I hate to post short on a Friday but, hub was in a car wreck last night, No One seriously hurt, thank God, but his car is totaled and we'll be trying to figure a work around for him this morning so he can get to work. I'll have to be short with the post but I may get to come back later this afternoon and add more links for us.
Also, Ash, I tried the bullets but it kept putting spaces between everything and made it stretch the page out to where it was going to be pretty long. (Ash had suggested some better way of posting the links so that they might be easier to read and thought maybe bullets would help. ) I guess for now I'll try and be more mindful about inserting text to break up the lists of links better, unless we come up with another idea! Always open to suggestions.
Don't forget to check out RJ at the Global Glass Onion this afternoon for his weekly wrap up of the financial news, and the Ozarker at Conflicted Doomer should have a post up tomorrow afternoon!
Japan
NYT: Japan’s Nuclear Energy Industry Nears Shutdown, at Least for Now - All but two of Japan’s 54 commercial reactors have been idled since the nuclear disaster a year ago, following the earthquake and tsunami
ExtinctionProtocol: Scientists warn Tokyo could soon be hit by major earthquake
NakedCapitalism: Fukushima’s Last Resident - Naoto Matsumura is the only person living inside the exclusion zone and he has no electricity or running water. Reader Martha R recommended running this video as a way to commemorate the anniversary of the disaster.
Yahoo: Japan foresaw possible Fukushima meltdown from day one: documents - TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's government foresaw the possibility of a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant hours after a huge tsunami smashed into it, according to cabinet minutes released on Friday, although it took officials more than a month to acknowledge it.
MSNBC: A year after disastrous earthquake, tsunami, travel to Japan slowly rebounds
Global Conflict
McClatchy: After years, uncertainty still colors talk of Iran's nuclear capability
CSM: Former Israeli spy chief talks down strike on Iran nuclear sites as 'stupidest idea' - Former Mossad chief Meir Dagan gave a lengthy interview to CBS's 60 Minutes just days after Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu came to Washington to drum up support for an Iran nuclear strike.
Wired: Don't Freak Out, But Iran Is Helping Venezuela Build Drones
StraitRisks: Russia accuses Libya of training Syrian rebels
Russia demanded Wednesday that NATO apologize for civilian casualties during the uprising in Libya last year and accused the Libyan government of supporting a training center for Syrian rebels, provoking a sharp response from the U.S. and Libya’s prime minister.
BlacklistedNews: CNN Attempts to Counter Scandal Over “Syria Danny” Propaganda
ExtinctionProtocol: Diary of a genocide: 62 more killed in Syria as crackdown intensifies
Time: Why You Should Feel Awkward About the 'Kony2012' Video
Kony, shadowy and illusive, is a faded warlord on the run, with no allies or foreign friends (save perhaps, in one embarrassing moment of blustering sophistry, for American radio shock jock Rush Limbaugh.)
Time: Out of Syria's Carnage: A Survivor's Testimony of Bab Amr's Last Stand
BBC: Men die during Nigeria rescue bid - A British engineer and his Italian colleague, who were abducted in Nigeria last year, have died in a failed rescue attempt, David Cameron says.
Zerohedge: Obama Denies Trying To Bribe Israel In Exchange For Iran Bombing Delay
RawStory: U.S. military could hit Iran harder than Israel: Panetta
BlacklistedNews: Libya's Big-Oil PM Rolls Over for Western Masters
Libya's Prime Minister, and British Petroleum, Total, and Shell-funded Petroleum Institute chairman Abdurrahim el-Keib, flatly denied allegations by Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin that Libya was directly funding, training, and arming militants in Syria. Reuters: Syrian forces kill 21 ahead of Annan peace mission - Syrian forces killed 31 people on Friday as they sought to quell demonstrations against President Bashar al-Assad before a peace mission by U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, opposition activists said.
Atlantic: Chances of War with Iran Have Dropped for 2012, Risen for 2013
CNN: China sends envoy to Middle East, Europe to lay out Syria peace plan - China is sending an envoy to the Middle East and Europe to push for a "fair solution" in Syria, even as the opposition accused Syrian forces Friday of storming villages to chase down and kill defecting soldiers.
