Breaking News Wed. July 13, 2011

Good morning doomers!
Hope everyone is finding some way to keep cool. Be careful in the heat, it's pretty bad out there.

Here's an article that really bothered me. The fact that we have American citizens standing in line begging to be allowed to work under those conditions really tells me just how far down the crapper we have gone. What happened to our pride, what happened to our honor? How have we come to accept humiliation as part of the price of getting a job?  Dear God in heaven, is a stupid job worth this???
I don't think so. I read stories like this, and understand all too well why it is we aren't out in the streets protesting or raising hell. We're  broken.

MotherJones: A Visit to the Warehouse of Soul-Crushing Sadness (a must read article)

Indeed, it does say in the new-temp handout that there is no talking allowed on the warehouse floor. Also, there are no cell phones allowed. Like a high school teacher, Susie had a pile of phones she'd confiscated in a plastic bowl on her desk. Two sick days are allotted per year, and they must be excused; after that, the temp is terminated, doctor's note or no. Every temp is allowed one 30-minute break per day, and it must be taken in the break room. Every temp is required to have an ID badge. The cost of this badge is deducted from the temp's first paycheck, and is more than an hour's worth of wages.

I think this link from our friend Portals goes well with the above story too.
Well said Portals!
HubbertsArms: Obama says he cannot guarantee Social Security checks will go out on August 3
and you know Portals, (and everyone else) I get pretty fed up with people calling Social Security an "entitlement". That's like saying the money you get from your insurance company when your home burns down is an "entitlement".   

Thanks go out to RJ at Global Glass Onion, a great site with an impressive Friday round-up of financial news and to the Ozarker  at Conflicted Doomer, whose articles continue to amaze me with their wisdom and thoughtfulness. Be sure to support them and their work as well as the work of all our other bloggers linked on the left and the forums down below!


Japan
Grist: Tepco bulldozed hill that could have prevented Fukushima disaster
When engineers first assessed the future home of the Fukushima nuclear power plant that would eventually melt down in response to a tsunami, the site featured a striking, 82-feet-high bluff that overlooked the ocean below.
It was more than high enough to have withstood the tsunami that struck the site in March. But a cost-benefit calculation indicated that controlling company Tepco could save money if it put the plant’s cooling seawater pumps nearer to sea level. So Tepco leveled the hill with bulldozers.

Global Conflict
McClatchy: Pakistan holds doctor who tried to collect bin Laden DNA
ScienceMag: At Science Journalism Confab, Arab-Israeli Tensions Caused Disruptions
IBTimes: Karzai heads murdered brother’s funeral 
YahooNews: Pakistan could "pull troops from Afghan border" if U.S. cuts aid
FoxNews: Rights Group: Libyan Rebels Loot Seized Towns 
CNN: Palestinian man dies after being shot by Israeli soldiers in West Bank
Jerusalem (CNN) -- Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian man in the West Bank town of Nablus early Wednesday, after an explosive device was thrown at them, Israel Defense Forces and Palestinian medical services said.
The man was shot while fleeing the area and was evacuated by Palestinian medics, according to IDF. The Israeli military did not know if the man shot was the one who threw the explosive device.
CNN: Iran rejects U.S. claim it is supporting insurgents in Iraq
BBC: Syria unrest: Blast hits gas pipeline in Deir al-Zour
An explosion has hit a gas pipeline in north-eastern Syria, although production has not been affected, residents and officials said.
TheStar: Gadhafi ‘prepared to leave,’ says French foreign minister
MSNBC: Report: 10 dead, 60 hurt in Mumbai terror attack
Police appeal for calm after three explosions hit India's business capital  


Hacker News
MaxKeiser: “Mr Rockefeller said he was concerned that hacking by News Corporation journalists may have extended to American targets, including victims of the 11 September attacks.”

