End of Empire News

Breaking News Fri. Feb. 24, 2012

2012-02-24T10:03:00.001-08:00

Happy Friday one and all!
I sure hope everyone has had a good week. Here in pamland it's been unusually warm and lovely! Aside from a couple T-storms.
I found a great site this morning and with spring coming on soon, I thought you guys would like it too.
I've linked to a couple of their posts in the Doomsteading section so check them out. Looks like their blog is full of good useful information.

Walden Effect: Homesteading and Simple Living Blog

Remember, starting March 1, Google the evil, is going to start spying and building dossiers on us so be careful what you search for, text message, email, or what sites you visit.

I had considered moving the blog to wordpress and still may do it if I can figure it out. LOL

I'll use iGoogle to gather links for the blog but, other than that I'm done with Google.

I use DuckDuckGo for searching now.

here's the link again for anyone interested.

DuckDuckGo

Much thanks to RJ at the Global Glass Onion and the Ozarker at Conflicted Doomer for all they do to help find good and important stories for us. RJ posts his weekly wrap up this afternoon so don't miss it, and the Ozarker posts on Saturday afternoon.
Be sure to stop by their blogs and say hello, and, while you're at it, go by the forums and see what's going on there! Always something interesting going on at the forums.

Japan
DesdemonaDespair: Hope fades for lone pine tree survivor of Japan tsunami

FukashimaDiary: Tokyo is as contaminated as the worst place in Chernobyl
OilPrice: Japan Starts to Invest in Tsunami-Proof, Floating Wind Farms

Global Conflict
Wired: Calm Down. Iran's Missiles Can't (and Won't) Hit the East Coast.
UPI: Iranian Christian leader sentenced to die
HeraldSun: WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning formally charged with aiding enemy
Wired: Sacrebleu! French Drone Documents Stolen From Paris Train Station
Wired: The Pentagon Has 6 Bomb-Zapping Ray Guns (Which May Be 6 Too Many)
BlacklistedNews: Pakistan ‘offered surge in US boots on ground in return for helping oust generals’
UPI: Abkhazian President survives attack
Zerohedge: Behold The Greek Debt Slavery "To Do" Checklist Permitting It To Bail Out Europe's Insolvent Banks
CBSNews: Syria's wounded rebels must be smuggled out
WSJ: U.S. Soldiers Killed in Afghan Unrest
ExtinctionProtocol: China preparing for space warfare warns U.S. army general
CNN: Why the world isn't intervening in Syria
McClatchy: 'Top levels' of Syria regime responsible for war crimes, U.N. says
BlaacklistedNews: Syrian National Council Demands Foreign Invasion
Syrian Army May Have Targeted Journalists in Syria
MSNBC: Hacked arms and legs display the despair of Somalia
IBTimes: U.S. Reports Progress in Fight Against Uganda Guerrillas
WSJ: Protests Against Quran-Burning Roil Afghanistan
WashingtonPost: Israeli Police clash with Palestinians throwing rocks at Jerusalem holy site
Spiegel: Protests over Koran Burning: Germany Closes Afghan Military Base Early
UPI: Malians fleeing in droves, U.N. says - Malians are scattering across North Africa to flee conflicts between rebel and pro-government forces
ABCNews: Copter Crash One of Marines' Deadliest in Years
MSNBC: Russia warns world against 'hasty conclusions' over Iran - Meanwhile, the United States and its allies accuse Tehran of nuclear defiance
CNN: Nations want 'tsunami wave' of pressure on al-Assad
hosted: Gingrich criticizes Quran burning apology by US
UPI: Oil door still open for Europe, Iran says
GlobeAndMail: Car bomb at bus terminal in Pakistan kills 12

BeforeItsNews: Astonishing 16 Facts About Iran That The U.S. Government Doesn't Want You To Know - Video

OWS
PlutocracyFiles: Serious Materials Occupation

Domestic Financial News
Reuters: USPS closings plan to eliminate up to 35,000 jobs
Bloomberg: Pensions Find Private Equity Bites as Blackstone Cuts Jobs
CharlesHughSmith: What's Next for Capitalism After the Current Version Implodes?
Zerohedge: Guest Post: Why The U.S. Economy Could Go Haywire

ETFDaily: Jim Rogers: Attack On Iran, Pure “Madness”
UPI: Union files suit to stop right to work law
Zerohedge: Bailed Out AIG Posts Huge "Beat" On Tax Gimmick, Will Avoid Paying Taxes For Years
CNN: Procter and Gamble cutting 5,700 jobs
Reuters: AIG posts huge 4th-quarter profit on tax benefit
ChicagoTribune: Pennsylvania university heads paint bleak tuition outlook (Reuters) - The heads of Pennsylvania's four largest universities pleaded with lawmakers on Wednesday to ignore Governor Tom Corbett's proposal to cut state subsidies on higher education by 30 percent. During budget hearings early on Wednesday, University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Mark Nordenberg called Corbett's proposal "deep, dramatic and disproportionate," adding that if enacted, Pitt would have to raise tuition by $3,000 annually.
WSJ: In Retreat, Sears Set to Unload Stores
BusinessInsider: The Weakened Consumer Can't Survive Oil Prices At This Level - Back in December I penned an article about the potential for gasoline prices to rise quickly to catch up with surging oil prices.
We said then “If we look at just the nominal price data going back to 1990 we can see that there is indeed a very high correlation between oil prices and gasoline prices. While divergences from each other do occur on occasion those divergences tend not to last for very long with gasoline usually correcting towards the price of oil.”
Statesman: American Airlines to reduce jobs without layoffs
CNBC: Middle Class Getting Pushed Out of Banking - Excessive regulation of financial institutions is squeezing out middle-class consumers who soon will find themselves locked out of the banking system, analyst Meredith Whitney said Wednesday.
ForexPros: Where Did All That Printed Money Go?
WSJ: Why We Can't Believe the Fed
Time: Obama’s Job Creation Tax Credit: Cool Idea, Bad Policy
TPM: D’oh! Debt Hawks Fear Most GOP Tax Plans Will Increase Deficit
CNNMoney: U.S. automakers face tough times in ChinaWSJ: Atlanta Fed Survey Finds Long-Term Inflation Worry
MSNBC: FDIC coming up empty in pursuit of bankers - Critics say agency hasn't been aggressive enough in pursuing those who caused financial crisis
FiscalTimes: Banks Play the Liquidity Card to Kill Real Reform
Reuters: Republican House bill would strip US Fed's jobs mandate
CNNMoney: The corporate tax myth
FinancialPost: Why we’re in trouble if housing craters
BusinessInsider: The Iconic Fuller Brush Company Is Filing For Bankruptcy

Global Financial News
Reuters: Canada to raise Volcker rule at G20 meeting
CounterPunch: The Humiliation of Greece - If Greece’s €130 billion loan was going to be used for fiscal stimulus, then it might be worth the commitment. Because that kind of money could put a lot people back to work and kick-start the economy fast. But the loan isn’t going to be used for stimulus. It’s going to be used to recapitalize the banks and pay off creditors, neither of which will do anything to boost activity or create jobs. So, why bother? Why dig an even deeper hole if it achieves nothing? If that’s the case, then Greece should just default now and start rebuilding the economy ASAP. There’s no point in putting it off any longer.
ANN: More on Armed Robbery at Ancient Olympia Museum
NYT: For Greece, a Bailout; for Europe, Perhaps Just an Illusion
FiscalTimes: European Banks' Heavy Losses
Krugman: Euro Agonistes
Bloomberg: EU Confirms Spain Will Relapse Into Recession, Warns on Further Austerity - Spain’s economy will relapse into a recession in 2012 and additional austerity measures may worsen the slump, the European Commission said.

BusinessInsider: Even The EU, ECB And IMF Don't Believe In The Greek Rescue

BusinessInsider: Want To Take Some Risk? Check Out The Red Hot Palestine Exchange

Reason: When Greece Defaults - The second European bailout of Greece will just delay the inevitable.

FT: Euro denominated oil hits record
FT: Record sterling oil price sparks fears - Oil prices have soared to a record high in sterling terms and are approaching euro highs, raising fears that European countries struggling with heavy debts will face further barriers to economic recovery. “This is a regional oil shock,” .
BusinessInsider: The EU Now Expects A Recession For The Eurozone
Spiegel: Fleeing the People's Paradise: Successful Chinese Emigrating to West in Droves
FiscalTimes: European Banks' Heavy Losses
SeattleTimes: Royal Bank of Scotland losses widen on writedowns ECB: Interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung - Interview with Mario Draghi, President of the ECB, conducted by Holger Steltzner and Stefan Ruhkamp, published 24 February 2012
ETFDailyNews: Lord James of Blackheath: The $15 TRILLION Dollar Money-Laundering Mystery

Peak Oil and Energy News
$6 Gas Prices This Summer; The U.S. Economy Falls Off A Cliff
ThinkProgress: Time to Tap the Strategic Oil Reserves? - Americans are rightly concerned about rising oil and gasoline prices. On February 21 oil closed at $106 per barrel, while the average gallon of gas in the United States cost $3.59. Bloomberg reports that prices could continue to rise:While gas prices tend to rise through the first half of the year, this is the earliest the average price per gallon has breached the $3.50 mark. If this pace continues, the national average should hit $4 a gallon by May, if not sooner.

SeattleTimes: How gasoline demand is faring - U.S. motorists have bought less gasoline every week for the past 48 weeks, according to a survey published Wednesday by MasterCard SpendingPulse. At the same time, prices have risen. Those trends should continue, say industry analysts.
CNNMoney: Gasoline prices and taxes by state - (interactive) Gas prices keep rising nationwide. But how much you actually pay is affected by your income and local economy. Mississippi residents spend a whopping 11.8% of their income on gas. Gas prices reflect the average price in each state and are updated daily from data gathered by the AAA Fuel Gauge Report.
MSNBC: Dead bodies to be burned to heat UK swimming pool
IBTimes: Crude Could Hit $125 in Weeks
CNBC: Gasoline ETF Rallies as Pump Prices Surge
MSNBC: Oil tank blast shakes Galveston, Texas

Commodities/Metals
CommodityOnline: Lack of supply will push silver to $50 oz in 24 months: Kingsgate CEO
Mineweb: Gold and silver to continue rising as Fed's Wall Street puppets cornered

Environmental
DeclineoftheEmpire: Acidifying The World's Oceans
ExtinctionProtocol: 5.0 magnitude earthquake strikes off the coast of Mexico - February 23, 2012 – MEXICO – A 5.0 magnitude earthquake rattled the ocean floor 101 km off the coast of Chiapas Mexico.
DesdemonaDespair: Chevron Nigeria gas well fire ‘may burn for months’ – ‘Like watching a volcano erupting, fire spewing in every direction’
Grist: Giant snow art turns the ground into a canvas

RedditScience: Rare whale caught on film for first time - Australian researchers Thursday revealed they had filmed a pod of extremely rare Shepherd's beaked whales for the first time ever.

(Great, now some dumbass will have to go out and kill them.)

Grist: If people got rid of their extra cars, they could afford an extra house

The average American family owns 2.28 cars, and even in genuinely car-dependent areas they could probably get away with one. How much does that excess auto capacity cost? Enough that if everyone ditched their unnecessary vehicles, they'd save an average of $186,425.03 over 30 years. In a lot of places, that's enough to buy another house. At very least, it's more than enough to move to a more expensive area that's more transit-accessible or requires a shorter commute.

BlacklistedNews: Dow and Monsanto Join Forces to Poison America's Heartland
UPI: 2 avalanches in India kill at least 11
BBC: New moth invades Italy vineyards
RawStory: Seven arrested in U.S. crackdown on rhino trade
ClimateChanagePsychology: Shell's Alaska-bound oil drilling ship occupied by Greenpeace, Xena actress, climate warrior Lucy Lawless
Yahoo: Rare monster lobster caught on East Coast
MSNBC: Recommended: Winter storm slams Midwest; New York, New England up next
TheChart: Group sues EPA over popular weed killer

America in Decline
Cryptogon: Corrections Corporation of America Wants to Buy State Owned Prisons and Then Get States to Commit to Keeping Them Full of Prisoners
CNNMoney: Michigan's incredible shrinking workforce
ActivistPost: Police Use Laws To Paint Cold Med Buyers as “Meth Heads”
EdgeOfTheWest: Recycling the cycle of poverty - In the winter of 1963, the sociologist Charles Lebeaux argued that poverty, rather than merely a lack of money, was in fact the result of several complex, interrelated causes. “ “It involves a reinforcing pattern of restricted opportunities, deficient community services, abnormal social pressures and predators, and defensive adaptations. Increased income alone is not sufficient to overcome brutalization, social isolation and narrow aspiration.”
NakedCapitalism: Spinning Necessity as a Virtue: Families to Stand in for Fragmenting Social Safety Nets - Yves Smith - An anodyne seeming article at VoxEU, which I reproduce in full below, makes a straightforward seeming case for policies that bolster family ties in the face of a nasty combination of aging populations and high unemployment among the young. It isn’t hard to see that this line of thinking is the policy equivalent of getting in front of a mob and trying to call it a parade.
NYT: Bribery Case Falls Apart, and Tactics Are Doubted
CNNMoney: 35,000 Postal Service jobs on the chopping block

Food and Water
CommodityOnline: India pepper prices up 12% in Feb on strong demand and lower supplies

Internet and Online Privacy News
ComputerWorld: Google commits Chrome to support 'Do Not Track'
CNN: Attorneys general have 'strong concerns' about Google privacy rules
Technolog: YouPorn subscribers exposed after security hole discovered

Science and Technology
Cryptogon: Red License Plate in Nevada Means the Driver Is a Robot
IBTimes: Super Space Bugs Generate Electricity
PopSci: Hot Weather Makes Mammals Smaller, So Will Global Warming Make Us Shrink?
BBC: Mild drought ’caused Maya fall’

Medical and Health
ArsTechnica: 'Pig MRSA' came from humans, evolved via farm drugs
RawStory: Republican state attorneys general sue Obama over birth control rule
MSNBC: Va. lawmakers halt anti-abortion 'personhood' bill
Salon: A pro-choice win in Virginia, assisted by “Saturday Night Live”
The Virginia governor backs off a forced-ultrasound bill in the face of pro-choice -- and pop culture -- outrage
TheChart: Study: Bird flu death rate may be overblown

RedditScience: Mexican scientists successfully test vaccine that could cut heroin addiction
HuffingtonPost: Cat Saves Owner’s Life Just Hours After Being Adopted
TodayHealth: Sudden OCD in kids? Culprit may be strep throat, other infections

Doomsteading, Gardening, Urban Farming
PreppingToSurvive: Pouring the Foundation of the Root Cellar
HowToMakeHominyFromCorn: The Basics of Making Homemade Hominy from Dry Corn Kernels

StrategicLiving: Solving the Portable Knowledge Problem
thanks to mtlouie for recommending the following source.
VeteransToday: Americans Changing Attitude Toward Guns
CanadianDoomer: Zombie Curse Remover
WaldenEffect: Building an observation brood coop for chicks
WaldenEffect: Anna: When to plant spring crops

Other News
interested as I am in faces, I found this next post and wanted to share.
Telegraph: Mugshots of Australian women criminals from the 1920sCBSNews: Boy, 9, faces charges in girl's shooting
MSNBC: Girl shot: 9-year-old boy in orange jail jumpsuit cries in court BaltimoreSun: Bradley Manning to be arraigned at Fort Meade in WikiLeaks case
Telegraph: WikiLeaks trial: Bradley Manning declines to enter plea
Private Bradley Manning has declined to enter a plea to charges that he handed over hundreds of thousands of classified US files to WikiLeaks, dragging out further a case that has already run for more than 600 days. BBC: Everybody scream - Why does anguished art and music appeal so much?
WSJ: A Dollhouse Fit for a Queen

CNN: Maryland Senate approves same-sex marriage bill
UPI: Martha Washington's dress fabric for sale
BBC: American 'illegals'` - The thousands who overstay their visas - south of the border The issue of undocumented Mexican migrants in America is widely reported. But what about the thousands of Americans living illegally south of the border? Mexico Direct looks at why they come, and why Mexicans aren't yet making an issue about it.
FiscalTimes: Why the Prosperous Are Pawning Their Pinot Noir

Along with family jewels and fine art they will accept wines as collateral for loans to help ease cash shortages of businesses and people on all rungs of the economic ladder. "You'd be amazed by how many wealthy individuals have terrible credit ratings," said Jordan Tabach-Bank, head of Beverly Loan Co. in Beverly Hills, California. "And besides, if you go to a bank, it can take weeks or months to get a loan. When we make a loan, it's usually the same day,"
The pawnshop for the prosperous lends to hedge-fund managers, bankers, lawyers, doctors and even Oscar winners."Most people have a vision of pawn shops as sad sites. But that's not the case here," Tabach-Bank said. "I have a lot of people who come in who have a business opportunity and they need an infusion of cash for business purposes."

WhatCounts: 'Cop in a box' a new tool for investigating child sex crimes

Politics
ChicagoTribune: Beavers says feds indicted him on tax charges when he wouldn't wear wire
McClatchy: Santorum's debate struggle shows why Congress isn't the mother of presidents
McClatchy: Sen. Pat Roberts' office is latest to get powder-filled letter
LegitGov: Lieberman's Office Evacuated Because of Suspicious Mail
FiscalTimes: Lower the Deficit? Not with These GOP Candidates
RawStory: All copies of John Edwards sex tape to be destroyed
NYT: Santorum's Senate Record Turns Into Liability
MSNBC: GOP skeptics holding out for late-entry hero to save 2012?
Atlantic: None of the Republican Debt Reduction Plans Would Work
Grist: Obama mocks drill, baby, drill: ‘The American people aren’t stupid’
some are
CBSNews: Santorum: Obama wants to 'indoctrinate' students by boosting college enrollment
McClatchy: Romney blows call on Obama's budget-deficit record
RawStory: GOP debate audience boos contraception
RawStory: Romney: ‘Nuclear weaponry will by used’ if Obama re-elected
Politico: Opinion: The enduring fallacy of the CEO president - Is it safe to assume that a successful CEO is uniquely prepared to be president? No more than it is safe to assume a successful president is uniquely prepared to be CEO.
CBSNews: Bill Maher donates $1M to Obama super PAC
CSMonitor: Gingrich pledges $2.50 gas, Obama: 'it's easy to make phony promises'
IBTimes: What is a Super PAC? Everything You Need to Know
HuffingtonPost: Santorum In '95: 'I Was Basically Pro-Choice All My Life, Until I Ran For Congress'

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/#storylink=cpy

Forums
TinfoilPalace: The Private Prison Bullshit
TinfoilPalace: Feds Run Amish Raw Milk Farmer Out of Business.
TheOilAge: Excellent article on AJ on Peak Oil
TheOilAge: The West picks yet another country to bomb - SOMALIA!
HubbertsArms: Proctor & Gamble To Cut 5,700 Jobs In Restructuring
HubbertsArms: Big Banks Charging Unemployed Debit Card Fees For Unemployment Benefits
SilentCountry: New Madrid
SilentCountry: Federal Reserve has been money laundering for years.

