I hope everyone had a good weekend and had a chance to check out the Ozarker's new post at her blog, Global Glass Onion and RJ's weekly wrap up of the financials at Global Glass Onion .
CNN: North Korean leader Kim Jong Il dead, state TV reports
BusinessInsider: The ONLY 10 Things That Are Known About North Korea's New Leader - North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has died and reports indicate that his youngest son Kim Jong-Un is due to take power.
and in case you missed it...
MarketWatch666: bill of rights? ha ha, tell me another one… - this is a MUST see video sent to us by out good friend RJ.
Be sure to take a minute and visit the excellent forums listed at the bottom of the post.
Global Conflict
Reuters: US pullout leaves Iraq fragile, divided
DeclineoftheEmpire: Let The Next War Begin!
BBC: Kazakh Zhanaozen oil unrest spreads to regional capital - "We have no rights, we're being treated like cattle," he said, explaining the workers' indignation.
TheAtlantic: A Court Victory Against 'Guantanamo's Evil Twin'
Reprieve described the court's decision as "historic." It is "the first time that any civilian legal system has penetrated Bagram, a legal black hole," Cori Crider, the Reprieve lawyer who handled the case, told me. "Lawyers have never been allowed in the prison, which is notorious for torture and homicides and has been called 'Guantanamo's Evil Twin.'"BlacklistedNews: Report: Iran 'blinded' CIA spy satellite with laser burst
In a deviation from the dry, legal language that marks the opinion, even the judges described Bagram as "a place said to be notorious for human rights abuses."
TheAtlantic: What To Do With the Most Violent Settlers?
The so-called "Hilltop Youth," which is a kind of romantic-sounding name for settlers in Judea and Samaria who are actually a bunch of thugs, are escalating their campaign to make Israel pay each time its government orders the closing of an unauthorized settlement. They crossed a red line last week when they threw stones at an Israeli army commander. As I've written, these overboard attacks are probably in a perverse way a good thing, because they will remind the average Israeli that these people seek the destruction of their country in the name of Zionist maximalism. But the obvious downside is that they could, through their actions against mosques, in particular, trigger a conflagration.TheAtlantic: A Photo That Encapsulates the Horror of Egypt's Crackdown
CNN: Outrage over woman's beating fuels new Egypt protests
Wired: Army: Manning Kept a Copy of His Chatroom Confession
ExtinctionProtocol: 2012′s expanding potential theater of conflict: Russian rocket launches 6 intelligence satellites into orbit
BusinessInsider: This New Military Satellite Will Watch The Ground Like Nothing Else Ever Before
Telegraph: Riots in western Kazakhstan could destabilise the country - Riots in western Kazakhstan that have killed at least 14 people are a potential game changer for the former Soviet state.
MSNBC: Who's in charge? Mixed signals from Egypt's rulers
MSNBC: Pakistan: 30,000 Islamists rally against US - Protest comes after NATO airstrikes last month that killed 24 soldiers
ArabNews: Revolution gets bloodier as Egypt crackdown fuels anger
SeattleTimes: Activists say army defectors kill 6 Syrian troops
NYT: Air Force Drone Operators Report High Levels of Stress
WashingtonPost: Dr. Gridlock - DC Metro begins random bag inspections: Metro began random inspections of passengers' bags and packages this morning, five days after first announcing the checks.
OWS
Occupy Psychopaths 1 (OWS vs. the Pathology of the 1%)
WOITV: Protestors Occupy Obama's Iowa HeadquartersHacker News
TheTelegraph: Julian Assange could be handed over to US, supporters claim - Julian Assange faces being extradited to the US if British authorities agree to Swedish extradition, his supporters have claimed in a letter to the Daily Telegraph.