McClatchy: China drops plans to give police power to detain suspects without notice
Reuters: Pakistan Taliban demand release of bin Laden's widows, threaten attacks
CNN: Iran's nuclear program: the riddle, the enigma and the mystery
Reuters: France will not accept 'equal blame' Syria resolution
MSNBC: Israel asks U.S. for arms that could aid Iran strike - Jewish nation wants advanced 'bunker-buster' bombs and refueling planes JerusalemPost: Assad resumes Homs assault; 31 dead
Businessweek: The Economic Fallout From Bombing Iran - The economic case against war is strong. Jitters about instability in the Middle East have caused the price of Brent crude to rise some 9 percent since the beginning of the year.
Guardian: War with Iran is not inevitable, says Netanyahu - Israeli PM warns Iran has 'bamboozled the west' and that only military threat will deter Tehran from developing nuclear weapon
VancouverSun: Hamid Karzai endorses Afghan edict that 'women are secondary'OWS
Reuters: Judge sets stage to take over Oakland's troubled cops - After weeks of raucous street demonstrations, Oakland city leaders finally decided one chilly morning last fall to remove a downtown campsite that had become a national symbol of the Occupy movement. Protesters made makeshift gas masks and braced for a fight with the much-maligned Oakland Police Department.
Domestic Financial News
NYT: US Added 227000 Jobs Last Month; Rate at 8.3%
EconomyWatch: Employment data may be too good to be trueMyBudget360: How (what?) does an America with no middle class look like?
Bureau of Labor and Statistics projects top two jobs for the next decade will pay roughly $20,000 a year. Approval rating of Congress at 10 percent. In comparison, Americans approved of BP’s handling of the Gulf oil crisis at a 16 percent rate.
BusinessInsider: UH-OH: This Building Means The Great Bond Bull Market Is Coming To An EndThe US Treasury market has been in a constant bull market for over 30 years now, defying thousands of skeptics along the away.
Zerohedge: US Trade Balance Worst In 39 Months With Largest 3 Month Drop In 20 Years
FDL: The Pernicious “Foreclosures are Good” Meme - The New York Times editorial board has an appropriate take today on the barrage of housing-related spin coming from all corners lately. If you follow these issues, you would have to be willfully blind not to notice a concerted effort to paint the housing recovery as just around the corner, the bottom reached, the best yet to come. But the NYT, to their credit, doesn’t buy the spin.
Reuters: Banks foreclosing on US churches in record numbers (Reuters) - Banks are foreclosing on America's churches in record numbers as lenders increasingly lose patience with religious facilities that have defaulted on their mortgages, according to new data.
ChicagoTribune: Lowering our expectations for foreclosure settlement - The federal government's response to the home mortgage crisis always has been an exercise in living down to one's lowest expectations.
FDL: What’s in a Name: “JOBS Act” Set to Pass Today - The House of Representatives will pass something they’re calling a jobs bill today. They accomplish this by giving it a nice acronym: the Jumpstarting Our Business Startups, or JOBS, Act.
AdvisorPerspective: Household Net Worth: The ''Real'' Story
USNews: Warm Winter May Have Cooked Economic Data
The economic news has been pretty darn good of late. Employment is up and consensus estimates are looking for about 200,000 new jobs to be reported for February this Friday on top of the 241,000 jobs created in January. The unemployment rate is coming down, consumer confidence is up, and automobile sales were at a 15 million run rate in February, the highest in five years. What's not to like?
CNN: February jobs report: Unemployment holds amid solid hiring
NASDAQ: Fed Balance Sheet Down To $2.887 Trillion - The balance sheet of the U.S. Federal Reserve fell over the last week as the central bank continued with a plan to adjust its portfolio and stimulate an economy it expects to grow only modestly this year.