Breaking News Thurs. Feb. 23, 2012

2012-02-23T10:28:00.000-08:00

Sorry I'm running a little late today, I went out to check on the greenhouse and it is so beautiful outside, I had trouble making myself come back in the house. LOL it's going to be in the lower 70's here today.
damn.
but hey...
Check this out.
Zerohedge: Top Social Media Websites Caught Censoring Controversial Content

Facebook pays low-wage foreign workers to delete certain content based upon a censorship list. For example, Facebook deletes accounts created by Palestinian resistance groups.
Digg was caught censoring stories which were controversial or too critical of the government. See this and this.
Now, even social media site Reddit – which helped launch the anti-Sopa Internet blackout and publicize GoDaddy’s slimy Sopa support – is doing the same thing.

Much much thanks to RJ at the Global Glass Onion and the Ozarker at Conflicted Doomer for their help today!
Be sure to check out their blogs and also the forums linked at the bottom of this post.
Do that, then go outside, that's where I'm going. :D

Japan
DesdemonaDespair: Japan’s nuclear evacuees denied refuge in Canada
BBC: Cruise finds Fukushima pollution

Global Conflict
You gotta read the following article. Thank you RJ!

CounterPunch: What Really Happened in the “Yom Kippur” War?
NYT: Obama Sends Apology as Afghan Koran Protests Rage
LegitGov: Fortress DC: New Capitol lockdown plan in works
IBTimes: Iran vs. Israel: Besides A-bomb Fear, Could Israel's Huge Gas Find Trigger Hostility?
IBTimes: Marie Colvin's Last Dispatch from Syria [GRAPHIC VIDEO]
McClatchy: 9 die in 2nd day of Afghan protests over Quran burnings
McClatchy: Pakistani health workers punished for helping U.S. find bin Laden
Reuters: Syrian tanks attack in Homs, world outrage grows
McClatchy: Syrian forces retake Zabadani as rebels withdraw, refugees say

JerusalemPost: Republicans voice support for arming Syria rebels

USAToday: Attacks across Baghdad kill 50
NYT: Afghan Protests Over Burning of Korans Spread for 3d Day
VOA: Bomb Rips Through Bus Station in Pakistan - Officials say a car bomb has ripped through a bus terminal in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least 12 people.
VOA: Rights Groups: Syria Escalating Violent Campaign Against Journalists

Atlantic: Would a Preemptive Attack Ensure That Iran Gets Nuclear Weapons?

Reuters: World security at stake in Somalia chaos, UK says

CBSNews: Afghan soldier kills 2 US troops
RawStory: War and neglect leaves 500,000 Afghans homeless: Amnesty
CNN: Taliban urge Muslims to kill NATO troops over Quran burning - The Taliban in Afghanistan called on Muslims Thursday to attack NATO military bases and convoys and kill its soldiers as demonstrations over Quran burning intensified.
Time: What Iran's Inspection Rebuff Says About Prospects for Nuclear Diplomacy
CNN: Cameron warns global security rests on Somalia's future
JTA: Iran denies part in recent attacks in letter to Security Council
Spiegel: The World from Berlin: 'Iranian Regime Will Make No Concessions'
MSNBC: US, N. Korea in first nuclear talks since Kim death

MSNBC: Iran blocking 30 million from email, Web ahead of election

OWS
Truthout: Occupy for Prisoners Comes Out Against Mass Incarceration - "In the United States, more than 2.2 million people sit behind bars, according to the Justice Policy Institute.... But behind the shocking statistics are harsh sentencing laws and lucrative contracts for private prison firms that continue to drive the mass incarceration system, say the protesters at Occupy for Prisons, and they are calling for a fundamental change to the system."
RawStory: ‘Occupy Wall Street’ announces convention in Philadelphia for July
eXiled: The Occupy Super PAC Non-Story: How Lazy Hacks Helped Breitbart Smear the Occupy Movement
Truthout: We Are All Greeks Now
J.A. Myerson, Truthout: "They chanted, 'We. Are. The 99 percent' with Greek accents in Zuccotti Park on Saturday. Greek-Americans, nationals and immigrants were joined by Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protesters in a show of solidarity with the people of Greece, thousands of whom took to the streets to protest the latest round of International Monetary Fund-imposed austerity cuts."

PlutocracyFiles: Georgia's Reaction to Occupy Striking With AT&T Workers - ALERT:: here comes the full on assault on BOTH the labor movement, Occupy, and all social justice organizations in Georgia. : Georgia Senate Bill 469 (SB469), introduced today, attempts to effectively bankrupt labor organizations in our state and prevent our movements from 'mass picketing' outside of a business or private residence we 'target' with penalties up to $10,000 per day of violation. But there's more....perhaps the most blatant and outrageous assault on our movements, coming right on the heels of our historic direct action at Occupy AT&T is Section 5- which will make it a FELONY to 'conspire' to commit criminal trespass while engaged in a political direct action- the act that 12 of us led last Monday at AT&T. There is no coincidence that the anti-worker, corporate funded, sponsors of SB 469 have set their targets on ALL progressive social forces in Georgia and thus require our immediate and unified response. This bill poses an absolute attack on basic worker rights and on all of our movements- but should also be viewed as a historic opportunity for us to mobilize a response in kind with even more united, bold series of actions to defeat it. Read the bill in its entirety here: http://www1.legis.ga.gov/legis/2011_12/versions/sb469_As_introduced_LC_37_1386ER_2.htm
PlutocracyFiles: UC Davis Students Sue Over Pepper-Spray Cop

Domestic Financial News
BusinessInsider: ALBERT EDWARDS: Dear Investors: Prepare For The Market To Rip Out Your Hope, And Consume It In Front Of Your Eyes - Well this is going to be the hot read of the day. Albert Edwards blasts the rally, and says there's still way too much "hope" and that only when the hope is totally gone will we know the great ice age is over.
ChicagoTribune: Quinn's bad news budget: 'Our rendezvous with reality has arrived'
MathBabe: Creepy model watch
ProjectSyndicate: Too Big to Jail - Simon Johnson - Among the fundamental principles of any functioning justice system is the following: Don’t lie to a judge or falsify documents submitted to a court, or you will go to jail. Breaking an oath to tell the truth is perjury, and lying in official documents is both perjury and fraud. These are serious criminal offenses, but apparently not if you are at the heart of America’s financial system.
CalculatedRisk: FNC House Prices, Zillow's forecast for Case-Shiller
CreditWritedowns: The current housing bust is much worse than the Great Depression
This next one is Brilliant! thanks RJ!
ColumbiaJournalismReview: The “Can’t Find Workers” Meme - In a time when millions of American workers can’t find work, it’s only natural to be intrigued by counterintuitive stories that claim American companies can’t find workers. Today, it’s the Washington Post’s turn to jump on this meme. It reports that manufacturers are having a hard time finding workers to work. Here’s the classically counterintuitive lede: Unemployment hovers above 9 percent. Foreign competition has thrown many out of work. It is a platitude that this industrial hub, like the country itself, needs more manufacturing work. But as the 2012 presidential candidates roam the state offering ways to “bring the jobs back,” many manufacturers say that, in fact, the jobs are already here. What’s missing are the skilled workers needed to fill them. The Post writes that the laid-off workers don’t know how to operate newfangled machinery and that Baby Boomers are retiring but younger generations “have avoided the manufacturing sector because of the volatility and stigma of factory work, as well as perceptions that U.S. manufacturing is a ‘dying industry.’” I have another way to put that: These young folks don’t want to spend a lot of money and time training to do a specific job they might not get only to get laid off when some private-equity slicks (where the real money’s at) buy out the company and ship the jobs to China. That’s what happens when owners and management have shredded the social contract.
BusinessInsider: JP Morgan Uses European Weakness To Bet Billions On Non-U.S. Homeowners
BusinessWeek: 'PayPal Mafia' Gets RicherTaxFoundation: The President’s Corporate Tax Reform Plan: Rhetoric and Reality - The administration released today its corporate tax reform "framework", which is largely a rehash of previous proposals, but with a lowering of the corporate rate from 35 percent to 28 percent. As with previous proposals, there is a complete disconnect between the rhetoric and reality, particularly in regards to simplification of the tax code and elimination of special interest loopholes, aka tax expenditures.
FDL: Tom Miller, HUD Officials Laugh at Schneiderman Publicly

Politico: Firedog bitten - Firedoglake.com, the progressive website that has closely followed the settlement between the feds, states and mortgage lenders, somehow interpreted my story on HUD chief Shaun Donovan as a riff on how HUD and its allies gamed NYAG Eric Schneiderman into accepting a weak deal.

NACA: Servicers Continue to Wrongfully Initiate Foreclosures: All Types of Loans Affected - pdf - A February 2012 survey by the National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA),i the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC)ii and the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys (NACBA)iii demonstrates that mortgage servicers continue to initiate foreclosure proceedings improperly, either while a homeowner is awaiting a loan modification or due to improper fees or payment processing.

PublicCitizen: Sign the Petition to Break Up Bank of America
DealBook:NYT: Responding to Critics, S.E.C. Defends ‘No Wrongdoing’ Settlements - The chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission defended the agency’s record of settling fraud cases with Wall Street companies, saying on Wednesday that she believed the agency’s practices “clearly have deterrent value,” even though firms were often charged repeatedly for violating the same securities laws.

BaselineScenerio: Why Won’t The Federal Reserve Board Talk To Financial Reform Advocates?

WSJ: In Lieu of Toasters, Bank Customers Burned
USNews: Why Big Banks Deserve to Get Slammed
CNNMoney: How to save U.S. manufacturing jobs

Time: Why Lower Corporate Taxes Won’t Create More Jobs
BusinessWeek: Three Types of People to Fire Immediately

Global Financial News
Keiser Report: Hang-a-Banker-a-Week! (E252)

ETFDaily: Could China’s Dragon Economy Lose Its Fire?
IBTimes: Nightline Tours Apple’s Foxconn Factory in China: 10 Things We Learned
BusinessInsider: There's A Huge Problem With The German Economy — And It Affects Everyone
Truthout: How Greece Could Take Down Wall Street
Ellen Brown, Web of Debt Blog: "The financial sector called [the Black-Scholes equation that opened up the world of derivatives] the Midas Formula and saw it as a recipe for making everything turn to gold. But the markets forgot how the story of King Midas ended. As Aristotle told this ancient Greek tale, Midas died of hunger as a result of his vain prayer for the golden touch. Today, the Greek people are going hungry to protect a rigged $32 trillion Wall Street casino."
FuelFix: China unveils plan to loosen capital controls
BusinessInsider: Global Markets Are Rallying, While European Banks Report Big Losses
Atlantic: The Next 5 Emerging Economies That Will Change the World
BBC: EU sees 'mild' eurozone recession
BBC: RBS bank's loss doubles in 2011 - State-controlled Royal Bank of Scotland reports a loss of £2bn in 2011, its fourth year of losses since the bank's bailout in 2008.
FT: Germany fights eurozone firewall moves
MacroBusiness: More zombie PMIs - Last night saw the release of the February Flash PMIs in Europe and, like the Chinese result yesterday, the pulse towards growth that was apparent in January is fading in February. The headline results were weak:
MacroBusiness: Chinese inflation is here to stay
FT: Wage Hikes in China Threaten Electronics Industry

Bloomberg: China Manufacturing Data Shows Risk of Deeper Slowdown: Economy

NYT: In Germany, a Limp Domestic Economy Stifled by Regulation

FT: Fitch Downgrades Greece

Peak Oil and Energy News
EnergyBulletin: Peak oil - Feb 22
NationOfChange: The Gas Wars - Robert Reich, Op-Ed: Nothing drives voter sentiment like the price of gas – now averaging $3.56 a gallon, up 30 cents from the start of the year. It’s already hit $4 in some places. The last time gas topped $4 was 2008. And nothing energizes Republicans like rising energy prices. Last week House Speaker John Boehner told Republicans to take advantage of voters’ looming anger over prices at the pump. On Thursday House Republicans passed a bill to expand offshore drilling and force the White House to issue a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline.

Grist: Why all promises to make gas significantly cheaper are fantasies
CommodityOnline: Crude oil to hit $127 50 barrel in 12 months: Goldman Sachs
EnergyBulletin: Energy Security For Whom? For What? (report)
McClatchy: WikiLeaks: Saudis often warned U.S. about oil speculators

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/02/23/139707/8-year-old-washington-girl-shot.html#storylink=cpy

PoliticalCalculations: How Sanctions on Iran Might Affect World Oil Prices
MarketWatch: Canadian oil’s quiet pipeline to the West - Commentary: Plan to expand Trans Mountain offers outlet for Canadian oil

BusinessWeek: WTI Crude Oil May Reach $130 a Barrel, Hofmeister Says

Commodities/Metals
Mineweb: Since 2000, dollar down 22%, gold up around 500% - Which the better safe haven?
Mineweb: Palpable change in tone in gold and silver markets

Environmental
Grist: Raccoon invasion! Masked bandits are taking over our cities
NewScientist: World's deepest land animal discovered
DesdemonaDespair: Graph of the Day: Cumulative Rainfall Anomalies for Southeastern Australia, January 1997 - December 2011
Canada.com: Secret memo warns oilsands damage may be irreversibleGrist: Critical List: Grist: Selenium dumping gives fish two heads; Germany to cut solar subsidies

America in Decline
ActivistPost: Revealed: US Government Program Secretly Injected Citizens with Plutonium, Uranium
MyBudget360: The compression of generations – 25 million adults live at home with parents because they’re unemployed or underemployed. The crushing cost of a college education today.
Truthout: White House Refuses to Release Email From Monsanto-Linked Lobbyist
Mike Ludwig, Truthout: "The White House is withholding documents requested under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by an environmental group that suspects the Obama administration of working with Monsanto-linked lobbyists to defend the planting of genetically engineered (GE) crops in wildlife refuges across the country."

NationofChange: Infographic: Illusion of Choice - “Media has never been more consolidated. 6 media giants now control a staggering 90% of what we read, watch or listen to.”

USAToday: 25% of super PAC money coming from just 5 rich donors - Five wealthy people, led by Dallas industrialist Harold Simmons and Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, have donated nearly $1 of every $4 flowing to the super PACs raising unlimited money in this year's presidential race, a USA TODAY analysis shows.
NYT: The Court and Citizens United II - The Supreme Court has an opportunity to reconsider its disastrous Citizens United decision. The justices should take it.
AtWarBlogs: NYT: Pentagon Says U.S. Citizens With Terrorism Ties Can Be Targeted in Strikes - The Obama administration’s top Pentagon lawyer on Wednesday said that American citizens who join Al Qaeda can be targeted for killing and that courts should have no role in reviewing executive branch decisions about whether someone has met such criteria.

Food and Water
Cryptogon: France Asks EU to Suspend GM Crop Authorisation
(Viva la France!)
Truthout: Monsanto Found Guilty of Chemical Poisoning in France - Anthony Gucciardi, Natural Society: "In a major victory for public health and what will hopefully lead to other nations taking action, a French court decided today that GMO crops monster Monsanto is guilty of chemically poisoning a French farmer."
SeattleTimes: Farmers furious after Iraq stops buying US rice

"That's just not right," the 63-year-old Stoesser fumed. "If we've got some rice to sell, they ought to pay a premium for it just because this is the country that freed them."

"You would think with all that we've done over there, there would be a way to get them to do business with us," said Ronald Gertson, who grows rice in Lissie, Texas.

John Alter, 64, also is considering alternatives. Usually, about one-third of his 1,500-acre farm in DeWitt, Ark., is devoted to rice. This year, it would be risky to dedicate too much land to the crop, he said. The loss of imports is disappointing, Alter said, noting the price difference between U.S. rice and Uruguayan grain was small.
"We spent billions and billions, if not trillions over there, and lots of people died," Alter said. "There should be some reciprocation ... Last time I checked, there wasn't any Uruguayan soldiers that lost their lives in Iraq."

ArsTechnica: Humanity's water footprint: US exports the most, uses the most per capita

Most people are familiar with the concept of a "carbon footprint," and some even feel dutifully guilty about their own. "Water footprints" get a little less play:

Internet and Online Privacy News
ArsTechinca: As ACTA support falters, treaty referred to European court
The prospects for quick European approval of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement dimmed Wednesday as the European Commission, the EU's executive branch, announced plans to seek an opinion from the European Court of Justice about ACTA's constitutionality.
ActivistPost: McCain to introduce cybersecurity legislation giving even more domestic control to NSA, military
Technolog: Report: These companies sell tech to dictators ActivistPost: Internet Freedom Killer ACTA Suspended for Questionable Legality
BlacklistedNews: The U.N. Threat to Internet Freedom
CNNMoney: Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights
ArsTechnica: White House announces new privacy "Bill of Rights," Do Not Track agreement
BlacklistedNews: Minority Report-Style Advertising Rolled Out In London

WSJ: Web Firms to Adopt 'No Track' Button

Science and Technology

NewScienceMag: Patton Boggs Lobbyists Threatens Scientific Journals with “Consequences” If They Publish or Distribute Diesel Exposure - A protracted legal battle over an $11.5-million health study into whether diesel exhaust damages the lungs of miners has suddenly widened to take on scientific peer review. Editors with at least four research publications say they have received a letter advising them against "publication or other distribution" of data and draft documents. The warning, including a vague statement about "consequences" that could ensue if the advice is ignored, is signed by Henry Chajet, an attorney at the Patton Boggs firm in Washington, D.C., and a lobbyist for the Mining Awareness Resource Group, which works on behalf of the mining industry.

ArsTechnica: 500,000 zombie PCs imperiled as expiration of court order approaches

Reuters: The Book of Jobs - The drug LSD, referred to 33 times, is clearly important to Jobs. (The FBI thought the same , according to documents released this month .) “How many of you have taken LSD?” Jobs taunts an audience of Stanford business school students. “Are you a virgin? How many times have you taken LSD?” he demands of an Apple interviewee. Bill Gates would “be a broader guy if he had dropped acid.” Tripping was “one of the two or three most important things he’d done in his life.” People who had never dropped acid “would never fully understand him.” The generations that followed his own were more “materialistic” and less “idealistic” for not having tripped; also, they all looked like “virgins.” In the binary world within Steve’s reality, having consumed LSD was the key determinant of whether a colleague or employee was deemed “enlightened” or “an asshole.”