CBSNews: Manning hearing focuses on digital footprints
Financial News
BusinessInsider: THE TRUTH ABOUT TAXES: The Poor Pay The Highest Marginal Rates In The Country
WSJ: Oldest Baby Boomers Face Jobs Bust
CornellUniversity: Evidence of market manipulation in the financial crisis
NYT: Slapped Wrists at WaMu
MSNBC: Europe to give stock market unhappy holiday - Debt crisis will outweigh all US economic news as year heads to a close
MSNBC: Bank loans to small business fall to 12-year low
BusinessInsider: Well, It Sure Seems Like Keynes Was Right
BusinessInsider: South Korea's Stock Market Is Plunging On The Kim Jong Il Death News
CNNMoney: Last chance to buy paper savings bonds
Zerohedge: Trustee to Seize and Liquidate Even the Stored Customer Gold and Silver Bullion From MF Global
CNNMoney: QUIET STORM AHEAD
CharlesHughSmith: Do We Get a Year-End Rally Or Not? Santa Dukes It Out With Mr. VIX
WSJ: Number of the Week: The Upside of Companies Sitting on Cash - $261.98 billion: How much more companies took in than they spent in the third quarter. Companies continue to sit on lots of cash, frustrating those hoping to see it deployed to spark jobs growth.
IFR: Banks resist European pressure to buy government debt - Banks are unlikely to come to the aid of debt-ridden eurozone countries, with many planning to ignore political pressure to use cheap money from the European Central Bank to fund purchases of sovereign bonds.
YahooNews: Fitch: comprehensive euro zone deal "beyond reach" - The credit rating agency Fitch has told euro zone countries it believes a comprehensive solution to their debt crisis is beyond reach, putting six euro zone economies including Italy on watch for potential downgrades in the near future.
BusinessInsider: Why December 2011 Is Eerily Similar To December 007
Reuters: U.S. housing heals even as its damage widensMaxKeiser: LEAKED REPORT: David Cameron was warned that bankers are, in fact, undermining the UK economy by “actually destroying value for the UK investor at least as fast as the stock market can create it” - We should applaud this for now these bankers have more of our wealth to trickle back down upon us. But as Max Keiser says, “you can’t have capitalism without capital!”
CNNMoney: Last chance to buy paper savings bonds
Zerohedge: Trustee to Seize and Liquidate Even the Stored Customer Gold and Silver Bullion From MF Global
CNNMoney: QUIET STORM AHEAD
CharlesHughSmith: Do We Get a Year-End Rally Or Not? Santa Dukes It Out With Mr. VIX
WSJ: Number of the Week: The Upside of Companies Sitting on Cash - $261.98 billion: How much more companies took in than they spent in the third quarter. Companies continue to sit on lots of cash, frustrating those hoping to see it deployed to spark jobs growth.
IFR: Banks resist European pressure to buy government debt - Banks are unlikely to come to the aid of debt-ridden eurozone countries, with many planning to ignore political pressure to use cheap money from the European Central Bank to fund purchases of sovereign bonds.
YahooNews: Fitch: comprehensive euro zone deal "beyond reach" - The credit rating agency Fitch has told euro zone countries it believes a comprehensive solution to their debt crisis is beyond reach, putting six euro zone economies including Italy on watch for potential downgrades in the near future.
BusinessInsider: Why December 2011 Is Eerily Similar To December 007
Reuters: U.S. housing heals even as its damage widensMaxKeiser: LEAKED REPORT: David Cameron was warned that bankers are, in fact, undermining the UK economy by “actually destroying value for the UK investor at least as fast as the stock market can create it” - We should applaud this for now these bankers have more of our wealth to trickle back down upon us. But as Max Keiser says, “you can’t have capitalism without capital!”
BusinessInsider: REMINDER: Economists And Analysts Have No Idea What Is Going To Happen Next Year - It's prediction time again--the time when analysts and economists publish lists of what they think will happen next year.
Krugman: Inflation Conspiracy Theories
Zerohedge: Is Britain About To Scuttle The Last Ditch "Plan Z" European Bailout?