Financial News
FederalReserve.Gov: Chairman Ben S. Bernanke
Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the Congress
Before the Committee on Financial Services, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. July 13, 2011
TheTelegraph: Italy and Spain must pray for a miracle
Once again Europe's debt crisis has metastasized, and once again the financial authorities face systemic contagion unless they take immediate and dramatic action.
BusinessInsider: Alan Greenspan Blames The Bad U.S. Economy On The Lazy Young Work Force And The U.S. Copying China
Independent: Ireland's debt junked as euro crisis spreads 
NYT: : E.U. Vows to Back Banks That Fail Stress Tests 
Spiegel: German Banking Expert on Euro Crisis
'Punishing Italy Is a Rational Thing to Do'
StateLine: Coming this fall: big tuition hikes
For a telling example of the money troubles facing public colleges and universities, consider Pennsylvania. On June 30, Governor Tom Corbett signed a state budget that slashes funding for higher education by 19 percent, and school officials smiled with relief. 
GlobeandMail: Video: Greece default officially on the table 
CSMonitor: McConnell's last ditch debt ceiling plan: What's in it for Republicans?
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell proposes a 'last choice option' that would allow President Obama to raise the national debt ceiling without GOP support.
CNBC: Rosengren: Fiscal austerity means Fed must stay easy
WashingtonPostOpinion: A modest proposal: Congress should get retirement benefits at same age as the rest of us
CrooksandLiars: Reagan Proved Deficits Don't Matter 
FinancialPeoples: Authorities could bail out banks again, S&P says
DeclineoftheEmpire: Buying Off Washington To Kill Financial "Reform"
BusinessInsider: New York City's Population Of Millionaires Increased By 52,800 In The Past Year
Time.Moneyland: Social Networking Gone Wild: Foreclosure via Facebook
MyBudget360: A brave new banking system
While public is told banking system is healthy FDIC quietly grows troubled bank list by 180 and adds over 1,600 employees in the last two years to deal with bank failures.
CounterPunch: Memo to Obama: Creat More Jobs or Resign
From Bad to Worse. Abysmal.
That's the only way to describe the latestjob's report. The whole thing stunk. And, on top of that, the unemployment rate has been heading higher for the last 3 months. It's now at 9.2 percent a full two years into the recovery. That's unprecedented. Where are the jobs, that's what everyone wants to know.
EVRO: Sarkozy wants a summit, but Merkel does not want to go
FT: Morning papers: Markets rocked as debt crisis deepens
AmericanDream: How Globalism Has Destroyed Our Jobs, Businesses And National Wealth In 10 Easy Steps 
BillyBlog: Lies, damned lies, and statistics
OffTheCharts: The Bankrupt Claim of Medicare Bankruptcy 
Bloomberg: Russia Seeks to Loosen Rating Companies’ Grip
Russia and members of the Eurasian Economic Community, a grouping of former Soviet republics, are seeking to loosen the dominance of U.S. credit-rating companies and may set up an independent rival next year. 

NYT: Why Taxes Will Rise in the End 
DMarron: How Will Quantitative Tightening Work?
WSJ: As Talks Stall, New Debt Plan Offered
McConnell Breaks GOP Ranks, Says the President Should Be Given Authority to Raise the Borrowing Limit on His Own
NakedCapitalism: Bank of America $8.5 Billion Mortgage “Settlement” Under Fire
Bloomberg: Federal Reserve Needs QE3 to Boost Economic Growth, Berkeley’s DeLong Says
BusinessInsider: Jamie Dimon Is Running A "House Of Ill Repute"
ZeroHedge: Rating Agency Wars 2: The New Evil Empire Strikes Back
Dagong Says Likely To Downgrade US Even If Debt Limit Raised

