Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Breaking News Wed. April 11, 2012

Hello and happy Hump Day to everyone!


well, I don't know how vigorously this will be pursued but, it could mess up our Saturday documentary posts.
The Motion Picture Association of America is squaring off against a coalition of Internet giants and public interest groups over the key question of whether it's possible to directly infringe copyright by embedding an image or video hosted by a third party.
A federal judge took that position last July, prompting a chorus of criticism. Two briefs—one by Google and Facebook, the other by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge—attacked the decision as contrary to past precedents and potentially disruptive to the Internet economy. They asked the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn it.
Last week, the MPAA joined the fray with a brief in support of Illinois federal judge John F. Grady's ruling. It urged the Seventh Circuit not to draw a legal distinction between hosting content and embedding it. In the MPAA's view, both actions should carry the risk of liability for direct copyright infringement.


Much thanks also to RJ at the Global Glass Onion and the Ozarker at Conflicted Doomer , and to Doug at 3Es News and David at ETF Daily, for their help today! These good friends help make this blog what it is so do, go by and help support their efforts and hard work.



Peak Oil and Energy News
CommodityOnline: China's Crude oil imports hits third highest level in March
WSJ: Gas Glut Rejiggers Industry
Spiegel: The Mideast's Awakening Energy Giant  - Iraq Progresses toward a Future Built on Oil Wealth 
AZCentral: Coal exports at highest level since 1991
WSJ: US Retail Gasoline To Peak Above $4/Gallon In May - EIA
BizJournals: Have rising gas prices hit their peak? Evidence points to a coming fall - Cheaper oil may help bring down gas prices before the US reaches the dreaded $4-a-gallon mark. Massachusetts gas prices jumped last week, but at least one other state has seen prices fall, already.
Reuters: Brent crude turns higher after oil data - NEW YORK (Reuters) - Brent crude futures turned higher on Wednesday in choppy trading after government data showed US crude stocks rose last week, but less than industry previously reported, while refined products inventories fell sharply.
CNBC: Oil Falls as China Data Fuels Demand Worry
Zerohedge: Nuclear Power Is Expensive and Bad for the Environment … It’s Being Pushed Because It Is Good For Making Bombs



Global Conflict
Time: Afghanistan: What the End of U.S. Night Raids Means
TheTeemingBrain: Silently Witnessing World War III
This morning, not long after sitting for 20 minutes or so of meditation, while I was drinking my coffee and checking my news feeds, I came across a headline announcing “US gives Iran ‘last chance’ warning over shutting down nuclear facility.” Right after that I saw a separate one announcing that “Russia Is Massing Troops on Iran’s Northern Border and Waiting for a Western Attack.” Naturally, this worked in tandem with the coffee to wake me up.
CNN: North Korea: Rocket assembly almost complete
Reuters: Defiant North Korea begins injecting fuel into rocket
Spiegel: Monitoring the Opposition: Siemens Allegedly Sold Surveillance Gear to Syria - German engineering giant Siemens and a spinoff company allegedly sold surveillance technology to the Syrian regime,
ArabNews: Syria claims troop pullout
MSNBC: Syria truce claim is 'blatant lie', says France
GlobeAndMail: Israel-linked assassination network dismantled, Iranian media says
SeattlePI: China urges 'flexibility' in Iran nuclear talks
Telegraph: CIA and FBI win blackout on rendition claims  - Intelligence services in the US have won a legal ruling to allow them to withhold evidence about suspected British involvement in the arrest and torture of terror suspects from MPs in the UK, it was reported.

CSMonitor: China, Philippines dispute raises tensions in South China Sea
- With tensions between China and its neighbors over the South China Sea already high, any disagreement runs the risk of becoming militarized.
NYT: Launch Was Factor Before US Pact With North Korea
ChicagoTribune: Iran imposes oil "counter-sanctions" on EU: TV - Iran has cut oil exports to Spain and may halt sales to Germany and Italy, Iran's English-language state television reported on Tuesday, in an apparent move to strengthen its position ahead of crucial talks with world powers later this week.

