read about budget shortfalls, unemployment, corruption, the TSA and gold won't even watch this thing?
Oh yes I passed that one along yesterday too, jumped up and down, waved my arms and NOTHING.
Why is it no one wants to read or watch this specific thing?