Archive for February, 2010
China: The World’s Next Great Economic Crash
From The Christian Science Monitor:
Has the global economy recovered? Forecasters say there will be an uptick this year of 2.4 percent, but they’re forgetting something. China could fail soon, and, if it does, the world’s most populous state will drag the rest of us down.
At this moment, a Chinese crisis seems like the last thing we should be worried about. After all, last year China overtook America as the planet’s largest car market and passed Germany as the biggest exporter.
On Thursday, Beijing announced that growth for the fourth quarter of 2009 was 10.7 percent and 8.7 percent for the entire year. Some analysts said the numbers were so strong that the country zoomed past Japan to become the world’s second-largest economy. Stock markets, property prices, you name it: Everything Chinese is soaring.
Dubai was once soaring, too. Global markets therefore, shuddered in November at the news that Dubai World, Dubai’s state…
Anti-Olympics Rioters Smash Vancouver Store Windows
From CBC News:
More than 200 masked protesters smashed windows, vandalized cars and newspaper boxes and intimidated pedestrians in downtown Vancouver Saturday morning before being confronted and dispersed by police in riot gear.
The anti-Olympics protesters, many dressed in black balaclavas and masks, and carrying a ladder, smashed up to three windows at the Hudson’s Bay store and one at the Toronto-Dominion Bank near the intersection of Granville and West Georgia streets.
The group also sprayed the windows with red paint, were involved in several confrontations with supporters of the Olympic Games, and threw marbles and spat at police before marching down West Georgia Street toward the Bayshore Hotel in Coal Harbour where the International Olympic Committee members are staying.
But as the marchers neared the hotel they were turned back by the Vancouver Police Department crowd control unit and the 2010 Integrated Security Unit at the Cardero Street intersection.
[Read more at CBC News]
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Zero-Rupee Bribes for Bent Indian Officials
From ABC News:
Indians are being urged to hand over a note worth zero rupees when asked for a bribe, in a bid to stamp out corruption among officials.
Last year, international corruption watchdog Transparency International said almost 4 million Indian families had to bribe officials for access to basic services.
Vijay Anand, from the lobby group 5th Pillar, says they began distributing the worthless note because of a lack of practical solutions for tackling corruption.
“The topic of corruption have never been on the surface,” he said.
“Everybody was practising it, paying bribes, getting their jobs done. We thought that the fundamental reason was there was lack of alternatives – there was no practical solutions, no alternatives.
“So we thought we should come up with something. One of our volunteers came up with the idea of the zero-rupee note and we then launched it on a wide scale.”
The note, similar to a real 50-rupee note,…
Gay Troops and the Trouble With Polls
From The Huffington Post:
Remember the poll taken of enlisted personnel asking them if they felt like invading Iraq? The one that political leaders and military brass used to decide if they should pull the trigger or not? No, because there wasn’t one. Sure, the military takes the temperature of its troops to help ensure that whatever action its top-down command structure orders is carried out as effectively as possible. But only when it comes to the equal treatment of gays and lesbians does our country see fit to dole out rights to an oppressed minority by asking permission of the oppressing majority.
Now comes word that, after nearly two generations of a vibrant gay rights movement, Americans are somehow confused about what a “homosexual” is, throwing already shaky polling data into disarray just at the time when the military prepares to poll its members about how they feel about gay people. Respondents…
Young and Wasted
From New Statesman:
The baby boomers had everything – free education, free health care and remarkable personal liberties – but they squandered it all. Now their children are paying for it.
The baby boomers were a golden generation. Rich people have always had opportunities, but for the ordinary man and woman there had never been a time of hope and opportunity like the one we baby boomers inherited. We were the Beveridge generation. The 1942 Beveridge report called for the abolition of the “five giants” – want, ignorance, disease, squalor and idleness. Between 1945 and 1951, despite a war-ruined economy, the Attlee government took Beveridge as its agenda and set about the first systematic assault on each of the giants.
Baby boomers were born between the end of the war in 1945 and Winston Churchill’s resignation as prime minister in 1955, and the world they grew up in was shaped by Beveridge. We…
NASA and Space – The Future vs. the Past
From SpaceRef.com:
In covering the uproar over the just-released NASA budget and its implications, the major media headlines have been trumpeting: “Lunar Program Can celled”. Yes, sadly the budget has canceled the current lunar program, based on the NASA designed Ares boosters and Orion capsule. However, as some other writers have pointed out, the Vision for Space Exploration program (VSE), which was conceived by a true government consensus after the Columbia disaster, was in effect hijacked in 2005 by the last person anyone of us would have ever suspected, the greatly respected aerospace engineer, Dr. Michael Griffin. That the VSE envisioned by the White House was hijacked is in little doubt, since the only representative of the space advocacy community specifically invited to attend the former President’s 2004 speech was Rick Tumlinson, no friend of business-as-usual in US space policy. The White House shares no blame for picking Dr. Griffin, since…
Cyber Attacks Against Australia ‘Will Continue’
From BBC News:
An activist group that temporarily blocked access to key Australian government websites plans to continue its cyber attacks, the BBC has learned.
