Feels like spring here today! Blue skies, cool breeze, puffy clouds and just picked my first mess of Purple Queen bush beans! Yummy goodness for supper tonight!
Lot's of news today. It is Friday after all, and this from Bill at Downward Spiral.
TheDownwardSpiral: Friday Rant: If You Want to Understand What’s Really Going on in the World, Stop Thinking Like a Middle Class American
The default position for most people today is not only to not know, but to not want to know. As long as the lights go on when they hit the switch, the supermarket has plenty of food on the shelves and the filling station has gasoline available for the SUV, all is well and good.
I hope everyone has a good weekend. Be sure to check in tomorrow and see what's on the documentary post.
Thanks and love to RJ and the Ozarker. Tireless, dedicated people helping to get the news out while we still can.
Visit them at Global Glass Onion, RJ will have his weekly economic wrap-up this afternoon and also never forget to check out the Ozarker's work at Conflicted Doomer.
Japan
A decade and a half before it blew apart in a hydrogen blast that punctuated the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl, the No. 3 reactor at the Fukushima nuclear power plant was the scene of an earlier safety crisis.
NYPost: Data drone makes emergency landing on Fukushima reactor building
NHK: High level of radiation exposure estimated
A group of doctors has found that the estimated level of accumulated internal radiation exposure for people living in Fukushima Prefecture has exceeded 3 millisieverts.
NHK: Simulation model projects radiation diffusion
Researchers say radioactive substances leaked from the Fukushima Daiichi plant will reach ocean waters 4,000 kilometers away from the plant within a year of the nuclear accident.
Global Conflict
YahooNews: US ready to arm Philippines amid China tension
Reuters: Nuclear terrorism can cause another Fukushima: expertGlobal action to protect the nuclear industry against possible terrorist attacks is urgently needed, a leading expert said, as are safety steps to prevent any repeat of Japan's Fukushima accident.
ABCNews: Alleged Plot Against U.S. Military Base In Seattle Is Eighth in Two Years
Hosted: With Afghan withdrawal, US focus turns to Pakistan
WashingtonPost: House Republicans set Libya vote for FridayThe House is expected Friday to vote to strip funding for offensive military operations in Libya, leaving only money for U.S. forces carrying out support activities for the NATO-led mission such as aircraft refueling, intelligence-gathering and reconnaissance.
ChicagoTribune: Al-Qaida operative invested with Chicago brokerage house in 2005U.S. government moves to seize $6 million from investment fund
Reuters: Afghan drawdown poses risk, U.S. military warns
SeattlePI: Blasts rip through western Baghdad, killing 40
GlobeandMail: Report cites ‘crisis in trust’ between Afghans and NATO
Reuters: Iraq's Maliki wants to downsize governmentIraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Thursday he wanted to shrink his government and fire weak ministers to meet protesters' demands for improved government services.
theTelegraph: Hillary Clinton: Taliban talks are 'unpleasant business'US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton confirms that American diplomats have made a "preliminary outreach" to the Taliban.
CNN: Investigators: More than one bomb in Yemen attack
CNN: Syrian regime faces EU condemnation; more protests unfold
CNN: Adviser: Doctors say Yemen president should stay in Saudi Arabia longer
Reuters: Nuclear terrorism can cause another Fukushima: expertGlobal action to protect the nuclear industry against possible terrorist attacks is urgently needed, a leading expert said, as are safety steps to prevent any repeat of Japan's Fukushima accident.
ABCNews: Alleged Plot Against U.S. Military Base In Seattle Is Eighth in Two Years
Hosted: With Afghan withdrawal, US focus turns to Pakistan
WashingtonPost: House Republicans set Libya vote for FridayThe House is expected Friday to vote to strip funding for offensive military operations in Libya, leaving only money for U.S. forces carrying out support activities for the NATO-led mission such as aircraft refueling, intelligence-gathering and reconnaissance.
ChicagoTribune: Al-Qaida operative invested with Chicago brokerage house in 2005U.S. government moves to seize $6 million from investment fund
Reuters: Afghan drawdown poses risk, U.S. military warns
SeattlePI: Blasts rip through western Baghdad, killing 40
GlobeandMail: Report cites ‘crisis in trust’ between Afghans and NATO
Reuters: Iraq's Maliki wants to downsize governmentIraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Thursday he wanted to shrink his government and fire weak ministers to meet protesters' demands for improved government services.
theTelegraph: Hillary Clinton: Taliban talks are 'unpleasant business'US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton confirms that American diplomats have made a "preliminary outreach" to the Taliban.
