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Richard Stallman lecturing about copyright at University of Calgary on 2009-02-03. Free/Libre
Astaxanthin 10 mg 30 tab, 5 bottles for $35.98
http://www.puritan.com/astaxanthin-792?cm_re=AZ-_-A-_-astaxanthin
I can't believe these guys are not dead yet. I hope they aren't flying anywhere on small planes.
How Occupy Wall Street Cost Me My Job
CAITLIN E. CURRAN OCT 28, 2011
http://gawker.com/5854118/how-occupy-wall-street-cost-me-my-job
Joining the Occupy Wall Street protests has its dangers. You could get pepper-sprayed or end up in handcuffs. Or, as Brooklyn-based journalist Caitlin Curran explains, your boss could see a photo of you holding up a sign at a protest and fire you the next day.
It all started with an article on The Atlantic's web site. Conor Friedersdorf's piece "Occupy Wall Street's Greatest Strength Is Neutering It," echoed what many people are wondering about the movement: what are they fighting for?
Friedersdorf criticized the Occupy movement for rallying against a symbolic, abstract Wall Street—"the average American's idea of Wall Street," rather than against specific people, regulations, or the board at Goldman Sachs, for example. The case against symbolic Wall Street is much weaker than the one against actual Wall Street, Friedersdorf wrote. Occupy supporters shouldn't focus on the impossible debate about whether or not Wall Street is good or evil, but instead should ask concrete questions, like whether regulations should exist for derivatives of mortgaged-backed securities. The Occupy movement has attracted many supporters who blame "Wall Street" for the present state of our economy. But for many people that's a confusing argument. Friedersdorf summed it up:
Figuring out precisely how to feel about Occupy Wall Street or ‘We are the 53 Percent' is difficult for many. Much easier to decide that it's wrong to create a mortgage-backed security filled with loans you know are going to fail so that you can sell it to a client who isn't aware that you sabotaged it by intentionally picking the misleadingly rated loans most likely to be defaulted upon.
My boyfriend, Will, and I decided to take Friedersdorf's words and use them, perhaps more literally than he intended. We printed them out, taped them to poster board, and headed to the Occupy Wall Street march in Times Square, on October 15. The plan was for Will to hold the sign, and for me to observe what happened and post reports to my personal Twitter account. (Video of Will attracting attention with the sign before I did is on your right, or click here to watch it.) But, inevitably, Will developed sign-holding fatigue, and I took over momentarily. I was standing beneath a news ticker near West 43rd Street and Broadway, and people began cheering as a headline about the movement scrolled across the ticker. I looked up, and at that moment a photographer took a photo of me holding the sign, and posted it to Twitter shortly thereafter.
The next day, Boing Boing co-editor Xeni Jardin posted the photo as the site's Occupy Wall Street sign of the day, the post circulated around Tumblr, Friedersdorf himself saw it and wrote about it, as did Felix Salmon at Reuters, who called me "one of those protestors that photographers dream of" and the sign "true, and accurate, and touching, and grammatical, and far too long to be a slogan, and gloriously bereft of punctuation, and ending even more gloriously in a mildly archaic preposition."
Beyond that, Salmon noted, the sign's internet notoriety showed that there was something about it that resonated with people. Which was really the whole point of why we made the sign, and of Friedersdorf's piece.
I thought all of this could be fodder for an interesting segment on The Takeaway—a morning news program co-produced by WNYC Radio and Public Radio International—for which I had been working as a freelance web producer roughly 20 hours per week for the past seven months. I pitched the idea to producers on the show, in an e-mail.
Full size
The next day, The Takeaway's general manager fired me over the phone, effective immediately. He was inconsolably angry, and said that I had violated every ethic of journalism, and that this should be a "teaching moment" for me in my career as a journalist. The segment I had pitched, of course, would not happen. Ironically, the following day Marketplace did pretty much the exact segment I thought would have been great on The Takeaway, with Kai Ryssdal discussing the sign and the Goldman Sachs deal it alluded to in terms that were far from neutral.
That same week Lisa Simeone was in a similar situation. Simeone is a Baltimore-based freelance journalist, former host of the public radio program "Soundprint," and current host of "The World of Opera," which NPR announced last week it will no longer distribute. She was fired from "Soundprint," after conservative site The Daily Caller criticized her (and NPR) for supporting Occupy D.C. Simeone and I don't know each other, though we do have some similarities: we're both journalists, both of us were at one time affiliated with NPR in some way, and I grew up in Baltimore, where Simeone lives now.
When last week's events first came to light, she told the Baltimore Sun: "I find it puzzling that NPR objects to my exercising my rights as an American citizen - the right to free speech, the right to peaceable assembly—on my own time in my own life… I've never brought a whiff of my political activities into the work I've done for NPR World of Opera. What is NPR afraid I'll do—insert a seditious comment into a synopsis of Madame Butterfly?"
I attempted to find others, besides myself and Simeone, who have been fired for their involvement with the Occupy movement, but wasn't able to find anyone who wanted to go on the record about it—though I did get a prompt response from Occupy Wall Street's media desk, and an e-mail from someone in Mobile, Alabama saying "Occupy Wall Street folks don't have jobs, if they did they would not be there in the middle of the work week," further proof of the national confusion over who Occupiers are.
These are issues that will become ingrained in the movement as it evolves, and that potential protesters and their employers will need to face as Occupy becomes "mainstreamed," as Katha Pollitt called it in the Nation last week. Pollitt pointed out that, just a few weeks ago the few media outlets acknowledging Occupy mostly saw it as a rag-tag collection of hippies. Now, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is saying he "can't blame" protesters for being angry, and Suze Orman is challenging its detractors, saying "to deride the movement because it has yet to formulate a well-delineated platform says plenty more about the critics than the protestors."
My thinking ran along the same lines as Simeone's. It's unclear to me how our participation, on our personal time, in a non-partisan movement warrants termination from our jobs. If the protest is so lacking, in terms of message and focus, then how can my involvement with it go against The Takeaway's ethical policies? In other words, if I'm associated with a party-less movement (and barely associated, since that was only the second time I've attended an Occupy Wall Street event), and have never exercised bias in editing The Takeaway's website, what's the harm?
On one hand, isn't it great that, as Friedersdorf wrote, our "decentralized networked-era culture" makes a movement like this possible, and as Salmon wrote, "the sentiment behind Occupy Wall Street has resonated worldwide," as a result. But on the other hand, we live in an age where I can carry a sign expressing a non-partisan, seemingly inarguable message at a peaceful protest, unknowingly have my photo taken and disseminated around the world, and subsequently be fired as a result, all within a matter of days. What are the implications of this for a democracy founded on free speech ideals? Are these "teaching moments" like mine going to dissuade people who have jobs they want to keep from expressing their opinions, however benign?[\b]
Occupy Phoenix Veterans with AR 15s keeping the Occupation safe
Cornell West vs Peter Schiff
Penn & Teller Ron Paul commercial. Funny.
The Stanford Prison Experiment
http://www.truththeory.org/the-stanford-prison-experiment/
OMG someone put this on Twitter?
*roflmao*
Ya, jmule, it's a GREAT company. Buy 'er up.
Limited Hangout at the Fed vs. the Internet Reformation
Saturday, October 22, 2011 – by Anthony Wile
http://thedailybell.com/3123/Anthony-Wile-Limited-Hangout-at-the-Fed-Vs-the-Internet-Reformation
The Federal Reserve needs more transparency, as noted in a report last week from the Government Accountability Office, a "nonpartisan" research division of Congress. But this is nothing but an elite limited hangout. In this article I'll try to explain why.
I'll also try to address whether or not this sort of "limited hangout" will have the desired effect on what we call the Internet Reformation. What's happening today happened 500 years ago with the Gutenberg Press.
The Gutenberg Press allowed the printing of Bibles in vulgate, and that in turn allowed people to read the Bible (previously hand-written in Greek) and to understand what was in it.
