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The Interrogation of Lloyd Blankfein. Carl Levin? Who knew?SEN. CARL LEVIN: June 22 is the date of this e-mail. "Boy, that Timberwolf was one shitty deal." How much of that "shitty deal" did you sell to your clients after June 22, 2007?DAN SPARKS: Mr. Chairman, I don't know the answer to that. But the price would have reflected levels that they wanted to invest...SEN. CARL LEVIN: Oh, of course.DAN SPARKS: ... at that time.SEN. CARL LEVIN: But you didn't tell them you thought it was a shitty deal.DAN SPARKS: Well, I didn't say that.SEN. CARL LEVIN: Who did? Your people, internally. You knew it was a shitty deal, and that's what your...DAN SPARKS: I think the context, the message that I took from the e-mail from Mr. Montag, was that my performance on that deal wasn't good.SEN. CARL LEVIN: How about the fact that you sold hundreds of millions of that deal after your people knew it was a shitty deal? Does that bother you at all; you sold the customers something?DAN SPARKS: I don't recall selling hundreds of millions of that deal after that.Levin was just as tough on Blankfein, reiterating the same question over and over again: "Is there not a conflict when you sell something to somebody, and then you bet against that same security, and you don't disclose that to the person you're selling it to? Do you see a problem?"At first, Blankfein acted like he'd never considered the question before, as if "putting himself in his client's shoes" was something that never even entered his mind. His look of utter bewilderment was revealing. Then he launched into the excuses, the evasions, and the elaborate, long-winded ruminations that one expects from schoolboys and hucksters. But Levin never gave and inch. He kept pushing until Blankfein finally gave up and responded."No," he stammered, "In the context of market-making that's not a conflict."Blankfein's answer was a triumph for Levin, and he knew it. To the millions of people watching the sequence on TV, Blankfein's denial was as good as an admission of guilt. It showed that Wall Street kingpins don't share the same morals as everyone else. In fact, Blankfein seemed genuinely confused that morality would even be an issue. After all, it wasn't for him.
Leaked report: Government fears Deepwater Horizon well could become unchecked gusher Excerpts(Italics indicate quote/Colored emphasis mine): A confidential government report on the unfolding spill disaster in the Gulf makes clear the Coast Guard now fears the well could become an unchecked gusher shooting millions of gallons of oil per day into the Gulf."The following is not public," reads the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Emergency Response document dated April 28. "Two additional release points were found today in the tangled riser. If the riser pipe deteriorates further, the flow could become unchecked resulting in a release volume an order of magnitude higher than previously thought."And: In scientific circles, an order of magnitude means something is 10 times larger. In this case, an order of magnitude higher would mean the volume of oil coming from the well could be 10 times higher than the 5,000 barrels a day coming out now. That would mean 50,000 barrels a day, or 2.1 million gallons a day. And:Gouget said the loss of a wellhead is totally unprecedented."How bad it could get from that, you will have a tremendous volume of oil that is going to be offgassing on the coast. Depending on how much wind is there, and how those gases build up, that's a significant health concern," he said.Pay attention: This is a big deal. We might be witnessing(potentially) the beginning death throes of a large portion of, or the entire Gulf of Mexico. Due to this spill, a large number of living things on this planet are going to die soon. Think about that for a moment, and get ready to bear witness.
Do you find yourself thinking, "Why isn't there Any News on.. (Insert Corporate Media Network Here)? You're not alone. Sorry CNN.. You did this to yourself.. As much as a Corporate Entity can be considered a "You."
Mysterious, indeed. Relevant excerpts: (Italics indicate Quotes)There is something strange in the cosmic neighbourhood. An unknown object in the nearby galaxy M82 has started sending out radio waves, and the emission does not look like anything seen anywhere in the universe before.AndIt certainly does not fit the pattern of radio emissions from supernovae: they usually get brighter over a few weeks and then fade away over months, with the spectrum of the radiation changing all the while. The new source has hardly changed in brightness over the course of a year, and its spectrum is steady.Yet it does seem to be moving – and fast: its apparent sideways velocity is four times the speed of light. Such apparent “superluminal” motion has been seen before in high-speed jets of material squirted out by some black holes. The stuff in these jets is moving towards us at a slight angle(Me: What is "slight?") and travelling at a fair fraction of the speed of light, and the effects of relativity produce a kind of optical illusion that makes the motion appear superluminal.AndHis best guess is still that the radio source is some kind of dense object accreting surrounding material, perhaps a large black hole or a black hole in an unusual environment. Perhaps the phenomenon also happens occasionally in our galaxy, but is more common in M82 because it is a “starburst” galaxy – a cosmic cauldron where massive stars are forming and exploding at a much higher rate than in the Milky Way, creating a lot of new black holes.First: Radio waves. Next: High speed jets of material squirted out by some black holes(Maybe). That stuff hitting earth sounds fun! Space-themed Doom is so.. Imaginative.
