so if the blog is late or anything, that's what's up.
Thanks to RJ at Global Glass Onion and the Ozarker at Conflicted Doomer, for their contributions and help. Be sure to check out their great blogs today!. Also, stop by the forums linked at the bottom of this post and join in the discussions!
You know, I don't read every single word of every single article that's posted here. Most times, I skim or speed read through it to get the general gist of it, there are just too many stories here to read them all, but, every now and then one comes along that grabs me and demands to be read, the following article from Intel Daily, is one of those stories.
This is the sort of thing that keeps me up at night. It also makes me consider unplugging completely from the digital world and just going Old School for communicating.
When you see stories now about how people "tweeted" and incited violence or revolution, think again.
Just a cautionary tale for you this Labor Day morning. I'm posting several snippets from the article. It's long but if you don't read anything else posted here today, read this article.
"From shady Wall Street banks and investment firms that rob people blind, to Western governments that prattle on about “democracy” and “human rights” while their favorite butchers torture and kill their own citizens, it’s a sick, sad world growing sicker and sadder by the hour."Sometimes I wonder if this free and open internet, hasn't been just one big trap after all.
"Last month, Bloomberg Markets Magazine revealed that when “Bahraini jailers armed with stiff rubber hoses” beat 39-year-old school administrator and human rights activist Abdul Ghani Al Khanjar in a windowless dungeon in Manama, his jailers were armed “with another kind of weapon: transcripts of his text messages and details from personal mobile phone conversations.”"
More than two years ago when a spate of corruption prosecutions were settled, Siemens wound up paying some $1.6 billion to the U.S. government under provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, “the largest fine for bribery in modern corporate history.”
"Faced with depleting oil and gas reserves, Bahrain’s industrial base has expanded rapidly over the past two decades and includes petrochemical, aluminum, oil refining, ship repairing and light manufacturing; it’s share of GDP from these sectors, compared to other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), is the highest in the region."
"According to Bloomberg Markets, “some products can also secretly activate laptop webcams or microphones on mobile devices. They can change the contents of written communications in mid-transmission, use voice recognition to scan phone networks, and pinpoint people’s locations through their mobile phones.”"
"In other words, not only can Trovicor’s Intelligence Platform spy on political dissidents, it can also fabricate communications thereby setting-up activists for more serious charges, particularly when authorities (falsely) accuse protest organizers of “fomenting violence” through messages they’ve artfully invented themselves.
One no longer need insert agents provocateurs into proscribed groups. With the Intelligence Platform one can spread disinformation or incite violence from the safety and security of a monitoring center. Think of the savings to security budgets in these deficit conscious times! "
Happy Labor Day guys!
Japan
IPSNews: Fukushima Blows Lid Off Exploited Labour
The Fukushima disaster has thrown up the first opportunity in decades to bring justice to thousands of unskilled workers who risk radioactive contamination to keep Japan’s nuclear power plants running.Global Conflict
AlJazeera: Palestinian statehood bid 'papers ready' - Official says reported US efforts to get Palestinians to halt their UN membership campaign will not succeed.
NYT: In Libya, Former Enemy Is Recast in Role of Ally
Telegraph: Libya: rebels certain Khamis Gaddafi killed - Libya's interim leaders are certain that Khamis Gaddafi, the youngest son of the vanquished dictator, is dead after a week of rumours that he had been killed in a heavily armed convoy close to Tarhouna.
Guardian: David Cameron wants to get even tougher with benefits cheats - The PM talks about putting more pressure on the unemployed to look for work and stricter penalties for those that refuse jobs
YahooFinance: Israelis turn out for largest economic protest - Israeli protest movement reaches biggest show of strength against rising prices, inequality
IBTimes: China is blocking release of Libya's frozen assets: NTC Head
Gurardian: Haitian president condemns UN over alleged sex attack by troops - Michel Martelly awaiting report detailing claims that five Uruguayan naval troops molested 18-year-old man at UN base
SeattlePI: Wave of deaths, arrests as ICRC visits Syria
McClatchy: Texas homeland security grants pay for latrine on wheels
In the years after the 9-11 terrorist attacks, Texas has grabbed at least $1.7 billion in federal Homeland Security grants, with large chunks of the money spent to beef up law enforcement communication and border security.
But a Star-Telegram examination of thousands of purchases also found a hodgepodge of spending, some of which might have taxpayers scratching their heads: a $21 fish tank in Seguin, a $24,000 latrine on wheels in Fort Worth, and a real pork project — a hog catcher in Liberty County.
