Damn.
Going to post a bit early today, gotta go do that grocery store thang!
Thanks to friends of this blog rj at Global Glass Onion for his links and continued encouragement, and to the Ozarker at Conflicted Doomer for links this morning and sharing cyber tea and conversation!
We live in stressful times indeed and a nice cup of coffee or glass of iced tea in the early morning while looking at the garden is my prescription to relieve anxiety!
Japan
DesdemonaDespaire: Fukushima risks Chernobyl ‘dead zone’
NYT: In Japan, a Culture That Promotes Nuclear Dependency
MSNBC: Japan's debt under threat of downgrade
Moody's cites stumbling economic growth and massive public debt
Global Conflict
Just wanted to add the following link, thanks Ozarker for sending it along!
Now, all we need is a convenient "cyber attack" and a worthy target.
WSJ: Cyber Combat: Act of War
Pentagon Sets Stage for U.S. to Respond to Computer Sabotage With Military Force
The Pentagon has concluded that computer sabotage coming from another country can constitute an act of war, a finding that for the first time opens the door for the U.S. to respond using traditional military force.
In part, the Pentagon intends its plan as a warning to potential adversaries of the consequences of attacking the U.S. in this way. "If you shut down our power grid, maybe we will put a missile down one of your smokestacks," said a military official.Guardian: Al-Jazeera footage captures 'western troops on the ground' in Libya
Five of Gaddafi's generals are among latest defectors to rebels as South African president seeks to broker ceasefire
Reuters: Goldman traded $1.3 billion in Libyan funds: WSJ
Channel4: Spain's 'indignados' summon spirit of 1968
"Thousands of Spanish protesters take part in an illegal demo against mass unemployment as international economist Jan Randolph tells Channel 4 News 'Spain is the biggest weakest link in the eurozone'.
BusinessInsider: The Indignant Movement In Europe: "Not socialist, nor right... the hottest new ideology in Europe is indignant.
Guardian: Italians are angry with their politicians; it would be foolish to ignore them
Like Spain's indignados, Italy's grassroots political protesters, such as the grillini, are threatening the established political order
TheTrench: North Warziristan invasion Destined to Desappoint Washinton
SOTT: 'US dropped cluster bombs on Misratah'
FT: Libya rebels running out of crude stocks
SOTT: And the most evil country on the planet award goes to... UK training Saudi forces used to crush Arab uprising
NakedCapitalism: Are Fissures in Europe Worse Than Media Reports Suggest?
NPR: Cease-Fire Crumbles Between Yemen's Army, Tribes
ZeroHedge: Irate Germany Summons Iranian Ambassador After Angela Merkel Plane Denied Access Over Iran Airspace For Two Hours
WashingtonPost: Cost of war in Afghanistan will be major factor in troop-reduction talks
NYT: China Admits Its Technicians Were Held in Pakistan Base Attack
A day after denying that any of its citizens had been involved, China confirmed Tuesday that Chinese technicians were taken hostage during a militant attack on a Pakistani naval base.
Financial News
GroovyGreen: Urban farming, the new way to handle unemployment?
Depending on which figures you choose to use, unemployment in America is approaching 20%, a figure that is quite remarkable. Fully 1/5 of the people in America who could be working are not currently working. I think urban farming could be this generation’s way to handle unemployment, sort of like a 2011 version of the CCC.
CNBC: Markets Fret About Euro 'Slow-Motion Car Crash'
Bloomberg: The U.S. Postal Service Nears Collapse
Delivery of first-class mail is falling at a staggering rate. Facing insolvency, can the USPS reinvent itself like European services have—or will it implode?
ZeroHedge: Citi On The "Disastrous" USD Implications From A Debt Ceiling Breach
BusinessInsider: Suddenly, The "Unthinkable" Debt Ceiling Solution Is Becoming Mainstream
GlobeandMail: Video: Egyptian banker accused in hotel assault
FT.com:BeyondBrics: India must tread carefully in Africa
KeiserReport: The United Nations warned on Wednesday of a possible crisis of confidence in, and even a “collapse” of, the U.S. dollar
MSNBC: Disasters wipe out jobs along with lives Tornadoes, floods could push up jobless rate, hit state funds
CalculatedRisk: The Excess Vacant Housing Supply
ERandU: Is California's Housing Problem that it has too Many Houses?
BusinessInsider: Amazing Satellite Images Of Spanish Ghost Towns -- Abandoned Since The Housing Crash
ft.com/video: Generation rent
A whole generation of people in the UK have given up on the idea of ever being able to afford to buy a house. But Lex's John Authers and Luke Templeman discuss how the mathematics suggest it could be the time to buy.
Bloomberg: Rising Rents Risk U.S. Inflation as Fed’s Restraint Questioned
WSJ: Adjusting Wage Disparities for Cost of Living
BusinessInsider: Why New York City Home Prices Are Still Headed For Collapse
BBC: Wal-Mart cleared to buy South Africa's Massmart
South African competition authorities have given the go-ahead to US store giant Wal-Mart's $2.4bn (£1.5bn) bid for local retailer Massmart.
MarketWatch: Consumer confidence index falls in May
CNNMoney: Goldman downgrades U.S. growth again
MSNBC: Housing index expected to show new price low
Percentage of homeowners drops sharply, could decline to pre-1980s levels
Peak oil and Energy News
WSJ: European Shale Gas Is Still Hot Air
Oil climbs above $102 in Europe as traders eye weaker US dollar, Middle East turmoil
ClimateChangePsychology: T. Boone Pickens slams Koch brothers on gas bill:
"They don't answer to anybody!" - Billionaire energy magnate T. Boone Pickens slammed Koch Industries on Friday for its opposition to legislation he’s promoting that provides tax credits to jumpstart use of natural gas in the trucking industry.