Potentially deadly fungus spreading in US, Canada. Excerpts: A potentially deadly strain of fungus is spreading among animals and people in the northwestern United States and the Canadian province of British Columbia, researchers reported on Thursday.The airborne fungus, called Cryptococcus gattii, usually only infects transplant and AIDS patients and people with otherwise compromised immune systems, but the new strain is genetically different, the researchers said."This novel fungus is worrisome because it appears to be a threat to otherwise healthy people," said Edmond Byrnes of Duke University in North Carolina, who led the study.And:The spore-forming fungus can cause symptoms in people and animals two weeks or more after exposure. They include a cough that lasts for weeks, sharp chest pain, shortness of breath, headache, fever, nighttime sweats and weight loss.And:Freezing can kill the fungus and climate change may be helping it spread, the researchers said.Climate change? Haven't enough billions been thrown at that problem for you to forget about it, already? Awesome. Fake Global Climate Change may be spreading a very real, very deadly fungus.Global Climate Change is not caused entirely by human consumption. Just a HUGE portion of it. HUGE. Really Big. Big, big portion. A Lot caused by humans. I'm not ruling out solar changes, solar system changes(Brown dwarf, binary twin, Supernova 1987 A, Planet X), increased volcanism, etc.. But to deny that almost 7 billion eating, shitting, and consuming entities have neglible effect on the systemic global health of the planet? Apologies to your sensitivities upfront, but You're a Fucking Idiot.
Air Force Launches Secretive Space Plane; ‘We Don’t Know When It’s Coming Back’The Air Force launched a secretive space plane into orbit Thursday night from Cape Canaveral, Florida. And they’re not sure when it’s returning to Earth.Perched atop an Atlas V rocket, the Air Force’s unmanned and reusable X-37B made its first flight after a decade in development shrouded in mystery; most of the mission goals remain unknown to the public.Andperhaps the most intriguing answer came when he was asked by a reporter wanting to cover the landing as to when the X-37B would be making its way back to the planet.“In all honesty, we don’t know when it’s coming back for sure,” Payton said.Independence Day, anyone?
"Sad news today from Pennsylvania. Joe the Plumber not only still harbors resentment toward Senator McCain but now he doesn't like Sarah Palin. It seems that magical Republican trifecta from 2008 has splintered even further."
And
Yeah, but without McCain and Palin, where would Plumber be? That's what Detrow thought too.
"I pointed out he’d just be plain old Sam Wurzelbacher of Ohio — Joe the Plumber wouldn’t exist – without McCain," Detrow writes. "His response was blunt. '...He really screwed my life up, is how I look at it.'"
"McCain was trying to use me," Plumber told Detrow. "I happened to be the face of middle Americans. It was a ploy."
Really? A.. Ploy? What: Your name? Occupation? Your willingness to be used? Your every response? And.. you didn't know that.. Then?