PopSci: Japanese Construction Company Plans Space Elevator By 2050
NewScientist: Men's Y chromosome is not about to go extinct
RawStory: Faulty wire error blamed for ‘faster-than-light’ particles
NewScientist: Prions point to a new style of evolution
ScientificAmerican: New Family of Limbless Amphibians Discovered in India
Wired: In Back Alleys and Basements, Video Arcades Quietly Survive
CNet: Score! NASA spots soccer-ball shape buckyballs in space

Medical and Health
USAToday: Va. governor opposes invasive ultrasound before abortion
ActivistPost: One Too Many In The Cuckoo's Nest -- Shock Therapy Still Used to Control Behavior - Heather Callaghan Activist Post Did you know that electroshock therapy is still a common practice?
PopSci: How Pigs on Antibiotics Are Making Superbugs Stronger
FoxNews: Virginia House passes scaled-back ultrasound bill
BusinessInsider: FDA Overwhelmingly Endorses This Weight Loss Pill (VVUS) - SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — A previously rejected weight loss pill won an overwhelming endorsement from public health advisers Wednesday, raising hopes that the drug from Vivus Inc. could become the first new anti-obesity medication to reach the U.S. market in more than a decade.
HuffingtonPost: Georgia Democrats Seek Vasectomy Ban In Response To Abortion Bill
CNN: Migraines may raise depression risk in women, researchers find

MSNBC: Judge rules Washington state can't force pharmacies to sell Plan B
TheChart: EPA dioxin assessment raises red flag for some

Vitals: Santorum makes prenatal testing a campaign issue

Doomsteading, Gardening, Urban Farming

CityFarmer: Suzuki Diaries: Future City – Community Garden – Detroit

ModernSurvival: Emergency Kit For Vehicle
BackdoorSurvival: 12 Preparedness Tips for Families with Children

UrbanFarmer: Farmers Market With Beer in Mind
PermacltureMag: Replanting hedgerows using permaculture design

PermacultureMag: Chill food without electricity with the flowerpot fridge - Here is a video version of how to make the world's cheapest and easiest refrigerator from two terracotta pots. It uses minimal resources and runs completely without electricity.

OffTheGridNews: Home Security on a Budget

Other News
CNN: Arraignment set in Bradley Manning's WikiLeaks case BBC: Argentina train crash in Buenos Aires 'kills dozens'
ABCNews: 8-Year-Old Critical After Wash. School Shooting
CNN: New inquest into baby's 'dingo' death

Cryptogon: Denver Family Stranded After Passport Denied Because of Crease

Spiegel: Taking a Stand Against Neo-Nazi Terror: Merkel Asks Victims' Relatives for ForgivenessWashingtonPost: ‘Underground palace’ roils Hong Kong leadership race
MSNBC: Girl forced to run for 3 hours as punishment dies

Politics
CBSNews: Christie: Buffett should "write a check and shut up"
RawStory: Jon Stewart rips Republican fear-mongering over Obama: ‘You have lost your d*mn mind’
UPI: Santorum: I voted for bills I didn't back
IBTimes: Ray Kelly Death Threats: Gothamist Comments Get Richard Strauss Arrested - A commenter on the Gothamist was arrested for making online death threats targeting Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, according to the New York Post. 49-year-old Richard Strauss posted a series of comments allegedly encouraging New Yorkers to "aim their sights" at Kelly with "a well-placed [bullet] to his thick skull."
SeattleTimes: Romney calls for 20 percent income tax cuts
Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney on Wednesday called for 20 percent across-the-board cuts in personal income tax rates as part of a program to help the economy grow

SeattleTimes: FACT CHECK: Errant claims on auto bailout, taxes
Twenty Republican presidential debates later, the head-scratching claims kept coming.
Forums
TinfoilPalace: In England: As Rivers Run Dry, Government Says, "Four Minute Showers"
TinfoilPalace: The Mall is Empty, but the Thrift Stores are PACKED!TheOilAge: Mark Grant: ECB has opened Pandora's box
TheOilAge: America2050.org - Agenda 21
HubbertsArms: America? Pennsylvania Here. We Know Rick Santorum. You Don’t. Just ask us about him. Please.
HubbertsArms: W F Engdahl - Israeli gas find adds "more discredit to “peak oil” theories"
SilentCountry: Eliminate your Google history
SilentCountry: New Madrid

Breaking News Wed. Feb. 22, 2012

2012-02-22T10:25:00.000-08:00

Good Wednesday to you all! Hope all are well and having a good day today. I hope to get to run to town today so this might be a little shorter than usual, but still good! :D
Here's a good one sent in by the lovely Ozarker this morning.

Guardian: Instead of being disgusted by poverty, we are disgusted by poor people themselves
Empathy has crashed. No more cruel to be kind. We must simply be cruel.

An addict is the author of their own misfortune. Her poverty is self-inflicted. All these hopeless people: where do they all come from? It is, of course, possible never to really see them, as their distress is so distressing. Who needs it? Poverty, we are often told, is not "actual", because people have TVs. This gradual erosion of empathy is the triumph of an economic climate in which everyone, addicted or not, is personally responsible for their own lack of achievement. Poor people are not simply people like us, but with less money: they are an entirely different species. Their poverty is a personal failing. They have let themselves go. This now applies not just to individuals but to entire countries. Look at the Greeks! What were they thinking with their pensions and minimum wage? That they were like us? Out of the flames, they are now told to rise, phoenix–like, by a rich political elite. Perhaps they can grow money on trees?

It goes rather well with this from Activist Post.

Epitaph: The Late, Great United States

Definitely the direction we're headed in, if something doesn't happen to prevent it, I fear we'll be in WW3 sometime this summer.

And here's my thought for the day.
You know, if we want jobs creation, what needs to be done is for American workers to
SLOW THE HELL DOWN!
Instead of working yourself to death and doing the jobs of 3 or 4 people, why not slow down, just a bit, get your co-workers to slow down too. Just a bit, not enough to get fired, but just enough to where the company has to spend some of it's hoarded mega profits and hire new workers.
Americans have become so "job scared" that they are not only making themselves miserable by working like crazy people, but, they are also taking up jobs of others. So, pam's words of wisdom for the day,
Stop giving your time away for free and making some jerk rich and just, Slow Down!

As always, sincerest thanks to RJ at the Global Glass Onion and the Ozarker at Conflicted Doomer for their help today! Please visit their blogs and support their work.
And........
visit the forums!

Japan
DesdemonaDespair: Fukushima: Return to the disaster zone
VancouverSun: Into Fukushima's no-man's land

MSNBC: Radiation from Fukushima detected 400 miles off Japanese coast
But readings are far below the levels that are generally considered harmful

Global Conflict
McClatchy: US veterans deported after they served
CNN: 5 killed as protests over Quran burning rage in Afghanistan

Reuters: Assad seeks to bomb Homs into submission, alarms world
Bloomberg: Iran Has No Pre-Emptive Strike Policy: Ambassador
Reuters: UN watchdog says nuclear talks with Iran failed
Spiegel: Warning from Former Extremist: Neo-Nazi Terrorist Threat Remains Real
As Germany prepares to commemorate the 10 victims of the killing spree committed by the NSU neo-Nazi group, a former extremist has warned that more potential terrorists are lurking in the far-right scene, which he claims is well-organized and ready to resort to bombing attacks in its goal of creating a "Fourth Reich".
Grist: GOP to Navy: Use more oil, demand more money
Wired: Cyborgs, Software Spies and Shadow Wars: Our Five Years (Un)covering The Hidden Pentagon
ActivistPost: Propaganda Alert: The Ninja Threat From Iran
Reuters: Four killed, many wounded in Afghan Koran protests - report
Reuters: Red Cross seeks Syria ceasefires; more than 100 killed
FuelFix: IAEA ‘disappointed’ in Iran nuclear talks
LAT: Syria activist who shared horrific images of bloodshed killed
Zerohedge: Iran Holds Air Defense Drills As IAEA Says Iran Blocks Access To Key Nuclear Site
Reuters: U.S., French journalists killed in Syria
Zerohedge: Crude Oil vs. Iran: Who Blinks First?
DailyBeast: Experts Say Iran Attack Is Irrational, Yet Hawks Are Winning the Debate
JerusalemPost: Russia: Israeli attack on Iran will bring catastrophe
McClatchy: After year of protests, Yemen election is cause for celebration
UPI: India criticized for Iran oil imports
VancouverSun: Pakistan appeals to Interpol over Pervez Musharraf arrest

Domestic Financial News
McClatchy: Jobs scarce, but the stigma stays
CalculatedRisk: DOT: Vehicle Miles Driven increased 1.3% in December
BusinessInsider: IT'S OFFICIAL: The One Industry That Was Still Destroying Jobs Is Finally Turning Around
ETFDaily: The Baltic Dry Shipping Index Just Turned A Big Corner Reuters: US Treasury to roll out corporate tax reform plan Wednesday-officials
Reuters: US consumer agency to examine bank overdraft fees
IBTimes: Four killed, many wounded in Afghan Koran protests - report
CreditWritedowns: For Whom The Bailout Tolls
FRB: Press Release--Minutes of Board discount rate meeting on January 23, 2012--February 21, 2012: The Federal Reserve Board on Tuesday released the minutes of its discount rate meeting on January 23, 2012. The minutes are attached. Attachment (10 KB PDF)
CalculatedRisk: Home Depot on Housing
FT: Hillary Clinton is Now Secretary of Job Creation - The State Department may become the nation's human resources department by adding job creation to its already bulging portfolio.
WSJ: Why This Time Could Be Different With High Gasoline Prices - Soaring oil prices in the spring of 2008 sent gasoline prices surging and accelerated the recession. Now, rising gas prices are threatening the recovery. But lower natural gas and utility costs this time around might limit some of the damage, says Deutsche Bank chief U.S. economist Joseph LaVorgna.
Zerohedge: Peter Orzag: An Economic Recovery Will Kill Us Sooner Than A Recession
DailyFinance: Wall Street Plays a Risky Game, Again
WashingtonPost: U.S. covering millions in Fannie Mae executives’ legal costs

Guardian: Why the Volcker Rule is crucial to the 99% - We, concerned citizens, believe that regulators must enforce the Dodd-Frank Act's provisions to end proprietary trading by banks

Reuters: Grubb & Ellis files bankruptcy, to be sold to BGC - Grubb & Ellis Co (GRBE.PK) filed for bankruptcy protection amid a slower-than-expected recovery in the commercial property market, and agreed to sell nearly all its assets to the financial services brokerage BGC Partners Inc (BGCP.O).
Atlantic: False Recovery 2.0: It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like 2011

CharlesHughSmith: When Risk Is Disconnected From Consequence, the System Itself Is at Risk
ETFDaily: Is The U.S. Federal Reserve Doing A Good Job?
NTY: Tax-Cut Bill Includes Changes to Jobless Benefits - Tucked into a $140 billion bill extending emergency jobless benefits and a temporary cut to payroll taxes are several provisions intended to modernize the country’s outdated unemployment insurance system. Experts described the little-noticed changes as marginal improvements, but important ones, and said they promised to aid the long-term jobless and help hold down the unemployment rate in future recessions. “We’ve had the same unemployment insurance system since the 1930s, and it really was designed for a different time,” Alan B. Krueger, the chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said in an interview. “Most people on unemployment insurance back then had been temporarily laid off from manufacturing jobs. Obviously, that’s not true now — these are people who are often moving into a whole new industry.”
NewRepublic: The Memo that Larry Summers Didn’t Want Obama to See

Global Financial News
BusinessInsider: Fitch Downgrades Greece 2 Notches to C
Zerohedge: Europe Celebrates Its Latest Recession With Record High Gas Prices
Spiegel: Cheap Labor in Bulgaria: Chinese Open First Car Plant in Europe
It used to be that European carmakers opened plants to assemble their cars in China. Now the Chinese have turned the tables with the opening of their first factory in Bulgaria, an EU country with low labor costs and taxes. Increasingly, Chinese carmakers are setting their sights on the European and American automobile markets.FuelFix: Matthew Lynn’s London Eye: Greek crisis isn’t economics, it’s game theory
Spiegel: A Political Establishment in Freefall: Greece Lurches to Left Amid Radical Austerity
WSJ: CORRECT: WORLD FOREX: Euro Little Changed As Skepticism Greets Greek Deal
Zerohedge: A Tale Of Financial Fascism By Shakespeare

Zerohedge: It's Official - Greece Unveils The Negative Salary, And A Whole New Meaning For "Pay To Play"

NakedCapitalism: Wolf Richter: Now a Housing Bubble in Germany
FT: Greece races to meet bail-out demands -The Greek government is racing to complete a lengthy checklist of reforms demanded by international lenders before the end of February to unlock a €130bn bail-out agreed in the early hours of Tuesday morning after months of high-stakes bargaining. The tough conditions and the short timetable reflect the collapse of trust between Greece and its trio of lenders – the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund – after Athens failed to live up to the terms of a previous €110bn bail-out agreed nearly two years ago.
BillyBlog: Standby for the third Greek bailout
BusinessInsider: Athens Makes Peace With Europe And Declares War On The Greeks

Peak Oil and Energy News
Zerohedge: Guest Post: Dangerous Ideas (a superior article by Chris Martenson)

EnergyBulletin: The peak oil crisis: technology update
ThinkProgress: Top Three Reasons Cheap Natural Gas Won't Kill Renewable Energy
TransitionVoice: Peak oil, adapting for big changes ahead
SacBee: Gasoline use declines, prices climb as drivers ask: What's up with that?
McClatchy: Once again, speculators behind sharply rising oil and gasoline prices

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/02/21/139521/once-again-speculators-behind.html#storylink=cpy

Forbes: Chevron Pumps Billions Into Kazakhstan For Barrels Of Sour Crude

Commodities/Metals
ETFDaily: Billionaire Hedge-Fund Manager John Paulson Says Now’s the Time To Buy Gold
(that means he's selling right???) LOL
ETFDaily: Here’s How Iran Could Launch Silver To $100
Environmental
ExtinctionProtocol: Cloud height decreasing on Earth and NASA scientists are unsure why
NewScientist: Plankton-fuelled ocean eddy is 150 kilometres wide

Grist: Critical List: Court upholds local fracking ban; New York could ban shark fin sales - By Sarah Laskow A New York state court upheld the town of Dryden’s ban on fracking.
NewScientist: Climate sceptics may find fertile ground in US schools
DesdemonaDespair: U.S. presidential candidate Rick Santorum takes climate change denial to a Biblical level
VancouverSun: All fossil fuels must be cut to avoid global warming, B.C. scientists say

ExtinctionProtocol: Winter storm warning issued for summits of Hawaii’s Big Island

America in Decline
Reuters: Convicted murderer dies while on hunger strike in California - A 27-year-old convicted murderer has died while on a hunger strike to protest restrictions on access to health, good food, legal services and other amenities in a segregation unit at a California prison, prison officials said on Friday.
BlacklistedNews: 10 Signs That America Is Decomposing Right In Front Of Our Eyes
CBSNews: Va. personhood bill sparks outrage
AddictingInfo: Minnesota GOP Refuses To Allow Citizens To Testify As It Steals Their Right To Vote
Politico: Dems: GOP won’t let us televise contraception hearing - Jennifer Haberkorn

Internet and Online Privacy News
ArsTechnica: Megaupload's Kim Dotcom granted bail, barred from Internet
Guardian: Facebook’s nudity and violence guidelines are laid bare
ActivistPost: NSA Warns "Cyber Terrorists" Anonymous Can Take Out Entire Power Grid
CNN: Parents need more privacy info about kids' apps, feds say
Reuters: Rise in identity fraud tied to smartphone use

Science and Technology
PopSci: Simulated Mars Base Will Help Future Menu Planners Pack the Interplanetary Pantry
MNN: 'Waterworld' discovery opens door to new type of planet RedditScience: 300 Million Year old Fossilized Forest Found in China!! Preserved, never before seen species of plants from the world back when it was still Pangaea!!
NYT: Google to Sell Heads-Up Display Glasses by Year's End - People who constantly reach into a pocket to check a smartphone for bits of information will soon have another option: a pair of Google-made glasses that will be able to stream information to the wearer’s eyeballs in real time.
Wakeup-World: Are Pets Psychic? A Cambridge Scientist Believes So
MSNBC: Footprints show that elephants' ancestors stuck together - Fossil tracks reveal that pachyderms' herding behavior goes back 7 million years

Medical and Health
UPI: Hospital evacuated due to bats
CBSNews: Is a required ultrasound a barrier to abortion?
TheChart: How a MRSA strain came to flourish

McClatchy: Feds give seed money to startup health care insurance co-ops
ChicagoTribune: IL House panel approves anti-abortion measures, including bill on ultrasounds ...
RawStory: Heart attack with no chest pain more likely in women
TodayHealth: Gluten-free diet may be a waste of money for some, new research suggestsMSNBC: Hepatitis C killing more Americans than HIV - Half of the estimated 3.2 million Americans with chronic hepatitis infection don't know they have it

Doomsteading, Gardening, Urban Farming
CanadianDoomer: Preparedness is Unchristian?
PreppingToSurvive: Book Review: The ARRL Ham Radio License Manual

Other News
SavinarHolistic: Sun in Cancer, Moon in Pisces: The Psychic and The Healer, the Sea-Farer and the Far-Seer - The secret history of NASA's SeaSat One craft, the "psychic" space
satellite that, quite literally, glimpsed the Grim Reaper. (great article from Matt)
SacBee: Pit bulls pose quandary as they swamp Sacramento shelters
WSJ: Justices to Revisit Race Issue
BusinessInsider: REPORT: 'Amazing Race' Producer Found Dead In Uganda After Poisoning
Reuters: Five dead in shooting in Atlanta suburb day spa
BlacklistedNews: Strauss-Kahn arrested by French police for ‘complicity in pimping’ after he admits attending sex parties all over the world
CNN: more bodies found on doomed cruise ship
MNN: 10 of the world's biggest unsolved mysteries
Spiegel: Photo Gallery: Germans Go Nuts at Carnival
Guardian: Let's put Facebook's 'no nipples' rule to test with your breastfeeding photos

Politics
Grist: Rick Santorum rewrites the history of clean air in America
McClatchy: Evangelist Franklin Graham questions President Obama's faith
CNN: Poll: Men, evangelicals boost Santorum
LAT: How about Santorum vs. Obama, winner take all?
IBTimes: GM Fires Back at Gingrich's Gun Rack Criticism, Calling it a Cheap Shot
WashingtonPost: The failure of austerity politics - “We are headed to a Greece-type collapse,” GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney has warned repeatedly, while indicting President Obama’s stimulus plan.