CNN: Investigators: More than one bomb in Yemen attack
CNN: Syrian regime faces EU condemnation; more protests unfold
CNN: Adviser: Doctors say Yemen president should stay in Saudi Arabia longer
Forbes: World’s Rich Richer Than Ever; Wealth Growth Beats GDP Avgs
AJC: Ga.’s farm-labor crisis going exactly as planned
After enactment of House Bill 87, a law designed to drive (great article, highly recommend! thanks RJ)
Mineweb: CISRO, Redbank join forces to target remote copper discoveries
The Australian Government's leading science group has joined forces with the junior miner in an attempt to target new copper discoveries in the far north east sector of the Northern Territory
WSJ: Feds to Launch Probe of Google
Federal regulators are poised to hit Google Inc. with subpoenas, launching a broad, formal investigation into whether the Internet giant has abused its dominance in Web-search advertising, people familiar with the matter said.
Eurekalert: High technology, not low taxes, may drive states' economic growth
BusinessInsider: GREECE: Get Ready For 40 Hours That Will Decide The Fate Of The Euro
Get ready for the most exciting 40 hours of your life.
BusinessInsider: Greece has just announced (via Bloomberg) the official schedule of the austerity debate.
BusinessInsider: Why Does Bernanke Lie To Us? Why Can't He Just Admit What The Problem Is?
RitHoltz: Fed Forecasts? PUH-Leeze!
BBC: US economic growth is revised upwards
BusinessInsider: OH NO: The US Debt Ceiling Negotiations Just Blew Up
NYT: Their Temper TantrumCongressional Republicans, who played a major role in piling up the government’s unsustainable debt in the first place, have thrown a tantrum and walked out of the debt limit talks.
CNBC: CoreLogic: US Home "Shadow Inventory" Dips on Year
Guardian: Guardian Focus podcast: Unions strike back
As the spending cuts start to bite, trade unions are planning strike action.
Reuters: Data points to underlying factory strength
New orders for U.S. manufactured goods and a gauge of business spending plans rose in May, easing fears of a sharp slowdown in factory activity.
Bloomberg: Orders for U.S. Durable Goods Beat Forecast in May
Last month’s gain was broad-based, with orders for machinery, computers, electrical equipment and communications gear all rising.
CNN: Economic growth still weak
MoneyWatch: Recovery IS Weak (Your’re Not Crazy!)
Guardian: Eurozone 'mess' is a risk to UK banks, Bank of England governor admits
King also warns banks may be providing 'misleading picture of their financial health' during first briefing from the financial policy committee
Reuters: Wall Street opens down on new Europe fears
Stocks opened slightly lower on Friday after a brief suspension in the trading of some big Italian banks raised new concerns about the European debt crisis, though better-than-expected durable goods orders kept losses limited.
GlobeandMail: Scrounging for cash in retirement?
Your home, your insurance policy and your kids are three potential sources of income
BusinessInsider: The World's Best Behavioral Economics Reading List
MoneyWatch: Ugh. BofA to start charging for lost debit cards. Because losing your wallet wasn't *enough* of a hassle.
WSJ: Greece Secures Second Bailout
BRUSSELS—Greece has secured a second bailout from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, and it too will be on the order of €110 billion ($156.83 billion), Prime Minister George Papandreou said Friday.
BusinessInsider: U.S. Attorney Says Insider Trading Is "Everywhere You Look"
TheNewYorker: A Dirty Business
New York City’s top prosecutor takes on Wall Street crime.
LAT: More Americans applied for unemployment benefits
AJC: Aflac to absorb $610 million loss on European investments
Bloomberg: Americans See Debt Threat, Reject Tax ‘Scare’
CNNMoney: The coming jobs crisis
If you think our employment problem is bad now, consider this: the U.S. economy is on course for both a job shortage and a worker shortage.
Time: Study: Unemployment Rate Unlikely to Fall Below 8%
CNNMoney: Business group slams Obama over oil release
DeclineoftheEmpire: A Release From The "Strategic" Petroleum Reserve
Not even W ever stooped this low. I believe we have just witnessed the first use of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) as a way to stimulate the economy.
DharmaJoint: Can You Fake....a Capitalism?
Peak oil and Energy News
Asian nations moved to release emergency oil stockpiles on Friday as part of a rare global coordinated action by consumer countries to prevent high energy prices from stunting a stuttering economic recovery.
Reuters: Oil recovers to $107, IEA release impact fades
Oil's deep sell-off paused on Friday as the impact of a surprise announcement of an emergency stocks release faded.
