Breaking News Thurs. Sept. 22, 2011

I hope everyone is having a lovely day today. It's dark and overcast and cool here, just like I like it!

Evidently the word "significant" is and extremely powerful magic word that can crash global markets!
Who knew? LOL

Also, here's a short, must read for you today. Remember a while back there was a story out about a miserable shipping warehouse in Ohio? Well, it was Amazon.
MotherJones: The Real Price of Amazon's Free Shipping

The Ohio warehouse I visited in June was the same kind of benefitless sweat-box. (It also sounds a lot like the sweltering warehouse described to my colleague Josh Harkinson here.) The Pennsylvania warehouse mentioned in the Morning Call article was not actually run by Amazon, just like the warehouse I was in wasn't run by the retailers whose product they shipped; both are staffed by temporary workers from a contract agency. Amazon responded by saying, "The safety and well-being of our associates is our number one priority." Hmm, no statement yet on whether they're going to make their contractors treat their employees like human beings. In the meantime, every one of Amazon's millions of customers should write them a really angry letter demanding change. Except we won't. Because then our shipping wouldn't be free.

and this little tid bit from the Ozarker. LOL
Today: Disgraced pastor Ted Haggard to appear on 'Celebrity Wife Swap'

And here's this from RJ

Oh and if you didn't have enough to worry about, there's always things like this.
ExtinctionProtocol: Turbulent region of the Sun turning Earthward- X-class flare unleashed by large sunspot

One of these days guys, BAM!

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 as well as the forums linked at the bottom of this post.

Japan
SafeCast: Safecasting inside the evacuation zone
LegitGov: Fukushima Fallout Reached California Waters
CNN: Death toll climbs as Roke leaves Japan

Global Conflict
TheAtlantic: 'Netanyahu Must Be Stopped From Attacking Iran'
McClatchy: For Libyans, photos of the dead recall their sad history

Portraits of the dead cover every wall around the main plaza in the coastal city of Benghazi, the cradle of the revolt against Moammar Gadhafi. This makeshift memorial to the victims of Gadhafiês 42-year rule is a place where Benghazi families can, for the first time, share their private heartbreak with the wider community. (Roy Gutman/MCT) | Roy Gutman / MCT

AlJazeera: Drug violence hits Mexican education
Teachers go on strike saying they are targets of drug gangs, leaving 60,000 students without classes.
LegitGov: Obama Rebuffed as Palestinians Pursue U.N. Seat
Telegraph: Mexico: gunmen dump 35 dead bodies on busy street - Masked gunmen have blocked traffic on a busy avenue in a Gulf of Mexico coastal city and dumped the bodies of 35 murder victims as horrified motorists watched.

Reuters: U.S. - Pakistan's ISI supported Kabul embassy attack
TheAtlantic: Oman Foots $1 Million Bail to Free U.S. Hikers
SeacostOnline: Afghan president: Rabbani's killer staged a ruse  
SeattlePI: NATO says Gadhafi fighters continue to be threat
McClatchy: Think things are crooked in Mexico City? You're right

Financial News
MaxKeiser: [KR187] Keiser Report: Troika Tanks, Junta Bots & a Run on French Banks

RawStory: ‘Job-killing regulations’ actually just shift jobs within the economy
BusinessInsider: ROUBINI: Recession Is At This Point Unavoidable, And It Could Be Worse Than 2008 
CNNMoney: World markets in big sell-off

ZeroHedge: Guest Post: Bundesbank Ready To Pull The Euro's Ripcord?
SFGate: Fed moves to reduce cost of borrowing 
SeattleTimes: Airline industry rips Obama's fee proposal
GlobeandMail: Bank of England set to pump more funds into economy 
BusinessInsider: Morgan Stanley: There Were Two Big Surprises From The Fed Yesterday
BusinessInsider: 17 Deteriorating US And European Manufacturing Indices In 2 Charts
Guardian: Government borrowing hits record August high
• Public sector borrowing hit £15.9bn last month
• City analysts were expecting £13.2bn
• Bank of England minutes hint at more QE
ProjectSyndicate: Nouriel Roubini: How to Prevent a Depression
My 8-point plan on "How to Prevent a Depression" & a financial crisis since a recession is at this point unavoidable 
ECB: 21 September 2011 - ECB publishes an updated version of the General Documentation industry to eliminate jobs.
BBC: Shares fall sharply on Federal Reserve warning - The world's economy "is in a danger zone" according to the president of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick.
BusinessInsider: Meanwhile, Greece Isn't The Only Place Where Austerity Is Failing
GlobeandMail: China factory output falls, prices rise  
GlobeandMail: IMF predicts China at risk for financial turbulence 
DetNews: Moody's cuts Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citi ratings
Krugman: Millionaires, The Middle Class, and Taxes — Actual Numbers 