Forums
TinfoilPalace: In England: As Rivers Run Dry, Government Says, "Four Minute Showers"
TinfoilPalace: Strange Sound Frequencies, Intense Effects
TheOilAge: US gas prices last month highest ever for January
TheOilAge: Saudi Arabia Cuts Oil Output?
HubbbertsArms: The Price Of Gas Is Outrageous – And It Is Going To Go Even Higher
HubbertsArms: The Lies We Tell Ourselves (Part 2): Price Hikes Catch Up to U.S. Food Makers
SilentCountry: Guy MacPherson Myth of Sustainability
SilentCountry: Venus rotating six and a half minutes slower

Breaking News Tues. Feb. 21, 2012

2012-02-21T10:17:00.003-08:00

hey guys! hope everyone is having a great day today and the weather is beautiful where you are too.

remember last week, I posted a link to a story about the world's hottest pepper? Well, hub wanted us to grow some for the knuckleheads where he works and so I found a great source for the seed. Check out Neil here on this youtube video eating a Trinidad Scorpion. (Butch T strain)

this comment in the comment section really cracked me up!

"The universe was created to house your massive balls. "

You watch that video, and you'll probably agree.

you can find seeds for many varieties of peppers at Luke and Neil's site. They're great guys to do business with and Guinness record holders.

The Hippie Seed Company

Much thanks to RJ at the Global Glass Onion and the Ozarker at Conflicted Doomer for sending in stories today! Do check out their blogs and support their work.
And don't forget to wander over to the forums and put in your 2 cents!

Japan
ENENews: 42% of residents’ radiation exposure tops annual limit — Survey excluded people working in places with high radioactivity — Only used 4 months of data
Telegraph: The world has forgotten the real victims of Fukushima - A natural disaster that cost the lives of thousands of people was ignored in favour of a nuclear 'disaster’ that never was, argues Michael Hanlon.

ENENews: Workers were dropping like flies in the heat while clearing debris and watering reactors
Telegraph: Journalists given tour of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant

Global Conflict
Hosted: Israel to free Palestinian hunger striker
BlacklistedNews: Riots Hit Saudi Arabia, government vows to end violence with "iron fist"
Atlantic: Israel Deceives Public With Palestinian Refugee Videos

At the end of 2011, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, posted the third video in his YouTube series about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. These polished presentations are produced by an Israeli public relations firm in collaboration with StandWithUs, a U.S.-based group that counters criticism of Israeli policies regarding Palestinian.

CBSNews: McCain: Iran "supplying arms" to Syrian regime
Rollingstone: Another March to War? - Matt Taibbi - As a journalist, there’s a buzz you can detect once the normal restraints in your business have been loosened, a smell of fresh chum in the waters, urging us down the road to war.LegitGov: 'Iran set to build first cyber army'
Telegraph: Iran launches military exercises aimed to boost nuclear site defence
FT: The drift towards war with Iran
WashingtonPost: Syrian security has upper hand after weekend unrest
Alternet: At least 46 journalists 'killed in 2011': US watchdog
JerusalemPost: 'Sovereign nations act in their own interests'
Alternet: Riot police beat students in Spain protest: witnesses
WSJ: IEA: Oil Market Ready For Iran Loss
LegitGov: Press TV signals jammed in Europe: Report
Reuters: Iran says would act against enemies if endangered
WashingtonPost: Huge crowd of Afghans protests reports of burning of Koran at US base
Alternet: Pakistan receives US surveillance aircraft
Spiegel: A Palestinian Take on the Mideast Conflict: 'The Pursuit of a Two-State Solution Is a Fantasy' - Prominent Palestinian philosopher Sari Nusseibeh believes it is too late for a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict.
WSJ: Afghanistan to Spy on Its Own Soldiers
DailyBeast: The Crazy Rush to Attack Iran
TheAtlantic: The Real Defense Budget

While everyone knows that the defense budget is large -- even in the numbers that the public sees as the formally admitted figures by the Department of Defense -- the truth is that when one scratches beneath the bureaucratic veneer, national security spending is much larger, nearly double the amount US citizens are told.

BBC: Nato apologises for Afghan Koran 'burning'
MSNBC: Slingshots, guns fired at Afghan protest over Quran burning
CSMonitor: US military officials urge caution on attacking Iran - The problem is that many of the Iranian targets – buried deeply underground – would be beyond the reach of the Israeli military, in what Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey calls a “zone of immunity.”
TheOval: U.S. to Israel: Don't attack Iran
Guardian: Iran threatens to extend oil embargo
• More European countries may have oil supplies halted
• Military exercise begins to strengthen key nuclear facilities
• Foreign minister says UN inspectors will not visit sites
MSNBC: Red Cross negotiating pause to fighting in Syria

OWS
PlutocracyFiles: Occupy Prisons Today

Domestic Financial News
Zerohedge: Here Is Why The Dow Just Passed 13,000
BlacklistedNews: Modern Day Robber Barons: Owe IRS Taxes, Lose Your Passport
AbigailCField: The Foreclosure Fraud Iceberg - Secretary Donovan is trying convince the American public that the what the Obama administration is doing is all that can be done to address our housing and foreclosure crisis. That’s farcically false.
NakedCapitalism: “Crooks on the Loose? Did Felons Get a Free Pass in the Financial Crisis? “
CapitalGainsAndGames: It's February 21: Do You Know Where The Obama 2013 Budget Is? - I've been in the budget business for a long time, and I have to admit that few presidential budget have disappeared from view as fast as the one the Obama administration submitted to Congress last Monday.
NakedCapitalism: More Foreclosure Mischief: Bankruptcy Hijackings
ItCouldHappenHere: Why Inequality Matters: The Housing Crisis, The Justice System & Capitalism - Extreme economic inequality is among the most destructive forces in a society. As inequality grows, it undermines the effective functioning of the economy, the basic tenets of capitalism, and the foundations of democracy. Unfortunately, the housing crisis and now the housing settlement increasingly look like an example of how this mechanism works. One of the central characteristics of highly unequal societies is that two sets of laws develop: One set for the rich and powerful and one set for everyone else. The more unequal societies become, the more easily they accept the unacceptable, and with each unrebuked violation, the powerful actors at the top of the society gain an ever greater sense of entitlement and an ever greater sense that the laws that govern everyone else don’t apply to them. As a result, their behavior becomes increasingly egregious. In contrast, sustainable capitalism requires that all participants in a contract or bargain believe their interests will be enforced equally by the courts: When powerful players are permitted to alter established rules at will, capitalism ultimately collapses.
FT: America needs its own infrastructure bank
MyBudget360: Cascading risk and economic headwinds – 5 charts examining the coming financial challenges for the American economy. Inflation is much higher than you would expect but Federal Reserve orchestrating greatest banking bailout in history.
NYDaily: GOP squirms in Michigan over auto bailout success
FT: Obama’s Stimulus Plan: What Worked, What Didn’t
WSJ: Jobless Claims Hit Lowest Level Since 2008
Alternet: 84 Percent of San Francisco Foreclosures Fraudulent--Why are Bankers Still Getting Away with Crimes?
CalculatedRisk: Chicago Fed: Economic Growth in January above Average
Salon: America’s last hope: A strong labor movement - The fate of the labor movement is the fate of American democracy.
MotherJones: Who Actually Benefits From Federal Benefits?
CharlesHughSmith: What Happens When Phantom Profits Vanish?

Global Financial News
BusinessWeek: Greece Moves to Second Bailout as Default Risk Spooks Europe
WSJ: Hurdles for Greece After Deal
BeezerNotes: Labor Incomes Must Rise. There Is No Other Option - There’s news today that Foxconn, the huge Chinese manufacturer of many high tech components and products, will soon be raising employee incomes by as much as 25%.
TheAtlantic: The Two Indias: Astounding Poverty in the Backyard of Amazing Growth

With the world's largest democracy in the embrace of a freer-than-free market capitalism, India may prove a bellwether for liberal societies...
Reuters: Relief vies with sense of shame on streets of Athens - Greeks resigned themselves Tuesday to a 130-billion-euro EU/IMF bailout that won their country a last-minute reprieve from bankruptcy at the price of a decade of austerity and humiliating foreign scrutiny of national finances.
Reuters: Exclusive: Greek debt may remain at 160 percent in '20: IMF/ECB
SMH: Rescue plan won't prevent Greek defaultZerohedge: EURUSD Soars On Reuters Report That Greek Deal Is Reached... Which Is Same Deal As July 2011
NakedCapitalism: Satyajit Das: It’s All Greek to Me! - Yves here. In case you managed to miss it, there is supposedly an agreement for Greece to get €130 billion. But then we learn that Greece will still need more dough if it meets its target of reducing government debt to GDP to 120% by 2020 (and why is debt to GDP of 120% seen as sustainable then when it is not seen as sustainable now? And leaked documents further note that Greece might not meet its targets (duh!) and its debt to GDP could instead by 160% of GDP, which would require bailouts of nearly twice the amount now contemplated.

Zerohedge: Ken Rogoff: Greece Should Be Given A "Sabbatical From The Euro" As Kicking The PIIGS Can Will Just Drag Germany Down
Zerohedge: Back To Surreality - Greek Tax Collectors Told They Need To Be 200% More Efficient - Let's put things back into perspective. Europe is lending money to Greece, which according to latest rumors will at least for the time being be in the form of the dreaded Escrow Account, which in turn means that the only recipients of bailout cash will be Greek creditors, whose claims will be senior to that of the government. In other words, it will be up to Greece, and specifically its own tax "collectors" to provide the actual funding needed to run the country as bailout or not bailout, Greek mandatory (forget discretionary) expenditures will not see one penny from Europe.
Zerohedge: Greek Headline Reality Check - Mainstream media is desperately scrambling to fill copy with stories of collaboration, rescue, heroism, sacrifice, and altruism among the European leaders. The dismal reality facing real people and real participants is quite different and as Peter Tchir points out "How many 'untruths' have become so accepted that they are now treated as facts or axioms".
NYT: E.U. Banks and States Caught in a Vicious Cycle
Slate: Austerity. China. The Housing Market. The Middle East. Four reasons to stay gloomy about the global economy.
Guardian: Eurozone reaches deal on second Greece bailout after all-night talks
Reuters: Analysis: China bid to boost growth a surprise in timing only
ETFDaily: Is Germany Secretly Maneuvering To Kick Greece Out Of The Euro? Bloomberg: Spain Sinks Deeper Into Periphery on Debt Rise

Peak Oil and Energy News
TheOilDrum: Oil Shocks Around the World: Are They Really That Bad?
UPI: Egypt to gain from oil, gas, analyst says - LONDON, Feb. 21 (UPI) -- Revenues from oil and natural gas are some of the few constants in a post-revolution Egypt, an analyst said.
UPI: Apache finds oil in deep U.S. waters
Hosted: Oil above $104 after EU gives Greece bailout deal
EcocnetricBlogs: Gasbag: Why No President Can Bring Us $2 GasolineMarketWatch: Iran + Oil + Consumer Weakness = Bull Market?
UPI: Executive: Speculation driving oil prices
Reuters: IEA says EU could live with abrupt Iran oil halt
SeattleTimes: US, Mexico agree to cooperate on energy - The United States and Mexico agreed Monday to work together when drilling for oil and gas below their maritime border in the Gulf of Mexico.
TruthOut: US House OKs Opening Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to Oil Drilling
OilAndGloryFP: Is there really so much shale gas in the ground?
Bloomberg: Gasoline Futures Rise as Oil Climbs to Nine-Month High on Greece

Commodities/Metals
CommodityOnline: Tax free Gold Singapore's new investment attraction
ETFDailyNews: Record Investment Demand Boosts Global Gold Demand To An All Time High In 2011
Mineweb: China may grab top gold spot as Indian imports fall
ETFDaily: Currency Debasement Should Take Gold Prices Over $6,000/oz and Silver Above $400/oz

Environmental
McClatchy: Sea otters face a growing threat: shark attacks
ANN: 300-million-year-old forest found in ChinaPompeii-like, a 300-million-year-old tropical forest was preserved in ash when a volcano erupted in what is today northern China.
ScientificAmerican: Warmer Planet Could Be Dominated by Mosquitoes, Tics, Rodents and Jellyfish
Ancient plants resurrected from Siberian permafrost - Fruit tissue still viable after 30,000 years

NewScientist: Plant blooms after 30,000 years in permafrost
SkepticalScience: Global Extinction: Gradual Doom as Bad as Abrupt - About 252 million years ago, at the end of the Permian period, Earth almost became a lifeless planet. Around 90 percent of all living species disappeared then, in what scientists have called "The Great Dying."
ExtinctionProtocol: Expanding Philippine sinkhole likely linked to 6.9 earthquake says local geologist
HuffingtonPost: The Origin of the Heartland Documents
FDL: Post-Fukushima, Obama gives Nuclear Industry an $8.3b loan guarantee bailout, as residents die of cancer - In a little noticed story from a few weeks, Obama’s NRC just approved two brand spanking new plants near two other nuclear plants owned by Southern Company, outside Augusta,...
But it gets better: theGrio: Environmental racism: Is nuclear plant causing cancer for poor black residents of Shell Bluff, Ga.? if nuclear reactors are really economic shots in the arm, why is Burke County still one of the poorest corners of the state a quarter century after Southern Company brought its first pair of local reactors online in 1987?
GreenEconomics: Moral Hazard and FEMA and Adapting to Sea Level Rise
TriCitiesNews: 4.0 earthquake shakes 4 states
MSNBC: As black bear numbers increase, so do hunts
GlobeAndMail: Canada’s oil sands: Not so dirty after all
EnergyBulletin: Confusing climate study actually makes strong case against tar sands — If we want to avoid catastrophic global warming
Ecocentric: Climate Expert Peter Gleick Admits Deception in Obtaining Heartland Institute Papers
Guardian: Climate change increased likelihood of Russian 2010 heatwave – study - The extreme Russian heatwave of 2010 was made three times more likely because of man-made climate change, according to a study led by climate scientists and number-crunched by home PC users. But the size of the event was mostly within natural limits, said the scientists, laying to rest a controversy last year over whether the extreme weather was natural or human-induced.

America in Decline
DeclineOfTheEmpire: Millennials Are Up The Creek Without A Paddle
MattWeidnerLaw: America is Being Stolen, One Piece of Land At A Time...Who Is The Wizard Behind The Curtain? Matt Weidner - Fighting For The American People
RawStory: Wheelchair-bound man arrested for robbing convenience store
BillHicksIsDead: U.S. Prisons Are Becoming Old Age Homes - For what exactly do you do with an aging prisoner who has been behind bars for half a century, whose health is failing and who is no longer a threat to anyone. Do you let them back out on the street where they likely have no remaining living relatives or friends, let alone any ability to care for themselves? It's a very tricky issue that is about to get trickier, as reported last week by Digital Journal: A dramatic increase of aging prisoners in the United States is leaving prison officials stretched in providing proper housing and medical care, and now find themselves operating “old age homes behind bars,” a new report reveals.
NYPost: Jobless disability claims soar to record $200B as of January - Standing too many months on the unemployment line is driving Americans crazy — literally — and it’s costing taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. With their unemployment-insurance checks running out, some of the country’s long-term jobless are scrambling to fill the gap by filing claims for mental illness and other disabilities with Social Security — a surge that hobbles taxpayers and making the employment rate look healthier than it should as these people drop out of the job statistics.
Zerohedge: Infographic On The Greatest Gun Salesman In America: President Obama
(while I'm sure that there are some people that bought guns because they think Obama is going to take their gun rights away, the majority of people that bought guns recently, did so because they fear social unrest because of financial collapse. That's why most people I know have guns.)
SeattleTimes: For boomers, it's a new era of 'work til you drop'
BottomLine: Tough times keep older workers from retiring
ScientificAmerican: Smile, You're on (Digital) Camera: TASER's New Police Minicam and the Cloud

Food and Water
Grist: How many of us are vegetarian or vegan? - In the course of writing my two recent posts on vegetarianism, I came across some interesting data. According to a 2011 poll conducted by Harris Interactive:
CommodityOnline: Global sugar surplus to be 6 mn tons in 2011 12 to impact prices
CityFarmer: ‘Schaduf’ sets up rooftop urban farms for low-income families in Egypt
PopSci: FYI: Will People Ever Evolve Out of Craving Unhealthy Food?
ETFDaily: Wheat Prices Are Set For A Short Term Spike
BigPictureAgriculture: Midwest Farmland Prices Update for the Year 2011

Internet and Online Privacy News
ArsTechinca: Google tricks Internet Explorer into accepting tracking cookies, Microsoft claims
BlacklistedNews: SOPA replacement uses child porn as excuse to spy on 99.7 percent of Americans
Alternet: Obama fights to keep unconstitutional warrantless wiretapping powers

Science and Technology
ScientificAmerican: Raising the Dead: New Species of Life Resurrected from Ancient Andean Tomb - Ecuadorian scientists have revived a new species of yeast from pre-Incan tomb, illuminating prehistoric life
MSNBC: Search continues for secret stamp honoring John Glenn's historic spaceflight
4-cent 'Project Mercury' postage stamp sold in 1962 was a surprise
ScientificAmerican: Fermilab Set to Reveal 'Interesting' Higgs Results
NewScientist: Parasite-plagued flies self-medicate on booze - Ever been told to take a swig of whisky to ward off a cold? Boozing fruit fly larvae do something similar: they seek out alcohol to kill a parasitic wasp that lays its eggs in their bloodstream.
ArsTechnica: Recent formations say the Moon's not (tectonically) dead yet!
PopSci: How We're Creating "Terminator Vision" in Your Future Contact Lenses
CosmicLog: How monkeys handle moral outrage
CNN: Can Braille be faster than QWERTY? App developer thinks so
NewScientist: Rare amateur video captures Challenger tragedy up close

Medical and Health
MSNBC: Hepatitis C deaths up, baby boomers most at risk - 1 in every 33 baby boomers is living with hepatitis C infection
TheChart: WHO: Bird flu data still on hold

RedditScience: Department of Defense's "Fracture Putty" Could Heal Bones in Days - Developed with the University of Georgia Regenerative Bioscience Center, the putty could help save the limbs of service members.
TodayHealth: How much sleep do teens really need? Maybe less than you think

Doomsteading, Gardening, Urban Farming
NoTechMagazine: Solar Cookers That Work At Night
PreppingToSurvive: Wheat, part 1: What kind do I need?

