Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from July, 2010

disaster lottery

Some possible connections... Ellen Brown: How brokers became bookies, the insidious transformation of markets into casinos A massive new derivatives market that could be highly destructive economically is the trading platform called Carbon Credit Trading, which is on its way to dwarfing world oil trade. The program would allow trading in “carbon allowances” (permitting companies to emit greenhouse gases) and in “carbon offsets” (allowing companies to emit beyond their allowance if they invest in emission-reducing projects elsewhere). It would also allow trading in carbon derivatives ; for example, futures contracts to deliver a certain number of allowances at an agreed price and time. The players - partial list: The proposed form of cap and trade has not yet been passed in the U.S., but a new market in which traders can speculate on the future of allowances and offsets has already been launched. The largest players in the carbon credit trading market include firms such as Morgan...

trip wires

Mass graves found in Mexico. The Mexican authorities say they have recovered more than 50 bodies from a clandestine cemetery in the northern state of Nuevo Leon. The dead are thought to be victims of drugs gangs who have been fighting for control of smuggling routes into the United States. Most of the bodies are male and have tattoos. Some have been mutilated and burned. Other graves have been found, including one in May in Taxco. In the past weeks, two other mass grave sites have been discovered in Nuevo Leon, which is the scene of a fierce battle between between rival drugs gangs. The powerful Gulf cartel has been fighting its former allies, the Zetas, for control of lucrative smuggling routes to the US.  source source ^^^^^^^ On July 23, 2010, Fox News tells us that explosives were seized from gunman in a clash with soldiers in a remote area. These gunmen had army uniforms and satellite phones in their possession. Mexico's Defense Department said in a sta...

special privileges

Berlusconi and Medvedev in Milan Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been criticised after he broke a strict 'no photographs' rule as he posed with Russian President Dimitri Medvedev in front of The Last Supper. Art experts the world over agree that flash photography can have serious effects on centuries old paintings and galleries and museums forbid their use to protect the works. However the rules appeared to have been broken for Berlusconi as he and Medvedev posed for several minutes in front of Leonardo Da Vinci's 15th Century mural. President Medvedev is in Italy for a holiday and visited the Last Supper at the Santa Maria della Grazie museum while on a tour of Milan with Berlusconi. Tourists who had booked a slot to view the work - which has a waiting list of three months - were held back to allow the party through to view the work which recreates Christ's Last Supper with his disciples. Museum officials allowed three photographers in to take picture...

corruption

The law project is due to some newspapers leakage of personal infos...Like photos of Berlusconi's pool parties with topless hookers and foreign ministers wandering around naked with throbbing erections?  (comment #7: Berlusconi tries law prohibiting reporting on corruption investigation; Italy's press refuses to report any news in protest, July 8, 2010) Catholic sex scandal as undercover reporter 'films priests at gay clubs and having casual flings' A gay priest sex scandal has rocked the Catholic Church in Italy today after a weekly news magazine released details of a shock investigation it had carried out. Using hidden cameras, a journalist from Panorama magazine - owned by Italian Prime Minister and media baron Silvio Berlusconi - filmed three priests as they attended gay nightspots and had casual sex. Today there was no immediate comment from the Italian Bishops Conference and the Vatican - which has been rocked by a series of sex scandals involving pae...

not to put too fine a point on it....

but pick one. Prime Minister Netanyahu's Fourth of July Greetings at the residence of US Ambassador to Israel James Cunningham.  July 4, 2010 "The intervening century and a half has confirmed that analysis. The Jewish State in particular owes a great debt of appreciation and gratitude to the United States. For decades, the U.S. has helped Israel meet the enormous challenges we face. It has helped us bear the heavy burdens of our defense. It has helped us feel secure enough to take risks for peace. It has helped us negotiate that peace and then make practical arrangements to cement it on the ground. Israel, in turn, has proved to be America's steadfast ally. A friend and an ally. We fight common enemies. We uphold common values - deeply shared by our people and our societies." ~ Bibi! ^^^^^^^ US support for Israel is absurd says Netanyahu - July 19, 2010 The contents of a secretly recorded video threaten to gravely embarrass not only Benjamin Net...

breaking the planet

Figure 1. Loop Current broken? click to enlarge Enlarge the image. You can see how a big ring has broken off the current so that the water is not flowing up and through the Gulf, but just sort of doing a drive-by. Video explanation: Here is the article. As displayed both by the sea surface velocity maps and the sea surface height maps, the Loop Current broke down for the first time around May 18th and generated a clock wise eddy, which is still active (see Fig. 1). ...As of today the situation has deteriorated up to the point in which the eddy has detached itself completely from the main stream therefore destroying completely the Loop Current, as in figure 2 below, dated June 12th 2010. ...Since comparative analysis with past satellite data until may 2010 didn’t show relevant anomalies, it might be therefore plausible to correlate the breaking of the Loop Current with the biochemical and physical action of the BP Oil Spill on the Gulf Stream. It is reasonable to foresee...

where is Hollywood's latest philanthropic gesture?

I got an email yesterday asking where are the aid concerts for the people of the Gulf? Such a great question. A benefit concert or charity concert is a concert, show or gala featuring musicians, comedians, or other performers that is held for a charitable purpose, often directed at a specific and immediate humanitarian crisis. Such events raise both funds and public awareness to address the cause at issue. (wikipedia) That's so nice. Such a great tradition. Remember Live Aid?  Live Aid was a multi-venue concert that was held on 13 July 1985. The event was organized by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise funds for famine relief in Ethiopia. Billed as the "global jukebox", the event was held simultaneously in Wembley Stadium in London, England, United Kingdom (attended by 72,000 people) and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States (attended by about 99,000 people). On the same day, concerts inspired by the initiative happened in other...

practical applications - UPDATED

Great video: They are not dramatic. They are pernicious. Most psychopaths are subtle. They are more like poison than a knife, and they are more like slow-working poison than cyanide. ... So what bullies usually do, they start and stop, start and stop. That achieves the maximal stress syndrome, and this is the great secret of bullying. Never overdo it. Small doses. The victim will do the rest. ~ Sam Vaknin, psychopath See: and one day the owner came home and was gravely disappointed See: the social engineers ^^^^^^^ Social engineering in practice: Iraq war inquiry: Blair government 'massaged' Saddam Hussein WMD threat Carne Ross, a British diplomat to the UN who was responsible for Iraq in the runup to the invasion, said intelligence was "massaged" into "more robust and terrifying" statements about Saddam's supposed WMD. In evidence to the Chilcot inquiry, which heard that the Foreign Office had objected to the release of docum...

the lucky poor survive on one meal a day

Since winning the presidency last year and ending 61 years of domination by the conservative Colorado Party, Lugo has been trying to push reforms that aim to benefit Paraguay's numerous poor. He has criticized an elite class that "sits comfortably in air-conditioned offices," while the poor "survive on just one meal a day if they are lucky . . . without safe drinking water, surrounded by misery." (Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo replaces military chiefs, denies threat of coup 11/4/09) And if luck runs out? How do you cut back from one meal a day and survive? To survive people need more than one meal a day, plus safe drinking water, plus shelter. Wouldn't you need that much to survive? remember Maslow's hierarchy of needs? So we have this problem: too many people have to rely on one meal a day. Poverty. What is the solution? Scientists have determined how to fortify the cassava plant, a staple root crop in many developing countries, ...