Eventually, people discovered the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church of the day had lied about the Bible and manipulated its contents for their own gain. This in turn helped lead to a backlash against the Church, which helped foster the Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation, the populating of the New World, etc.
The same thing is likely happening now; the Internet is blowing up the Old World. The great families of the Anglosphere that dominated the globe so thoroughly in the 20th century are in a race against time to build global governance before the instinctual, human "hive mind" tears down all the painfully prepared constructs of international domination.
The Anglosphere power elite manipulates the rest of us via the use of dominant social themes. These fear-based memes are intended to push mostly Western middle classes into handing over power and authority to specially prepared globalist solutions such as the IMF, WHO, UN, etc.
In the 21st century, thanks to the Internet, these dominant social themes have been increasingly exposed. Resentment is growing as the larger manipulation is seen for what it is. The Internet Reformation gradually, inexorably expands. The human hive mind absorbs certain information almost instinctually.
It is like a force of nature. Eventually, the elites may be forced to take a "step back" as they have before. But before this happens, there will be much chaos and more wars. It's started already.
Yes ... the elites fight back. The great central banking families apparently mark their dominance over centuries and believe that God – or Satan – has given them a divine brief to straddle the world. As God helps those who help themselves, these entities are surely pro-active about asserting their "divine rights" to rulership.
The elites move continually toward their goal of one-world government in a race against the truth telling of the Internet. And as they do so, they are doing their best to co-opt movements that spring up as a result of the Internet Reformation.
In America, the Tea Party movement began as a grass-roots rebellion against the mercantilist and authoritarian system that the elites are continually pushing on the rest of the world.
In Greece and greater Europe, unions are organizing "protests" as to provide an outlet for mass anger. The Occupy Wall Street movement seems to have been created to serve as a bookend to the now-co-opted Tea Party movement.
Thus, the Hegelian Dialectic is imposed. The elites invent nothing much that is new. Their "playbook" spans generations. They have the advantage of a long frame of reference handed down from father to son and enshrined in private libraries in Venice, Rome and London.
Surely, they are aware of the "blowback" that will come as they attempt to shove this wretched world into the cul de sac of global governance the way tiny wooden boats are enclosed in glass bottles.
And thus, transparency. And the implementation of the "limited hangout."
This is surely the reason for the recent GAO report and for the stirrings in Washington against the Fed. In the largest sense it is planned even though the players themselves may not fully understand their roles or the developing manipulations.
Congressman Ron Paul is conducting an audit. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) has introduced a bill to make the Fed an entirely public entity. US Senator Bernie Sanders, a self-described socialist from Vermont, has seized on the GAO report to demand more accountability and "transparency" from the Fed.
Congressman Ron Paul is likely not part of this "hangout." But all you need to know about Sanders' initiative is that the people picked to head his working group include the Leftist "economist" Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize winner and former top adviser to President Clinton, and Jeffrey Sachs.
Sachs is "director of the Earth Institute" (whatever that is) and special adviser to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. These two individuals are facilitators (formal or not) of the one-world government that the elites are now imposing. Expecting Sanders or his "initiative" to create real change is a vain hope.
Of course, the Fed's top honchos are in the mix as well when it comes to this sort of damage control. "Small steps" will be taken to "manage potential or actual conflicts of interest."
And what is equally predictable is that the problem of the monetary system has nothing to do with conflicts of interest. The problem has nothing to do with a lack of transparency.
The problem is that central banks fix the price and volume of money. And price-fixing never works. See here: "Ron Paul WSJ Article: Fraud of Central Banking is Price Fixing."
Transparency is just another elite meme, another diversion designed to distract us. The second one is more recent. It's called," direct democracy." The Occupy Wall Street movement, itself something of a false flag apparently, is big on "direct democracy." (See "Elite Banking Control of Occupy Wall Street Increasingly Obvious").
These two themes, when taken together, are a portmanteau that can travel around the world, homogenizing governments and making them ready for the "final combining." That's how the elite works. It uses chaos as a springboard to create a further false reality that accommodates the goals of global governance.
The reason to analyze the dominant social themes of the elite is that it helps us understand the world we live in. The meme of central banking lies at the heart of the elite's world domination and control and transparency is a meme that is being developed to counteract the growing rage over central banking's dysfunction.
We need to be aware of these themes and counter-themes. If the system undergoes a controlled collapse, the result will be one thing. If the collapse is uncontrolled – if the elites cannot manage it – the outcome will be unpredictable indeed.
The entire banking system could collapse. Fiat money could turn worthless. Gold and silver could reassume a historical place at the center of the economy. Governments could fall and tyrants rise. Or perhaps freedom could expand into the power vacuum left by the elites' retreat.
It may be hard to tell the difference between planned chaos, designed to usher in world government, and the chaos that comes as human affairs unravel and then re-evolve. Be wary. Be watchful. You have a portfolio to manage. A family to protect.
Interesting times lie ahead
TSA Now Searching For Silver And Gold!
Law Bans Cash for Second Hand Transactions in Louisiana - Bill 195 - bye bye America
Ron Paul fans do make some great vids.
My brother and I have giggled about his 'lizard" bit for years always speculating that the lizards were meant to make him just look nuts and keep the bad guys off his back while still getting the word out. Sometimes you just have to look past the reptiles.
Fukushima Nuclear Radiation Found In United States of America Food
By admin | Headliner, News Flash, This Just IN
(finally some alt. web sites are talking in the U.S.)
http://www.gorillawire.com/?p=10281
Thanks to the jet stream air currents that flow across the Pacific Ocean, the U.S. is receiving a steady flow of radiation from Fukushima Daichi. And while many scientists say that the levels of contamination in food pose no significant threat to health, scientists are unable to establish any actual safe limit for radiation in food. Detection of radioactive iodine 131, which degrades rapidly, in California milk samples shows that the fallout from Japan is reaching the U.S. quickly.”
“Milk, fruits and vegetables show trace amounts of radioactive isotopes from the Fukushima Daichi power plants, and the media appears to be paying scant attention, if any attention at all. It is as if the problem only involves Japan, not the vast Pacific Ocean, into which highly radioactive water has poured by the dozens of tons, and not into air currents and rainwater that carry radiation to U.S. soil and to the rest of the world.”
“Radiation tests conducted since the nuclear disaster in Japan have detected radioactive iodine and cesium in milk and vegetables produced in California. According to tests conducted by scientists at the UC Berkeley Department of Nuclear Engineering, milk from grass fed cows in Sonoma County was contaminated with cesium 137 and cesium 134. Milk sold in Arizona, Arkansas, Hawaii, Vermont and Washington has also tested positive for radiation since the accident.”
“Additionally, drinking water tested in some U.S. municipalities also shows radioactive contamination. Is the fallout from Fukushima Daichi falling on us? Yes, it is.”
“Children are much more susceptible to the effects of radiation and stand a much greater chance of developing cancer than adults,” states Andrew Kanter, MD, president of PSR’s board. “So it is particularly dangerous when they consume radioactive food or water.” - Fox News
Radioactive Milk: Strontium Found in Hilo, Hawaii Milk
Last month we had also reported how a radioactive isotope of strontium had already been detected in American milk sample from Hilo, Hawaii. EPA found 1.4 picoCuries per liter of strontium-89 in a milk sample collected in Hilo on April 4, 2011
Although the EPA tests milk, the FDA regulates it, and the FDA’s Derived Intervention Level—the standard observed for food—is 4,400 pCi/L for strontium-90. I’m working to confirm whether FDA has a separate DIL for Sr-89.
The EPA’s Maximum Contamination Level for Sr-89 in drinking water is 20 pCi/L. (For more on the difference between EPA and FDA standards, see “Why Does FDA Tolerate More Radiation Than EPA?“)
The two man-made isotopes of strontium—Sr-89 and Sr-90—are among the most dangerous products of nuclear fission to human and animal health. Both are “bone-seekers,” chemically similar to calcium, that collect in bone and marrow, where they are known to cause cancer. They are particularly dangerous to the growing bones of fetuses and children.