Economic devastation soon! Excerpts: How is deflation possible when crude oil prices have more than doubled since their post-Lehman crash low? Or more broadly, how can there be deflation when the price index of 19 commodities compiled by the Commodity Research Bureau rose 47% during this same period? It cannot of course, which means there is no deflation. The ongoing decline in the purchasing power of the dollar has been masked by wealth destruction as over-priced assets like houses fall back to realistic levels. There is also the problem that the mainstream media broadcasts only the government calculated CPI (Consumer Price Index. GDP is Gross Domestic Product), which is an inaccurate measure of the dollar’s eroding purchasing power. -And- Rothbard provides his usual brilliant insight to explain what happens once the “Havenstein moment’ is reached. There are two alternatives. “If the government tightens its own belt and stops printing (or otherwise creating) new money, then inflationary expectations will eventually be reversed, and prices will fall once more – thus relieving the money shortage by lowering prices. But if government follows its own inherent inclination to counterfeit and appeases the clamor by printing more money so as to allow the public’s cash balances to ‘catch up’ to prices, then the country is off to the races. Money and prices will follow each other upward in an ever-accelerating spiral, until finally prices ‘run away’…[i.e., hyperinflate]” Weimar Germany took the second alternative.And, sadly..The dollar has now reached its ‘Havenstein moment’. Will policymakers follow the prudent advice of Murray Rothbard and ‘tighten its belt’? Or like Herr Havenstein, will Mr. Bernanke continue to ‘print’? No need to ponder these two alternatives. The Federal Reserve must ‘print’, for one reason. Despite the noble goals assigned to it in textbooks and offered in Congressional hearings, the Federal Reserve exists for only one reason – to make sure the federal government gets all the dollars it wants to spend, which consequently has put the dollar on a hyperinflationary course.Bottom line: By following its inherent purpose, the Fed will print us into hyperinflation. We will knowingly follow the failed economic model of the Weimar Republic and expect different results. Things do not look good, even in the short term, here in Universe "B.."
This is late by a few days. Pardon.. Looks like this Retrograde period might be a little heavier than most. From Robert Wilkinson's Aquarius Papers.. Excerpt: "Add the current Yod and Mercury septile Jupiter, and by the end of this period we'll know we've hit a major fork in the road of destiny in at least a third of our existence. Besides all this, one thing is certain: the truth WILL be known by the end of this period 3 weeks from now. Just slooooow down....."Primary message: Just slow down. Retrograde advice is applicable for almost every situation you might encounter. Look again. Just slow down. Finish well.
Our scientific knowledge regarding the Sun is about to grow way past our current comprehension, all thanks to the Solar Dynamics Observatory. Here is their informational video.Some data sets improve from information gathered every 90 minutes per frame to 10 SECONDS. Other close range information improves from three minutes to 10 seconds. Check out this Flare and blast wave. This will change most of what we think regarding the Sun, the rest of the Solar System, and of course, Earth. Science is about to get even more Amazing..
Aussie Cookbook Recalled After Recipe Includes 'Freshly Ground Black People'.. This was not a spellcheck program problem. This was most likely: A. Hacker, B. Prankster - In house, C. Disgruntled employee, or D. Industrial espionage smear campaign. These are not in order, just the strongest options.As an aside, I'd like to show you a journalistic trick, that might have more of an effect on your life than you understand. Here's some text from the story.. "It is a tiny misprint, but an Australian publisher had to pulp a cookbook after one recipe called for "salt and freshly ground black people" to be added to the dish, AFP reported Saturday.Penguin Group Australia pulped and reprinted about 7,000 copies of "Pasta Bible" after the typographical error was found in the ingredients for spelt tagliatelle with sardines and prosciutto, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. Now, from that portion of article I could craft the headline "Bible Advocates Murder, Cannibalism." It is the Pasta Bible, and in order to get freshly ground black people for cannibalistic recipes, you must murder them first. Duh. Or I could think of another set of headlines only peripherally connected to the facts for the same type of Wow! Factor response.. It doesn't matter what I'd come up with and how damaging it might be to my targets (never mind how innocent or not they may be), I really can't be held liable, as it isn't against the law to lie when delivering the news. It's important to know that the media can lie about the story and the headline, because even if you didn't read that particular story, you would read the headline to decide to read further. And, whether or not you realized it, that headline effected your worldview consciously for a few seconds, and subconsciously, until further notice.. Your worldview is then steered, shaped, and altered in four to ten word increments, which aren't necessarily true. And this has been happening for awhile now, and it's getting worse.Bottom Line: Discernment is required. Knowledge of the trick diffuses some of the subliminal power. Think about what you read, and what you read over, as it might influence you more than you think.
And doing some reading. I'll be back.. Saturday.