Just about every preparedness guide will tell you to store wheat and lots of it. What many do not say is that there are different types of wheat...

ModernSurvival: Dehydrated vs. Freeze Dried Foods

CanadianDoomer: Gonna Build Some Arm Muscles

ModernSurvival: Bleach, Definition, and a few Uses
BackdoorSurvival: Weighing in on the Doomsday Preppers
Permaculture: Replanting hedgerows using permaculture design

Grist: Farming the burbs

Other News
Reuters: Jury selection to begin in Philadelphia church abuse scandal
LAT: Mexico prison brawl was cover for jail break, authorities say
USNews: It’s Washington’s Birthday—Not Presidents' Day
IBTimes: 90-Year-Old Grandma Dancing to Whitney Houston's ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’ Goes Viral [VIDEO]

(this dancing lady made my day!)
Telegraph: Man who gave birth fears reaction of his parents

Politics
Reuters: For Santorum voters, he's a candidate like them
CBSNews: Santorum: Democrats are "anti-science," not me
WashingtonPost: As Romney sticks to economy, Santorum leaps on abortion, church, other hot ...
LAT: Strauss-Kahn questioned over suspected hotel prostitution ring
Alternet: Why Is the ACLU Helping the Richest Americans Buy Our Elections? CNN: Does 'secure the border' mean 'keep America white'?

In case you plan to see Wednesday's GOP debate, allow me to offer up some crib notes so you don't get lost.

Forums
TinfoilPalace: The Trillion Dollar Lawsuit To End Tyranny.
TinfoilPalace: alien implantsTheOilAge: $26 billion foreclosure agreement
TheOilAge: Icelandic Anger Brings Debt Forgiveness
HubbertsArms: Abercrombie & Fitch to Close 180 Stores
HubbertsArms: Can a return to the drachma save Greece as unemployment soars?
SilentCountry: Don't you petty peons ever challenge our authority! Got that!
SilentCountry: Diseases Impossible to Treat

Breaking News Mon. Feb. 20, 2012

2012-02-20T10:05:00.002-08:00

When I first saw this, I didn't realize this was Dermot's work! Congratulations to you Dermot and thank you for making this wonderful video! Uploaded on the 11th of this month and already almost 44,000 views! Share this with your friends, let's help get Dermot the recognition he deserves.

This is the sort of thing that is so helpful when you are talking about Peak Oil and resource depletion to family and friends that might be sitting on the fence or hearing about if for the first time.
Be sure to check out RJ's latest piece over at Firedog Lake.
FDL: the payroll tax package, obama’s budget, fraudclosure updates, et al

And if you missed it Saturday, Ozarker has another thoughtful post up over at her hideout, the Conflicted Doomer!

Please continue to support their work and let's thank them for their help in finding good news stories for us.
also, don't forget the forums linked at the bottom of this post.
And just a reminder, if you would like to donate to the blog and the donate button doesn't work for you, (although paypal said it worked for them) then you can paypal donations to p.a.turner.art@gmail.com
and thanks, a bunch!

Japan
DesdemonaDespair: Fukushima: the social impact of a nuclear disaster
Telegraph: Japan's trade deficit balloons to all-time high
Japan posted a record trade deficit in January, as a strong yen and slumping demand in Europe continued to harm exports following last year's Fukushima nuclear disaster.
DesdemonaDespair: Video: Japan priest fights invisible demon: radiation – ‘I feel a deep sense of remorse’

Global Conflict
MSNBC: N. Korea warns of 'total war' over South's drills
Time: A Hunger Striker at Death's Door Turns Up the Heat on Israel -- and on the Palestinian Leadership
YahooNews; The next step in Iran sanctions: cutting off the bank
CNN: UN watchdog agency: Iran needs to clarify "possible military dimensions" of nuclear program
SMH: Assad pays 'ghost' gangs to keep city's rebellious suburbs in line

DAMASCUS: The Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, enforces his control of Damascus using an army of thuggish corner boys to kidnap, torture, beat up and menace residents suspected of sympathies to the rebels.
Reportedly derived from the Arabic for ghost, ''shabiha'' embodies the latest repressive twist of Syria's minority dictatorship. In Syria it has come to mean ''thugs''.

SMH: Protesters move within sight of Assad's palace
USAToday: US to Israel: Don't attack Iran
WashingtonPost: NKorea says it will attack SKorea if it carries out live-fire drills near sea border
Hosted: White House national security adviser in Israel
Alternet: Suicide bomb kills 15 at Baghdad police academy
UPI: The fuel crisis in Gaza

Palestinians patients receive kidney dialysis treatment in Nasser Hospital as the hospital is in danger of running out of fuel, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza on February 16, 2012. Gas stations in the Gaza are drying up due to the crisis in Egypt and the closing of the fuel lines through the 'smuggling tunnels' between Rafah and the Egyptian side of the border. An Israel blockade has left Gaza with very little fuel rations for its citizen.

Reuters: 44 dead after prison fight in Mexico
CNN: 30 prisoners escape after riot in northern Mexico, governor says

VOA: Egypt Recalls Ambassador to Syria

IBTimes: IAEA Team Heads to Iran for Talks on Nuclear Program
BusinessWeek: Death Toll Mounts in Syria as Global Community Weighs Options
FuelFix: Iran cuts oil to Britain and France
Zerohedge: As WTI Passes $105, Guardian Says Iran "Military Action Likely", Would Send Crude Soaring
Hosted: Tel Aviv to get missile interceptor system: army

Guardian: US officials believe Iran sanctions will fail, making military action likely
• Growing view that strike, by Israel or US, will happen
• 'Sweet spot' for Israeli action identified as September-October
• White House remains determined to give sanctions time

Atlantic: Afghan Textbooks to Cut Out Much of the Country's Post-1973 History
Reuters: China paper says West stirring up civil war in Syria
SIBTimes: yria Unrest: Who Are Assad's Mercenary "Thugs" Raising Riot on the Streets of Damascus?
NYT: Iran Raid Seen as Complex Task for Israeli Military
LAT: 19 Americans to stand trial in Egypt
Reuters: Iranian ships reach Syria, China warns of civil war
Reuters: North Korea raises alert for live-fire drill
BBC: Iran 'may boost nuclear programme', diplomat warns
WSJ: Putin Pledges More Defense SpendingGuardian: Syria has made a curious transition from US ally to violator of human rights
Mish: Warmongering Insanity: Canada Wants Military Base in Germany
Reuters: China rebukes Iran for France, UK oil ban - China buys around 20 percent of Iran's oil exports
VancouverSun: Iranians desperate as dark economic clouds gather - Household budgets stretched by rising food prices, some are stockpiling in case of war

Salon: Israelis prepare for war with Iran - Even ex-Mossad chief who opposes an attack on Iran seems to have given up
DailyBeast: Navy SEALs: Obama’s Secret Army - At a time when many Americans think their government is inept, the ‘Special Operators’ get the job done. Just ask the President, who is doubling down on the Navy SEALs.

Zerohedge: A Very Different Take On The "Iran Barters Gold For Food" Story - Much has been made of today's Reuters story how "Iran turns to barter for food as sanctions cripple imports" in which we learn that "Iran is turning to barter - offering gold bullion in overseas vaults or tankerloads of oil - in return for food", and whose purpose no doubt is to demonstrate just how crippled the Iranian economy is as a result of the ongoing US embargo. Incidentally this story is 100% the opposite of the Debka-spun groundless disinformation from a few weeks ago that India was preparing to pay for Iran's oil in gold (they got the asset right, but the flow of funds direction hopelessly wrong). While there is certainly truth to the fact that the US is actively seeking to destabilize the local government, we wonder why? After all as the opportunity cost for the existing regime to do something drastic gets ever lower as the popular resentment rises, leaving the local administration with few options but to engage either the US or Israel. Unless of course, this is the ultimate goal. Yet going back to the Reuters story, it would be quite dramatic, if only it was not the case that Iran has been laying the groundwork for a barter economy for many months now, something which various other analysts perceive as the basis for the destruction of the petrodollar system.
NZHerald: NYPD monitored Muslim students all over Northeast
Yahoo: Israel holds 18 after tourists stoned - Israeli police arrested 18 Palestinians in the grounds of Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque complex on Sunday after tourists visiting the site under police escort were stoned, police said.
RawStory: ‘Hundreds gather’ in China after monk’s self-immolation

OWS
FDL: Occupy Nashville: Sitting in Limbo
Time: Occupy the SEC: Moving From the Campsite to the Weeds of Regulatory Reform - The surest way to rankle a supporter of the Occupy Wall Street movement is to repeat the common claim that the movement has no defined goals, a criticism that has dogged the group since it’s inception. But last week an offshoot of the movement, called “Occupy the SEC,” undermined that characterization when it submitted a 325-page letter to federal regulators filled with concrete criticisms and proposals for the final implementation of the so-called ‘Volcker Rule.’ FDL: The Colton Hall Assembly and the Story of the #OccupyMonterey Camp
FDL: Occupalooza!

Hacker News
Time: Storm Clouds over News Corp., but Murdoch Declares the Sun Will Shine...

Domestic Financial News
HuffingtonPost: Mortgage Foreclosure Settlement: Who Pays? - Just who is paying for the big mortgage settlement, anyway? The Obama administration says it's the banks. Mortgage investors worry it will be them. Taxpayers fear they'll have to pony up. Unfortunately, until we actually see the settlement terms and watch the process in action, we won't know for sure.
NYT: How Companies Learn Your Secrets
WSJ: Are Index Funds Messing Up the Markets?
LAT: Video: Job interviewing, to the extreme
Atlantic: The Awful Long-Term Unemployment Crisis
NakedCapitalism: Michael Olenick: Shocking Economic Insight – Mass Foreclosures Will Drive Down Home Prices - Honest economists explain their reasoning, which is that there is a need to find a market bottom.
Treasury: Difference on Deficit Reduction is not about “How Much?” but “Who Pays?”
WashingtonPost: U.S. manufacturing sees shortage of skilled factory workers
BusinessInsider: INFLATION: How Prices Have Boomed Since The Year 2000
Forbes: Too Big Not To Fail
Time: Is It Time to Start Worrying About Inflation Again?
BusinessInsider: FORECLOSURES: Here They Come - After a reprieve in 2011, and a key reason why prognostications of a US housing market bottom is misguided, RealtyTrac reported that foreclosure filings were up 3% in January, month-over-month. Notice of defaults, however, are still depressed, down 22% from a year ago and unchanged from the prior month. The 3% is statistically insignificant and I am not being an alarmist, but it represents the beginning of the distressed sale ramp-up now that the mortgage servicing settlement has finally been hammered out (actually the increase occurred before the agreement was final). BusinessWeek: Krugman Embraces Keynesian Label to Defend Government Spending
ETFDailyNews: Hoisington’s Hunt Says It’s Recession For 2012
Yahoo: ‘Million Mustache March’ planned for April to encourage growth of facial hair (and the economy)
BlacklistedNews: Suddenly, a Sharp Deterioration in the Job Market
RawStory: Employers discriminate against long-term unemployed: reports
CharlesHughSmith: When Debt is More Important Than People, The System Is Evil

Global Financial News
CreditWritedowns: Big weekend developments in China and Europe
RTTNews: China Pledges To Support Euro
Reuters: New ECB cash injection seen bringing pain for euro
NYT: European Ministers Are Poised to Approve Greek Rescue
MSNBC: 'All the elements' of new $171B Greek bailout in place
Telegraph: Germany bows to global pressure and signals Greek rescue deal
RTTNews: French Business Confidence Remains Stable
USAToday: Greece awaits bailout green light, issues remain
FT: Greece must default if it wants democracy
Mish: Why Greece Must Exit the Eurozone, How it Will Happen (and Why Portugal and Spain Will Follow); Does the Euro Act Like a Gold Standard?
FT: China and Japan unite on IMF resources In a rare display of unity, China and Japan have expressed conditional support for an expansion of the International Monetary Fund’s resources to help address Europe’s sovereign debt crisis.
Telegraph: Lloyds Bank strips 13 directors of more than £2 million in bonuses
Reuters: Decision day for second Greek bailout despite financing gaps
CNNMoney: Greek bailout: The pressure is on
NYT: As Old Francs Expire, France Makes a Small Mint - PARIS — Greece may be scrambling for revenue, but the French treasury has just banked some 550 million euros for doing nothing — simply letting the French franc, created in 1360, finally perish.
CNN: When will workers share in Apple's wealth?
PCMag: Backlash Against FLA Head's Early Praise for Foxconn, Apple
ETFDailyNews: The Heart Of A China Bull Still Beats Strong

Peak Oil and Energy News
CalculatedRisk: Gasoline Prices: $4.50 per gallon by Memorial Day?
RawStory: Giant kite could be future of wind power
CNBC: Saudi Arabia Cuts Oil Output, Export: Industry Report
AJC: Gas prices continue to climb in Georgia
MSNBC: Motorists hit by record surge in gas prices - Gasoline prices have never been higher this time of the year in the U.S.
At $3.53 a gallon, prices are already up 25 cents since Jan. 1. And experts say they could reach a record $4.25 a gallon by late April.
Reuters: UPDATE 3-BP idles large Washington state refinery after fire
Zerohedge: JPM Hikes Crude Price Forecast, Sees $120 WTI By Election Time
ThinkProgress: Oil Prices Are Rising Despite Lowest Demand Since 1997

Commodities/Metals
ETFDailyNews: Buy Gold & Silver For The Long Haul, says Jim Rogers
ETFDailyNews: Gold Outperforms The Stock Market

Environmental
ExtinctionProtocol: Miami experiences its hottest day in 24 years - February 20, 2012 – MIAMI – It didn’t feel much like February this weekend — even for South Floridians.
DesdemonaDespair: ‘Massive and unprecedented’ slaughter of Cameroon elephants – Orphaned calves dying of hunger and thirst

TheTandd: Animal rights group says drone shot down
WBIR: 18-vehicle crash backs up I-75 in Campbell County

ExtinctionProtocol: Incurable virus killing thousands of lambs in UK
ExtinctionProtocol: Massive explosive eruption seen at Japan’s Sakurajima volcano
TruthOut: Disaster Capitalism: Profiting From Crisis in Post-Earthquake Haiti
Deepa Panchang, Beverly Bell and Tory Field, Other Worlds Are Possible: "Below are a few examples of post-earthquake contracts and grants, selected to show just some of the problems at play. They offer a small glimpse into a much larger, secretive world of disaster deals. We're grateful to our investigative journalist colleagues who, alongside us, have kept heavy on the scent of these corporations and brought buried information to light."
UsaToday: 3 skiers killed in Wash. avalanche; 4th survivedHuffingtonPost: UFO Explodes And Crashes In South Carolina (VIDEO)
TorontoStar: VIDEO: Elusive snow leopards seen thriving in Bhutan park
NoTechMagazine: More Waste = More Money - A battle is brewing in Delhi, India over access and control to garbage. For decades, informal wastepickers and recyclers have turned garbage into cash. They cost the government and taxpayer nothing yet they significantly reduce the waste sent to already overflowing landfills, improve recycling rates and “cool the earth” by reducing carbon emissions. But recent government plans to privatize trash collection have put the livelihoods of the wastepickers under threat. Meanwhile, new plans to build incinerators funded by carbon credits mean the resources the recyclers depend on may soon go up in smoke. Watch the movie: Delhi Waste Wars.
ClimateProgress: Ethical Analysis of Disinformation Campaign's Tactics: Reckless Disregard for the Truth, Specious Claims of 'Bad' Science
Treehugger: Montreal Man Seen Living on Bicycle -- For 382 Days (Video)
Guardian: Attacks paid for by big business are ‘driving science into a dark era’
StarTelegram: Weekend rain puts Dallas-Fort Worth 4 inches above normal
MSNBC: Winter storm dumps snow on South, knocks out power
MSNBC: Restless Aleutian volcano could erupt, scientists say - Kanaga Volcano, located 1,200 miles southwest of Anchorage, had seismic activity on Saturday
YahooNews: Every February Yosemite waterfall turns to lava

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/02/18/3746000/weekend-rain-brings-dfw-to-4-inches.html#storylink=cpy

America in Decline
MyBudget360: American incomes and low wage America - top 1 percent earn above $343,927, top 5 percent above $154,643, top 10 percent above $112,124, top 25 percent above $66,193, top 50 percent above $32,396 – Over 68,500,000 tax filers, 50 percent of the country, make $32,000 a year or less. Food stamp usage peaks at over 46 million.
CNN: Contraceptives, religious freedom: Are we in a new culture war?
RawStory: Florida bill would slash minimum wage for tipped workers - A Florida Senate committee has followed the advice of a restaurant association and passed a bill that would cut the minimum wage for tipped workers by more than half. The bill, SB 2106, would slash the current Florida tipped minimum wage of of $4.65 an hour to the federal standard of of $2.13 an hour, according to the Orlando Sentinel. Restaurants would have to promise that employees would make at least $9.98 an hour with tips to qualify for the new wage.“We are being brave and bold and being statesmen and not politicians,” Republican state Sen. Nancy Detert, the committee’s chair, asserted, adding that the bill had been requested by the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association.
Cryptogon: Laser ‘Dazzler’ Weapon Approved for Use by Police and Coast Guard

Food and Water
CommodityOnline: Agricultural commodities to turn bullish on India China farmland race
CosmicLog: Lab-grown hamburger due to be served up this year ... for $330,000

Internet and Online Privacy News
PCMagazine: Google Sued Over Safari Privacy Problem
ArsTechnica: Feds seize $50 million in Megaupload assets, lodge new charges
LegitGov: FBI will shutdown the Internet on March 8
PCWorld: Truth About the March 8 Internet Doomsday
WSJ: Internet On, Inhibitions Off: Why We Tell All
InternetEvolution: Report: Google 'Tricked' Millions of Browsers
MSNBC: Data collection arms race feeds privacy fears - Google and Facebook last year both agreed to 20 years of privacy audits by the FTC

Science and Technology
RawStory: On 50th anniversary of John Glenn’s flight, U.S. lacks manned space capacity
SFGate: Transistor Made Using a Single Atom May Help Beat Moore's Law
Slashgear: Super-dense magma means no moon volcanoesWired: Alt Text: Handy Rules for the Creation of Lethal Mutants

Medical and Health
TheChart: Chain of cat feces can harm humans, sea otters - There's more to cat excrement than meets the eye, and it may have the potential to cause disease in sea otters and humans alike.