NPR: What The 'New Normal' Means For Americans
BusinessInsider: STOCKS FALL AFTER FREAK BLIZZARD OF NEWS: Here's What You Need To Know 
FT: Time is of the essence, any US budget deal will do
CNNMoney: Connecticut employees get layoff notices
IBTimes: Analysis: China to see bumpy patch, but no crisis, on local debt
BusinessInsider: Ireland Just Got Cut To Junk
ZeroHedge: Moody's Downgrades Ireland From Baa3 To Junk
DailyBail: Matt Taibbi On Iowa AG Tom Miller: The Best Way To Raise Massive Campaign Funds? Investigate The Banks 
NYT: Hopes Dwindling for Compromise in Budget Talks 
Bloomberg: U.K. Jobless Claims Rise More Than Expected
BusinessInsider: Since $800 Billion In Stimulus Didn't Work, Keynesians Want To Double Down 
WatertownDailyTimes: Go after tax cheaters, let Social Security be
ZeroHedge: Guest Post: Chongqing - The Largest Construction Site In The World 
MyBudget360: A brave new banking system
While public is told banking system is healthy FDIC quietly grows troubled bank list by 180 and adds over 1,600 employees in the last two years to deal with bank failures. 
WSJ: Italy to Beef Up Austerity 
WSJ: Aging Poses Budget Headache for U.K.
LONDON—The U.K.'s budget watchdog Wednesday said increasing longevity will eventually put the country's debt burden on an unsustainable path without higher taxes or further cuts to public spending. 
GlobeandMail: Premarket: China fuels global stock rally
Bloomberg: Dodd-Frank Rules Make Mortgages Less Profitable 
YahooFinance: Greece Cannot Be Saved: If Italy and Spain Follow, So Goes the Entire EU, Says Ruparel 
Reuters: White House: Debt deal needed in "matter of days" 
(Reuters) - The White House said on Tuesday a debt deal needs to be reached in a "matter of days" because of the looming Aug. 2 deadline for raising the national debt ceiling to avoid default. White House spokesman Jay Carney also rejected as "unfortunate" a comment by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell that a real solution to the U.S. debt problem is probably not possible as long as President Barack Obama remains in office. 


Peak oil and Energy News
EnergyBulletin: Petroleum Propaganda 101: Develop vs Deplete by Richard Heinberg 
TreeHugger: Solar Cells Can Now Be Printed on Anything, Even Paper and Fabric

Bloomberg: Pickens Losing to Koch in Natural-Gas Feud
T. Boone Pickens, who’s been saying for more than a year that Congress was poised to pass his plan to subsidize natural-gas vehicles, may not have been expecting opposition led by fellow billionaire Charles Koch.
ScientificAmerican: Exxon submits draft clean-up plan in Montana oil spill
EarlyWarning: Saudi oil Production Up 450kbd in June 
At least according to the OPEC MOMR out this morning.  Well, well, well - maybe we really are going to see 10mbd in July, notwithstanding my increasing scepticism.  Or then again, who knows?
TheStar: CEOs back national energy strategy 
Big business in Canada has thrown its support behind the need for a national energy strategy, a topic the country’s energy ministers will tackle next week.
theGlobeandMail? Oil markets face production shortfall in second half 
Reuters: US gasoline demand down last week as prices rise 
SeattleTimes: Oil hovers below $98 as US crude supplies jump 
Oil prices hovered below $98 a barrel Wednesday in Asia after a report showed U.S. crude supplies unexpectedly rose last week, suggesting demand is weak.
UPI: OPEC report: Crude production growing
CNN: U.S. calls for stepped-up safety at nuclear plants 

Commodities/Metals
BusinessInsider: GOLD RECORD
(I got this story at 7:30 a.m. EST so no telling where gold will be by this afternoon.)
Gold just hit a new record of $1579.70.


Environmental News
theState: V.C. Summer plant (South Carolina) Radioactive waste leaks at nuclear plant
Officials say no threat posed, but federal safety team continues to investigate
BBC: Thousands stranded in Bolivia after unusually heavy snow
ABCNews: Heat Wave Alerts (video)
TimesRecordNews: Herds are hurting: Extreme drought may put ranchers out of business

Wichita Falls has exceeded 100-degree highs 39 of the past 40 days. There was a string of 100-plus degree days before that. By this date in a normal year, Wichita Falls would have received about 16 inches of rain. This year it has been just over 3 inches. Forecasters are not optimistic about substantial rain between now and September.
The few thunderstorms that have come have been spotty at best, often leaving lightning-ignited wildfires along their paths.
"We're done. Everybody is just trying to salvage what they can," Coker said.