Meteor Showers Rocks on Midwestern Homes. Uh-Oh.. Sorry. RUH-ROH. (Scary excerpts-My emphasis in red)The midnight sky flashed an eerie blue early Thursday over four Midwestern states as a meteorite exploded in the atmosphere, sending rocks as big as softballs crashing through some houses.&"`The sky lit up completely from horizon to horizon. We've seen lightning storms, but this was nothing like that,'' he said. ``A minute or so later the house started rumbling and we heard all these tiny particles hitting the house.''&Kenneth and Karen Barnes of Park Forest, Ill., told WGN-TV in Chicago they were sleeping when a 5-pound meteorite crashed into their living room. Thursday morning their son spotted a hole in the ceiling.&..He said the debris field appears to cover a path about 80 miles long by 20 miles wide from north of Bloomington, Ill., to Chicago's south side and possibly part of northwestern Indiana.He said all of the pieces came from a stony meteorite he estimates was about the size of a Volkswagen bug when it exploded as it plunged into Earth's atmosphere.What makes this significant? It looks like there were at least two.. Excerpt:There are also unconfirmed reports of a possible impact near Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. That's about 2 hours north of the Quad Cities on the Mississippi River.So, if this one did hit in Prarie du Chien, the Other Meteor that exploded in the atmosphere was Another Meteor.Something seems to be agitating our little corner of the Solar System.. Volcanoes are erupting (or going to-again), we're receiving "Mysterious radio waves emitted from nearby galaxy." rising ocean floors, still more earthquakes..Revision: There might only be one meteor. The video here shows the meteor continuing on after the explosion, so Wisconsin might be the impact site for the (single) meteor. That being said, there is still major agitation planet wide, and off planet, and we seem to be experiencing an.. uptick.. System-wide.
Holy shit! Really? Excerpts from the excellent BradBlog..Finally, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow covers the actual phony ACORN tapes themselves by airing the newly release unedited versions, since CA AG Jerry Brown forced hoaxsters O'Keefe and Giles to turn them over in exchange for immunity from criminal prosecution, as we noted in our coverage last Friday. (That coverage also includes links to the full, unedited versions of the tapes, clips of which Maddow aired last night, as seen below.)Maddow video at link..Maddow slams the entire hoax as pulled off by O'Keefe, Giles and their employer/publisher/con-man Andrew Breitbart, and aptly describes it as "a dishonest political stunt that bears no resemblance to journalism"...&For the record, yes, as Maddow notes, Fox "News" endlessly pimped the phony ACORN tapes and got the story completely --- and likely purposely --- wrong. But it should also be noted that so did New York Times, AP, Baltimore Sun, CNN, New York Post, Washington City Paper, Philadelphia Daily News, NPR, Dallas Morning News and many many more, some of which are listed here.Really: If "they" (Fox, O'Keefe, vast Right Wing Conspiracy) went to this much trouble to get ACORN, think of how far they'd go to get Obama? Oh yeah, all you have to do is turn on the TV or Radio or computer to see how far they'd go..
From Urban Survival, April 5 (scroll almost halfway down)
(Selected from)Coping: Flux Rope. Satellite Outages & Birkeland Currents Not often that things work out well, while working out badly, but for some reason that's how things seem to be going around here. My long-time friend who is visiting does a lot of work with something called "subtle energies" and is off to meetings in Florida later this week; he's pretty well-known in the world of subtle energy work, but has held back on writing a book or raising his profile too far; now's not the time to be doing such things.
But with not too much speculation, we could be witnessing the evolution of something which has been in Cliff's predictive linguistics modeling for at least 10-years. "sun disease".
Let me back up: Our Canadian Prairies correspondent reported in an overnight note that the Northern Lights were going nuts last night:
"Wow, 5:00 am your time, up to use the washroom, and noticed streaks and flashes through the west horizon like lightening in the distance through the window. Went outside, and the whole sky is flashing here and there like a strobe with the aurora. Never seen anything like it. from directly above, spreading out in all directions, but to faint and flashing way to fast to photograph. Big dipper is almost directly above at the moment and its all arcing from around that point. Never seen anything like this. Normally they light up and shimmer across the sky in the northern region and slowly spread south. this has huge flashes covering half the sky and lasting maybe one quarter of a second.
The things I get to see."
All of which points out that the Sun, which has been in quite a period of lull, seems to have come back quite energetically -- indeed so much so that there was a solar "PRESTO" alert issued on Saturday which pushes up the blood pressure a bit...pay particular attention to the highlight:
"A B7.4 flare peaking at 09:54 UT was detected today in the Catania sunspot group 56 (NOAA AR 1059) located around S25W05. It was accompanied by a post-eruption arcade, coronal dimmings, possibly an EIT wave and a partial halo CME (angular width around 210 degrees). The CME was first detected at 10:33 UT (by LASCO) and at 09:54 UT (by SECCHI/COR2 on STEREO A). The CME was moving at a projected plane-of-the-sky speed of around 250 km/s (according to the LASCO data). Using some reasonable assumptions on the CME geometry, the true radial CME speed can be estimated to be around 600 km/s. The arrival of the corresponding ICME (possibly an interplanetary flux rope) at the Earth is thus expected in the morning of April 6.