Zerohedge: Fed May Inject Over $1 Trillion To Bail Out Europe
SHTFPlan: Report: 82% Chance California Pensions Are Going Under (and You’ll Be Next)
MSNBC: Jobs where people work the most for the least
Krugman: Inflation Conspiracy Theories
Zerohedge: Is Britain About To Scuttle The Last Ditch "Plan Z" European Bailout?
Zerohedge: Fed May Inject Over $1 Trillion To Bail Out Europe
SHTFPlan: Report: 82% Chance California Pensions Are Going Under (and You’ll Be Next)
MSNBC: Jobs where people work the most for the least
TheTelegraph: Manufacturing giant Caterpillar able to dig its way out of a downturn - "Most people think we can never manufacture in this country again. Baloney,” Caterpillar’s chairman and chief executive Doug Oberhelman exclaims from his office overlooking the Illinois River in Peoria.
Guardian: IMF warns that world risks sliding into a 1930s-style slump
Guardian: IMF warns that world risks sliding into a 1930s-style slump
BigPictureAgriculture: An Update on the Percent of Corn Crop Being Converted into Ethanol and Other Repercussions of the Corn Ethanol Program ( this is a great piece at BPA!)
There is no greater threat to global food security than biofuels production throughout the world, and a big reason is the short-sighted abuse to our soil and water resources which result from its production. There is an insatiable thirst for liquid fuels in this Anthropocene Age that can't be quenched. It is a travesty that we should produce corn ethanol as a green mandate instead of promoting energy conservation and efficiency.
Annual U.S. Field Production of Crude Oil
TheOilDrum: Tech Talk - Future Oil and Natural Gas Production from Azerbaijan
Reuters: Analysis: Brazil's oil boom could see its first bust - Brazil's huge offshore oil wealth has been called a lottery jackpot, and each of the industry's contracts is another winning ticket. But even with a lucky stub in hand, some companies risk going broke before they can claim their prize.
WallStreetDaily: Peak Oil? Not According to This Chart Wall Street Daily: This week we’re tackling the pesky little debate about Peak Oil and America’s overreliance on oil imports. Near the height of the energy crisis in 2008, the Republicans popularized the slogan, “Drill, baby, drill!” But they should have been chanting, “Frac, baby, frac!” Why? Because the largest gains in domestic oil production are coming from hydraulic fracturing. And this is most evident in North Dakota and Montana, which are home to the Bakken Shale. A 2008 study by the U.S. Geological Survey estimates there’s as much as 4.3 billion barrels of recoverable oil in the formation. And North Dakota’s not wasting any time tapping it. In September, North Dakota pumped a record 464,129 barrels a day – a 439% increase from a decade ago and right on par with Ecuador’s production. The gushing isn’t done yet, though. Within five years, Rick Mueller, of ESAI Energy LLC, predicts that North Dakota could be producing anywhere from 700,000 barrels to one million barrels a day. Doesn’t sound like a Peak Oil situation to me. Does it to you? (sounds EXACTLY like Peak Oil to me. LOL)
Commodities/Metals
Mineweb: Why gold has been falling. Is this an engineered phenomenon?
Reuters: Gold to drop in Q1, far from retesting record high: Reuters poll
Environmental News
TruthOut: Whistleblowers: Software Monitoring Keystone XL Pipeline's Safety Contains Deliberate Errors Hosted: Philippine storm toll exceeds 650; 800 missing
MSNBC: Southwest, plains face blizzard watch - Storm could dump up to a foot of snow in Kansas, Colorado and the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles
DesdemonaDespair: Land grabs threaten world’s poor even more than previously thought, new report shows
Reuters: Russian drilling rig sinks off Sakhalin, 49 missing
DesdemonaDespair: Reactive nitrogen has polluted remote wilderness since the end of the 19th century
TheAtlantic: The Year in Volcanoes
ThinkProgress: Our Extreme Weather: Is Arctic Sea Ice Loss to blame? - “The question is not whether sea ice loss is affecting the large-scale atmospheric circulation…it’s how can it not?”