WashingtonPost: Our unrealistic attitudes about death, through a doctor’s eyes
MSNBC: All infant Tylenol recalled due to new bottle flaw
YahooNews: Everything you know about dieting is wrong: US scientists

Doomsteading, Gardening, Urban Farming
PreppingToSurvive: Quote of the Week: Nietzsche on Perseverance

He who has a why to live can bear almost any how. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

CanadianDoomer: Guest Post: Product Reviews by Exile

CityFarmer: Urban Farmers May Get a Tax Break in Salt Lake City
Grist: Honey makes the world go ’round - In 2005, Andrew Coté found himself in northern Iraq, walking hand-in-hand with a Kurdish beekeeper. This was not some Bush-era publicity stunt to put a gloss of false friendship over the country’s violent reality. Coté and Khorsheed Ahmed, his new friend, shared rich common ground: They both practice the noble but endangered craft of beekeeping. Coté was on Ahmed’s territory to work with the Kurds to improve their operations and enrich their livelihoods.
TransitionVoice: The happy hoarder: Waxing poetic

BBC: How could snow trapped man survive for two months?
Treehugger: "Super Sand" Cleans Dirty Drinking Water - Graphite waste is the secret ingredient in using sand to clean dirty water.

NoTechMagazine: Japanese Tub Boats
Treehugger: Kitchen Design Skips Fridge, Saves Food - This clever low-tech design helps food keep without refrigeration.

ActivistPost: Prepping: A continuum of short-term self-reliance to long-term self-sufficiency

BeforeItsNews: Nuclear Weapons On A Highway Near You

Other News
TheOnion: New Law Requires Women To Name Baby, Paint Nursery Before Getting Abortion
ChicagoTribune: Police say more human remains found on New York's Long Island
UPI: Under the U.S. Supreme Court: Ruth Bader Ginsburg stepping down in 2015
TriCities: Weirdly Wonderful: Artifacts from Atomic Age
Time: Vatican Confidential: Why Are So Many Rumors Coming out of the Holy See?
Spiegel: Outfoxed by the Opposition: Defeat in Presidential Battle Leaves Merkel Isolated - In accepting the opposition's candidate for the next German president, Angela Merkel has suffered the bitterest defeat of her chancellorship.
IBTimes: Whitney Houston's Funeral: Westboro Baptist Church Accused of Using Photoshop on Picture
Time: The World's Largest University Struggles to Educate Millions of New Students
NYT: Where the Boys Aren’t

Nuns in America are a dying breed, and the church’s antediluvian male hierarchy gets more worked up about allowing Catholic women contraceptives than investigating sexual abuse of children by priests.

(couldn't have said it better myself) (at one time, that woman's story might have seemed inspirational and amazing to me, but now, it only seems pitiful.)

Politics
NYT: Santorum's Gospel of Inequality
YahooNews: ‘My Child Was Not Stillborn!’: Rick Santorum Gets Heated With Bob Schieffer During Prenatal Testing Discussion
WashingtonPost: Arizona sheriff facing allegations of misconduct forced to Publically Announce He is Gay - A sheriff seeking the GOP nomination for an Arizona congressional seat was forced to confirm he is gay Saturday and resigned from presidential hopeful Mitt Romney’s Arizona committee amid allegations of misconduct made by a man with whom he previously had a relationship.
Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu denied claims he tried to threaten the man, a Mexican immigrant and a former campaign volunteer, with deportation if their past relationship was made public. The man’s allegations were first published Friday in the Phoenix New Times, an alternative weekly magazine.
CBSNews: Paul: US "slipping into a fascist system"
WashingtonPost: Paul warns US slipping toward fascism at Mo. rally upstaging nearby Republican Party events
TruthOut: Delusions of the Corporate State
CBSNews: Santorum remark on Obama "theology" draws ire
The eXiled’s Free Campaign Advice For Mitt Romney: “Baptize Ayn Rand”

Forums
TinfoilPalace: Past Life Regression Reveals Future Life with Dire Predictions for Us
TinfoilPalace: Out of Africa? Data Fail to Support Language Origin in AfricaTheOilAge: TAE: we're still sinking with the Titanic
TheOilAge: What to Do at a DUI Checkpoint
TheOilAge: Global War and Hunger Porn on the way to Fat City
HubbertsArms: Germany drawing up plans for Greece to leave the euro
HubbertsArms: Iran to conduct joint exercises with Syria?
SilentCountry: Recession, High Commodity Prices Hurting...the Gum Ball Machine
SilentCountry: No More Normal

Saturday Documentary! "Fast Food, Fat Profits: Obesity in America"

2012-02-18T05:53:00.000-08:00

There's a lady in this show that says something I've always believed. If you eat food with lower nutrients, you have to keep eating more because the body doesn't get what it needs. You eat more and more.
With the amount of vitamins and minerals in our food dropping due to many things but, a lot is because of the depletion of minerals in our soil from years of growing crops, it's no wonder the nutrient level in our food has fallen and even healthy food today doesn't contain the amount of nutrition it once did.
Feed the soil and you'll feed the body.

anyway, enjoy the show!

"Fast Food, Fat Profits: Obesity in America"

Obesity in America has reached a crisis point. Two out of every three Americans are overweight, one out of every three is obese. One in three are expected to have diabetes by 2050.
Minorities have been even more profoundly affected. African-Americans have a 50 per cent higher prevalence of obesity and Hispanics 25 per cent higher when compared with whites.
How did the situation get so out of hand? Josh Rushing explores the world of cheap food for Americans living at the margins.
What opportunities do people have to eat healthy? Who is responsible for food deserts and processed food in American schools?

Be sure to check out the great documentaries at Top Documentary Films Online for a great selection of documentaries.

Breaking News Friday Feb. 17, 2012

2012-02-17T10:04:00.003-08:00

TGIF! Yeah! I hope all of you have had a good week and will have good weekends as well. Hoping to do a bit of outdoor work this weekend and see if I can shake off this "cabin fever". LOL
The news keeps building and inching forward on Iran as well as the loss of freedoms here in the USofA.
Like watching a glacier move, slow, but in time, it will get there.

Please remember to stop by and say howdy to RJ and the lovely Ozarker this weekend. RJ posts his whopper week in review post this afternoon and Ozarker posts on Saturday afternoon.
You can find RJ at the Global Glass Onion and the Ozarker at Conflicted Doomer . And thanks to David, at ETF Daily News too.
also, visit the forums and join in the fun!

Global Conflict
Time: How the Deep Freeze in Kabul Means Trouble After Things Thaw

A poorly dressed boy warms his hands as people living at the Nasaji Bagrami internally displaced persons camp divide amongst themselves newly delivered blankets and clothes donated by aid groups and concerned citizens on Feb. 11, 2012, near Kabul, Afghanistan.
Hosted: Times correspondent Anthony Shadid dies in Syria

Alternet: US hits Iran intelligence for Syria ties

Fair.org: Do TV Networks 'Practice' for War? (posted by Satori at Silent Country)

CNN: Negotiator says Iran is willing to resume talks over nuclear program

Alternet: No Israeli decision yet on Iran attack: US

ABC: Panetta: No Iranian Decision yet on Nukes

NYT: U.N. Assembly Votes Overwhelmingly to Condemn Syria

CSMonitor: What would happen if Iran had the bomb? (+video) - Even as Tehran signals an interest in nuclear talks, many experts have already envisioned what the world would look like if the country got nuclear weapons. It wouldn't be as dire as many fear, but it would unleash new uncertainties - and perhaps a regional arms race.
BBC: Bombardment of Syrian city 'intensifies' after UN vote
WSJ: Attacks Threaten Nigeria's Future
McClatchy: Rare visit to remote Chinese region shows depth of Tibetan despair

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/02/16/139134/at-religious-freedom-hearing-on.html#storylink=cpy

Zerohedge: Update on Middle Eastern Wars
Atlantic: Suck It Up, America: Why We Have to Apologize to Pakistan

A internal investigation found that the U.S. shares blame for an errant NATO strike that killed 24 Pakistanis, so why won't Obama say we're sorry...

WSJ: Syrian Conflict Spills to Neighbors

GoldNews: Iran Buying Wheat with Gold Bullion
FDL: Administration Calls for $450 Billion War Funding Cap - Did you know that the federal government expects to spend $450 billion on fighting wars over the next decade? This, despite the removal of all troops fron Iraq, and the transition of combat missions over to the Afghans by 2014, if not a year earlier?
CNN: New York Times reporter dies in Syria

CNNVideo: Walking through a deserted Homs

IBTimes: Iran Won't Start War Against U.S.: Intelligence Report
VancouverSun: Mission impossible? U.S. wants sanctions to hurt only Iran
VancouverSun: Mexico calls on U.S. to halt flow of weapons to gangs

CSMonitor: Could Al Qaeda get Syria's chemical weapons?
following forwarded to me from RJ, check out this map! from Information Clearinghouse
Who is Threatening Whom? 45 US Bases Surround Iran

Posted February 11, 2011 Each star is a US base.

WSJ: Suicide Blast Kills 23 in Pakistan

OWS
PlutocracyFiles: Occupy Calls for General Strike May 1
FDL: Occupy Buffalo and the Erie County Industrial Development Agency
MotherJones: Occupy Wall Street's New Strategy: A Super-PAC?
Attempter: Occupy and Land Redemption - Occupy is usually called a movement, but it’s really a strategy and set of tactics toward certain goals. It’s the most visibly vibrant element of the longer arc of the democratic movement. One of the most promising Occupation actions is direct action against bank foreclosures, literally occupying beleaguered and abandoned homes. Occupy Our Homes is a broad coalition of actions around the country. Occupy Minneapolis is an excellent example, occupying homes in order to prevent eviction of foreclosed residents. This Occupy action supplements older actions like Take Back the Land, which since 2006 has been identifying idle bank- and government-”owned” houses and “moving homeless people into peopleless homes”. They call it “liberating homes”. Organizer Max Rameau explains the movement philosophy.

Hacker News
RawStory: Murdoch flies in to meet with angry British staff
CBSNews: Anonymous hacks US sites to protest treaty
ArsTechnica: Anonymous Antisec hackers break into and bring down FTC website

Domestic Financial News
Cryptogon: High Demand for Machinists in the U.S. [???]
KHQ: Social Security Reserves Forecast To Run Dry In 2022
Forbes: CFPB Circles Debt Collectors and Credit Reporting Agencies
CBSNews; Tug of war at the Federal Reserve
BusinessInsider: 10 States That Are Getting Pummeled By Foreclosures

ETFDaily: Beware Of A Volume Spike As It Could Be A Bad Sign

McClatchy: Indiana's new right-to-work law could prompt copycats
RawStory: Dow surges to highest level since 2008 on solid U.S. data
Zerohedge: Housing Settlement To Be Taxpayer Funded Confirming Big Five Banks Are Beyond The Law
Zereohedge: Goldman Answers Why People Log On To Social Networking Sites

BusinessInsider: How We Work Now, In America
The chart above divides total Full Time jobs by Total Part Time jobs, in the United States. Coming into the financial crisis of 2008, the US maintained nearly 5 Full Time jobs for every Part Time job

BusinessInsider: The Truth Is That Small Businesses Are Not Good At Creating JobsWashingtonPost: Obama's support for export industry leads to clash of US interests
BlacklistedNews: CBO: Longest Period of High Unemployment Since Great Depression
GastonGazette: IRS: Beware of Dirty Dozen tax scams
Bloomberg: Federal Workers Face ‘Unprecedented Assault’ in U.S. Budget War
Reuters: New American Dream is renting to get rich - "It's the American Dream to own a home, but whoever said that didn't do the analysis on it
Time: Study: Working on Wall Street Is Bad for Your Health - What does working 120 hours a week get you? Hopefully, a pretty good paycheck and bonus. According to a new study, though, there are other, less welcomed side effects that accompany a demanding, high-pressure job on Wall Street, including alcoholism, insomnia, weird facial tics and depression.
BusinessInsider: DEAR WALMART, MCDONALD'S AND STARBUCKS: How Do You Feel About Paying Your Employees So Little That Most Of Them Are Poor?

SFGate: Unemployment applications drop to a 4-year low
MSNBC: Consumer prices rise 0.2 percent in January - Rapid rise in gas prices raises worries about the economy
Reuters: The U.S. foreclosure crisis, Beverly Hills-style
FDL: 85% of Mortgage Transfers Were No Good - That’s a pretty startling headline, isn’t it? Yet, that was the conclusion reached by study of 400 foreclosure files commissioned by San Francisco County assessor-recorder Phil Ting.

CapitalGainsAndGames: By Request: Why Eating A Cupcake is Like "Off-Budget" Federal Spending

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/02/16/139134/at-religious-freedom-hearing-on.html#storylink=cpy

Global Financial News
ETFDaily: Greece “Officially Defaults” March 23, Banks Close DailyMail: Spain haunted by ghost towns built during boom years but now lying empty... as unemployment tops 5million and experts say worse still to come
WSJ: India to Increase Borrowing Next Year - India is likely to borrow about 5.5 trillion rupees ($110 billion) next financial year, nearly 8% more than this year, to help bridge a widening fiscal deficit as it struggles to limit subsidies, a senior finance ministry official said Thursday.
WSJ: Portugal's Jobless Rate Jumps
Hosted: German president quits in scandal over favors
Reuters: Germans aghast as Merkel loses 2nd president in two years
BusinessInsider: Estonia Might Have The Most Efficient Tax Filing System In The World
Zerohegde: Ironic EU Begging Expedition to China
InvestmentWatchBlog: China wants say in World Bank choice; Challenge US grip on top job
Bloomberg: Emerging-Market Stocks Rise to Six-Month High on U.S. Data, Greek Optimism
Telegraph: Europe car sales slump amid debt crisis
ETFDaily: Central Bank Gold-Buying Increases By 500%

Peak Oil and Energy News
McClatchy: U.S. House OKs opening ANWR to oil drilling

TheOilDrum: World Energy Consumption - Beyond 500 Exajoules
WSJ: US GAS: Futures Gain After Bigger-Than-Expected Inventory Draw -Natural gas futures rise following DOE report --DOE: Gas inventories fall 127 bcf, vs. 119-bcf-draw forecast --NOAA sees above-normal March temperatures for much of the U.S. NEW YORK (Dow Jones)-...

RecordNet: S.J. area gas prices heading toward $4 and up a gallon
EconomicTimes: Brent crude remains above $120 on Iran worries, Greece optimism
BusinessWeek: Gasoline Rises to Six-Month High as Refinery Outages Curb Supply
Bloomberg: Oil Set for Biggest 2012 Weekly Gain
FP: Oil supply threats highest since the 1970s: Deutsche Bank

McClatchy: Oil well in Alaska's North Slope suffers a blowout

FuelFix: Shell moves one step closer to drilling in the Chukchi Sea

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/02/16/139048/oil-well-in-alaskas-north-slope.html#storylink=cpy

Commodities/Metals
Grist: Kazakhstan, Mongolia to rescue us from China’s rare earths monopoly
Mineweb: Singapore to exempt gold, other precious metals from 7% tax
ETFDailyNews: Oracle Of Omaha Speaks: Why Warren Buffett Buffett Hates Gold
CommodityOnline: Silver prices soften as Greek tragedy continues

Environmental
ABC.AU: Scientists unravel more devil disease mysteries

NewScientist: Leaked files expose Heartland Institute's secrets
Atlantic: India Is Burning: How Rapid Growth Is Destroying its Environment and Future
TreeHugger: Senators take emergency oil reserve hostage to force Keystone approval
DailyStar: Dye dumped by factory colored Beirut River red

CommonDreams: Olympic Committee: Dow Not Responsible for Bhopal Tragedy - IOC to keep Dow Chemical as Olympics sponsor despite protests
NYT: U.S. Pushes to Cut Emissions of Some Pollutants That Hasten Climate Change
Spiegel: The Truth Peddlers - Smoke and Mirrors in the Climate Debate
MSNBC: Shark gulps another shark whole - Researchers happened upon the rare cannibalistic scene during a fish census
CosmicLog: It's not fracking's fault, study saysLOLOLOLOLOLOL ROFLMAO!!! (ok, I thought it was funny.)
DigitalLife: New panda cam gives you live close-ups from China
CosmicLog: Scientists revive sacred sounds
Grist: Stand by for baby eagles on webcam!

America in Decline
BlacklistedNews: 20 Signs You Might Be A Typical American Worker
ABCNews: Appalachian Trail Hikers' NH Post Office to Close
USAToday: Tennessee lawmakers advance 'don't say gay' bill

TruthOut: Face Masks, Snipers and Aerial Surveillance: Chicago's Newest Anti-Protest Measures Revealed - Yana Kunichoff, Truthout: "Each time a new measure that the city of Chicago is preparing for the coming NATO and G8 summits is unveiled, the tension in the city ratchets up a notch. The latest news comes in the form of reports that Chicago has purchased face shields, and may be considering the implementation of airborne surveillance technology."
TruthOut: State-Sanctioned Rape: Forced Trans-Vaginal Ultrasounds in Virginia, Texas and Iowa - Andy Kopsa, RH Reality Check: "Virginia is poised to send two of the most abhorrent anti-choice bills to Governor Bob McDonnell to sign.... The first is a bill requiring the use of trans-vaginal ultrasound prior to a woman obtaining an abortion, the other is an egg-as-person bill.... Although the Governor has said he will consider the personhood bill he has been clear he would sign the forced ultrasound bill. But let's start calling this what it really is: state sanctioned rape."
McClatchy: At religious freedom hearing on contraception: 'This is an issue worth dying for'
RawStory: Western students lag Asians by three years: study
TruthOut: Bill Moyers and Michael Winship : Money Throws Democracy Overboard - "Watching what's happening to our democracy is like watching the cruise ship Costa Concordia founder and sink slowly into the sea off the coast of Italy, as the passengers, shorn of life vests, scramble for safety as best they can, while the captain trips and falls conveniently into a waiting life boat. We are drowning here, with gaping holes torn into the hull of the ship of state from charges detonated by the owners and manipulators of capital."
Jim Hightower | It’s Official: Money Now Governs America

Food and Water
MarketWatch: Global suicide 2020: We can’t feed 10 billion - Our team is tasked to solve this problem: “How to feed the 7 billion people already on Earth today plus another 3 billion by 2050?”
IBTimes: Trinidad Moruga Scorpion: World's Hottest Pepper Tops 2M Scoville Heat Units

Today: Recommended: High arsenic levels found in organic foods, baby formula
Grist: Corn corn everywhere — and not a drop to eatDesdemonaDespair: Weather forecasters: East Africa should be prepared for further food insecurity
Bloomberg: Texas Rice Farmers Look for 'Miracle' as Irrigation Cutoff LoomsUPI: More water shortages for China?