The half-life of Sr-89 is 50.5 days, and Sr-89 is sometimes used as a cancer pain treatment under the commercial name Metastron, because it collects in and destroys the fast-growing cells of bone cancer. EPA considers Sr-90, meanwhile, “the most important radioactive isotope in the environment” because of its health impacts and a longer half-life of 29 years.
Australian coal giant enters into CTL technical study agreement
21st October 2011
http://www.miningweekly.com/article/australian-coal-giant-and-gasification-technology-company-enters-into-ctl-technical-study-agreement-2011-10-21
Global energy and gasi- fication technology company Synthesis Energy Systems (SES) (SYMX) has announced that it has entered into a technical study agree- ment with Australian coal giant Ambre Energy to supply a proprietary gasification design, which will support Ambre Energy’s development of a planned coal-to-liquids (CTL) project.
Ambre Energy intends to integrate this technical study with its engineering work on the project, known as the ambreCTL project, which it is developing in Queensland, Australia.
When completed, the ambreCTL project will pro- duce about 18 000 bbl/d of petrol and about 40-million gallons of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) yearly.
SES’s U-Gas gasification technology is intended to con- vert about four-million tons of low-rank, high-ash coal into synthetic gas for the subsequent production of petrol and LPG yearly.
In a coal test run under- taken in December last year, at SES’s commercial coal gasification project in the Shandong province of China, SES achieved more than 98% carbon conversion with Ambre Energy’s low-rank Australian coal, which will be used in the ambreCTL project.
SES president and CEO Robert Rigdon says the company is pleased to have entered into the agreement with Ambre Energy, which has identified SES’s U-Gas platform as an ideal technology solution for its ambreCTL facility.
“To support Ambre’s project development, we will begin with the technical study based on our gasification technology that will be incorporated into Ambre’s overall project development. “We look forward to completing this study, which is an important milestone towards completing our licence agreement with ambreCTL,” he says.
Ambre Energy CEO Edek Choros adds that the company has worked with SES for about a year and has found its gasification technology to be a perfect fit for converting its coal assets into high-value products.
“SES’s recent progress in China and India in building strategic business partner- ships gives us confidence in the value they bring. This technical study is an important step towards securing the technology licence and moving forward with our project in Australia, which will allow us to bring the required clean, low-cost, coal-based fuels to the region,” says Choros.
Greeks driven back to the land
19 October 2011THE INDEPENDENTLONDONShelter from the economic storm. On the island of Naxos, Greece.
Elias Fils
http://www.presseurop.eu//en/content/article/1072441-greeks-driven-back-land
As strikes bring the country to a halt, and politicians dither over the fate of the eurozone's most stricken economy, Greeks are being forced to turn back the clock to make ends meet. A report from the island of Naxos, in the Cyclades.
Patrick Cockburn
"People are coming back to farms around here that they abandoned years ago so they can grow potatoes, cabbages and vegetables to help them survive the crisis," says Petros Citouzouris, as he pruned his vines high in the mountains of Naxos, the largest island in the Cyclades. The financial catastrophe in Greece is engulfing the most isolated parts of the country.
Pointing to newly cultivated terraces close to a long derelict leper colony at Sifones, Mr Citouzouris says that since the crisis began "unemployed builders, miners and pensioners have started returning to family farms they inherited a generation ago, but never worked". He reckons that 10 out of 20 nearby farms belong to the new arrivals. "They don't see any light at the end of the tunnel," he says. "They won't be able to grow enough to live off farming alone, but it will help them get by." He says he is happy that he himself never left the land during Greece's boom years.
Economic disaster affects every part of Naxos, creating a mood that varies between half-hidden anxiety, open despair and a general dread that, however bad things are today, they will be a great deal worse tomorrow. The island remains extraordinarily beautiful, filled with ancient Greek remains and Venetian towers, its whitewashed villages and well-watered terraces clinging to the sides of mountains that soar above deep green valleys. Olive trees and vineyards flourish in the fertile soil that for 5,000 years has attracted settlers.
Tourists still came this year, much to the relief of the owners of hotels and tavernas, but the rest of the economy is shrivelling by the week as Naxiots prepare for the worst. Katarina Sideri, who runs vocational training courses in the mountain village of Chalki, says: "People here think that their children will be worse off than they are." She has 48 places in her training course and has received 200 applicants, many of them highly trained people speaking two foreign languages, but who have not been able to find a job. Read full article in The Independent...
More from this page.....
FROM ATHENS
Struggle between unions and government over austerity
While the EU27 prepare to meet on October 23 to discuss a possible reduction of Greek debt, Greece is now "paralysed" as of midnight last night [October 19] and for the next 48 hours, writes Ta Nea. In the morning, the general strike called by trade unions – the fifth since the start of the year – saw a very good turnout, writes the Athens daily: “Ships are docked in the ports, trains are standing at the platforms, and schools, government offices, banks and even private businesses are closed. The list is long: this time around the Greeks are determined to keep up the movement no matter what happens today. They are protesting against austerity, against taxes and against the violation of their social rights.”
For the government, it's “the moment of truth,” observes To Vima, adding that “many protesters want to unseat the Socialists from power,” accused as they are of strangling the country to meet its international creditors. “The Greeks are organising strikes every day and the country cannot function... All the ministries are occupied by their staff, people cannot pay their bills and are refusing the new taxes, and those who cannot go on strike are mounting a go-slow.” Meanwhile, “the mountains of garbage are continuing to invade the capital,” writes To Ethnos with some irony. “Nobody wants to collect it, and the toxic fumes are threatening children in particular.”
Federal Reserve Remedy
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9010856874304912516&hl
=en
HOLY BAILOUT - Federal Reserve Now Backstopping $75 Trillion Of Bank Of America's Derivatives Trades
UPDATE - Chcek out regulator William Black's blistering reaction to this story HERE.
---
http://dailybail.com/home/holy-bailout-federal-reserve-now-backstopping-75-trillion-of.html
This story from Bloomberg just hit the wires this morning. Bank of America is shifting derivatives in its Merrill investment banking unit to its depository arm, which has access to the Fed discount window and is protected by the FDIC.
This means that the investment bank's European derivatives exposure is now backstopped by U.S. taxpayers. Bank of America didn't get regulatory approval to do this, they just did it at the request of frightened counterparties. Now the Fed and the FDIC are fighting as to whether this was sound. The Fed wants to "give relief" to the bank holding company, which is under heavy pressure.
This is a direct transfer of risk to the taxpayer done by the bank without approval by regulators and without public input. You will also read below that JP Morgan is apparently doing the same thing with $79 trillion of notional derivatives guaranteed by the FDIC and Federal Reserve.
What this means for you is that when Europe finally implodes and banks fail, U.S. taxpayers will hold the bag for trillions in CDS insurance contracts sold by Bank of America and JP Morgan. Even worse, the total exposure is unknown because Wall Street successfully lobbied during Dodd-Frank passage so that no central exchange would exist keeping track of net derivative exposure.
This is a recipe for Armageddon. Bernanke is absolutely insane. No wonder Geithner has been hopping all over Europe begging and cajoling leaders to put together a massive bailout of troubled banks. His worst nightmare is Eurozone bank defaults leading to the collapse of the large U.S. banks who have been happily selling default insurance on European banks since the crisis began.
---
Bloomberg
Excerpt:
Bank of America Corp. (BAC), hit by a credit downgrade last month, has moved derivatives from its Merrill Lynch unit to a subsidiary flush with insured deposits, according to people with direct knowledge of the situation.
The Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. disagree over the transfers, which are being requested by counterparties, said the people, who asked to remain anonymous because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. The Fed has signaled that it favors moving the derivatives to give relief to the bank holding company, while the FDIC, which would have to pay off depositors in the event of a bank failure, is objecting, said the people. The bank doesn’t believe regulatory approval is needed, said people with knowledge of its position.
Three years after taxpayers rescued some of the biggest U.S. lenders, regulators are grappling with how to protect FDIC- insured bank accounts from risks generated by investment-banking operations. Bank of America, which got a $45 billion bailout during the financial crisis, had $1.04 trillion in deposits as of midyear, ranking it second among U.S. firms.