USNews: Helping the Super Rich at the Expense of the Super Poor
Bloomberg reporter Max Abelson created quite a stir in the blogosphere with his tales of woe from the top 1 percent. "People who don't have money don't understand the stress," said a specialist in financial planning for the wealthy. Maybe he should talk to the heads of the estimated 1.5 million households, which include about 2.8 million children, that the National Poverty Center estimates live on $2 or less in income per day in any given month—one of the World Bank's main indicators of poverty in developing countries.
Bloomberg: Payrolls in U.S. Climb More Than Forecast; Unemployment Rate Holds at 8.3%
NakedCapitalism: GAO: Almost Half of Bailed Banks Repaid the Government With Money “From Other Federal Programs” - The Government Accountability Office continues its subtle war on the talking point used by Treasury that “TARP made money”.
Zerohedge: The Part-Time Economy (Redux) - While not shocking to most, the jump in temporary workers that we cited earlier is perhaps the biggest indicator of job 'quality' gains. As we discussed here last month, the US market economy remains mired in a low quality (“first-fired, first-hired categories rather than the type of core hiring that would build a stronger foundation for income growth,” as FTN's Jim Vogel describes it) recovery. About 160k of private jobs added in Feb are 'low-paying work' which left average hourly earnings up only 0.1% (notes David Ader at CRT) - hardly the recipe for a sustainable recovery and perhaps the slow leak in stocks post the number is the rude awakening to that reality.
WSJ: MF Global Still Set to Pay Executive Bonuses- Three top executives of MF Global Holdings Ltd. when it collapsed could get bonuses of as much as several hundred thousand dollars each under a plan by a trustee overseeing the securities firm's bankruptcy case, people familiar with the matter said.
IBTimes: Bank of America Defrauded Mortgage Modifiers, Whistleblower Claims - Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) fraudulently sought to limit homeowners' ability to take advantage of a federal mortgage-modification program, to avoid millions of dollars in losses, according to a federal whistleblower complaint that originated with a former bank employee.
WashingtonPost: Economists overwhelmingly believe the bank bailout helped ordinary Americans
FT: Who Is Rich These Days? The Income Gap Myth
CNN: Facebook co-founder buys The New Republic
Global Financial News
Guardian: Eurozone crisis live: Fitch cuts Greece to restricted default after 'successful' debt swap - (this page updates every few minutes so you have to start at the bottom and read to the top)
(thanks Ozarker!)
BusinessInsider: China Is About To Take A HUGE Step Toward Internationalizing Its Currency
CNNMoney: Greece: Historic restructuring paves way for bailout - Greece's private sector creditors agreed to a historic restructuring of the government's debt early Friday, setting the stage for the nation to secure more bailout money and skirt a messy default.
CommodityOnline: China copper demand to grow 6% in 2012
LAT: China puts up a 30-story hotel in two weeks
Reuters: FOREX-Euro dips on profit-taking after Greece debt swap - The euro edged lower on profit-taking on Friday after Greece said 85.8 percent of private creditors had accepted its bond swap offer, moving closer to securing fresh funds needed to avoid a messy debt default.
VoxEu: The poor half billion in South Asia: Is there hope for change? - India and other South Asian countries have experienced high growth rates over the past decade. What has this meant for poverty reduction across different regions of South Asia?
Bloomberg: China Car Sales Have Worst Start Since 2005 as Economy Slows - China’s passenger-car sales had their worst two-month start in seven years as slowing economic growth and record fuel prices discouraged consumers in the world’s largest vehicle market.
Telegraph: Greek youth unemployment hits 51.5pc - More than half of all young people in Greece are now unemployed, depressing new figures have revealed.
MSNBC: Greece averts immediate default with bond deal - But markets remain very skeptical about Athens' ability to make it debt manageable
Peak Oil and Energy News
Spiegel: Undeterred by Fukushima: Nuclear Lobby Pushes Ahead with New Reactors
UPI: China finds success at shale gas wells - China's state-owned energy company Sinopec announced that natural gas was flowing from a series of shale deposits in Sichuan province.
FuelFix: OPEC sees flat oil market for 2012
StarTribune: And the money goes to ... fossil fuels - You might be tempted to believe that our government spends lavishly on green-energy sources relative to oil and coal and natural gas. Not a lot of people seem to understand by how much the facts run in the other direction.