Jim Rogers: Next global recession will be worse than 2008 

 MaxKeiser: As predicted, crafty, reunified Germans want to go their own way
NJ.com: Merck speeding up layoffs of many US employees 
Bloomberg: India’s Money Supply Rose 16.4% in Year to Sept. 9, RBI Says
DSNews: Past Due Mortgages = 6,397,000
WSJ: Volcker Rule May Lose Its Bite - Draft Proposal Would Allow Proprietary Trading by Banks; Hedging Definition Gets a Wider Berth
Bloomberg: U.S. Offers Cash to States That Reject Insurer Requests to Raise Premiums
CalculatedRisk: Existing Home Sales in August: 5.0 million SAAR, 8.5 months of supply
MacroMarketMusings: Maybe the GOP Leadership Has Known All Along
Reuters: Why mortgage servicing won’t get fixed
Bloomberg: European Stocks Slide as Fed Sees Risks to Economy; Rio Sinks
TheEconomist: Take that, Congress  
ZeroHedge: The Fed Disappointed... The Great Collapse is Here
WSJ: IMF Getting a Little More Worried About China
MSN: IMF sees Greek debt hitting 189% of GDP next year - Greece's debt will surge to 189.1 percent of gross domestic product next year, the International Monetary Fund said Tuesday, far higher than its June projection of 172 percent.
Bloomberg: Italian Consumer Groups to Sue S&P After Italian Downgrade
DailyBail: Elizabeth Warren Makes Geithner Squirm Over AIG Counterparty Payments To Goldman Sachs
GlobeandMail: Europe’s struggle to survive: A devastating human toll

WashingtonPost: How Congress could risk a government shutdown over clean-energy loans
Reuters: House unexpectedly defeats spending bill - A bill that would fund the government past September 30 unexpectedly failed in the House of Representatives on Wednesday as dozens of Republicans broke with party leaders and Democrats objected to a cut to an electric-vehicle program.
WashingtonPost: How Congress could risk a government shutdown over clean-energy loans
BlackListedNews: Moody's downgrades Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup
CreditWritedownsTreason? - So the Fed has gone ahead and done Operation Twist even though the Republican congressional leaders took the unprecedented step of politicizing the Fed and trying to dictate policy. If you believed the Republican leaders, you would say this is reckless monetary policy aimed specifically at supporting President Obama, a Democrat. Is Bernanke ‘almost treasonous’ then, as Rick Perry has said he is? Here’s my take. Bernanke is a Republican. Let’s get that out of the way.  
MoneyWatch: Social Security Strategies: Older, Lower-Earning Spouses
ZeroHedge: It's Gangrene, Not Contagion
YahooFinance: Stocks nosedive after Fed's gloomy assessment - Stocks nosedive after Fed releases gloomy assessment of economy; investors ignore new stimulus 
BusinessInsider: EL-ERIAN WARNS: "These Are All The Signs Of An Institutional Run On French Banks"
DailyBail: Elizabeth Warren On The National Debt, Taxes & War
DeclineoftheEmpire: Let's Destroy The Village In Order To Save It

Unbeknownst to most Americans, there is an argument raging among economists and politicos over whether the United States needs "just a little inflation" to jump-start the economy. Those on the liberal side of the fence want an activist Fed to create an inflation target of about 4-5% and set in motion monetary policies to get us there. (Print more money, and make sure it circulates in the economy.) Those on the other side think that's crazy. So do I.

Peak oil and Energy News
(And of course, MIT weighs in on the side of endless innovation and tech to the rescue in regards to Yergin's book.)
TechReview: Peak Oil Debunked - Daniel Yergin's new book is a valuable guide to how energy drives the world's economy.
EconBrowser: Changing behavior of crude oil futures prices
CNNMoney: Global energy use to jump 53%
ArabNews: World oil use seen up 27% by 2035
NYT: OPEC Says Producers Will Cut Back Once Libya Output Recovers
EnergyBulletin: IEO 2011: a misleadingly optimistic energy forecast by the EIA
EnergyBulletin: The peak oil crisis: the German army report 
UPI: Gulf leases could hit snag in U.S.
TheOilDrum: ASPO-USA Conference, November 2 - 5, Washington DC