Grist: Endangered lemurs becoming ‘bar snacks’ - For who knows how many generations, the natives of Madagascar did not eat lemurs because they thought their ancestors forbade it. Now, and I am not making this up, they are praying to their ancestors to lift the ban, reports Sara Reardon at Science Now.
Mostly because their kids, who are not big on ancestor worship, have already started munching on the tasty primates in the form of "bar snacks."
DescemonaDespair: Permafrost thaw: ‘A chronic source of emissions that will last hundreds of years’
MSNBCPhotoBlog: Philippines counts the cost of Typhoon Washi
DailyRecord: With morgues full, Philippine flood victims buried
America in Decline
BusinessInsider: Even The Ancient Roman Empire Wasn't As Unequal As America Today
BlacklistedNews: FBI considered a sting operation against Newt Gingrich for taking bribe from notorious arms dealer
FreeSpeechForPeople: Moyers: Why 'We The People' Must Triumph Over Corporate Power
Bill Moyers reminds us that repairing American democracy begins with reasserting that corporations do not have the same constitutional rights as citizens.
Cryptogon: Homeland Security: Paying with Cash?
StarTribune: An epidemic of arrests in U.S. - Survey: By 23, 30% have had significant brush with law.
Food and Water
GlobalPost: Denmark's fat tax strikes again
LAT: L.A. schools' healthful lunch menu panned by students - For many students, Los Angeles Unified's introduction of healthful lunches — part of a campaign against obesity, diabetes and other problems — has been a flop. The district says the menu will be revised.
It's lunchtime at Van Nuys High School and students stream into the cafeteria to check out the day's fare: black bean burgers, tostada salad, fresh pears and other items on a new healthful menu introduced this year by the Los Angeles Unified School District.Science and Technology
But Iraides Renteria and Mayra Gutierrez don't even bother to line up. Iraides said the school food previously made her throw up, and Mayra calls it "nasty, rotty stuff." So what do they eat? The juniors pull three bags of Flamin' Hot Cheetos and soda from their backpacks.
"This is our daily lunch," Iraides says. "We're eating more junk food now than last year."
BusinessInsider: This Is SOPA, The Crazy Bill Everyone In Tech Is Worried About
NASA: Probes Suggest Magnet Bubbles At Solar System Edge
AugustaChronical: Strange nuclear waste lint might be "biological in nature"
RitHoltz: Unconstitutional SOPA Would “Criminalize” Internet - Harvard Law School professor Laurence Tribe is one of the top constitutional experts in the country, and wrote one of the main treatises on the subject. Tribe wrote a letter to Congress last week stating that SOPA (the Stop Online Piracy Act) is unconstitutional.
TheTelegraph: Neanderthals built homes with mammoth bones - Neanderthals were not quite the primitive cavemen they are often portrayed to be – new research has revealed that they built homes out of mammoth bones.
CNN: Minority-driven tech incubator NewMe expands to local communities
CNN: Minority-driven tech incubator NewMe expands to local communities
CNN: NASA shuts doors, pulls plug on shuttle Discovery - After 39 missions, spacecraft is headed for museum exhibits next spring
Medical and Health
ScientificAmerican: Women's Response to Alcohol Suggests Need for Gender-Specific Treatment Programs
RedditScience: Sickle cell anemia as malaria defense -- researchers get a glimpse into how mutated hemoglobin genes defend their cells against attack by a malaria parasite.
HuffingtonPost: 'Brain-Eating Amoeba' Deaths May Be Linked To Tap Water Use In Neti Pots, Louisiana Officials Warn - At least two people are dead in Louisiana after officials believe "brain-eating amoebas" entered the victims' sinuses through tap water used to fill neti pots. The 2011 deaths of a 51-year-old woman and 20-year-old man are still under investigation, but now officials are telling neti pot users to heed caution when using the popular devices, KTLA reports.
SOTT: Radiation From Cell Phones and WiFi Are Making People Sick -- Are We All at Risk? - We are now exposed to electromagnetic radio frequencies 24 hours a day. Welcome to the largest human experiment ever.