“The concern is that there is always an enormous temptation to dump the losers on the insured institution,” said William Black, professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and a former bank regulator. “We should have fairly tight restrictions on that.”
MOODY’S DOWNGRADE
The Moody’s downgrade spurred some of Merrill’s partners to ask that contracts be moved to the retail unit, which has a higher credit rating, according to people familiar with the transactions. Transferring derivatives also can help the parent company minimize the collateral it must post on contracts and the potential costs to terminate trades after Moody’s decision, said a person familiar with the matter.
Keeping such deals separate from FDIC-insured savings has been a cornerstone of U.S. regulation for decades, including last year’s Dodd-Frank overhaul of Wall Street regulation.
U.S. Bailouts
Bank of America benefited from two injections of U.S. bailout funds during the financial crisis. The first, in 2008, included $15 billion for the bank and $10 billion for Merrill, which the bank had agreed to buy. The second round of $20 billion came in January 2009 after Merrill’s losses in its final quarter as an independent firm surpassed $15 billion, raising doubts about the bank’s stability if the takeover proceeded. The U.S. also offered to guarantee $118 billion of assets held by the combined company, mostly at Merrill.
Bank of America’s holding company -- the parent of both the retail bank and the Merrill Lynch securities unit -- held almost $75 trillion of derivatives at the end of June, according to data compiled by the OCC. About $53 trillion, or 71 percent, were within Bank of America NA, according to the data, which represent the notional values of the trades.
That compares with JPMorgan’s deposit-taking entity, JPMorgan Chase Bank NA, which contained 99 percent of the New York-based firm’s $79 trillion of notional derivatives, the OCC data show.
Moving derivatives contracts between units of a bank holding company is limited under Section 23A of the Federal Reserve Act, which is designed to prevent a lender’s affiliates from benefiting from its federal subsidy and to protect the bank from excessive risk originating at the non-bank affiliate, said Saule T. Omarova, a law professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law.
“Congress doesn’t want a bank’s FDIC insurance and access to the Fed discount window to somehow benefit an affiliate, so they created a firewall,” Omarova said. The discount window has been open to banks as the lender of last resort since 1914.
HERE's THE STORY FROM BLOOMBERG
BofA Said to Split Regulators Over Moving Merrill Derivatives to Bank Unit
Bob Ivry, Hugh Son and Christine Harper - Oct 18, 2011 12:56 PM CT
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-18/bofa-said-to-split-regulators-over-moving-merrill-derivatives-to-bank-unit.html
Bank of America, which got a $45 billion bailout during the financial crisis, had $1.04 trillion in deposits as of midyear, ranking it second among U.S. firms. Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg
Bank of America Corp. (BAC), hit by a credit downgrade last month, has moved derivatives from its Merrill Lynch unit to a subsidiary flush with insured deposits, according to people with direct knowledge of the situation.
The Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. disagree over the transfers, which are being requested by counterparties, said the people, who asked to remain anonymous because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. The Fed has signaled that it favors moving the derivatives to give relief to the bank holding company, while the FDIC, which would have to pay off depositors in the event of a bank failure, is objecting, said the people. The bank doesn’t believe regulatory approval is needed, said people with knowledge of its position.
Three years after taxpayers rescued some of the biggest U.S. lenders, regulators are grappling with how to protect FDIC- insured bank accounts from risks generated by investment-banking operations. Bank of America, which got a $45 billion bailout during the financial crisis, had $1.04 trillion in deposits as of midyear, ranking it second among U.S. firms.
“The concern is that there is always an enormous temptation to dump the losers on the insured institution,” said William Black, professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and a former bank regulator. “We should have fairly tight restrictions on that.”
Accommodating Clients
Jerry Dubrowski, a spokesman for Charlotte, North Carolina- based Bank of America, declined to comment on the transfers or the firm’s discussions with regulators. The company “continues to accommodate the needs of our clients through each of our multiple trading entities, including Bank of America NA,” he said in an e-mailed statement, referring to the company’s deposit-taking unit.
Barbara Hagenbaugh, a Fed spokeswoman, said she couldn’t discuss supervision of specific institutions. Greg Hernandez, an FDIC spokesman, declined to comment.
Bank of America posted a $6.2 billion third-quarter profit today, compared with a loss of $7.3 billion a year earlier, as credit quality improved and the firm booked one-time accounting gains. The lender rose 7.3 percent to $6.47 at 1:54 p.m. in New York trading, making it the day’s best performer in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Credit-default swaps on Bank of America eased 10 basis points to a mid-price of 380 as of 11:49 a.m. in New York, according to broker Phoenix Partners Group.
Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Bank of America’s long-term credit ratings Sept. 21, cutting both the holding company and the retail bank two notches apiece. The holding company fell to Baa1, the third-lowest investment-grade rank, from A2, while the retail bank declined to A2 from Aa3.
Moody’s Downgrade
The Moody’s downgrade spurred some of Merrill’s partners to ask that contracts be moved to the retail unit, which has a higher credit rating, according to people familiar with the transactions. Transferring derivatives also can help the parent company minimize the collateral it must post on contracts and the potential costs to terminate trades after Moody’s decision, said a person familiar with the matter.
Bank of America estimated in an August regulatory filing that a two-level downgrade by all ratings companies would have required that it post $3.3 billion in additional collateral and termination payments, based on over-the-counter derivatives and other trading agreements as of June 30. The figure doesn’t include possible collateral payments due to “variable interest entities,” which the firm is evaluating, it said in the filing.
Dubrowski declined to comment on collateral or termination payments after the downgrade.
‘Be Prepared’
Bank of America’s rating is now four grades below the one Moody’s assigned to JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), the biggest U.S. bank by deposits at midyear, and a level below the rating given to Citigroup Inc. (C), the third-biggest. Bank of America is the only U.S. lender that lacks a rating of A3 or higher among the five firms listed by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency as having the biggest derivatives books.
“We had worked very hard over the course of the last nine months to be prepared to the extent that we did receive a downgrade, and feel very good about the way that we’ve minimized the potential impact” Bank of America Chief Financial Officer Bruce Thompson said in a conference call today with analysts. “Since the downgrade, we have not seen any change in our global excess liquidity sources.”
Derivatives are financial instruments used to hedge risks or for speculation. They’re derived from stocks, bonds, loans, currencies and commodities, or linked to specific events such as changes in the weather or interest rates.
Dodd-Frank Rules
Keeping such deals separate from FDIC-insured savings has been a cornerstone of U.S. regulation for decades, including last year’s Dodd-Frank overhaul of Wall Street regulation.
The legislation gave the FDIC, which liquidates failing banks, expanded powers to dismantle large financial institutions in danger of failing. The agency can borrow from the Treasury Department to finance the biggest lenders’ operations to stem bank runs. It’s required to recoup taxpayer money used during the resolution process through fees on the largest firms.
Bank of America benefited from two injections of U.S. bailout funds during the financial crisis. The first, in 2008, included $15 billion for the bank and $10 billion for Merrill, which the bank had agreed to buy. The second round of $20 billion came in January 2009 after Merrill’s losses in its final quarter as an independent firm surpassed $15 billion, raising doubts about the bank’s stability if the takeover proceeded. The U.S. also offered to guarantee $118 billion of assets held by the combined company, mostly at Merrill. The company repaid federal bailout funds in 2009 with interest.
‘The Normal Course’
Bank of America’s holding company -- the parent of both the retail bank and the Merrill Lynch securities unit -- held almost $75 trillion of derivatives at the end of June, according to data compiled by the OCC. About $53 trillion, or 71 percent, were within Bank of America NA, according to the data, which represent the notional values of the trades.
That compares with JPMorgan’s deposit-taking entity, JPMorgan Chase Bank NA, which contained 99 percent of the New York-based firm’s $79 trillion of notional derivatives, the OCC data show.