Commodities/Metals
MineWeb: China base metals demand growth exceeds GDP
Speaking on the sidelines of a China Metal Forum in Stockholm, the president of China Non-ferrous Techno-Economic Research Institute said on Wednesday that the country's base metals demand is about 10% higher than the GDP growth rate.
MineWeb: Rare earths shortages could exacerbate U.S. foreign policy risks, Congress told
U.S. rare earth reserves are economical to mine, which can help ease foreign policy challenges concerning rare earths, while creating U.S. jobs, says the Center for a New American Security.
MineWeb: Online gold buying gets a boost in India during traditionally inauspicious period
While traditional Indians observe a period of mourning and stay away from the gold market, store operators and traders are wooing them back with online discounts, hoping customers flood the internet to buy gold

Environmental News
Guardian: Chevron loses latest stage of Amazon pollution battle
New York appeals judge unfreezes $18bn damages award over contamination of indigenous tribe's land in Ecuador
ExtinctionProtocol: 5.1 magnitude earthquake strikes subduction zone south of Mount Tambora
ExtinctionProtocol: Low pressure system morphs into full-blown tropical storm overnight: Caribbean to meet TS Ophelia
BBCNews: Deadly bird disease trichomonosis 'spreads to Europe' - A disease that is killing greenfinches and chaffinches in the UK has now spread to Europe, scientists report.
Bloomberg: Shale Drilling Must Improve to Protect Environment, GDF Says
Statesman: Texas files case against EPA over clean air rules

America in Decline
CBSNews: Troy Davis executed, supporters cry injustice 
AmericanProspect: Executed Until Proven Guilty - How America executed Troy Davis without proving he committed the crime
MSNBC: Board strips Kansas City schools' accreditation - District loses ranking after failing to reach state performance standards
CNN: Social Security -- Are you kidding me?

Grand Rapids, Michigan (CNN) -- I think I stopped trusting the U.S. government right after learning that for 40 years, instead of treating a small group of poor, uneducated people officials had identified as having syphilis, officials not only withheld the diagnosis from them, but the cure as well, just to see what would happen if the disease went untreated.
This was done even if what would happen was eventually death, which is why burial insurance was given to the unsuspecting victims as if the government was doing them a favor.

GlobalPublicSquare: Where is America still #1? Coolness
TheForecaster: Food pantries in greater Portland struggle to keep up with demand
TheLedger: More Working Folks Showing Up at Food Pantries - Demand for aid has exploded during the economic downturn.

Cynthia Thomas sits in her RV parked in the Florida City RV park Monday. She and her husband moved to Florida 10 years ago from New Orleans thinking they would have a better life. But now, she describes her life as "bare minimal living" where they sometimes go a day without eating.
CecilWhig: Behind the poverty numbers: real lives, real pain
NewsChannel10: Homeless students on the rise in Amarillo
ACLU: Will the Senate Forget the Lessons from Japanese-American Internment?
The U.S. Senate is considering the unthinkable, changing detention laws to imprison people – including Americans – indefinitely and without charge. Before they proceed, they should review our own history by listening to the voices of the last people systematically targeted and detained by the U.S. government: Japanese-Americans.
LAT: Two Fullerton police officers charged in homeless man's death
One is charged with second-degree murder and another is accused of involuntary manslaughter in the slaying of Kelly Thomas, who suffered from schizophrenia.
DailyBail: STUDY: 25 Of Highest Paid CEOs Earned MORE Than Their Companies Paid In Taxes, Others Spent More On Lobbying Than Taxes 

Food and Water
CredoAction: Grocery store CEOs: Refuse Monsanto's GMO sweet corn!
BigPictureAgriculture: Income For the Average American Farm Comes from Off-Farm Sources
MSNBC: Tainted cantaloupe toll rises to 55 illnesses, 8 deaths - Listeria infections affecting elderly people; more could be sickened 
MSBC: Asian Carp tacos? Illinois launches anti-hunger program - Officials try to combat the yuck factor, turn an invasive species into a solution for hunger