Homeland Security paid for body bags, garbage bags and Ziploc bags.
If taxpayers had a say-so, they might have gone along with some purchases, such as $24,012 in body armor for the Houston Metropolitan Transit Authority. But what about the two 2011 Camaros, each $30,884, used in Kleberg County border enforcement?
Hacker News
BBC: RUPERT MURDOCH - A PORTRAIT OF SATAN
BusinessInsider: Tony Blair Is Godfather To Rupert Murdoch's Daughter - We're pretty sure you couldn't find a better indicator of the sordid relationship between press and politics in the UK than this.
RSN: Are WikiLeaks and Anonymous All We Have Left?
Financial News
MotherJones: 10 Eye-Popping Labor Day Stats
Spiegel: Self-Important Approach Worries Berlin’s Allies - Germany's neighbors and allies are growing increasingly concerned about Berlin's foreign policy direction. Some even fear that efforts to export its fiscal ideas could mean the prosperous country has lost sight of the European idea. Or worse yet, that it wants to dominate the currency union. The euro has failed, though more politically than economically, according to an article in the September edition of US magazine Vanity Fair. "Conceived as a tool for integrating Germany into Europe, and preventing Germans from dominating others, it has become the opposite," . "For better or for worse, the Germans now own Europe."
BBC: Bosses' bonuses up by 187% since 2002, report suggests - Average bonuses for directors of FTSE 350 companies have risen by 187% since 2002, without a corresponding rise in share prices, new research suggests.
USAToday: Floor traders disappearing at the New York Stock Exchange
BusinessInsider: Two Great Reads On The Failed Stimulus And The Horrible Economy
CalculatedRisk: Schedule for Week of September 4th
McClatchy: The earth moved during August, but Congress unlikely to budge
PoliticusUSA: Corporations Aren’t People: Why It Is Impossible For Apple To Be Unpatriotic
ZeroHedge: ABN Amro Complains About Interbank Liquidity Crunch, As CEO Says End Of Euro Would Make 1930s Seem Like "A Trifle"
Telegraph: IMF: global economy faces a 'threatening downward spiral' - The International Monetary Fund has called on the US and Europe to abandon fiscal austerity and switch to stimulus measures, warning that the global economy faces a "threatening downward spiral".
NYT: One Path to Better Jobs: More Density in Cities
JaredBernsteinBlog: Deregulation As A Jobs Program…Really?
CNN: CNN Poll: 8 in 10 think we're in a recession
BusinessInsider: Bad News For The EU: Angela Merkel's Party Suffers Historic Loss In Regional Election
BusinessInsider: The Weekend Is Over* And The Euro Heads Lower
CSMonitor: Full time unemployment rate declines slightly
Peak oil and Energy News
TheOilDrum: Tech Talk - NPRA and ANWR: Will They Help TAPS?
When I wrote about the Alaskan Pipeline last week, I noted that the pipeline was currently flowing at a volume of 495 kbd after the Alyeska folk who run the system had just issued a report indicating that there would be problems once the flow fell below 600 kbd. Checking the flow rate for August (posted on Sept 1), the flow rate has risen back to 539 kbd, with average flow for the year-to-date running at 568 kbd. (The EIA reported final average for 2010 was 589 kbd)Stockpedia: The Next Catastrophic Crunch Will Be Oil: Set to hit the USA just like In 2008
SeekingAlpha: Major Countries Burn Up Crude Reserves: Whether Big Oil Is In Trouble
Forbes: Has Peak Oil Come To The Non-Opec World? Maybe.
Forbes: Peak Oil: Supply and Demand
Environmental News
ThinkProgress: State Climatologist: “It’s Likely Much of Texas Will Still Be in Severe Drought” Next August, With Worse Water Shortages
Chron: Wind-driven fires kill woman, child in East Texas
GLADEWATER, Texas (AP) — A longtime Texas sheriff says it was the fastest-moving fire he has ever seen. Six homes were toppled within minutes, including one trailer where a woman and her 18-month-old daughter were killed because they couldn't escape in time.ExtinctionProtocol: Rare event sends S. Pacific waves crashing into California coasts
ThinkProgress: CO2 is Just a Trace Gas
Grist: Is planet-cooling balloon full of hot air?
IBTimes: Severe Solar Storm to Create Global Chaos and Complete Darkness
thanks to NYLongbow for the above link!