LifeInc: Magic number for gas prices $5.30 a gallon, poll finds - The recent spike in gas prices has caused plenty of griping about pain at the pump, but a new survey finds that it’s going to take a much bigger jump before many people start rethinking their spending habits.
A Gallup poll released Thursday found that, on average, gas prices would have to hit $5.30 before people would be forced to make significant cutbacks in other types of spending.
Commodities/Metals
ETFDailyNews: German Bundesbank’s “Incredible Gold Scandal”
CommodityOnline: Silver outperforms gold platinum palladium so far in 2012: Silver Institute
Environmental
USGS
M 3.4, Southern Alaska
M 4.2, Molucca Sea CBSNews: GOP bid to authorize Keystone pipeline fails
NYT: Solar Bursts Spray Earth, With More to Come - Solar storms like the one that buffeted the Earth’s magnetic field on Thursday will soon become a common occurrence.
ExtinctionProtocol: Volcanic activity increases at Japan’s Sakurajima volcano
RawStory: Director James Cameron to explore Earth’s deepest ocean trench
Almost all of the whales killed were minke
Japan has ended its whaling season with less than a third of its annual target, said the country's Fisheries Agency.
The whaling ships headed home from the Antarctic Ocean this week with 266 minke whales and one fin whale, falling short of its quota of about 900.The agency blamed "sabotage" by anti-whaling activists for the shortfall.
Japan conducts "legal research" on whales each year, but activists say it is a cover for commercial whaling banned under an international treaty.
MSNBC: New Mexico dust storm shuts down I-25, delays flights
MSNBC: As sea levels rise, Kiribati eyes 6,000 acres in Fiji as new home for 103,000 islanders
AnimalTracks: Warning: Live penguin webcam is highly addicting
Hosted: Ohio: Gas-drilling injection well led to quakes
America in Decline
BusinessInsider: 13% Of American Kids Live In Families That Can't Afford Their Medical Bills - In 2011, nearly one in four (24%) kids in the U.S. lived in a family struggling to pay its medical bills, the National Center for Health Statistics
DeclineOfTheEmpire: The Screwing Of The American People Continues
FDL: Breaking: Making Teachers Feel Like Garbage Makes Them Feel Like Garbage - Gee, if you demean teachers, single them out using dubious metrics and promote the idea that the way to improve schools is to fire them, small wonder that teachers start to feel unwanted:
Atlantic: A Lost Decade for Young American Workers
ProjectSyndicate: The Inequality Trap - As evidence mounts that income inequality is increasing in many parts of the world, the problem has received growing attention from academics and policymakers. In the United States, for example, the income share of the top 1% of the population has more than doubled since the late 1970’s, from about 8% of annual GDP to more than 20% recently, a level not reached since the 1920’s.
Economix: Inequality by County - (map) New York County — that is, Manhattan — is the third-most economically inequitable county in the United States, according to a recent report from the Census Bureau
Food and Water
BlacklistedNews: 70 Percent of Ground Beef at Supermarkets Contains ‘Pink Slime’
BBC: Coke and Pepsi alter drink recipe
Science and Technology
Cryptogon: MIT Researchers Put 30 Picowatts of Electricity Into LED, Get 69 Picowatts of Light Out – An Efficiency of 230%
IBTimes: Jews are People of the Face-Book, according to Shimon Peres - Israeli President Shimon Peres jokes about Jews being not only the people of the Book but also the people of the Facebook, as an electropop video on his social network page goes viral in the blogosphere.
ArsTechnica: Raspberry Pi Linux distro released, but the $35 computer faces new delays - The Raspberry Pi foundation has suffered a production setback that could delay delivery of the organization's $35 Linux computer.