&
The "flux rope" sure sounds like the "h-field" part of Jim McCanney's 'electric solar system model', where he postulates actual 'arcing' from the Sun to the planets (or does it go the other way...don't recall at this hour). But regardless, when CME energy shows up, really BIG effects start to happen on Earth.
&
Don't know how much welding you've done lately with a stick or wire welder, but what does arc welding create? Low voltage but incredibly high currents: Heat - all kinds of heat and enough to melt pretty much any metal in the way.&This is totally cool stuff, except for one small got'cha: As the Sun's flux-levels get turned up, and more ropes arrive, what does that do to the temperature of the earth's core and possibly (under the plasma expansion model) what does this do to the little things floating on the surface of the planet like, oh, I dunno, Haiti, Chile, and now Mexicali? All of which might sound really wonky except for two things. Just in the last few minutes, this showed up:Space Weather Bulletin:A geomagnetic storm began at 05:55 AM EST Monday, April 5, 2010. Space weather storm levels reached Strong (G3) levels on the Geomagnetic Storms Space Weather Scale. The source of the storming is an Earth-directed Coronal Mass Ejection associated with a weak solar flare that occurred in Active Region 1059 on April 3 at 05:54 AM EST. This is expected to be an isolated storm that should subside quickly. Other than the flare and CME erupting on April 3, this active region has not produced any significant activity. Systems that can be affected include electric power systems, spacecraft operations, high-frequency communications, GPS, and other navigation systems.Data used to provide space weather services are contributed by NOAA, USAF, NASA, NSF, USGS, the International Space Environment Services and other observatories, universities, and institutions. More information is available at SWPC's Web site http://swpc.noaa.gov.And two: I can't seem to get rid of that image of "Wednesday - Los Angeles" out of my head.Send your comments to george@ure.net.Super short answer: Sun-doom possible soon.
Cool photoblog devoted to Riga, Latvia, and another, also found quite by accident. And, for good measure, here's a webcam of Riga from the tourism board. (Map of Latvia in relation to the rest of Europe here). Why? Why not?
Great article about a subset of strategy (suicide bombers) in a war most Americans know nothing about, much less its location. If you even have a limited perspective regarding this ongoing war, it's probably not as.. nuanced.. as you might believe. The Larger Point being, there are many conflicts, events, philosophies, and machinations that we have based Perspective out of randomly remembered bits of information cobbled together from hit and run exposure from the various medias, without context of the reporter's or broadcaster's agenda. These loosely connected bits are then co-processed with other items and the random bits of information about all the other events within each person's field of experience or exposure, all fighting for priority, comprehension, and the expansion or assimilation into Perspective. Chechnya is but one barely, barely understood conflict of hundreds in the world, all exploding simultaneously, all with dire implications for those involved, most unfolding behind the media's deafening curtain of silence..
British researchers said Wednesday that they observed a mass exodus of toads from a breeding site in Italy five days before a major tremor struck, suggesting the amphibians may be able to sense environmental changes, imperceptible to humans, that foretell a coming quake.&Researcher Rachel Grant said the findings suggested "that toads are able to detect pre-seismic cues such as the release of gases and charged particles, and use these as a form of earthquake early warning system."&She said one possibility is that the animals sensed a change in the amount of radon gas emitted by the Earth because of the buildup of pressure prior to a quake.Scientists also have surmised that animals may be able to detect minor tremors imperceptible to humans, or that they sense electrical signals emitted by rocks under stress before an earthquake."
From the Times of India:
"NEW DELHI: An earthquake hit the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal around 10.24 pm on Tuesday but no damage has been reported. Though Indian authorities said the earthquake measured 6.8 on the Richter scale, the US Geological Survey said it measured 6.4.
..The earthquake was felt as far away as Hong Kong, around 2,500 kilometres (1,500 miles) to the east, where the Hong Kong Observatory said it had recorded an "intense earthquake" with a magnitude of 6.4."