ModernSurvivalBlog: US Drought 2011 Rivals the Dust Bowl 

ExtinctionProtocol: Pronounced magma bulge seen at Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano 
NYT: Fracking Water Killed Trees, Study Finds 
CNNMoney: 6 'green' products: How green are they?
The trouble with consumer scoring systems is that consumption is really about give and take. All products - no matter how 'green' - impact the planet in some way.
ExtinctionProtocol: Massive June explosion on the Sun continues to mystify NASA scientists
NYT: In Midwest, Flutters May Be Far Fewer

As recently as a decade ago, farms in the Midwest were commonly marred — at least as a farmer would view it — by unruly patches of milkweed amid the neat rows of emerging corn or soybeans.
Not anymore. Fields are now planted with genetically modified corn and soybeans resistant to the herbicide Roundup, allowing farmers to spray the chemical to eradicate weeds, including milkweed.
ABCNews: Are Monarch Butterflies Threatened by Genetically Modified Crops?
Wired: Rare Hermaphrodite Butterfly Hatches in London Museum

Slate: Consider the Weed, In defense of botanical trespassers.
The first weeds were created 10,000 years ago, when the first fields were cultivated, and the concept of the botanical trespasser—the "plant in the wrong place"—was invented. Seven thousand years later, Middle Eastern farmers, still disgruntled at having lost their hunter-gatherer lifestyle, wrote a creation myth in which agriculture and its accompanying weeds are a celestial punishment for their cleverness. Genesis' god condemns errant humans to till the soil "in the sweat of they face ... cursed is the ground for thy sake ... thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee."
WashingtonPost: U.S. bakes under extreme heat, half of population under heat advisory or warning

NationalGeographic: Carcass Disposal–A Conservation Tool for Predators: Interview with Dr. Seth Wilson
ScienceDaily: Fire to Become Increasingly Important Driver of Atmospheric Change in Warming World
Wired: Beehive Fences Keep African Elephants Away From Crops
DesdemonaDespair: East Africa famine crisis of ‘unimaginable proportions’ looms
‘My 3-year-old was the first in our group to die. We buried her and kept on walking.

WashingtonPost: Save the bees, save the world
ClimateProgress: The Scoop on Poop: Turning Sewage Sludge into Energy and Dollars 
ClimateProgress: Climate Change Reducing Ocean’s Carbon Dioxide Uptake 
Yale.edu: Phosphate: A Critical Resource Misused and Now Running Low
Phosphate has been essential to feeding the world since the Green Revolution, but its excessive use as a fertilizer has led to widespread pollution and eutrophication. Now, many of the world’s remaining reserves are starting to be depleted.
TechReview: Solar Wind Changes Atmospheric Pressure over South Korea
Evidence is growing that interplanetary magnetic fields can have a significant influence on our weather.

America in Decline
RawStory: Human rights group calls for Bush, top officials to be prosecuted for torture
LegitGov: Vandals attack Raleigh Planned Parenthood
Salon: Rupert Murdoch, tax cheat
Remember how outraged everyone on Fox was that GE paid no taxes last year? Funny story...
zdnet: US law enforcement agencies increasingly obtaining Facebook warrants
Homeland Security gives MTA 10$ Million Dollars for Psyops Ad Campaign. 
Cryptogon: ‘Emergency’ Declared in Arizona Town Over Corruption Allegations
The far western Arizona town of Quartzsite was in a state of upheaval Monday after the town council ousted the mayor from power and declared a state of emergency, all over an online video that shows a woman being arrested.  
SeattlePI: Census: Share of children in US hits record low 
Children now make up less of America's population than ever before, even with a boost from immigrant families. And when this generation grows up, it will become a shrinking work force that will have to support the nation's expanding elderly population — even as the government strains to cut spending for health care, pensions and much else.  The latest 2010 census data show that children of immigrants make up one in four people under 18, and are now the fastest-growing segment of the nation's youth, an indication that both legal and illegal immigrants as well as minority births are lifting the nation's population.Currently, the share of children in the U.S. is 24 percent, falling below the previous low of 26 percent of 1990. The share is projected to slip further, to 23 percent by 2050, even as the percentage of people 65 and older is expected to jump from 13 percent today to roughly 20 percent by 2050 due to the aging of baby boomers and beyond.
NakedCapitalism: Surveillance State Tactics Increasing: Police Starting to Use Facial Recognition Devices
An article in the Wall Street Journal discusses a disturbing new trend: that of local police forces starting to use hand held face recognition devices. The implements allow for a picture taken at up to a five foot distance to be compared to images of individuals with a criminal record. They can also take fingerprints.
Good: Zuckers! Facebook Has Secretly Been Giving User Info to Cops