MotherJones: Scott Walker's Next Target: Cancer Screenings for Women - First he gutted worker's rights, then slashed state education funding and dumbed-down sex ed. Next on Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's hit list? Breast and cervical cancer screenings for women.
Reuters: South Carolina has first human rabies case in 50 years
The Skin Gun
M&C: Beating compulsive eating and the repressed emotions behind it M&C: Mind power over stress
MSNBC: Health care law will let states tailor benefits - Major surprise from Obama administration in politically charged issue
TheChart: Drug shortages hit an all-time high
MSNBC: US health panel takes heat on cancer screening advice - Controversial rulings on breast cancer exams force agency to review methods
FDL: Obama Admin Gives Up Pretense of Competitive Market for ACA Health Insurance Exchanges - The notion that the health insurance exchanges required by the Affordable Care Act would reduce health care costs using “competition” between concentrated health insurers was always one or more unbridgeable chasms away from a plausible theory.
Doomsteading, Gardening, Urban Farming
ModernSurvivalBlog: Hoarding versus Prepping
ModernSurvivalBlog: Situational Awareness and Your Personal Protection
Other News
SunTimes: NYC police: Suspect says woman set ablaze in elevator over debt
ABC: NYC Woman Set Afire in Elevator, Suspect Sought
ChicagoTribune: Police: 5 deaths in rural Illinois town were murder-suicide
ABC: Jorelys Rivera Stabbed, Assaulted in 'Calculated' Murder
The wounds to the girl's body were so severe that Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Vernon Keenan refused to describe them beyond that fact that she had blunt force trauma to the head and stab wounds.Telegraph: Elderly woman dies after being set on fire in New York lift
Police said Isaac set the woman on fire over a dispute involving an unpaid bill. Reports in the US suggested the bill was for $2,000.SHTFPlan: Celente Warns of 2012: Economy Will Crash, Banks Will Close, Chaos Will Ensue, Military Will Take Over
Isaac had been doing odd jobs for Ms Gillespie, but she sacked him when she discovered he had been stealing, the victim's nephew Rickey Causey, 52, said.
"He was doing more stealing than cleaning," he said.
Isaac had written a note to Ms Gillespie demanding payment for the jobs he had done but the 73 year-old refused to pay due to the theft of her items, he added.
"It was apparent he knew she was on the elevator," Paul Browne, a spokesman for New York Police Department, said.
"He confessed to the crime, claiming that the woman owed him money for work he had done in the last year," he added.
A surveillance camera captured the attacker waiting for Ms Gillespie on the fifth floor.
PhysOrg: Why young couples aren't getting married -- they fear the ravages of divorce
CNN: Vaclav Havel, Czech dissident, playwright, politician dead at 75
Politics
Reuters: Ron Paul gains ground, further stirring Republicans
DailyKos: Mother of Mercy, could this be the end of Newt edition
TruthOut: Misinformer of the Year: Rupert Murdoch and News Corp.
DailyCaller: Ron Paul on Bachmann: ‘She hates Muslims. She hates them.
DailyCaller: Trump’s letter to Obama: China thinks you’re weak
TheAtlantic: Newt Gingrich and His 'Rock, Paper, Scissors' Constitution
USAToday: Ron Paul leads in new Iowa poll
TexasTribune: Perry "Retires" to Boost Pension Pay
RawStory: Gingrich: I’ll ‘ignore’ any Supreme Court ruling I disagree with
The Forums
TinfoilPalace: What is it With All the Accolades to Christopher HItchens?!
TinfoilPalace: Thousands of birds crash land in Utah
TheOilAge: Power cut to people who switched "smart" meters to analog
TheOilAge: Should you leave the USA before the collapse?
HubbertsArms: Uh, Mitt, You Are Not a "Common Person"
HubbertsArms: Shock as retreat of Arctic sea ice releases deadly greenhouse gas
SilentCountry: College Illinois! Could Need a $1.6 Billion Bailout
SilentCountry: Paul Krugman takes on Ron Paul
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