NewScientist: Dozens of countries queue up to go nuclear
BusinessInsider: The Secret Genius Move Behind Today's Big Oil Release
WashingtonPost: Why Eric Cantor won’t make the budget deal
TNR: The Debt Ceiling: Why Obama Should Just Ignore It
MotherJones: The Tax Holiday Road to Ruin
Prospect: Give Us Some Credit
States work to curb the financial background checks that can keep the unemployed out of work.
After two years of working in a temporary job as customer-service representative, Debra Banks was offered the job permanently. She was sent a hire letter, set a start date, and confirmed her new salary. But there was a hitch: To get the job, Banks had to undergo a credit check.
BusinessInsider: Goldman Sachs: BUY THE DIP (In Oil Stocks)
TheEnergyCollective: NASA’s James Hansen Says Nuclear Is Safer Than Fossil
TheEconomist: Rigging the market
Business is set to boom for the firms that help oil companies get at their prize
Bloomberg: ‘Head-Scratcher’ Petroleum Release to Swell U.S. Crude Glut
Bloomberg: Oil Rises on Concern IEA Emergency Crude Release May Limit Future Supplies
Expatica: Used cooking oil to power KLM flights
Beginning in September, KLM flights between Amsterdam and Paris will run on used cooking oil. The move is an important new step towards aviation sustainability, the airline announced Wednesday.
EarlyWarning: Government Controlled Oil Stocks
TheHill: OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Oil sands pipeline bill poised to advance
Wbez: Great Lakes may beat Atlantic to offshore wind
States along the Atlantic Coast are racing to be first in the country to put wind turbines offshore. But a group in Ohio says the first offshore wind farm in America isn't likely to be in the Atlantic, but in the fresh waters of Lake Erie about seven miles off the Cleveland coast.
Environmental News
Reuters: Major quakes strike in Pacific off Alaska
A major earthquake of 7.4 magnitude struck in the Pacific Ocean more than 1,000 miles west of Anchorage on Thursday, prompting a brief tsunami warning for part of the remote Aleutian Islands chain.
ScienceNews: Modern-day sea level rise skyrocketing
Sea levels began rising precipitously in the late 19th century and have since tripled the rate of climb seen at any time in at least two millennia, a detailed analysis of North Carolina marsh sediments shows.
AzCapitolTimes: State weighs scrapping vehicle-emission rules
NYT: Fracking and Water: E.P.A. Zeroes In on 7 Sites
CNN: Tropical storm in Philippines kills 11, forces 40,000 out of homes
Hosted: Huge quake triggers tsunami alert in Alaskan islands
NatGeo: A Rain Forest Advocate Taps the Energy of the Sugar Palm
SOTT: Scientists see sunspot hibernation but no Ice Age
Washington - Sunspot cycles -- those 11-year patterns when dark dots appear on the solar surface -- may be delayed or even go into "hibernation" for a while, a U.S. scientist said on Wednesday.
But contrary to some media reports, this does not mean a new Ice Age is coming, Frank Hill of the National Solar Observatory said in a telephone interview.
NewScientist: Incoming house-sized asteroid will skim past Earth
NewScientist: Thousands of Christchurch homes unsalvageable
Thousands of homes in the city of Christchurch are unsalvageable and will not be rebuilt for several years.NPR: Slow River Rise Becoming Roar In Flooding ND City
Christchurch, a city of 350,000 people, was severely damaged when a 7.0 magnitude earthquake unexpectedly shook the town in September last year. This was followed by a second destructive quake in February that killed 181 people and destroyed most of downtown Christchurch. And just last week, a 6.3 magnitude quake struck.
MSNBC: N.D. floodwaters coming in deeper and faster than expected
Water levels expected to break 130-year-old record by more than 8 feet
BeforeItsNews: Well Water Burns; Homeowners Are Hot Too
StarTelegram: What Texas' new television recycling law means for consumers
Texas has a new law requiring television manufacturers to take back and recycle old sets in an effort to keep toxic materials including lead and mercury out of landfills and water.
America in Decline
ColorLines: Wal-Mart Gets a Free Pass For Bias From the Supreme Court
ABCNews: Background Checks Now Include Twitter, Facebook
PCMag: FTC-Approved Company Will Save Dirt from Your Facebook Profile for 7 Years
MarketWatch: E. coli have rights too, Republicans say
Commentary: Nanny state should leave toxic food, toxic banks alone
Americans are fed up with the nanny state telling them how much salmonella they can get with their arsenic burger.
That’s what a shocking new Rasmussen Reports poll says. By a two-to-one margin, Americans say reducing the federal deficit is more important than inspecting the food supply. Read about Rasmussen’s poll.