The moves by Bank of America are part of “the normal course of dealings that we’ve had with counterparties since Merrill Lynch and BofA came together,” Thompson said today.
‘Created a Firewall’
Moving derivatives contracts between units of a bank holding company is limited under Section 23A of the Federal Reserve Act, which is designed to prevent a lender’s affiliates from benefiting from its federal subsidy and to protect the bank from excessive risk originating at the non-bank affiliate, said Saule T. Omarova, a law professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law.
“Congress doesn’t want a bank’s FDIC insurance and access to the Fed discount window to somehow benefit an affiliate, so they created a firewall,” Omarova said. The discount window has been open to banks as the lender of last resort since 1914.
As a general rule, as long as transactions involve high- quality assets and don’t exceed certain quantitative limitations, they should be allowed under the Federal Reserve Act, Omarova said.
In 2009, the Fed granted Section 23A exemptions to the banking arms of Ally Financial Inc., HSBC Holdings Plc, Fifth Third Bancorp, ING Groep NV, General Electric Co., Northern Trust Corp., CIT Group Inc., Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., among others, according to letters posted on the Fed’s website.
The central bank terminated exemptions last year for retail-banking units of JPMorgan, Citigroup, Barclays Plc, Royal Bank of Scotland Plc and Deutsche Bank AG. The Fed also ended an exemption for Bank of America in March 2010 and in September of that year approved a new one.
Section 23A “is among the most important tools that U.S. bank regulators have to protect the safety and soundness of U.S. banks,” Scott Alvarez, the Fed’s general counsel, told Congress in March 2008.
Just getting these jokers to admit that "hunter gatherers" were not the builders of the site is a big step. To get archeologists who want to keep their jobs to admit that we've been on this planet for millions of years in close to the same bipedal form we are now is going to take some time.
Göbeklitepe site unveils mystery
FINALLY! After reading about this site for years these IDIOT archeologist are finally willing to admit that a 12,000 year old culture capable of high art and architecture were NOT hunter gatherers as they've been espousing for over a decade! (man that really made my head hurt every time they said it). Yes Virginia they had wheat agriculture and this decidedly turns just about everything we've been taught about civilization on it's head.
Göbeklitepe site unveils mystery
Thursday, October 13, 2011
SANLIURFA - Anatolia News Agency
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=gobeklitepe-site-unveils-mystery-2011-10-13
The latest excavation in Göbeklitepe in the southeastern province of Sanliurfa reveals that inhabitants 12,000 years ago also had a belief system and a certain culture. The remains show there is much more to be discovered from those ancient people, according to scholars.
Göbeklitepe site in the southeastern province of Sanliurfa includes important information on inhabitants from 12 millennia ago. The most important information that the team found was that the ancient people had a belief system. AA photo.
Recent excavations at the Göbeklitepe archaeological site have revealed that ancient people living there 12,000 years ago engaged in agriculture, processed leather, made sculptures and rock accessories and possessed a significant belief system.
The site in the southeastern province of Sanliurfa includes important information on the people 12 millennia ago, said Assistant Professor Cihat Kürkçüoglu of the local Harran University.
Göbeklitepe includes many temples and archaeological works from the Neolithic era. Kürkçüoglu evaluated the excavation, which is being carried out by Prof. Dr. Klaus Schmidt from the Berlin Germany Archaeology Institute.
The latest remains and excavations showed that those people had a culture and a belief system, said Kürkçüoglu.
The excavation project has changed many perceptions about the site, he said, adding that ancient people processed wheat and knew about agriculture. “All this information came from the remains.”
The most important information that the team found was that the people had a belief system. “Those people made the first temple in the world and created the first monumental work of the world,” said Kürkçüoglu.
Göbeklitepe society also had a concept of art, he said.
“Those people created beautiful artwork with stones,” he said, adding that there were serpent and bird figures in the rocks. “This is a very important milestone to learn that these people had an art and aesthetic knowledge.”
A leopard relief found on one of the rocks was a unique piece, according to Kürkçüoglu. “This might be the oldest relief in the world,” he said, adding that the rock and the figures on it show that the Göbeklitepe people had artistic vision. “Those people are not hunters or nomads.”
Leather cultivation was an important activity among the people of Göbeklitepe because they knew how to cultivate leather, he added.
“The unearthed remains show a relief of fox leather on a man’s body,” said Kürkçüoglu, adding that the cultivation of leather, engraving rocks, agriculture and architecture were very important developments for the archaeological world. “We believe that these discoveries will attract lots of people to Sanliurfa.”
The monumental buildings of Göbeklitepe might be temples, according to Kürkçüoglu. “However, we are not sure about this information,” he said.
About Göbeklitepe
Göbeklitepe is located in southeastern Turkey. It was first noted by a survey conducted by Istanbul University and the University of Chicago in 1964, which recognized that the hill could not entirely be a natural feature, but assumed that a Byzantine cemetery lay beneath. The survey noted a large number of flints and the presence of limestone slabs which were thought to be Byzantine grave markers.
In 1994, Schmidt visited the site and recognized that it was in fact a much more ancient Neolithic site. Since 1995 excavations have been conducted by the German Archaeological Institute’s Istanbul branch and the Sanliurfa Museum under Schmidt’s direction.
Prior to the excavation, the hill had been under agricultural cultivation. Generations of local inhabitants had frequently moved rocks and placed them in clearance piles which likely destroyed archaeological evidence. Scholars from the Hochschule Karlsruhe began documenting the architectural remains. They soon discovered T-shaped pillars, some of which had apparently been smashed by vandals.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Into Eternity (documentary) Nuclear Waste
How Terahertz Waves Tear Apart DNA
A new model of the way the THz waves interact with DNA explains how the damage is done and why evidence has been so hard to gather
KFC 10/30/2009
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/24331/
Great things are expected of terahertz waves, the radiation that fills the slot in the electromagnetic spectrum between microwaves and the infrared. Terahertz waves pass through non-conducting materials such as clothes , paper, wood and brick and so cameras sensitive to them can peer inside envelopes, into living rooms and "frisk" people at distance.
The way terahertz waves are absorbed and emitted can also be used to determine the chemical composition of a material. And even though they don't travel far inside the body, there is great hope that the waves can be used to spot tumours near the surface of the skin.
With all that potential, it's no wonder that research on terahertz waves has exploded in the last ten years or so.
But what of the health effects of terahertz waves? At first glance, it's easy to dismiss any notion that they can be damaging. Terahertz photons are not energetic enough to break chemical bonds or ionise atoms or molecules, the chief reasons why higher energy photons such as x-rays and UV rays are so bad for us. But could there be another mechanism at work?
The evidence that terahertz radiation damages biological systems is mixed. "Some studies reported significant genetic damage while others, although similar, showed none," say Boian Alexandrov at the Center for Nonlinear Studies at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and a few buddies. Now these guys think they know why.
Alexandrov and co have created a model to investigate how THz fields interact with double-stranded DNA and what they've found is remarkable. They say that although the forces generated are tiny, resonant effects allow THz waves to unzip double-stranded DNA, creating bubbles in the double strand that could significantly interfere with processes such as gene expression and DNA replication. That's a jaw dropping conclusion.
And it also explains why the evidence has been so hard to garner. Ordinary resonant effects are not powerful enough to do do this kind of damage but nonlinear resonances can. These nonlinear instabilities are much less likely to form which explains why the character of THz genotoxic
effects are probabilistic rather than deterministic, say the team.
This should set the cat among the pigeons. Of course, terahertz waves are a natural part of environment, just like visible and infrared light. But a new generation of cameras are set to appear that not only record terahertz waves but also bombard us with them. And if our exposure is set to increase, the question that urgently needs answering is what level of terahertz exposure is safe.
Ref: arxiv.org/abs/0910.5294: DNA Breathing Dynamics in the Presence of a Terahertz Field
TSA Announces Advanced Imaging Technology Deployments at U.S. Airports
http://www.mmdnewswire.com/tsa-announces-advanced-imaging-70641.html
WASHINGTON (MMD Newswire) October 7, 2011 - - The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) today announced 29 airports which are set to receive recently purchased millimeter wave Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) machines. The machines will be deployed with new automated target recognition software designed to enhance privacy by eliminating passenger-specific images while improving throughput capabilities and streamlining the checkpoint screening process.