Science and Technology
WashingtonPost: Innovation’s down, but at least patent trolls are thriving
Innovation seems to be on the wane lately: “The quality of new patents around the world has fallen dramatically over the past two decades,” concludes a new OECD report on science and technology trends.
ArchaeologyNewsNetwork: Dig reveals human skulls mounted on stakes
Several human skulls found mounted on wooden stakes have been uncovered from a Stone Age lake bed in central Sweden in what is believed to be the first discovery of its kind anywhere in the world.
Wired: Unique Gait Can Give Crooks Away - The way we walk could be used as an accurate way of identifying us, according to an international team of bioengineers who analyzed the foot pressure patterns created by 104 subjects. They found they were able to identify individuals with a 99.6 percent accuracy.
PopSci: New Theory on World Trade Center Collapse Blames Explosive Chemical Reaction
Cryptogon: Next Generation Hardware Specification Could Prevent Computers from Booting Linux
ScientificAmerican: Scientists Worry Over "Bizarre" Trial on Earthquake Prediction
A trial such as that starting today in Italy is unlikely in the U.S. but American seismologists are watching closely
SpaceWeather: RE-ENTRY UPDATE: NASA has issued an update on the condition of the decaying UARS satellite: "As of 1:30 p.m. EDT Sept. 21, 2011, the orbit of UARS was 120 mi by 130 mi (190 km by 205 km). Re-entry is expected sometime during the afternoon of Sept. 23, Eastern Daylight Time. The satellite will not be passing over North America during that time period. It is still too early to predict the time and location of re-entry with any more certainty, but predictions will become more refined in the next 24 to 48 hours." Check the Simple Satellite Tracker for last-chance sighting opportunities.
PopSci: China Makes Clones Of Super-Swine That Survived ’08 Quake
CosmicLog: NASA: Satellite won't fall on US
MSNBC: How does DEET work? Study says it confuses insects - Research runs counter to claims that the stuff just smells bad to bugs

Medical and Health
Wired: Shaken Troops Face New Foe: Early Dementia
MSNBC: School meal tainted by pesticides kills Peru kids - Health official says food was likely contaminated with rat poison 

ScientificAmerican: Are Pigs Bringing the Flu to Your State? Researchers Map Influenza Spread by Hogs [Animation] - New animations show how various strains of the flu travel across the U.S. to mingle in the major hog production centers in the Midwest, suggesting strategies to monitor for future pandemics
RawStory: ‘Longevity gene’ may be dead end: study
M&C: Rate of hand, foot and mouth disease infections to rise in Vietnam 
CNN: Health insurance costs to rise again next year
TheChart: New ALS gene mutation discovered 

Doomsteading, Gardening, Urban Farming
ContainerGardening: A self-irrigated planter (WonderHowTo)
ContainerGardening: Practical advice on container gardening (Willem Van Cotthem)
ModernSurvivalBlog: Food, Supplies, and Preps
CanadianDoomer: Monster Celery
OaklandLiving: Turning a shelving unit into planter boxers as we prepare our winter garden

Other News
StraitsTimes:  40% of men visit Philippines for sex: US envoy  
CNN: Santorum asks Google to clean up search results for his name
TheTelegraph: Lost Alfred Hitchcock classic shown after 80 years - Alfred Hitchcock's 1923 silent film The White Shadow was discovered in a garden shed in New Zealand and gets a Hollywood showing.
SOTT: Poison school lunch kills Peru children
FastCompany: How Whole Foods "Primes" You To Shop

Have you ever been primed? I mean has anyone ever deliberately influenced your subconscious mind and altered your perception of reality without your knowing it? Whole Foods Market, and others, are doing it to you right now. 

DeclineoftheEmpire: Is A War With China Inevitable?
AlJazeera: Magic and Murder - People and Power investigates sorcery-related infanticide in the African republic of Benin.
Time: Gold Necklace Recovered from the Titanic Stolen in Copenhagen
Spiegel: The Popemobile - A Brief History of the World's Holiest Car
ABCNews: 'Don't Have a Cow': Dad Goes on All-Breast-Milk Milk Diet
BBC: India temple: Last treasure vault stays shut says court
The final vault at a temple in India's Kerala state should not be opened until treasure already recovered is fully documented, the Supreme Court has said.
SFGate: Feds won't target unwitting owners of illegal wood

Politics
Salon: The incredible vanishing Michele Bachmann
ClimateProgress: Exclusive Timeline: Bush Administration Advanced Solyndra Loan Guarantee for Two Years, Media Blow the Story
OpenSecrets: New Dem Super PAC Created, Romney and Perry's Shared History and More in Capital Eye Opener: Sept. 22

The Forums
TinfoilPalace:'It's time to find out why people have gone missing from cruise ships'
TinfoilPalace:Tony Bennett in bizarre rant as he claims 'America caused 9/11' and 'George Bush told me he regretted the war in Iraq'
TheOilAge:TAE: Reckless abandon (+today's Fed move) 
TheOilAge:Insomnia  
Hubberts-Arms:We may see new riots in Georgia tomorrow! 
Hubberts-Arms:Sperm bank turns down redheads (but there's still demand from Ireland)
SilentCountry:Wrecking the World Through Debt
SilentCountry: Another US .gov shutdown coming soon