The group, known as Anonymous, was protesting against the Australian government’s proposals to apply filters to the internet in the country.
A man claiming to be a representative of the group said that around 500 people were involved in the attack.
The method they are using is known as Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS).
DDoS is illegal in many countries including the United Kingdom. There is no indication that the attack was carried out from within Britain. DDoS attacks typically call on machines in many different nations, making them hard to trace.
The sites were intermittently blocked on 10 and 11 February. The action has been condemned by various bodies including the Systems Administrators Guild of Australia (SAGE-AU) and Electronic Frontiers Australia.
[Read more BBC News]
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Religious Faith in Government Accusations
From Salon:
The case against Saeed Mohammed Saleh Hatim seemed ironclad.
The Justice Department alleged that Hatim, a detainee at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, trained at an al-Qaeda military camp in Afghanistan, stayed at terrorist guesthouses and even fought in the battle of Tora Bora. . . .
But a federal judge reviewed the case and found the government’s evidence too weak to justify Hatim’s confinement. The judge ordered the detainee’s release, ruling that he could not rely on Hatim’s statements because they had been coerced. He also found that the government’s informer was “profoundly unreliable.”
The case is more the rule than the exception. Federal judges, acting under a landmark 2008 Supreme Court ruling that grants Guantanamo Bay detainees the right to challenge their confinements, have ordered the government to free 32 prisoners and backed the detention of nine others. In their opinions, the judges have gutted allegations…
KBR Tells Court It Was Following Military Orders When Employees Burned Toxic Waste in Open Pits
From Alternet:
The military’s largest contractor is trying to avoid liability for health risks associated with burn pits to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the truth is emerging.
In October a class action suit combining 22 lawsuits from 43 states was filed in US District Court in Maryland against KBR, Halliburton, and other military contractors for damages to health from open air burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to plaintiffs’ lawyers the military contracting giant had been paid millions of dollars to safely dispose of waste on bases but negligently burned refuse in open pits, spewing toxins, including known carcinogens, into the air. Last week, KBR sought to dismiss the charges. Their tack was not to deny that they burned lithium batteries, petroleum, asbestos, trucks, cars, paint, plastic, Styrofoam, medical waste including human limbs, and more, as the soldiers have charged, but to challenge their liability for any ensuing problems. …
Christian TV Presenter Reads out Star Wars Plot as Story of Salvation
From the Telegraph:
An email prankster tricked the host of a Christian TV show into reading out the plots of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Star Wars in the belief they were stories of personal salvation.
The unsuspecting host read out most of the opening rap to The Fresh Prince, a 1990s US sitcom starring Will Smith, apparently unaware that it was not a genuine testimony of faith.
The prankster had slightly adapted the lyrics but the references to a misspent youth playing basketball in West Philadelphia would have been instantly familiar to most viewers.
The lines read out by the DJ included: “One day a couple of guys who were up to no good starting making trouble in my living area. I ended up getting into a fight, which terrified my mother.”
The presenter on Genesis TV, a British Christian channel, eventually realised that he was being pranked and cut the story short – only to move on to another spoof email based on the plot of the Star Wars films.
[Read more at the Telegraph]
Only 8% of Americans Want the Current Members of Congress Re-Elected
Jonathan D. Salant writes in Bloomberg via Yahoo News:
Just 8 percent of Americans want the members of Congress re-elected, according to a CBS News-New York Times poll taken nine months before roughly one-third of the Senate and the entire House face voters.
The Feb. 5–10 survey found 81 percent of respondents saying the lawmakers shouldn’t receive another term. By 80 percent to 13 percent, Americans said members of Congress are more interested in serving special interests than the people they represent.
Also, 75 percent disapproved of the job Congress is doing, the highest level since 74 percent said they disapproved in October 2008. Congress’s job approval rating was 15 percent in the current survey; it was 12 percent in October 2008.
Half of those surveyed said they wanted to abolish the filibuster in the U.S. Senate, the procedural move by which bills can be stalled unless 60 lawmakers vote to shut off debate,…
‘Obscene’ U.S. Manga Collector Jailed For 6 Months
David Kravets writes in Wired’s Threat Level:
A U.S. comic book collector is being sentenced to six months in prison after pleading guilty to importing and possessing Japanese manga books depicting illustrations of child sex and bestiality.
Christopher Handley was sentenced in Iowa on Thursday, (.pdf) almost a year after pleading guilty to charges of possessing “obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children.”
The 40-year-old was charged under the 2003 Protect Act, which outlaws cartoons, drawings, sculptures or paintings depicting minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct, and which lack “serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.” Handley was the nation’s first to be convicted under that law for possessing cartoon art, without any evidence that he also collected or viewed genuine child pornography.
Without a plea deal with federal authorities, he faced a maximum 15-year sentence.