"We remain committed to implementing technologies that strengthen passenger privacy while ensuring the highest level of security," said TSA Administrator John S. Pistole. "In addition to improving the passenger experience at the checkpoint, advanced imaging technology continues to give us the greatest opportunity to detect and deter evolving threats to aviation."
TSA plans to deploy units to the following airports in the coming months:
- Akron-Canton Regional (CAK)
- Albany International (ALB)
- Austin-Bergstrom International (AUS)
- Baton Rouge Metropolitan (BTR)
- Bishop International (FNT)
- Casper/Natrona County International (CPR)
- Chattanooga Metropolitan (CHA)
- Daytona Beach International (DAB)
- Durango-La Plata County (DRO)
- Gainesville Regional (GNV)
- Hilo International (ITO)
- Kahului (OGG)
- Killeen Fort Hood Regional (GRK)
- Knoxville McGhee Tyson (TYS)
- Lansing Capital City (LAN)
- Manchester Boston Regional (MHT)
- Meadows Field (BFL)
- Norfolk International (ORF)
- Pensacola Regional (PNS)
- Peoria International (PIA)
- Plattsburgh International (PBG)
- Roberts Field-Redmond Municipal (RDM)
- Rochester International (RST)
- Rogue Valley International-Medford (MFR)
- South Bend (SBN)
- Stewart International (SWF)
- Tallahassee Regional (TLH)
- Wendover (ENV)
- Youngstown-Warren Regional (YNG)
TSA will make additional airport announcements as plans are finalized. Many factors are taken into consideration before AIT units are deployed including airport readiness and checkpoint infrastructure.
AIT is designed to enhance security by safely screening passengers for metallic and non-metallic threats--including weapons, explosives and other objects concealed under layers of clothing.
Imaging technology screening is safe for all travelers, and the technology meets all known national and international health and safety standards. In fact, the energy emitted by millimeter wave technology is 1000 times less than the international limits and guidelines.
In September 2011, TSA purchased 300 millimeter wave units, which are being deployed in the coming months. Currently, there are nearly 500 AIT units at 78 airports nationwide. President Obama's fiscal 2011 budget included the purchase of 500 units, and the President's fiscal 2012 budget requests funding for an additional 275 units.
For more information about AIT, visit www.tsa.gov/ait.
Well now. That should effectively kill any further run on this stock.
Conclusive link now admitted: swine flu vaccine causes chronic nervous system disorders
Saturday, October 08, 2011
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
(lots of hyperlinks)
http://www.naturalnews.com/033816_swine_flu_vaccines_neurological_disorders.html
(NaturalNews) The nation of Finland has now openly admitted that the swine flu vaccine "conclusively" causes narcolepsy, a chronic nervous system disorder that makes people uncontrollably fall asleep. The Finnish government, in acknowledging this link, says it will pay for "lifetime medical care" for 79 children who have been irreparably damaged by the swine flu vaccine. (http://news.yahoo.com/finland-vows-...)
Narcolepsy isn't the only side effect now admitted to be caused by swine flu vaccines: 76 of the 79 children also suffered hallucinations and "paralyzing physical collapses," say Finnish researchers.
Remarkably, even though the link between swine flu vaccines and permanent neurological damage in children is now openly admitted by the Finnish government, there is absolutely no talk about halting the utterly unscientific ritual of injecting children with flu vaccines in the first place. Not only are flu vaccines harmful to children (as is now admitted), but flu vaccines don't even work! A simple daily dose of vitamin D would do far more to halt influenza than any vaccine (http://www.naturalnews.com/029760_v...).
U.S. refuses to admit vaccines harm anyone
The U.S. government, of course, still refuses to admit vaccines cause any harm whatsoever. Both the government and the vaccine industry continue to push the fabricated fairy tale that "vaccines are safe and effective," meaning they harm no one but help everyone. Yet the truth is practically the polar opposite: Vaccines harm countless millions of children each year in ways that are usually never linked to vaccines (mild mental retardation, suppressed immune function, learning disabilities, etc.). At the same time, vaccines are all but worthless at preventing infections. Even the vaccine industry's own research shows that flu shots only work on 1 out of 100 people, meaning they're completely useless for 99 percent of those who take them (http://www.naturalnews.com/029641_v...).
Instead of admitting the truth that vaccines cause autism, the U.S. government has conspired with vaccine manufacturers to create a Vaccine Injury Compensation Program which essentially pays "hush money" to parents of permanently harmed children to make sure they cannot bring their claims of harm to federal courts (http://www.naturalnews.com/033635_v...).
Even worse, the medical establishment -- which is heavily influenced if not downright dominated by pharmaceutical interests -- absolutely refuses to advocate vitamin D as a flu prevention nutrient. Vitamin D is safe, effective and affordable. It's available without a prescription and could save literally billions of dollars in national health care costs for just pennies per day per person. So why won't the medical establishment promote vitamin D? Precisely because it would cost the industry billions of dollars in lost profits from all the sickness and degenerative disease that is prevented by vitamin D.
Of course vaccines cause autism!
There is absolutely no question in the mind of any reasonably informed person that vaccines cause neurological damage, including (but not limited to) autism. Only the corporate-whore scientists around the world continue their charade that vaccines are not linked to autism; or that vaccines even work in the first place. Most Americans haven't yet heard the secret interview with Merck vaccine scientist Dr. Maurice Hilleman where he openly admits vaccines carry dozens of strains of cancer-causing "stealth" viruses. Read the transcript here:
http://www.naturalnews.com/033584_D...
Listen to the interview at:
http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=13EAA...
Similarly, most people still don't know that Dr. Jonas Salk, the celebrated "grandfather" of vaccines who is credited with creating the polio vaccine, was an unindicted medical criminal who committed heinous crimes against humanity in the name of "medical science." (http://www.naturalnews.com/031564_J...)
In fact, the whole history of vaccines and medicine has been utterly distorted by the medical establishment to paint vaccines in a glorified light of public health. But the real story is that vaccines are now -- and have always been -- tools for causing disease and promoting sickness so that the pharmaceutical industry can benefit as a result.
The horrifying truth about the vaccine industry and medical establishment
Remember, this is the same industry that got caught conducting outrageous medical experiments on Guatemalan prisoners (http://www.naturalnews.com/033483_G...). These are the same people who ran Tuskegee experiments on African Americans, too (http://www.naturalnews.com/029924_m...).
Do you honestly think these same vaccine criminals would not also use innocent children for their own mass inoculation medical experiments? Remember: These are hard-core, Nazi-style criminals we're talking about here. This is who runs the pharmaceutical industry. The former chairperson of Bayer, for example, was a convicted Nazi war criminal who was indicted and sentenced at the Nuremburg trials:
Don't believe me? Read your history:
"Dr. Fritz ter Meer, a director of IG Farben who was directly involved in developing the nerve gas, Zyklon-B, which killed millions of Jews, was sentenced to seven years in prison but was released after four years through the intervention of Rockefeller and J.J. McCloy, then U.S. High Commissioner for Germany. An unrepentant Fritz ter Meer, guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity, returned to work in Bayer where he served as Chairman for more than 10 years, until 1961. This same ter Meer, a convicted Nazi war criminal, went on to become one of the initiators of the Codex Alimentarius Commission in 1962, an organization that was nurtured by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and latterly the World Trade Organization (WTO)." (http://www.naturalnews.com/024534_E...)
Governments know vaccines maim and kill children -- that's exactly why they push them so aggressively
You see, every world government already knows that vaccines are murder. They know vaccines kill and maim children. They know vaccines cause autism and neurological disorders. They know this and then they keep promoting vaccines anyway. Why? Because they are mass murderers who have philosophical roots in Nazi Germany and the eugenics movement. Even today's FDA can be traced backed to eugenics and population control. Bill Gates, who promotes world vaccination, openly admits that vaccines and health care can "reduce world population by 10 to 15 percent" if they "do a good job." (http://www.naturalnews.com/029911_v...)