Scientificamericn: Flavor of the Ray: Neutrino Measurement May Help Solve Mystery of Matter's Domination over Antimatter - In less than two months of operation, an experiment at a Chinese nuclear power plant has measured one of the missing parameters that describes neutrino behavior
Wired: Strange Effects: The Mystifying History of Neutrino Experiments
NYT: Hands Off the Heavens
OUTER space has become the next frontier for American national security and business. From space, we follow terrorists and intercept their communications, detect foreign military deployments, and monitor a proliferation of unconventional weapons. Our Global Positioning System gives us targeting and tactical advantages, spacecraft create image-rich maps, and satellites beam data around the world.
MSNBC: Solar storm lights up northern skies
MSNBC: Google leans on developers to use its payment service - Developers are being pressured to use Google Wallet in lieu of other payment services
Medical and Health
Today: When animals age: Poignant photo portraits captured
MSNBC: Diabetes,statins meds may be available over counter - FDA will meet later this month to consider the proposal ModeledBehavior: Kicking the Can–Medicare Edition
MSNBC: Teen smoking an 'epidemic,' new report finds
Doomsteading, Gardening, Urban Farming
ModernSurvival: To Evacuate Or Not To Evacuate
To evacuate or not to evacuate. That is the question. All too often I hear others who jump to the conclusion that when faced with disaster, they plan to ‘bug out’. Evacuate. It’s like they believe that somehow things will be better… away from their home! As though strapping on a backpack filled with clever supplies and hitting the road or trail will somehow make it all better. I hear so much talk about bugging out – evacuate – heading for the hills. Well let me tell you – more often than not, this is probably not such a good idea.
CanadianDoomer: Chicken - and Pantry Challenge Day 8
WaldenEffect: Electric fence problems
HomesteadJournal: New Beginnings
Other News
CNN: University: 'Several injured' in shooting at Pittsburgh psychiatric clinic
Atlantic: What China's Talking About Today: Mocking Women's Day - Chinese often refer to International Women's Day as San Ba, the numbers thee eight, referring to the date, March 8. Over the years, san ba has become a pejorative term for a woman who runs at the mouth, spouting nonsense. It's a serious insult.
USAToday: 2 dead, 7 wounded in Pittsburgh psych hospital shooting
WSJ: FBI Traces Trail of Spy Ring to China
CNN: Jimmy Ellis, 'Disco Inferno' singer, dies at 74 - Jimmy Ellis, who belted out the dance anthem "Disco Inferno" in the 1970s for The Trammps, died Thursday in South Carolina
CBSNews: NYPD "focus" on Muslim businesses
USAToday: Pittsburgh hospital shooter's identity a mystery
Reuters: Pope denounces U.S. political push to legalize gay marriage - Pope Benedict on Friday denounced the "powerful political and cultural currents" seeking to legalize gay marriage in the United States, where Maryland has just become the eighth state to allow it.
McClatchy: Carolina woman accused in beheading plot
NYT: Renowned Wine Dealer Accused of Trying to Sell Counterfeits
DetroitNews: Pat Robertson: Pot should be legal like alcohol
(on this we can agree)
Politics
RawStory: Santorum blames negative press on New Yorkers
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum on Thursday attributed the criticism of his socially conservative political beliefs to journalists and others living in New York.
RawStory: Jon Stewart mocks Breitbart’s Obama footage
GlobeAndMail: The numbers get starker for the 99% – and Mitt Romney
Forget Roman Catholics and contraception, evangelicals and Mormonism, Newt Gingrich’s three wives and even Mitt Romney’s dog. If you are struggling to understand the roller-coaster U.S. election season, your Rosetta stone should be a dry academic paper by economist Emmanuel Saez.
USNews: Why Santorum, Gingrich, and Paul Aren't Dropping Out
Forums
TinfoilPalace: Numerology Predictions 2012 TinfoilPalace: Weird/Bad Weather Thread (Please Put All News About Weather Here)
TheOilAge: security
TheOilAge: Gallup: unemployment biggest jump since 2010
HubbertsArms: Giant new plant shows coal power isn't going away
HubbertsArms: Gallup Finds February US Unemployment Jumps Most Since 2010
SilentCountry: Greece is worried about the "golden cut"
SilentCountry: 2 children found living in abandoned bus in Texas; parents
Imprisoned parents of 2 Texas children found living in school bus say home was only temporary
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