From Science Daily:
"Curcumin, one of the principal components of the Indian spice turmeric, seems to delay the liver damage that eventually causes cirrhosis, suggests preliminary experimental research in the journal Gut.
..Previous research has indicated that it has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties which may be helpful in combating disease. ..The research team wanted to find out if curcumin could delay the damage caused by progressive inflammatory conditions of the liver, including primary sclerosing cholangitis and primary biliary cirrhosis.
..The findings showed that the curcumin diet significantly reduced bile duct blockage and curbed liver cell (hepatocyte) damage and scarring (fibrosis) by interfering with several chemical signalling pathways involved in the inflammatory process.
Curcumin is a natural product, they say, which seems to target several different parts of the inflammatory process, and as such, may therefore offer a very promising treatment in the future."
Yeah, I've written about Curcumin before, and will continue to, as I really believe in its positive, healing effects. I take it every day(and have for several years), still eat.. not like I should, jog four or five times a week, have family history of inflammation, and yet, have almost no problems! Curcumin or Turmeric is accessible, easy to take, and has no aftertaste, and is great for you! Take it! Takeittakeittakeit!
For this special message: Never, ever.. forget how amazing you are. Even when you lose sight, it is there. When you're unsure: Still there. Be still, and try to accept the wonderful blessings you've been given. And if you're still having trouble, please remember whose words you're reading. You are going to be fine. You're going to be better than fine. Trust me, as I'm amazing, too.
Wow; really? Excerpts: A Princeton University research team has demonstrated that all sweeteners are not equal when it comes to weight gain: Rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained significantly more weight than those with access to table sugar, even when their overall caloric intake was the same."Some people have claimed that high-fructose corn syrup is no different than other sweeteners when it comes to weight gain and obesity, but our results make it clear that this just isn't true, at least under the conditions of our tests," said psychology professor Bart Hoebel, who specializes in the neuroscience of appetite, weight and sugar addiction. "When rats are drinking high-fructose corn syrup at levels well below those in soda pop, they're becoming obese -- every single one, across the board. Even when rats are fed a high-fat diet, you don't see this; they don't all gain extra weight."In the 40 years since the introduction of high-fructose corn syrup as a cost-effective sweetener in the American diet, rates of obesity in the U.S. have skyrocketed, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 1970, around 15 percent of the U.S. population met the definition for obesity; today, roughly one-third of the American adults are considered obese, the CDC reported. High-fructose corn syrup is found in a wide range of foods and beverages, including fruit juice, soda, cereal, bread, yogurt, ketchup and mayonnaise. On average, Americans consume 60 pounds of the sweetener per person every year.What about those commercials produced by liars and acted out by whores?Spoofs here, here, and here.. Even the jerkasses at CBN know how bad this crap is..This is a fully reversible, un-necessarily deadly epidemic, targeting Americans for the benefit of the Corporate Bottom Line. Doesn't that piss you off? It should.
SANTIAGO, March 29 (AFP) - Chile was rattled by a 6.1 magnitude aftershock Sunday causing no damage or injuries but some panic in Concepcion, near where last month's massive quake struck killing 452 people, authorities and eyewitnesses said.The earthquake struck at 5:43 pm (2143 GMT), with its epicenter located offshore at 166 kilometers (103 miles) north of Concepcion, at a depth of 19 kilometers (12 miles), the US-based Geological Sury's National Earthquake Information Center said.
Video courtesy the India Times. BBC story here.. First guess? Chechnya. Second? Georgia. Third? .....
Awesome. After conducting tests, the military has decided to use the thumb-sized "bhut jolokia," or "ghost chili," to make tear gas-like hand grenades to immobilize suspects, defense officials said Tuesday...It has more than 1,000,000 Scoville units, the scientific measurement of a chili's spiciness. Classic Tabasco sauce ranges from 2,500 to 5,000 Scoville units, while jalapeno peppers measure anywhere from 2,500 to 8,000.Nature: Still making the best biological weapons!