ExtinctionProtocol: Christchurch rattled by three more tremors on quake anniversary date
TechReview: Stem-Cell Engineering Offers a Lifeline to Endangered Species - A technology used to develop new medical treatments might one day revive endangered or extinct species.
Xinhuanet: Death toll from typhoon reaches 27 in Japan
OSAKA, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from the powerful typhoon that hit western Japan has reached 27, while 53 remains missing, Kyodo News reported Monday.
MinnPost: Is oil leaking in the Gulf from the BP spill site?
CNN: Tropical Storm Talas leaves 29 dead, 56 missing in Japan
America in Decline
NYT: Hope, Fear and Insomnia: Journey of a Jobless Man
NYT: China Benefits as U.S. Solar Industry Withers
Thanks to Matt Carding at the Teeming Brain for the following link
TheEconomist: Angst for the educated - A university degree no longer confers financial security
MSNBC: Postal Service on verge of going broke, shutting down - 'If Congress doesn't act, we will default,' postmaster general says
Food and Water
BBC: Somalia famine extends to Bay region
A sixth region of Somalia has been declared a famine area by the UN, which says the situation will only worsen in the coming months.
Some 750,000 could die in Somalia unless aid is stepped up, the UN warns
SHTFPlan: Water Wars: The Coming Global Crisis *Video*CNN: Vegas tries to kick its water addiction
Science and Technology
TechReview: Pakistan May Have to Abandon Cryptography Ban
As other countries have discovered, businesses need encrypted communications.
BoingBoing: Earliest Homo Erectus tools found in Kenya: 1.76 million years old - In the NYT, science writer John Noble Wilford reports that scientists have finally pinned a firm date on the earliest evidence of advanced tool-making by Homo erectus, a forerunner of modern humans. The new study dates the axe shown below to 1.76 million years ago.
BBC: Electric motor made from a single molecule - Ball and stick model of butyl methyl sulphide molecule (Nature Nanotechnology) The butyl methyl sulphide molecule whips round an axis defined by its single sulphur atom (blue)
Medical and Health
Guardian: German company involved in talks to take over NHS hospitals
Helios involved in discussions about 'potential opportunities in London' with officials from the health departmentBBC: Soil bacterium helps kill cancers - A bacterium found in soil is a showing promise as a way of delivering cancer drugs into tumours.
George said: "We are on the slippery slope in the direction of a US-style insurance system and have to stop patient choice being used a crowbar to lever in the marketisation of the NHS."
PBS: Drug Hoarders, Manufacturing Cuts Exacerbate Shortage of Key Medications - More than 180 critical drugs are in short supply across the United States. Betty Ann Bowser reports on the factors behind the shortages of key medications that are creating major problems for doctors and patients.
BBC: South Korea suicide toll doubles over a decade
Doomsteading, Gardening, Urban Farming
PeakOilBluesBlog: Of Hurricanes, Hubris and Hot Water
ABCNews: Want to Be Your Own Boss? Check Out 7 Tips for Starting Your Own Business
Other News
AllJazeera: Welcome to Booker, Texas! Unless you're from Al Jazeera
RawReplay: Neo-Nazi rally in Wisconsin vastly outnumbered by counterprotesters
YahooNews: 2 Mexicans deny terrorism, face 30 years for tweet
A former teacher turned radio commentator and a math tutor who lives with his mother sit in a prison in southern Mexico, facing possible 30-year sentences for terrorism and sabotage in what may be the most serious charges ever brought against anyone using a Twitter social network account.
NPR: Utah Ends 4-Day Workweek Experiment
BBDC: Rome monuments attacked by vandals
In the first attack, a man was caught on security cameras chipping two pieces off a marble statue on a fountain in the Piazza Navona.Politics
Hours later tourists watched as a man threw a rock at the famous Trevi Fountain in the centre of the city.
Police then said they caught an American student scaling a wall of the Colosseum to chip off pieces of marble.
TPM: Bachmann Dodges Question On Whether God Uses Weather To Send Messages (VIDEO)
The Forums
TinfoilPalace:Huge "NZ Swell" Hitting California
TinfoilPalace:Libya...could this be true?
TheOilAge:He sees a liquid desert?
TheOilAge:Turkey expels Israel's ambassador
Hubberts-Arms:Get ready East Coast, as you may get hit again later next week!
Hubberts-Arms:German endgame for EMU draws ever nearer
SilentCountry:Year Long Blackouts
SilentCountry:Well that was out of the blue.
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