We've told you before that Facebook treats its users like products. That companies now exist to search for your Facebook account and tell your bosses your secrets. That people are quitting Facebook en masse. Now, there's yet another reason you might want to make the switch to Google+: Facebook has gotten into the habit of allowing police to scour users' profiles without their consent.

EconomicCollapse: Outcasts: Tonight Tens Of Thousands Of Formerly Middle Class Americans Will Be Sleeping In Their Cars, In Tent Cities Or On The Streets
(originally posted at Hummberts-Arms by Brennus)

Food and Water
WSJ: Big Water Users Get Flak in Drought
Calls for Surcharges as Vast Amounts Consumed by Wealthy Palm Beach Residents Draw Ire of Neighbors
BigPictureAgriculture: Farm Raised Fish Video From Maine and TIME magazine's Aquaculture Issue
TreeHugger: British Columbia Man Faces Six Months in Jail for Growing Food 

FoodNavigator: ConAgra challenged over “100% natural” claim on Wesson oils
ConAgra Foods is facing two class action lawsuits that claim the marketing of its Wesson cooking oils as “100% natural” and "pure" is misleading because the oil is extracted from plants that have been genetically modified (GM).
TruthOut: Monsanto and Gates Foundation Push GE Crops on Africa

Skimming the Agricultural Development section of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation web site is a feel-good experience: African farmers smile in a bright slide show of images amid descriptions of the foundation's fight against poverty and hunger. But biosafety activists in South Africa are calling a program funded by the Gates Foundation a "Trojan horse" to open the door for private agribusiness and genetically engineered (GE) seeds, including a drought-resistant corn that Monsanto hopes to have approved in the United States and abroad.

Greed,Green,Grains: Dust Bowl II?

There's a lot more drought news these days (they gave me a quote all the way at the end of the story).  By some measures, particularly the US Drought Monitor, things look pretty bad.But the time-series plot at the NY Times doesn't go back very far in time.

MarginalRevolution: Do supermarkets improve our diets?

Better access to supermarkets — long touted as a way to curb obesity in low-income neighborhoods — doesn’t improve people’s diets, according to new research. The study, which tracked thousands of people in several large cities for 15 years, found that people didn’t eat more fruits and vegetables when they had supermarkets available in their neighborhoods.
Instead, income — and proximity to fast food restaurants — were the strongest factors in food choice.

Science and Technology

 ScientificAmerican: Teenage Cancer Researcher Wins Top Prize at Google Science Fair
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.—A high-school student from Fort Worth, Texas, won top honors July 11 at the first annual Google Science Fair for her project on drug resistance in ovarian cancer. Shree Bose, 17, investigated the connection between an enzyme called AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and resistance to the chemotherapy drug cisplatin.
Discovery: Triceratops Was Last Dinosaur Standing
The 65 million-year-old find suggests a meteor may have wiped out the dinosaurs in a sudden catastrophic event.
TheTelegraph: Meteorite did kill the dinosaurs, fossil shows
A horn from one of the last surviving dinosaurs could be clinching evidence that a massive meteor strike ended the extinct reptiles' reign on Earth.
PopSci: Researchers Use DNA to Coax Quantum Dots Into Self-Assembling into a Light Antenna 
ArchaeologyNewsNetwork: Carthaginian temples found in the Azores
Archaeologists from the Portuguese Association of Archeological Research (APIA) believe to have found in the Azores a significant number of Carthaginian temples, from the fourth century BC, dedicated to the goddess Tanit. 
PopSci: Moaning Mouth-Bot Learns to Croon, Is Even Creepier Than Ever