HuffingtonPost: Obama Budget Cuts Bacteria Testing For Produce
IBTimes: E. Coli Sprouts up at Jimmy John's: CDC Report

Internet and Online Privacy News
NewYorker: The Julian Assange Show
IBTimes: Google Found Tracking Safari Users -- Report
WSJ: Google's iPhone Tracking
MSNBC: Report: These tech companies sell spy tools to dictatorsArsTechnica: Location tracking of GSM cellphones: now easier (and cheaper) than ever

Computer scientists have devised a low-cost way to surreptitiously tease out key location details of people carrying cellphones that are connected to older carrier networks.

Science and Technology
Time: Supernova Blast: Giant Star Eta Carinae to Explode Any Day
BusinessInsider: Apple Retaliates Against New York Times For Exposing Apple's Labor Practices TheAtlantic: The 'Wow!' Moment in Our Search for Aliens
Spiegel: Containing Super-Flus: Controversy Brews Over Scientists' Creation of Killer Viruses

Medical and Health
PopSci: FYI: Do Competitive Eaters Have Unusual Stomachs?
TruthOut: Democratic Women Boycott House Contraception Hearing After Republicans Prevent Women From Testifying
ScientificAmerican: Microchip Implant Gives Medication On Command
MSNBC: Studies: Health risk from toxic pavement sealant greater than previously believed
Vitals: FDA warns of toothbrushes that mess up your face
Vitals: Lingering shortage of ADHD drugs unravels lives


Doomsteading, Gardening, Urban Farming
ModernSurvival: ‘Compassion’ Is Also a Survival Skill
PreppingtoSurvive: Can I Keep Chickens in My Backyard? - The following article has been contributed by Nate Smith, a backyard chicken enthusiast and blogger.
CityFarmer: Nation’s largest public Food Forest takes root on Seattle’s Beacon Hill
ModernSurvival: Stay Prepared If You Intend To Stay Behind

Other News
RawStory: Conservative radio host accused of hit and run at gay bar
MSNBC: Atheists bill big names for 'coming out' party in Capitol
WalesOnline: Death blaze prisoners 'not charged'
Bloomberg: Armed Robbery of Ancient Olympic Museum Prompts Greek Minister to Resign
Alternet: Mall In 'Blues Brothers' To Be Demolished
SeattlePI: 'Colbert Report' shut down for family emergency
Time: 'Underwear Bomber' Sentenced to LifeTime: Tebow Law': Can Homeschooled Kids Play Public-School Sports?
LAT: Mother accused of drowning children may be mentally ill, police say
Guardian: Cannabis seized after pilot strays into Obama's airspace
CBS: 1 dead as fed agents shoot one another
CBS: Fed killed after attacking supervisor
WSJ: More Marriages Cross Race, Ethnic Lines
Spiegel: Controlling the Press: Echo of Moscow Under Pressure in Russia - The independent radio station Echo of Moscow has long been seen as a paragon of quality journalism in Russia. Now, however, Gazprom is moving to take control of the station's supervisory board. Many fear tough times ahead for press freedoms in the country.
BBC: Dutch Prince Johan Friso buried in Austria avalanche

Politics
CBSNews: Gingrich: I could lose Georgia
CBSNews: Uproar over Santorum backer contraception quote
Bloomberg: Republicans Are Unprotected on Contraception - During the 1928 presidential campaign, nutty right-wing Protestants claimed that Al Smith, the first Catholic nominated for president by a major party, was planning to extend New York’s Holland Tunnel all the way to the Vatican.
TruthOut: The Right-Wing Id Unzipped - "Right-wingers have occasioned much recent comment.... Who are these people and what motivates them? To answer, one must leave the field of conventional political theory and enter the realm of psychopathology.... There are tens of millions of Americans who, although personally lacking the self-confidence, ambition and leadership qualities of authoritarian dominators like Gingrich or Sarah Palin, nevertheless empower the latter to achieve their goals while finding psychological fulfillment in subordination to a cause."
CBSNews: Santorum defends backer after contraception remarks
BusinessInsider: WATCH: Jon Stewart Just Can't Resist Making Santorum Jokes
WashingtonPost: Romney bashes union bosses as he attempts to win Michigan primary
Reuters: Santorum backer apologizes for contraception remark

Forums
TinfoilPalace: Public Utility, Private Profit: Privatization of Water Is as Benign as Lucifer
TinfoilPalace: The new anti-science assault on US schools
TheOilAge: IMMENSE Saucer Shaped Anomaly on STEREO Behind HI2
TheOilAge: IMF: Pakistan "highly vulnerable" to shocks
HubbertsArms: Right wing nuts forcing vaginal probe for those wishing abortion
HubbertsArms: Private Prison Company to Demand 90% Occupancy
SilentCountry: Bat sHIT cRAZY pOLICE State
SilentCountry: "The News is What We Say It Is"

Breaking News Thurs. Feb. 16, 2012

2012-02-16T10:09:00.000-08:00

hey there guys! Happy Thursday to you.
check this out....
BusinessInsider: [REPORT] Hilary Clinton Looking To Take Over The World Bank
Let the fun begin! LOL

Oh, and Kunstler is on the second half of this Keiser report.
[KR249] Keiser Report: Tombstone Austerity & the John Brown Moment

Poor old Kunstler couldn't get through the interview without reminding people that he considers himself "allergic" to conspiracy theories. Like that makes him look smarter. LOL
Be sure to check out the comments on Max's site.
I have to wonder why he felt compelled to say that in the interview. Did he feel like he was demeaning himself by going on Max's show and just did the interview for the free publicity?
oh no, that's a conspiracy theory I think. LOL

oh, and here's something extra special good from our dear friend and blogger extraordinaire, the Ozarker!

BitesMSNBC: Pan-fried crickets: The food of the future?

Sincerest thanks to RJ at the Global Glass Onion and the Ozarker at Conflicted Doomer for their help today! And to David at ETF Daily News for his links as well.
you guys help make this blog extra special!

also, check out the forums linked at the bottom of the post!

Global Conflict
Time: Picture of the Day: U.S. Publishes Photo of Enormous Oil Pipeline Fire in Syria

VOA: Iran Touts Uranium Enrichment Advances
BusinessInsider: Everything You Ever Need To Know About Being A Navy SEAL
CBSNews: Report: Secret Taliban talks underway
Ha'aretz: Report: Mossad chief visited New Delhi days before attack on Israeli officials
BusinessWeek: US Says Iran's Nuclear Claim Is 'Hype;' Oil Pares Gain
IRBankRatings: MF Global: Where’s the Cash? David Woolley on the Risk of Defective Commercial Land Titles
CNN: Does Iran's nuclear announcement spell defiance or desire to talk?

BlacklistedNews: As Predicted, CIA-Sponsored Muslim Bros. Becomes Enemy
BusinessInsider: Iran's Envoys Summoned Home
Reuters: Iran oil ministry denies state media reports on EU oil
VOA: Israel Calls for Additional Sanctions on Iran
IBTimes: Iran Cuts Oil Exports to Europe in Sanctions Row
SeattlePI: Iraqis profit from Syrian arms smuggling
Reuters: U.S.-Taliban talks only "exploratory": Afghan envoy
Reuters: Iran wants early resumption of nuclear talks
DailyMail: Beware the oily diplomacy of U.S. politicians
CNN: Syria appears to be losing control in north
LegitGov: Heightened Security in U.S. Over 'Iran Threat'

Domestic Financial News
I don't know about anyone else, but this first one sent in by RJ, really really burns me up!
HuffingtonPost: Obama Campaign To Wall Street: We'll Go Easy On You Guys: President Obama's campaign manager has a message for Wall Street: This time around, we'll lay off. Jim Messina, Obama's campaign manager, told the hosts of a $38,500 per-plate fundraiser geared towards investment bankers and hedge fund managers that the president wouldn't make Wall Street look bad during his re-election campaign, Bloomberg reports.
WSJ: Fed’s Fisher Dismisses QE3 as ‘Wall Street Fantasy’ -- Dallas Federal Reserve President Richard Fisher on Wednesday described the potential for a new round of stimulus from the central bank a “Wall Street fantasy,” adding the chances of it happening are almost nil. There won’t be a new round of Fed stimulus “unless there is some extreme crisis that none of us can presently foresee,” he said, speaking to reporters after a speech to a manufacturing group here.
CalculatdRisk: FOMC Minutes: A few members argued current conditions "could warrant" QE3 "before long"
ETFDaily: Five Investments For Doomsday Capitalism
AngryBear: BREAKING NEWS: Bain Capital Wanted to Lend GM and Chrysler Money For Their Managed Bankruptcies! --Ah! Mystery Solved! Yesterday, in my post “Crony Capitalism On A Grand Scale”—the titled of the post borrowed from an op-ed piece by Romney in yesterdays’ Detroit New characterizing the auto bailouts that way—I noted that Romney seems unaware that both companies filed for bankruptcy. Romney says, as apparently he says often when forced at gunpoint to explain his opposition to those bailouts, that he was for the idea of “managed bankruptcy” for both companies, and never actually acknowledges that that is what happened.
WSJ: Consumer Bureau Gets Its Money From NY Fed Account - Republicans and Democrats on Captiol Hill continue to fight over whether the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau should be subject to the congressional appropriations process — that is, whether Congress should directly control how much money the fledgling agency can spend each year. In the meantime, the CFPB funds itself through a bank account at the New York Fed.
CalculatedRisk: LA area Port Traffic mostly unchanged year-over-year in January
Zerohedge: Despite Two Thirds Of Components Declining, Empire Fed Prints At Highest Since June 2010 - Chalk this one to "seasonal adjustments" or something, cause we no longer have any clue what is going on with the data fudging in America.
FDL: Amazing Diary at Kos by Donovan and Holder re Settlement - The title is, believe it or not, HOLDING BANKS ACCOUNTABLE. I’ll give you a few moments to stop laughing and collect yourselves. Ok? Ready? Then steel yourselves and proceed to: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/15/1065029/-Holding-Banks-Accountable?detail=hide Holding
SacBee: Foreclosure errors revealed in San Francisco
IBTimes: Citigroup Pays $158M in Mortgage Fraud Pact
Telegraph: US industry stagnated in January
JOC: Port Tracker Says Container Imports Will Decline This Month
Reuters: Moody's may downgrade UBS and Morgan StanleyBusinessInsider: America Is Spending Less On Debt Payments Than It Was In The '90s
Time: Credit Standards May Finally Be Loosening For Housing
Bloomberg: China Reduces Holdings of U.S. Treasuries to Lowest Level Since June 2010
CharlesHughSmith: The Grand Game of Perception Management - "The economy will expand if you believe it is expanding--because you'll be "animal spirited" into buying a lot of stuff on credit that you can't afford."
Jesse'sCrossroadsCafe: Ritholtz Has the Main Theme Right, But Gets a Few Specifics Wrong About MF Global
YahooFinance: Desperately Seeking Americans For Manufacturing Jobs

Global Financial News
CreditWritedowns: What Went Wrong in Portugal?
WashingtonPost: World Bank chief Robert Zoellick to step down in June
ETFDaily: The Crisis In Greece Should Be A Major Warning Sign For World Financial Markets
Reuters: Greece is broken, and can’t be fixed
CBSNews: Austerity drives Greeks to despair
FT:Eurozone divisions threaten Greece aid - Eurozone officials have called off an emergency meeting of finance ministers to approve a vital €130bn bail-out for Athens amid a growing fight among the country’s European creditors about the merits of allowing Greece to go bankrupt.
BusinessInsider: UK Unemployment Rises To The Highest Level In 17 Years
NakedCapitalism: Austerity Policy Destroying Greek Society
PressEurop: Major anti-austerity march in Lisbon
CNNMoney: Is Japan next? - Japan's debt levels have ballooned to a level that makes Greece look like a steward of capital. Wall Street has noticed, and it's placing its bets.
NYT: Raw Feelings as Greece Waits for E.U. RescueGlobeAndMail: North and south split as euro zone economy shrinks
WashingtonPost: Greece’s depression could prove worst in modern history - How badly is Greece hurting from its debt woes and onslaught of austerity? One World Bank official tells the paper Ekathimerini that the country is on pace to suffer the worst economic contraction in the postwar era.

Peak Oil and Energy News
Grist: Time for an oil change: Americans strongly oppose fossil fuel subsidies
WSJ: Jump in Gas Prices Threatens Recovery
EarlyWarning: January Oil Supply - Total liquid fuels where at all time highs in January, according to OPEC and the IEA.
NYT: Will Hurricanes Topple U.S. Wind Turbines? - As plans for wind farms rising out of the ocean along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts inch closer to fruition, a new study from Carnegie Mellon University suggests that hurricanes could destroy a significant number of turbines in some of these areas, even coming close to wiping them out.
BusinessWeek: Oil Trades Near 5-Week High After Mehr Says Iran to Cut Exports
UPI: Scotland has energy to go it alone
FP: Tight oil the future of energy in North America
WSJ: Vital Signs: Warm Weather Mutes Utility Output - The output from U.S. utilities has dropped sharply. The Federal Reserve said its index of utilities output fell 2.5% in January from the previous month to a reading of 95.6. The index is 7.5% lower than it was a year ago. Economists attribute the drop to unseasonably warm weather in the winter months that has required less heat and electricity.
BurningPlatform: Why Not Thorium? -- The Fukushima disaster reminded us all of the dangers inherent in uranium-fueled nuclear reactors. Fresh news yesterday about Tepco’s continued struggle to contain and cool the fuel rods highlights just how energetic uranium fission reactions are and how challenging to control.

Commodities/Metals
ETFDaily: Why Gold Is Still In Red FromThe A Short-term Perspective
Mineweb: Crop tests bode well for thermophosphate product in Brazil - Rio Verde
CommodityOnline: Copper trends have divorced from China may fall to $7800 tonne

Environmental
ScientificAmerican: Hearts and Air Pollution: Five Deadly Air Pollutants Measured on Five Continents
MW666: there’s no tomorrow
Grist: You work 3.84 minutes per day to pay for your bicycle, 2 hours for your car
McClatchy: Wild raccoons invade Florida school - One raccoon urinated on a child. "You're sitting at your desk, doing your class work and all of a sudden there's liquid running from the ceiling," a mother told WPEC in Palm Beach County .

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/02/15/138978/wild-raccoons-invade-florida-school.html#storylink=cpy

ArsTechnica: Leaked docs: Heartland Institute think tank pays climate contrarians very well
HuffingtonPost: Keystone XL Pipeline: Texas Farmer Wins Temporary Restraining Order Against TransCanada
ClimateChangePsychology: Melting Arctic Ice: What Satellite Images Don't See -- For scientists studying the health of Arctic sea ice, satellite observations are absolutely essential for providing the big picture. But those high-altitude observations need occasional reality checks from scientists down on the surface. It was during one such on-the-ground research expedition last fall that David Barber, an Arctic climatologist at the University of Manitoba, got an unwelcome surprise. Barber was aboard the Canadian research icebreaker Amundsen, checking on ice in the Beaufort Sea north of Alaska and Western Canada. The ship was well inside a region the satellites said should be choked with thick, multiyear-old ice. . But the ship kept going, at a brisk 13 knots — its top speed in open water is 13.7 knots — and even when it finally reached thick ice, he says, "we could still penetrate it easily." . Some of what satellites identified as thick, melt-resistant multiyear ice turned out to be, in Barber's words, "full of holes, like Swiss cheese.."
Grist: No free rides: States consider taxing electric cars

eXiled: RADICALS FOR CORPORATE POLLUTION: The Koch Cartel & The Heartland Institute
CNN: Australia delays decision on koala listingDeclineoftheEmpire: Energy, Carbon And Craziness

America in Decline
BlacklistedNews: 25 Signs That The Nazification Of America Is Almost Complete
Salon: Obama to unions: See you later - On Tuesday President Obama signed a bill that will make it harder for workers to form a union.
SFF: Debtor’s prison 2.0: Jail for delinquent homeowners? - While we can’t be sent to a federal prison for ignoring bills, many states allow citizens to be popped into state or local lockups for unpaid debt. Savvy collection agencies use this process to do an end run around the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act 8. Here’s how it works:
Special thanks to RJ for the following story.
BurningPlatform: Bad Week For Freedom - With each passing week it seems this country spirals further into the depths of a frightening dystopian fantasy reminiscent of Huxley and Orwell’s dark world of isolation, fear and government brutality portrayed in their masterpieces Brave New World and 1984. I keep speculating whether it’s me that’s crazy and not the things I’m witnessing on a daily basis. The President signs the National Defense Authorization Act, passed by an overwhelming majority of Congress, which allows the government to imprison American citizens indefinitely without charge. And there is barely a squeak from the docile masses as they are soothed by Obama promising to never use that part of the law. I bet you $10,000 a President will invoke that portion of the NDAA in the very near future. Jon Corzine, a card carrying member of the ruling elite .01%, remains free to roam one of his five palatial estates after stealing $1.6 billion from the accounts of farmers, widows, and thousands of other “clients” of MF Global. In his spare time he raises money for Obama’s re-election campaign. The Federal government, Federal courts and Wall Street banking cabal have circled the wagons and declared the money just vaporized, even though it sits in Jamie Dimon’s vaults at J.P. Morgan. No one is being prosecuted for this deliberate thievery. The psychopathic Wall Street criminals have been getting away with murder for so long they act invulnerable to societal mores and scoff at our laws, rules and regulations. Those are for the 99%. When you control the politicians, regulators, courts, and mainstream media, it’s easy to get away with murder. The jackals and hyenas are laughing in their NYC penthouse suites as they continue to collect $20 million bonuses for a job well done.
ETFDailyNews: Proof Of U.S. Greater Depression (SLV, GLD, SDS, FAZ, AGQ)

Food and Water
Grist: CAFO conviction: Court holds factory farm accountable for water pollution
NYT: Don’t Mock the Artisanal-Pickle Makers

Internet and Online Privacy News
ArsTechnica: Feature: From encryption to darknets: As governments snoop, activists fight back
ArsTechnica: Police: download a file, go to jail for 10 years and pay an "unlimited" fine - The 70,000 daily visitors to popular music site RnBXclusive.com were met with a purposely terrifying message on Tuesday and part of Wednesday.
ZDNet: The hollow emptiness in social media numbers - most accounts are fake or empty

Science and Technology
ArsTechnica: AP sues aggregator over "parasitic business model"
NewScientist: Why ancient star clusters are all the same size
MSNBC: Is Apple over a Chinese iBarrel? NewScientist: Islands on land could make towns tsunami-proof
PopSci: Dust Causes Explosions, And Apparently Nanodust Causes Mega-Explosions
CosmicLog: Black hole survives a galaxy wreck

Medical and Health
ScientificAmerican: Cool Aid: Drug That Lets Body Temperature Drop Could Save Stroke Victims
MSNBC: Fake Avastin sends docs scrambling to check records ScientificAmerican: Deadly Alcohol Needs Global Regulation, Health Expert Says

When considering the world's worst killers, alcohol likely doesn't come to mind. Yet alcohol kills more than 2.5 million people annually, more than AIDS, malaria or tuberculosis.
For middle-income people, who constitute half the world's population, alcohol is the top health risk factor, greater than obesity, inactivity and even tobacco.