Don't believe me? Watch Bill Gates say it himself in this video:
http://www.naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=A...
Vaccines are not given to children with the "accident" that they kill some children and cause neurological disorders in others; no, they are given to children BECAUSE they cause neurological disorders, organ failure, infertility, reduced intelligence and numerous other side effects.
Today's vaccines create tomorrow's health care customers, you see.
Vaccines keep Big Pharma in business based on repeat profits
How else is Big Pharma supposed to ensure its future profits if the population were actually allowed to stay healthy? The whole point of vaccines is to DAMAGE HUMAN HEALTH and rake in trillions of dollars in long-term profits from all the suffering and disease caused by those vaccines.
C'mon, folks: Do you really think all these for-profit companies are trying to HELP humanity? Do you really think drug company CEOs are goody-goody humanitarians who would give up their shareholder profits and drive their own companies out of business by promoting lasting health?
Wake up, people. Wake up and smell the coffee. Drug companies think absolutely nothing of murdering Nigerian children (http://www.naturalnews.com/023654.html) or even using your own children as medical experiments as long as they make more money in the process. And as the editor of NaturalNews, having seen countless documents, tips, testimonials and other sources of information that have been given to me over the years, I can tell you with absolute certainty that the pharmaceutical industry is actively using vaccines to CAUSE degenerative disease as a way to lock in future profits from that disease.
Vaccines are a business continuity strategy used by the for-profit pharmaceutical industry
It's just like a greasy car mechanic throwing some solvents into your gas tank so that you have to come back for engine repairs after a few hundred miles. The drug companies are willing to do anything to guarantee their profits, and that includes committing acts of genocide against the human race as long as it fattens their bottom line profits.
We are not dealing with ethical, principled human beings in the pharmaceutical industry, folks. We are dealing with criminal-minded monsters who have found a way to selfishly enrich themselves at the expense and suffering of others.
And they relish in it. They get off on watching children suffer and die from their vaccines. They get a rise out of the fact that they are pulling off this scam with such success that the sheeple of the world will actually line up at their local pharmacies and beg to be injected with the very chemical adjuvants and live viral materials that will destroy their health and turn them into lifetime medical victims.
The sick, demented medical elite who engineer all this (which includes top people at the FDA, by the way), are like modern-day vampires who suck the life out of innocent little children in order to feed their own devilish appetites for wealth and power. And watching it all happen every day in America, Finland, and everywhere else around the world is absolutely infuriating. That's why I work so hard to expose these medical quacks for the true criminals they really are. These people who lead Big Pharma and the vaccine industry would infect your baby with cancer if it guaranteed them chemotherapy profits two decades down the road.
These people should be arrested, thrown in prison and charged with their role in these crimes against humanity. Occupy Wall Street is just one movement that's rising up in opposition to the total scam of the fraudulent banking industry and the Federal Reserve, but we need another movement: Occupy Big Pharma where the sick, degenerate masses who have been harmed by all these vaccines and deadly pharmaceuticals march on the drug companies and arrest their CEOs for crimes against humanity.
I know that day is coming. There will be a day when the angry, diseased masses figure out the depth of the medical crimes that have been committed against them in the name of "public health..." and they will rage against the machine.
To all the vaccine company CEOs out there: Enjoy your millions right now, because there will come a day when you have to answer for how you got that money and who really had to pay the price for your financial windfall. Hundreds of millions of children are harmed today around the world because of vaccines, and that number will continue to rise with each passing year that we allow humanity to be chemically assaulted by these biological weapons known as "vaccines."
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/033816_swine_flu_vaccines_neurological_disorders.html#ixzz1aHZxpbmW
You know the Koch Bros. fund the Cato Institute?
Thyroid gland irregularities found in young evacuees from Fukushima
An educator checks the state of contaminated pool water at Watari Elementary School in Fukushima on Aug. 4, 2011. (Mainichi)
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20111004p2g00m0dm116000c.html
NAGANO (Kyodo) -- Hormonal and other irregularities were detected in the thyroid glands of 10 out of 130 children evacuated from Fukushima Prefecture, a Nagano Prefecture-based charity dedicated to aid for the victims of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident said Tuesday.
The Japan Chernobyl Foundation and Shinshu University Hospital did blood and urine tests on youngsters aged up to 16 including babies under the age of one for about a month through the end of August in Chino, Nagano, when the children stayed there temporarily after evacuating from Fukushima.
As a result, one child was found to have a lower-than-normal thyroid hormone level and seven had thyroid stimulation hormone levels higher than the norm. The remaining two were diagnosed with slightly high blood concentrations of a protein called thyroglobulin, possibly caused by damage to their thyroid glands.
Three of the 10 children used to live within the 20-km no-go zone around the nuclear plant and one was from the so-called evacuation-prepared area in case of emergency in areas between 20 and 30 kilometers from the plant, while six others were from towns outside such zones.
A government map displaying radiation levels in the area around the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant.
"At present, we cannot say the children are ill but they require long-term observation," said Minoru Kamata, chief of the foundation. No clear link has been established between the children's condition and the radiation from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, according to the nonprofit organization.
Radioactive iodine tends to get lodged in children's thyroid glands more than those of adults, placing youngsters at greater risk of developing disorders and diseases including cancer.
(Mainichi Japan) October 4, 2011
Apparently she worked for Goldman Sachs and Citi as well.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/10/05/1022970/-Erin-Burnetts-Lies-The-Bailouts-Made-Us-Money-OWS-Talking-Points?via=sidebar
She doesn't even know what she's talking about, like Obama she's just reading the cue cards.
This is just an inspiring 8 1/2 minutes. Makes me feel good seeing young people who KNOW what is going on.
=player_embedded" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
Serbian politician Vladimir Kršljanin talks about NATO's aggression on Libya
Posted: 2011/10/02
From: Mathaba
He explained how and why the Libyan war serves as a preparation for a major confrontation on the part of the Anglo-American axis against Russia and China.
By Rodina Matj
http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=628867
On September 22, 2011, former Yugoslav Ambassador and now Serbian politician Vladimir Kršljanin held a speech in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, on the invitation of the German Free Thinkers' Association (Deutscher Freidenker-Verband). The subject of the speech was the current NATO aggression on Libya, its significance in the context of rising tensions in international relations as well as the parallels between the present NATO aggression and NATO's and the West's two decades long aggressive behaviour and criminal acts against Yugoslavia and now Serbia.
Mr Kršljanin presented the audience, consisting partly of members of the local Serbian Diaspora, partly of German Peace and Truth activists, with the hard facts about the criminal character of the NATO war against Libya, burying all claims of NATO embedded media propaganda about the motives and the character of the war, the role of the NATO-rebels whom he - in accordance with the language used by Libyans loyal to the legitimate government - referred to as "rats".
He explained how and why the Libyan war serves as a preparation for a major confrontation on the part of the Anglo-American axis against Russia and China.
Here are the videos of the event:
Battered by Economic Crisis, Greeks Turn to Barter Networks
Eirini Vourloumis for The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/02/world/europe/in-greece-barter-networks-surge.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all%3Fsrc%3Dtp&smid=fb-share
Angeliki Ioanniti, a seamstress, runs a small shop in Volos and participates in a network that uses barter and vouchers. Such networks build on a sense of solidarity in tough times as people seek creative ways to cope with a radically changing landscape.
By RACHEL DONADIO
Published: October 1, 2011
VOLOS, Greece — The first time he bought eggs, milk and jam at an outdoor market using not euros but an informal barter currency, Theodoros Mavridis, an unemployed electrician, was thrilled.
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The barter network in Volos has grown to 400 members.
“I felt liberated, I felt free for the first time,” Mr. Mavridis said in a recent interview at a cafe in this port city in central Greece. “I instinctively reached into my pocket, but there was no need to.”