UPI: Goldman Sachs sees $5 gas this summer
Even with pressure on gas prices easing en route to Memorial Day, Goldman Sachs predicts U.S. consumers could see $5 a gallon this summer.
Goldman estimates oil could reach $135 per barrel by mid-July, with accompanying gas prices hitting the $5-per-gallon mark, the New York Post reported Sunday.
Environmental News
NewScientist: Storm warning: prepare for a busy hurricane season
BBC: Circus elephants help tornado-hit US city, Joplin
WashingtonPost: 40,000 gallons of manure spill in Va. creek
NPR: South Dakota Braces For Another Round Of Flooding
NASA: NASA Provides Satellite Data to Aid Louisiana Flood Response
Watching the Muddy Mississippi release its sediment burden as it flows through Louisiana into the Gulf.
America in Decline
CNBC: Homeland-Security Business Still Booming Ten Years Later
TomDispatch: Welcome to Post-Legal America
WashingtonsBlog: We've Gone from a Nation of Laws to a Nation of Powerful Men Making Laws in Secret
Food and Water
BBC: Rising food prices increase squeeze on poor - Oxfam
Rising food prices are tightening the squeeze on populations already struggling to buy adequate food, demanding radical reform of the global food system, Oxfam has warned.
By 2030, the average cost of key crops could increase by between 120% and 180%, the charity forecasts.
ActivistPost: ‘Ag-gag’ bills face tough row to hoe
Big Ag is having trouble installing its Iron Curtain. I am referring, of course, to the various "ag-gag" laws proposed in Florida, Minnesota, and Iowa that would make it illegal to produce (and, in some cases, possess) undercover videos from within factory livestock farms. The latest state legislature to pursue this dubious goal is New York's -- but the fate of ag-gaggery in other states makes success in the Empire State seem unlikely.
Science and Technology
NewScientist: Mars rock: Win a piece of the Red Planet
SOTT: Mysterious Anomaly Crippled the Spacecraft: Japanese Satellite Declared Dead in Orbit
EpochTimes: Of Codebreakers and Mechanical Giants
The World War II battle of machines that sparked the beginning of the computer age
PCMag: Three $1,000 Apps Vie for "Most Expensive iPad App"
TechnologyReview: Faint Young Sun Paradox Not Solved, Says NASA
Last year, scientists claimed to have solved the faint young Sun paradox. They were wrong. Now the paradox is back and more puzzling than ever
Medical and Health
Hosted: More sick, dead, in European E. coli outbreak
Doomsteading, Gardening, Urban Farming
GreenFieldReporter: Hull House Museum wins federal grant to start seed library for urban farmers
DenverPost: Denver mayoral candidate Hancock promotes urban gardens as economic engine
KitsapSun: Urban farmers growing shrimp in Hampden, Md.
In an old cinderblock building near the foot of 36th Street in Hampden, the latest addition to Baltimore's urban farming push is under construction.
Large tanks, filters, drains and pipes are being fitted into the old building, which for years sat vacant and blighted. This summer, 1,000 larvae of freshwater shrimp, or prawns, will be released into water tanks inside.
Other News
Gawker: Roger Ailes’ Office Protects Him from Gay Terrorists
AsiaTimes: Hitler and the Chinese Internet generation
NPR: Rep. Weiner Seeks Advice About Legal Action Over Lewd Twitpic
RawStory: Bangladeshi woman cuts off rapist’s penis and gives it to police
A 40-year-old Bangladeshi woman cut off a man's penis during an alleged attempted rape and took it to a police station as evidence, police in a remote part of Bangladesh said Monday.
USAToday: Video: Teacher leads kids in singing as gunbattle rages outside
A teacher in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey has been awarded for "oustanding civic courage" for keeping her 15 primary school students calm by leading them in children's songs while an apparent drug gunbattle raged outside the school.
NYT: Too Young for Kindergarten? Tide Turning Against 4-Year-Olds
Erin Ferrantino rarely has to consult the birthday chart in her kindergarten classroom to pick out the Octobers, Novembers and Decembers. This year, there was the girl who broke down in tears after an hour’s work, and the boy who held a pencil with his fist rather than his fingers.
GroovyGreen: Titanic Being Recycled, Turned Into Watches
We’re all for reuse and recycle, but Romain Jerome’s Titanic DNA Watch is borderline macabre/bizarre. Granted, we really dig the design — but taking actual steel from the titanic and incorporating it into a watch?
HealthyPets: Really Weird-Looking Bird
The Forums
TinfoilPalace: 50 Ways To Prepare For Survival
TinfoilPalace: Pope’s child porn 'normal' claim sparks outrage among victims
TheOilAge: The Energy Bulletin: The CIA's 1978 Oil Prediction
TheOilAge: 12 kids dead in latest US massacre in Afghanistan
Hubberts-Arms: Egyptian banker charged with sexual assault on Manhattan hotel housekeeper
Hubberts-Arms: "Malintent" Detection technology being tested by HS in the Northeast.
SilentCountry: you are a family prepared for doom
SilentCountry: Australia proposes ban on 1000s of plants including national flower
Just thought I'd highlight that the Tom Dispatch article is MUST reading.
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