DeclineoftheEmpire: America, The Fraudulent Society
Food and Water
Bloomberg: Pasta Price May Surge on Curbed Durum Supply
Unrelenting rainfall may have slashed U.S. planting of durum wheat to the lowest level in more than 50 years, fueling a surge in the price of pasta and noodles as mills scramble for supply of the grain.
USFoodPolicy: The House Agriculture Committee and the New Harvest
MotherJones: There's a Foxx Guarding the Ag-Policy Henhouse
I suspect Foxx's move wasn't really about saving money, since you don't save much by shutting down a website; but rather about sending a message: The USDA belongs to the companies that dominate US food and ag, not to the communities working on the ground to create alternatives. There's more at stake here than just a web site. The Know Your Farmer flap is really about whether our political system is capable of conducting even moderately progressive food and farm policy.ActivistPost: Monsanto's Leading Soldier in the War on Raw Milk
USDA: Risk Management Agency Administrator Reassures Farmers along the Flooded Missouri River
CNNMoney: Food supply at risk - watchdog slams FDA
Grist: GOP’s tiny cuts wound small farmers
Science and Technology
TechnologyReview: Genes Controlled with Light
Scientists have found a way to use light to control blood sugar in mice.
PCMag: Nevada Gives Green Light to Self-Driving Cars
Last week, the state of Nevada passed a bill that will require its state Department of Motor Vehicles to draw up rules for self-driving cars, essentially paving the way for autonomous vehicles to be used on state roadways.
Physorg: 'Green curtains' block heat, save energy
Medical and Health
ABCNews: Sextuplet's Mom Ate Like a Navy Seal During Her Pregnancy
When a woman is eating for seven, nutrition becomes a battle. This is the lesson Heather Carroll, mother of the Alabama sextuplets born over Father's day weekend, learned. The 5 feet, 2 inch, 30-year-old from Plantersville packed away 6,000 calories a day -- the same as a Navy Seal in training -- just to keep her six babies alive until her scheduled Caesarean section last Saturday.
StraitsTimes: MOH monitoring scarlet fever situation
Discovery: Driving Triggering Left-Sided Skin Cancers?
Spiegel: Sight for the Blind
The Growing Success of Seeing with Sound
USAToday: News analysis: Comparing Obama and Romney health laws
TheChart: 1 in 5 kids carry too much weight before kindergarten
Other News
Reuters: Delaware doctor found guilty of raping child patients
A Delaware pediatrician was found guilty on all counts on Thursday of raping and sexually assaulting patients, typically as young as 3-years-old
BusinessInsider: Kia's Latest Hip Ad Campaign Seems To Promote Pedophilia
CNN: Silence lifted: The untold stories of rape during the Holocaust
Editor's Note: This is the second of two stories focusing on rape as a tool of war. The first story looked at the role of interviewers of rape victims. Both stories contain graphic language; discretion is advised.
(anyone with relatives or friends who were in WW2 will tell you that the Nazis weren't the only ones raping women.)
GLP: Alert : Cooper Nuclear plant Workers Given SATELLITE Phones and Stock Pile Food and Water
GLP: Breaking: Turkey puts troops on alert
BusinessInsider: A Sex Offender With No Tongue Is On The Loose In Stamford
NYT: High-Speed Rail Poised to Alter ChinaEven as China prepares to open bullet train service from Beijing to Shanghai by July 1, this nation’s steadily expanding high-speed rail network is being pilloried on a scale rare among Chinese citizens and news media.
USAToday: 'Surfing Madonna' mosaic removed from railroad bridge after city council calls it graffiti
thanks to the Ozarker for the following story.
CNN: CNN Hero working harder than ever to stop sex trafficking
More than 17,000 women and girls from Nepal become sex slaves every year. Many end up in India, China or other Southeast Asian countries, and roughly half of them are children.
CNN: Gallup: Americans prefer having boys to girls, just as they did in 1941
HuffPost: Majority Of U.S. Babies Are Non-White For First Time, Census Finds
The Forums
TinfoilPalace:Why Fort Calhoun, Nebraska? I think I have the answer.
TinfoilPalace:Berlin Terror Attack Imminent?
TheOilAge:60 million barrels of petroleum reserves to world markets
TheOilAge:Mike Krieger sees widespread panic
Hubberts-Arms:Friday Rant: Stop Thinking Like a Middle Class American
Hubberts-Arms:Fed downgrades forecast for US economic growth
SilentCountry:How It Ends What Would War with Iran Look Like?
SilentCountry:ALERT: Job Screening Agency Archiving All Facebook
Thanks for yet another shout out, pamela. According to the stats, your site is one of the top referring sites to my blog! :)
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