MSNBC: Johnson & Johnson sold hip implants overseas after they were rejected in US - About 5,000 lawsuits are pending, including some from patients crippled by tiny particles of metallic debris
Vitals: Amid shortages, rules force hospitals to trash scarce drugs
CNN: FDA warns of counterfeit cancer drug
CNNHealth: Air pollution may increase stroke, heart attack risk
MSNBC: Electric cigarette explodes in Fla. man's mouth - Fire officials say an electric cigarette exploded in a Florida man's mouth, severely burning his face and knocking out some of his front teeth.
CNN: Sinus infection? Antibiotics won't help
NewScientist: Keep dead people's hearts beating to up organ donation
RedditScience: University of Alberta researcher discovers vaccine for hepatitis C

Doomsteading, Gardening, Urban Farming
CityFarmer: Long Island City lab on cutting edge of urban farming with aquaponic system
PreppingToSurvive: Government Debt: Another Reason to Prepare

CityFarmer: The Chicken and the Dog

ModernSurvivalBlog: Top-5 Things For Survival Preparedness

BackDoorSurvival: Selecting and Shopping for a Newbie Handgun

Other News
CNN: Nasty, harsh, overcrowded: Life in a Honduran prison
CNNFreedomProject: Hope for Vietnam's children of the dump
RawStory: Drug bust at Christian university nets 17 students
ANN: Biblical park to go ahead in Jerusalem Arab area
Spiegel: Prohibition Debate: The Far-Right Threat to Germany's Democracy - The leaders of Germany's far-right NPD seek to project the party as mainstream and reasonable. In truth, however, the party is a melting pot for racists, Hitler worshippers and enemies of democracy. There are plenty of reasons to ban the party. But would it make the NPD more dangerous than ever?
MSNBC: Police buy cemetery plots to block Josh Powell from being buried next to his boys
Alternet: 17 European Countries Force Transgender Sterilization (Map)
WBIR: 'Don't Say Gay' bill advances - A bill to restrict teaching about homosexuality before high school cleared its first hurdle in the state House of Representatives,

Politics
NYT: Why Don’t Americans Elect Scientists?
Grist: Symphony of Santorum: Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine endorses Rick - This calls for double devil horns, y’all: Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine just came out in support of GOP candidate Rick Santorum.
Economix: Getting More Liberal With Age - Mitt Romney says that "living a life tends to make you more conservative." But relative to themselves as young people, today's older folks have generally become more liberal, a study finds.
DetroitFreePress: Santorum drove Audi A6 in 2008, tax returns show

Forums
TinfoilPalace: Here's Some "General" Tinfoil for Ya....
TinfoilPalace: Riddle of the Russian scientists drilling into 'alien' Antarctic lake buried under ice for 20 million years who have been out of radio contact for five days
OilAge: US secret armies gear up for global war
OilAge: 260,000 barrels per day frozen in Yemen
HubbertsArms: Spa Tub Industry Has Seen Sales Fall By More Than Half Since 2004
HubbertsArms: It's not illegal to be mentally ill.....
SilentCountry: Supply, Demand and Panic Driven Price Spikes & Shortages
SilentCountry: Syrian Event : Nerve gas attack

Breaking News Wed. Feb. 15, 2012

2012-02-15T09:54:00.000-08:00

I dare you to listen to this song and not end up singing it for days!

Sing it with me!!
Grist: Insanely catchy song urges you to poop in a bucket

Hope everyone is having a great day today. It's springtime beautiful outside today and I'm going out in a bit and work in the garden and greenhouse. Need a break and some fresh air and sunshine.

Much thanks to RJ at the Global Glass Onion and the Ozarker at Conflicted Doomer for their help today!
Please take a minute to check out their blogs and support their work. also, don't forget to visit the forums linked at the bottom of this, and every, post. :D

Japan
ScienceDaily: Fukushima at Increased Earthquake Risk, Scientists Report

Global Conflict
CBSNews: Panetta doubts Israel has decided on Iran attack
Time: With Syria's Rebels: A Visit to a Bombmaker's Factory
McClatchy: Pakistan still holding bin Laden family months after raid
TimesOfIndia: Magnet bomb poses new worry for security agencies
AFP: Syrian activists resort to pigeons to communicate
LAT: Thai police hold injured Iranian suspect after blasts
Reuters: Iran to unveil new nuclear fuel advance: report
Reuters: Experts say Iran has "neutralized" Stuxnet virus
CBSNews: Israel to "settle the score" for Bangkok attack
LegitGov: West may strike Iran by summer - Russian Gen-Staff Chief
NYT: State Media Says Iran Will Cut Oil to 6 European Nations
CNN: Israel, Iran battle over who's behind string of bombings
WashingtonPost: Syria's crackdown on rebels continues as Assad schedules vote on new constitution
USAToday: Iran loads own fuel rods into research reactor

CBSNews: Iran boasts of new nuclear centrifuges
Hosted: Israel: Thai bombs similar to those in India blast

Post-Gazette: U.S., Europe look at fast, risky penalty on Iran - Slow-pressure economic sanctions have failed to restart nuclear talks

UPI: Cairo: U.S. 'tried to hijack' Egypt revolt

VancouverSun: U.S. captive charged with trying to kill Pakistan's MusharrafCryptogon: Will Iran Sell Oil in Currencies Other Than the Dollar Starting March 20?
Time: In Thailand, Evidence Suggests Bombings Tied to Larger Plot
ExtinctionProtocol: War going global: Israel vows to ‘settle the score’ for Iranian attacks
CBSNews: Israel: Bangkok, India bombings linked
Salon: U.S. media takes the lead on Iran - Many have compared the coordinated propaganda campaign now being disseminated about The Iranian Threat to that which preceded the Iraq War, but there is one notable difference. Whereas the American media in 2002 followed the lead of the U.S. government in beating the war drums against Saddam, they now seem even more eager for war against Iran than the U.S. government itself, which actually appears somewhat reluctant. Consider this highly illustrative, one-minute report yesterday from the nightly broadcast of NBC News with Brian Williams, by the network’s Chief Pentagon Correspondent Jim “Mik” Miklaszewski, which packs multiple misleading narratives into one short package:

OWS
Occupy the SEC Weighs In on the Volcker Rule
UPI: Occupy Newark protesters evicted
TruthDig: Chris Hedges: Occupy Draws Strength From the Powerless - There is a recipe for breaking popular movements. I watched it play out over five years in the war in El Salvador. I now see these familiar patterns in the assault against the Occupy movement. It goes like this.

Hacker News
WSJ: Chinese Hackers Suspected in Nortel Breach
VancouverSun: Report of Nortel hacking shows vulnerability of companies: expert

Domestic Financial News
McClatchy: Along with love, Valentine’s Day means billions in commerce
Zerohedge: Guest Post: Wall Street Has A Sad :-(
BusinessInsider: Here's Where All That Talent Microsoft Can't Hold On To Ends Up (MSFT)
Not surprising: Google employs the most ex-Microsoft employees. More surprising: Expedia employs more ex-Microsoft employees than Facebook.
Reuters: Obama plan will end dozens of business tax breaks: Geithner
BusinessInsider: Here's The Presentation Where Jeff Gundlach Dares To Compare The US To The Roman Empire - Jeff Gundlach just hosted a webcast with clients. The title of his presentation: "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." Not surprisingly, Gundlach drew parallels between the U.S. and Ancient Rome. Like the U.S., he noted that Rome had an insufficient tax system and a huge military budget.
FDL: Fun With Numbers: Foreclosure Fraud Settlement Figures Tough to Add Up
OffTheChart: What Happens if Congress Doesn’t Continue Emergency Unemployment Benefits?Guardian: Congress reaches tentative deal on payroll tax cut for middle-class workers
NakedCapitalism: HUD’s Donovan Tells Remarkable Whoppers About Settlement to Mortgage Investors
Slate: How Blue America Subsidizes Red America - A very neat Aaron Carroll chart shows that, on average, conservative states feature more "dependency" on federal programs than do liberal ones. You can slice this kind of data in a variety of ways, but you always end up with the same aggregate pattern. It happens to be the case that the richest parts of the United States (think the San Francisco Bay area or Connecticut) favor Democrats and also that conservative areas of the country are overrepresented in the Senate.
SeattleTimes: Fact check: Obama's budget gimmicks - When a president introduces a budget, there are always phantoms flitting around the room. President Barack Obama's spending plan sets loose a number of them.
Hosted: Late payments on mortgages rise again in 4th qtr
CNBC: At Volcker Rule Deadline, a Strong Pushback From Wall St.
CNNMoney: Consumers holding back, especially on cars
Forbes: Jan. Retail Sales Grew Less Than Expected
Reuters: U.S. growth won't be strong this year: Fed's Williams
BottomLine: Retirees tighten the belt, but still struggle
GlobeAndMail: Why we're seeing the ugly new face of capitalism
CharlesHughSmith: The Grand Failure of the Econometric Model
FDL: The Narrative of the “Slimmed-Down” $614 Billion Pentagon Budget
TaxPolicyCenter: Congress Figures Out How to Finance a Payroll Tax Cut: Borrow the Money - It looks like Congress is about to assume its default position: In the face of an intractable partisan dispute over how to pay for a government initiative, don’t.
EconomixBlogs: Weighing Benefits and Costs of Unemployment Insurance
NewEconomicPerspectives: Confederacy-lite: The Oklahoma’s AG’s Civil War against the United States of America

Global Financial News
ETFDailyNews: Germany May Foreshadow S&P 500 Weakness
Atlantic: The Story of How U.S. Special Forces Infiltrated Pakistan

Using special tracking technology and CIA oversight, teams have quietly crossed the border to challenge al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and their supporters...

McClatchy: Greeks worry that a future of austerity is no future at all
CreditWritedowns: There is No Closure in Greece Whatsoever
Mish: Time For Some Honesty: No One Gives a Rat's Ass About Greece
MulitplierEffect: Greece Forced to Cut Private Sector Salaries? - C. J. Polychroniou refers here to the fact that private sector salary cuts are part of the “rescue package” recently approved by the Greek Parliament. Asked to comment at the Foreign Policy blog, Dimitri Papadimitriou explains why this attempt at internal devaluation won’t work. In an interview for Bloomberg Radio Papadimitriou also stresses that these measures are politically untenable (although approved by the Parliament, whether they will actually be implemented is another question). In the interview Papadimitriou goes on to say that European policymakers are merely trying to shield the rest of the eurozone from Greece so that the beleaguered country can eventually be shown the door.
BusinessWeek: Portuguese Economy Contracts for a Fifth Straight Quarter
Zerohedge: David Rosenberg - "Let's Get Real - Risks Are Looming Big Time"
MarketWatch: EU may punish Spain for austerity delays: report - The European Union may punish Spain's government, led by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, by May for holding off on austerity measures ahead of a regional election in March, Reuters reported Tuesday, citing a source familar with the situation.
NakedCapitalism: Pension Provider to British Government – “QE Actually Does Kill Demand!” - More pension funds are getting their act together and calling the British government on their dodgy pseudo-stimulative policies.
Reuters: US and China discuss how to help Europe handle crisis
BusinessInsider: The Latest Greek Deal Is Already Unraveling
DesMoinesRegister: Greece will wrap up pending issues by Wed evening
GlobeAndMail: B.C. lumber sales to China falling rapidly
BusinessInsider: A Never-Used $213 Million Spanish 'Ghost Airport' Is Having Its Runway Ripped Out - Castellon Airport, the $213-million airport that has never been used since opening almost a year ago, will have its never-used runway dug up,
Zerohedge: UBS Counts The Nails In Greece's Coffin
BusinessInsider: Greece's GDP Is In Total Freefall - More awful economic statistics out of Greece. In the fourth quarter, GDP shrank 7% from a year earlier. That compares to a decline of 5% in Q3, according to Reuters. The idea that the economy can survive more austerity -- especially given the attendant social collapse -- is laughable.

Peak Oil and Energy News
CommodityOnline: Saudi Arabia offers increased oil exports to India
FuelFix: Oil trades 1% higher at $101.72 a barrel
FuelFix: Oil Jumps on Iran Supply Threat
TreeHugger: 68% of Europe's New Electricity Came From Wind & Solar Power Last Year

Bloomberg: Oil Rises to One-Month High as Iran Cuts Exports - China Pledges Debt Help Oil rose to its highest in a month as Iran said it had cut oil exports to six European countries and after China pledged to help resolve Europe's debt crisis.

CaliforniaWatch: Nearly $3B in energy loans could default
IBTimes: How Much Oil Does Cuba Have?
SacBee: Sky-high gas prices loomReuters: Oil hits six-month high on supply worries, Iran

Commodities/Metals
CommodityOnline: US agri farm exports rise to record $136 3 bln in 2011
Mineweb: Gold nods to stronger Euro; Greece eyed

Environmental
ScientificAmerican: Why Did Europe's Danube River Freeze?
Grist: Critical List: More than 800,000 anti-Keystone messages delivered; Obama could veto transportation bill

DesdemonaDespair: Texas drought: 20 percent of freshwater fish threatened with extinction
NYT: Where the Colorado River Runs Dry - Until 1998 the Colorado regularly flowed south along the Arizona-California border into a Mexican delta, irrigating farmlands and enriching a wealth of wildlife and flora before emptying into the Gulf of California. But decades of population growth, climate change and damming in the American Southwest have now desiccated the river in its lowest reaches, turning a once-lush Mexican delta into a desert.
Grist: Crazy talk: Rick Santorum out-denies the climate deniers and spins eco-conspiracy theories
McClatchy: More Southern forests at risk from biomass plants, report indicates
ThinkProgress: Heartland Documents Reveal Fringe Denial Group Plans to Pursue Koch Money, Dupe Children and Cultivate Revkin - Racing around the internet are some internal documents that appear to be from the Heartland Institute, a relatively obscure hard-core anti-science think tank. Spiegel: Hot Air - The EU's Emissions Trading System Isn't Working
VancouverSun: Death of young female killer whale due to mysterious trauma

ExtinctionProtocol: 6.0 magnitude earthquake strikes off the coast of Oregon

America in Decline
Cryptogon: NYPD “Stop and Frisks” Hit All-Time High
DeclineOfTheEmpire: Superpacs? If You Don't Like It, Turn Off The TV
McClatchy: Commercial banks spent record $62 million on lobbying is 2011
Cryptogon: Detroit News Opinion Piece: Too Many Poor People, Put Contraceptives in Water Supply
Grist: How the Heartland Institute plans to wreck education

Food and Water
Grist: French judge: Monsanto poisoned farmer
CommodityOnline: The growing water market in the Oil patch - “In 2008 there were 25 billion barrels of water handled (by the oil and gas industry) in the US—even at 60 cents a barrel it’s a multibillion dollar business,” says Jonathan Hoopes, President of GreenHunter Energy Inc. (GRH-AMEX). “With the big growth in unconventional since then, it’s likely another 5-6 billion barrels.”

Internet and Online Privacy News
ArsTechnica: Internet crackdown in Iran continues, but Tor users are all back online
ArsTechnica: Canada wants warrantless Internet spying, says critics support child porn

Science and Technology
PopSci: NASA's Mars Budget Takes a Beating, Leaving Europe to Fly Joint Missions Solo
ArsTechnica: Major Bitcoin exchange shuts down, blaming regulation and loss of funds
Wired: Most Dangerous Object in the Office: Pocket Artillery Mini Cannon

Medical and Health
WSJ: U.S. Discovers Fake Cancer Drug
HuffingtonPost: Child Malnutrition Affects 1 In 4 Children Globally, Report Says

Doomsteading, Gardening, Urban Farming
PreppingToSurvive: Prep Question: How to Get Started in Prepping for $1,000As tax time approaches, many of us are getting our financial documents in order for the April 15th deadline, just two months from now
ModernSurvivalBlog: ‘Basic’ Skills Are Lacking in Young Generation
CanadianDoomer: My Imaginary Garden

Other News

WBIR: Monroe Co. Sheriff wants "amnesty boxes" for schools - Teachers and law enforcement in Monroe County may soon have a new tool at their disposal to help curb illegal activity in high schools.

Reuters: Honduras prison fire kills more than 350 inmates: officials
RawStory: Colbert: Using contraception means ‘you are c*ck blocking God’
Time: China to Stop Giving Orphans Surnames Like 'State,' 'Party'
IBTimes: Dolly Parton to Profit from Whitney Houston’s Death for ‘I Will Always Love You,’ Report
IBTimes: R.I.P Glenda Monster: YouTube Supporters Post Tribute to Glenda Monster, Suicide Victim [VIDEO]

Politics
CBSNews: Poll: Obama beats all GOP hopefuls
AngryBear: Crony Capitalism On A Grand Scale - An article in yesterday’s New York Times, which I think deserves much more notice than it seems to be getting, says that last week, “Mr. Romney’s campaign held an elaborate “policy round table” fund-raiser at a Washington hotel, featuring panel discussions run by lobbyists [who are] former cabinet officials or members of Congress.”

Forums
TinfoilPalace: Commie Pinko Obama
TinfoilPalace: Secret Access: UFOs on the Record
TheOilAge: Controversial post: Nuclear War
TheOilAge: More Proof It's a Global Agenda - Japan 10T QE: Gold Sleeps
HubbertsArms: 20 Things We Can Learn About The Future Of America From The Death Of Detroit
HubbertsArms: Israeli diplomats targetted in India and Georgia
SilentCountry: Just in Time for Valentine's Day: Big Box Stores Driving Florists Out of Business
SilentCountry: Lights Out in America