Comic fans were outraged, saying jailing someone over manga does not protect children from sexual abuse. “I’d say…
Detroit Schools Offer Class in How to Work at Wal-Mart
Muriel Kane writes on RAW Story:
Wal-Mart has been widely condemned for offering its employees only low-paying, dead end jobs. Even President Obama criticized Hillary Clinton during the 2008 presidential campaign for having served on Wal-Mart’s board and stated that the firm ought to pay “a living wage.”
In inner-city Detroit, however, where the unemployment rate is estimated at an astonishing 50%, the prospect of a Wal-Mart job may appear far more attractive.
Four inner-city Detroit high schools have decided that employment with Wal-Mart is an opportunity worth training their students to pursue. The schools have teamed up with the giant merchandiser to offer a for-credit class in job-readiness training that also includes entry-level after-school jobs.
Read More: RAW Story
Hundreds Forced into Labor and Sex Trade in Ohio Every Year
MATT LEINGANG writes in the Washington Post:
COLUMBUS, Ohio — About 1,000 American-born children are forced into the sex trade in Ohio every year and about 800 immigrants are sexually exploited and pushed into sweatshop-type jobs, a new report on human trafficking in the state said Wednesday.
Ohio’s weak laws on human trafficking, its growing demand for cheap labor and its proximity to the Canadian border are key contributors to the illegal activity, according to a report by the Trafficking in Persons Study Commission.
“Ohio is not only a destination place for foreign-born trafficking victims, but it’s also a recruitment place,” said Celia Williamson, an associate professor at the University of Toledo who led the research.
Formed last year by Ohio Attorney General Richard Condray, the commission also found that hundreds more in the state are at risk of being forced into sex trafficking or to work against their will in fields, restaurants, sweatshops or…
Meet the The Lost Lizard People of Los Angeles
Xeni Jardin writes on BoingBoing:
Snip from 1934 Los Angeles Times article about lizard people who lived in tunnels under the city 5,000 years ago.
This legend is a long-lived chestnut.
A hi-rez scan, more at Strange Maps, and: Reptoids!
The Flickr uploader, vokoban, has lots of great stuff.
‘Operation Titstorm’ Hackers Have Declared Cyberwar on Australia
ASHER MOSES writes in the Sydney Morning Herald:
Groups opposing the government’s internet censorship plans have condemned attacks on government websites, saying it will do little to help their cause, while Communications Minister Stephen Conroy called them “totally irresponsible”.
Hackers connected with the group Anonymous, known for its war against Scientology, this morning launched a broad attack on government websites.
Coast to Coast AM: Time Technology & Research
From the January 31, 2010 show of Coast to Coast AM:
Joining Art Bell for the entire 4-hour program, physicist Dr. David Anderson discussed the state of time technology from his research, as well as other labs around the world. He recapped his work from 2002, when he last appeared with Art on the show. At that juncture, his team had created small time warp fields that he said could accelerate time by 300% within the field, as well as reversing time. He described the initiation of a time warp field as quite spectacular to witness, “between the combinations of different chemical reagents and high energy lasers we use to excite or initiate a time warp field…a lot of light, a lot of energy.”
Since 2002, the effects have increased by “two orders of magnitudes,” both in time acceleration and retardation rates, and living organisms have been successfully tested in the warp fields, he detailed. By regenerating “closed timelike curves” (bending spacetime so time loops back on itself) we’re finding it “just as easy to move backwards in time as well as forward,” Anderson explained.
SETI Opens All Data and Coding to the Public
Ole Ole Olson writes on News Junkie Post:
The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) just announced that it is releasing all information to the public. SETIQuest.org was launched on Wednesday to facilitate the release and help coordinate an ‘army of citizen scientists’ to help search for anomalies in interstellar microwave patterns.
The New Scientist reports, “SETIQuest is the product of astronomer Jill Tarter’s TED Prize wish. After being awarded the TED Prize last year, Tarter was given the opportunity to make a single wish before an auditorium full of the top names in technology and design. Tarter wished that they would “empower Earthlings everywhere to become active participants in the ultimate search for cosmic company.”
The Top 5 Health Insurers Had A 56% Profit Gain in 2009
John Byrne writes on RAW Story:
If no health care overhaul passes Congress, health insurers may be in for a windfall — and one far larger that most Americans probably realize.
According to a study by a pro-health reform group published Thursday, the nation’s largest five health insurance companies posted a 56 percent gain in 2009 profits over 2008. The insurers including Wellpoint, UnitedHealth, Cigna, Aetna and Humana, which cover the majority of Americans with insurance.
The insurers’ hefty profit gains came even as 2.7 million more Americans lost their insurance coverage due to the declining economy.
A lobbyist for American’s Health Insurance Plans, the trade group that represents insurers in Washington, D.C., attributed the gain in 2009 profits to a poor performance in 2008. In 2008, insurers were forced to write down their stock holdings because of the US market’s declines. Insurance companies keep a great deal of money in the markets, earning…