Medical and Health
BusinessInsider: Should Obese Kids Be Taken From Their Parents And Put Into Foster Care?
An opinion piece in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association says putting overweight children into foster care is more ethical than obesity surgery.
BeforeItsNews: Natural Pain Relief From Poisonous Shrub, Extract Is Alternative To Morphine
Discovery: New Deer Tick Disease Makes a Comeback
Lyme disease isn't the only worry for outdoor lovers this summer. Deer ticks (Ixodes scapularis) also carry a lesser known parasite that gives rise to a potentially fatal illness called babesiosis.
BeforeItsNews: Molasses Extract Decreases Obesity Caused By A High-Fat Diet
M&C: World's first double leg transplant carried out in Spain
CNN: Men more likely to die of cancer 
AtlanticWire: No, Really: You Don't Need to Drink Eight Glasses of Water a Day
TheChart: Heat hurts your insides too
KurzweilAI: Cannabinoid receptors protect against aging


Doomsteading, Gardening, Urban Farming
TulsaWorld: Expecting hard times, more people are growing, stocking up on food
DoomerInCanada: Water - A Guest Post 
TreeHugger: The History of the Bathroom Part 1: Before the Flush
WikiHow: How to Store Beer 
SHTFPlan: Former Intelligence Chief: Expect Intensified Social Conflicts, Social Hostility, Civil Unrest, Extremism
EnergyBulletin: How to share land

When looking through the lens of collaborative consumption or the mesh, it's easy to see how many of our needs can be met through sharing with others to some lesser or greater degree. Surveying this communally inclined world, we find that our homes, cars, jobs, time, and more can easily be shared. Land is another asset that can and should be shared, one that is in high demand as rising food prices and the desire for healthy food blooms alongside the 'Grow Your Own' movement's current momentum.
In 2009, Landshare was launched in the UK to do just that — share land. As stated on the website, “The concept is simple: to connect people who wish to grow food with landowners willing to donate spare land for cultivation.” A mere two years later, more than 60,000 people have signed up to share some 3,000 acres of land across every region of the country.

Other News
USAToday: Carmageddon predicted for L.A.'s 405 closing 
CloserLook: Obama rejects GOP call to ‘screw students’
StrategyPage: Dogs of War: Doggles

TheHill: House turns out lights on Barton's bulb bill
ABCNews: A Restaurant to Ban Kids Under 6 -- Older Customers Complained About Rowdiness
CommonDreams: Bxxxxxt the Sxxxxxxxxxs! Israeli Knesset Bans Free Speech for Jews
USAToday: GOP presidential hopeful Ron Paul to retire from House 
RawStory: Michele Bachmann refuses to answer questions about her husband’s clinic
Republican presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann (MN) has remained silent on her husband's Christian counseling center, which reportedly practices a discredited "reparative therapy" aimed at converting patients into heterosexuals. 
NPR: Truck Crash Releases 14 Million Angry Bees, And Honey, On Highway
The weekend did not end well for fire and police personnel near Island Park, Idaho, where 14 million bees went berserk after a semi wrecked on a highway Sunday afternoon. The truck was carrying more than 400 hives; crews didn't finished cleaning what was called a river of honey off the road until late Monday.
RawStory: Wisconsin Democrats defeat fake candidates in primary election 
Slate: Trial by Fury
Jury trials aren't always satisfying, but they're better than angry mobs.
CBSNews: Dismembered remains of missing NYC boy Leiby Kletzky found


The Forums
TinfoilPalace:Historic Black Out in Chicago
TinfoilPalace:Matthew Message (Channelled Material)
TheOilAge:Perth Mint has no bullion? 
TheOilAge:TAE: As Italy sinks, France is leaking  
Hubberts-Arms:US 'hacker next door' gets 18-year sentence: report
Hubberts-Arms:Why We’re Screwed (Part 3) – The Social Security “Trust Fund” is a Lie
SilentCountry:Oil demand set to increase in 2012, IEA says
SilentCountry:Lower student loan payments, forgiveness for non-profit workers