Depressing. Excerpts:The key to understanding the implications of peak oil is to see it not just directly through its effect on transport, petrochemicals, or food say, but its systemic effects. A globalising, integrated and co-dependant economy has evolved with particular dynamics and embedded structures that have made our basic welfare dependent upon delocalised 'local' economies. It has locked us into hyper-complex economic and social processes that are increasing our vulnerability, but which we are unable to alter without risking a collapse in those same welfare supporting structures. And without increasing energy flows, those embedded structures, which include our expectations, institutions and infrastructure that evolved and adapted in the expectation of further economic growth cannot be maintained.&The economics of peak oil are explicated using three indicative models: linear decline; oscillating decline; and systemic collapse. While these models are not to be considered as mutually exclusive, a case is made that our civilisation is close to a critical transition, or collapse.• A decline in energy flows will reduce global economic production; reduced global production will undermine our ability to produce, trade, and use energy; which will further decrease economic production.&• Our localized needs and welfare have become ever-more dependent upon hyper-integrated globalised supply-chains. One pillar of their system-wide functioning is monetary confidence and bank intermediation. Money in our economies is backed by debt and holds no intrinsic value; deflation and hyper-inflation risks will make monetary stability impossible to maintain. In addition, the banking system as a whole must become insolvent as their assets (loans) cannot be realised, they are also at risk from failing infrastructure.• A failure of this pillar will collapse world trade. Our 'local' globalised economies will fracture for there is virtually nothing produced in developed countries that can be considered truly indigenous. The more complex the systems and inputs we rely upon, the more globalised they are, and the more we are at risk from a complete systemic collapse.• Peak oil is likely to force peak energy in general. The ability to bring on new energy production and maintain existing energy infrastructure is likely to be severely compromised. We may see massive demand and supply collapses with limited ability to re-boot.• The above mechanisms are non-linear, mutually re-enforcing, and not exclusive.There are more points (of doom), but you get the picture. So, while everyone's bitching about Health Care or American Idol or whatever, the machinations of Peak Oil continue on, unabated. Whether or not oil is actually abiotic (and therefore, not in danger of running out), the current system is primed (or being primed) for collapse. I'm not sure I want to be around for the coming Resource Wars; not sure at all..
"It looks like a film maker's apocalyptic vision of Earth following a devastating natural disaster.But this colossal ice formation is actually a portion of the wall terraces of a huge crater on Mars.Approximately 37 miles in diameter, a section of the Mojave Crater in the planet's Xanthe Terra region has been digitally mapped by NASA scientists.The result is this digital terrain model that was generated from a stereo pair of images and offers a synthesized, oblique view of a 2.5-mile portion of the crater's wall terraces."The reason I decided to highlight the fact this is a digital terrain model is due to the anti-science comments following the article. Seems none of those people believe too much in technology to think this might be real representation of the actual terrain. Thank God they have the Internet to post their anti-science rants..
"A few weeks ago, Chile was hit was one of the most powerful earthquakes on record. Now citizens of the region are coming forward with stories of UFOs on the night of the quake. Did aliens make the earth move?"From io9 via Inexplicata.
While I'm comfortable with the idea of navigating a roundabout, I'm still not sure it was a great idea for the City of Branson to expose tourists and old people from different parts of the Midwest and Mid-South to such a highfalutin road drivin' contraption. This article vastly understates the roundabout problem(Specifically to a higher traffic than normal or anticipated location, like Branson), but the focus of the article is on a new solution: The Vortex Junction. Look at the artist rendering, read the explanation of traffic flow, and think about how well this would work in a completely new town or city suburb. No stop signs. No stop lights. No problem entering the Junction. Smart, like the future should be.
From Cracked.com, rapidly becoming on of my favorite new sites.