Mr. Mavridis is a co-founder of a growing network here in Volos that uses a so-called Local Alternative Unit, or TEM in Greek, to exchange goods and services — language classes, baby-sitting, computer support, home-cooked meals — and to receive discounts at some local businesses.
Part alternative currency, part barter system, part open-air market, the Volos network has grown exponentially in the past year, from 50 to 400 members. It is one of several such groups cropping up around the country, as Greeks squeezed by large wage cuts, tax increases and growing fears about whether they will continue to use the euro have looked for creative ways to cope with a radically changing economic landscape.
“Ever since the crisis there’s been a boom in such networks all over Greece,” said George Stathakis, a professor of political economy and vice chancellor of the University of Crete. In spite of the large public sector in Greece, which employs one in five workers, the country’s social services often are not up to the task of helping people in need, he added. “There are so many huge gaps that have to be filled by new kinds of networks,” he said.
Even the government is taking notice. Last week, Parliament passed a law sponsored by the Labor Ministry to encourage the creation of “alternative forms of entrepreneurship and local development,” including networks based on an exchange of goods and services. The law for the first time fills in a regulatory gray area, giving such groups nonprofit status.
Here in Volos, the group’s founders are adamant that they work in parallel to the regular economy, inspired more by a need for solidarity in rough times than a political push for Greece to leave the euro zone and return to the drachma.
“We’re not revolutionaries or tax evaders,” said Maria Houpis, a retired teacher at a technical high school and one of the group’s six co-founders. “We accept things as they are.”
Still, she added, if Greece does take a turn for the worse and eventually does stop using the euro, networks like hers are prepared to step into the breach. “In an imaginary scenario — and I stress imaginary — we would be ready for it.”
The group’s concept is simple. People sign up online and get access to a database that is kind of like a members-only Craigslist. One unit of TEM is equal in value to one euro, and it can be used to exchange good and services. Members start their accounts with zero, and they accrue credit by offering goods and services. They can borrow up to 300 TEMs, but they are expected to repay the loan within a fixed period of time.
Members also receive books of vouchers of the alternative currency itself, which look like gift certificates and are printed with a special seal that makes it difficult to counterfeit. Those vouchers can be used like checks. Several businesspeople in Volos, including a veterinarian, an optician and a seamstress, accept the alternative currency in exchange for a discount on the price in euros.
A recent glimpse of the database revealed people offering guitar and English lessons, bookkeeping services, computer technical support, discounts at hairdressers and the use of their yards for parties. There is a system of ratings so that people can describe their experiences, in order to keep transparent quality control.
(The network uses open-source software and is hosted on a Dutch server, cyclos.org, which offers low hosting fees.)
The group also holds a monthly open-air market that is like a cross between a garage sale and a farmers’ market, where Mr. Mavridis used his TEM credit to buy the milk, eggs and jam. Those goods came from local farmers who are also involved in the project.
“We’re still at the beginning,” said Mr. Mavridis, who lost his job as an electrician at a factory last year. In the coming months, the group hopes to have a borrowed office space where people without computers can join the network more easily, he said.
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Eirini Vourloumis for The New York Times
The barter network in Volos has grown to 400 members.
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For Ms. Houpis, the network has a psychological dimension. “The most exciting thing you feel when you start is this sense of contribution,” she said. “You have much more than your bank account says. You have your mind and your hands.”
As she bustled around her sewing table in her small shop in downtown Volos, Angeliki Ioanniti, 63, said she gave discounts for sewing to members of the network, and she has also exchanged clothing alterations for help with her computer. “Being a small city helps, because there’s trust,” she said.
In exchange for euros and alternative currency, she also sells olive oil, olives and homemade bergamot-scented soap prepared by her daughter, who lives in the countryside outside Volos.
In her family’s optical shop, Klita Dimitriadis, 64, offers discounts to customers using alternative currency, but she said the network had not really gained momentum yet or brought in much business. “It’s helpful, but now it doesn’t work very much because everybody is discounting,” she said.
In an e-mail, the mayor of Volos, Panos Skotiniotis, said the city was following the alternative currency network with interest and was generally supportive of local development initiatives. He added that the city was looking at other ways of navigating the economic situation, including by setting aside public land for a municipal urban farm where citizens could grow produce for their own use or to sell.
After years of rampant consumerism and easy credit, such nascent initiatives speak to the new mood in Greece, where imposed austerity has caused people to come together — not only to protest en masse, but also to help one another.
Similar initiatives have been cropping up elsewhere in Greece. In Patras, in the Peloponnese, a network called Ovolos, named after an ancient Greek means of currency, was founded in 2009 and includes a local exchange currency, a barter system and a so-called time bank, in which members swap services like medical care and language classes. The group has about 100 transactions a week, and volunteers monitor for illegal services, said Nikos Bogonikolos, the president and a founding member.
Greece has long had other exchange networks, particularly among farmers. Since 1995, a group called Peliti has collected, preserved and distributed seeds from local varietals to growers free, and since 2002 it has operated as an exchange network throughout the country.
Beyond exchanges, there are newer signs of cooperation from the ground up. When bus and subway workers in Athens went on strike two weeks ago, Athenians flooded Twitter looking for carpools, using an account founded in 2009 to raise awareness of transportation issues in Athens. The outpouring made headlines, as a sign of something unthinkable before the crisis hit.
With unemployment rising above 16 percent and the economy still shrinking, many Greeks are preparing for the worst. “Things will turn very bad in the next year,” said Mr. Stathakis, the political economics professor.
Christos Papaioannou, 37, who runs the Web site for the network in Volos, said, “We’re in an uncharted area,” and hopes the group expands. “There’s going to be a lot of change. Maybe it’s the beginning of the future.”
Inspection of W. Michigan nuke plant that belched some steam after automatic shutdown
"Steam containing "a tiny amount" of tritium, a radioactive isotope, escaped after the shutdown but caused no safety risk and was far below regulatory limits, NRC spokeswoman Viktoria Mitlyng said. The steam quickly dissipated in the atmosphere, she said. "
Nothing to see here folks. Move along.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-ap-mi-palisades-shutdow,0,7842900.story
(couldn't get this to stick on Nuclear Hubris either)
"First, the Tokyo government didn't tell anyone that they started dumping the radioactive ashes in the landfill in the Tokyo Bay in May. And now, without bothering asking the citizens, again, it will start bringing the disaster debris from Tohoku that are likely to be radioactive and burn in Tokyo."
"As to the "safe" level of burying the radioactive ashes and debris, that's totally meaningless now that the Ministry of Environment has allowed the burial of just about anything, even the ashes that measures over 100,000 becquerels/kg of cesium, as long as there are measures in place at the processing facilities that will prevent the leakage. Uh huh."
Tokyo Metropolitan Government Will Accept and Burn Disaster Debris from Tohoku, Renews Efforts to In
http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/09/tokyo-metropolitan-government-will.html
After a number of 4.7 to 5.6 quakes in Japan near Fukushima over the past few days there are reports of what may have been a fire (I'm speculating explosion) at nuclear reactor #4. This has been surmised from live video feed during the night (of the 29th) that shows what appears to be smoke. However it could also be steam, worse news since we know that there is evidence for ongoing or re-criticalities in these reactors. If material undergoing reaction does come in contact with groundwater it could result in a hydrogen explosion from the breakdown of water into it's constituent elements hydrogen and oxygen.
So far these films have yet to be confirmed as either fire or steam but obviously something is going on there.
http://enenews.com/report-reactor-no-4-on-fire-after-quake-photos-video
There is a lot of speculation that this earthquake at Fukushima may be more than just an earthquake. Some are saying that it could be the result of the meltdown itself. Now, this is all unconfirmed at this point but I at least am interested enough to want to read what others are saying so I'll post one of the better articles (web sites) talking about this.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=446806
(BTW THG, I again could not post these on Nuclear Hubris. As soon as I put them up they were gone which is really strange because I successfully posted them 4 other places on FB)