From Washington's Blog. Please, sir, don't get on any small planes. We don't want to lose you like we lost Wellstone..Excerpts..I write to request that you turn over to this office, and the public, e-mails backed up on AIG’s servers, including internal accounting documents and financial models developed by the company in the last decade. The public owns AIG. We bought it, for an initial down payment of $182 billion. You are the representatives of the public, through your positions as the three trustees of the AIG Credit Facility Trust.The public is unhappy with the purchase. In March, 2009, a poll found that 82% of the public wanted bonuses to AIG employees returned. This didn’t happen. We do not know who is responsible for the company’s collapse, or whether they are working now at other banks or for the Federal government. We do not know if they got bonuses, if they were committing fraud, whether there were kickbacks from counterparties, or if there was any significant restraining role played by the regulatory community. We cannot separate the bad decision-makers from innocent employees, because we simply do not know what went on. You can address this problem, by releasing to us and on the internet, with reasonable discretion, all or sustainably all of the emails and documents that describe the web of relationships and practices behind AIG’s failed business.Last year, I asked former AIG CEO Ed Liddy to give me the names of the people who destroyed AIG and cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars. He refused. I asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to look into the matter. The GAO wrote that it didn’t have the authority to do an audit. I requested that the Special Inspector General of TARP look into the problem. I was told that the problem is too complicated.&On Wall Street, winners can win, but losers must lose. This did not happen with AIG. AIG itself, AIG employees, and AIG counterparties were bailed out. It is beyond outrageous that this company, which taxpayers capitalized after Wall Street used it as a slush fund, hides nearly all relevant facts from its owners, the public. Should this information be released, it is likely that the value of AIG’s remaining businesses will be unchanged. In any event, the public and public markets will benefit dramatically from transparency, because reliable information is the cornerstone of effective markets.Thank you, Congressman Grayson, for at least trying to do the right thing..
Yeah, I don't think the rest of the world will be as passive in their reaction to the Catholic Church's pedophilia problem..From CNN:"Now we have obvious confirmation that this is a global crisis," said John Allen, CNN's Vatican analyst and senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter. "Anywhere there is a substantial Catholic population there is the potential for this type of scandal."&..But new revelations about church abuse continued Friday, including in the Munich, Germany, archdiocese where Benedict (Pope Benedict XVI)once served as archbishop.Under the pope's tenure as archbishop in the early 1980s, the Munich archdiocese ignored warnings to keep a molesting priest away from children, the doctor who issued those warnings said Friday. (Oh snap!)Werner Huth, a psychoanalyst, said he specifically demanded the priest never be allowed to interact with children again. Instead, Huth said, the church allowed the priest to return to work and to deal with children.&Beyond the Vatican, the crisis threatens to erode membership in Europe's remaining Catholic strongholds and to change secular Europe's posture toward the church from shrugging toleration to outright hostility. But church experts say the crisis is likely to have far less impact in parts of the world where Catholicism is growing fastest, like Africa and Southeast Asia.From the BBC:Pope Benedict XVI's former diocese in Germany is facing daily allegations of physical and sexual abuse, the head of its new sex-abuse task force says."It is like a tsunami," Elke Huemmeler told the Associated Press news agency.She said about 120 cases had come to light so far in Munich, about 100 of them at a boarding school run by monks.There's a deep conspiracy theory regarding a secret war between the Rothchilds and The Vatican, but I won't get into that here. If you're interested, Google is still your friend..
"We thought we understood the Moon, but we don't," says Paul Spudis of the Lunar and Planetary Institute. "It's clear now that water exists up there in a variety of concentrations and geologic settings. And who'd have thought that today we'd be pondering the Moon's hydrosphere?"&They don't know why some craters contain loads of pure ice while others are dominated by an ice-soil mixture. It's probably a sign that the moonwater comes from more than one source.&The researchers also think that much of the crater water migrates to the poles from the Moon's warmer, lower latitudes. "All our findings are telling us there's an active water cycle on the Moon," marvels Colaprete. Think about it. The "driest place in the solar system" has a water cycle."It's a different world up there," says Spudis, "and we've barely scratched the surface. Who knows what discoveries lie ahead?"
This will never happen, for exactly the reason Ventura stated. O'Reilly can't bully him, and wouldn't dare try. Jesse Ventura also has a large repository of political knowledge(he was the Governor of Minnesota, after all..), and if O'Reilly tries any shenanigans (straw man arguments, weasel words, distortion of facts, or outright lies), he'll be called out in mid sentence. I would so love to see this fantasy interview, O'Reilly, near tears, contrite and apologetic by interview's end.. But like I said: It will Never Happen!
When did Cracked Magazine become the standard bearer for journalistic integrity? More evidence of the "Up is Down" logic of "Universe B."
"Phobos is an irregular body measuring some 27 × 22 × 19 km. Its origin is debated. It appears to share many surface characteristics with the class of ‘carbonaceous C-type’ asteroids, which suggests it might have been captured by Mars. However, it is difficult to explain either the capture mechanism or the subsequent evolution of the orbit into the equatorial plane of Mars. An alternative hypothesis is that it formed around Mars, and is therefore a remnant from the planetary formation period."
Cool 3D Special Toy Surprise at link!
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