OWS
iReport: Occupy Union Square NYC



Hacker News
BlacklistedNews: Hacking The Smart Grid: Hackers Cost U.S. Electric Utilities Hundreds of Millions of Dollars



Domestic Financial News
Here is something not only interesting, but really important that is from one of our forum members, Abha at Hubberts Arms.
Businessweek: How to Pay No Taxes - Eleven shelters, dodges, and rolls—all perfectly legal—used by America's wealthiest people
CNNMoney: Audits of super-duper rich off to a slow start
CalculatedRisk: "US mortgage and foreclosure law" - Here is a very good overview (and fairly short) of US mortgage and foreclosure law by Zachary Kimball and Paul Willen
CharlesHughSmith: Calling All Crash Test Dummies: Big Crash Ahead
I know, I know: the stock market will never go down because Ben Bernanke and the other central bankers won't let it. It's funny how the "Bernanke/European Central Bank Put" is ranked alongside gravity as a rule of Nature until markets roll over; then talk shifts from purring adulation of central bankers' godlike powers to panicky calls for another flood of liquidity/free money to "save" the market from the harsh reality of global recession.
NakedCapitalism: “Code is law.” Literally. - We can look at the foreclosure crisis as the pre-emininent law enforcement crisis of our time: Elite impunity for crimes committed and still being committed by lenders and servicers (“banksters”) on a massive scale. We can also look at the foreclosure crsis as an issue of jurisprudence, where a revolutionary oligarchy seeks to change the nature of law itself.
TaxPolicyBlog: Buffett Rule is really an Anti-Corporate Rule
Zerohedge: The Return Of Economic Weakness - Here is a number for you: 70% That is roughly how many economic reports have missed their mark in the last month. Why is this important? Believe it or not - It has a lot to do with the weather.
FinancialArmageddon: Americans Agree: There Is No Recovery
Zerohedge: A Modest Proposal: Students Refuse To Become Debt Slaves, Opt To Sell Equity In Their Future Wealth Instead - The topic of the student loan bubble (and even its popping) has been digested to death on Zero Hedge. One topic that has been avoided however, is that of the student equity bubble, for the simple reason that until now the concept did not exist. That may change soon: as the Economist reports, some California students have a modest proposal to the symbiotic University-Banker net worth extraction mechanism - shove your debt.

MarketDay: Wall Street slump continues for 5th straight day
TheHill: Consumer bureau plans overhaul of mortgage industry - The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is looking to overhaul the mortgage servicing industry, arguing that the problem-plagued sector is unaccountable and opaque.
TulsaWorld: Government to propose new mortgage lending rules
USAToday: US sues Apple, publishers over e-books


Global Financial News
BlacklistedNews: European stock markets rocked by panic selling as debt crisis reignites
ANN: Austerity plan decapitates Greek Cultural Heritage - The broken display cases at Greece’s Museum of Olympia, the site where the first Olympic Games were held thousand of years ago, have stunned members of the Archaeological Service who have been registering a stream of missing cultural artifacts.
Reuters: Dollar hits 1-1/2 month low versus yen
DetroitFreePress: Bankrupt Saab has debts of $1.9 billion
Independent: Fuel sales plummet after panic over 'strike threat'  
GlobeAndMail: Higher oil prices fuel widening euro zone rift
ChinaDaily: First-quarter home prices down 20.7% in capital - Prices of new homes in Beijing fell 20.7 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, as property developers offered more discounts to stimulate sales with tightening policies set to continue.
CNNMoney: Spain and Italy in bond market crosshairs


Commodities/Metals
Mineweb: More high-grade gold hits for Marathon and Mountain Lake in Newfoundland
ETFDaily: Wednesday’s ETF Chart To Watch: Global X Aluminum ETF (ALUM, AA)


Environmental
USGS
M 5.1, off the west coast of northern Sumatra
M 5.3, North Indian OceanCNN: Tsunami watch lifted after two big earthquakes
Marketwatch: An 8.6-magnitude quake followed by an 8.2 aftershock struck about 270 miles southwest of Banda Aceh in Indonesia’s Sumatra region, sparking tsunami alerts in coastal territories surrounding the Indian Ocean basin. 

 
WildlifeNews: Suit Filed to Protect Bighorn Sheep in Hells Canyon and Salmon River Canyon
Here's news on a wildfire here in East TN
WBIR: Fire at condos contained, wildfire continues to spread - The fire has destroyed Buildings 1-4 at the English Mountain Condominium Resorts. All residents have been evacuated.
ExtinctionProtocol: Flip flop: Fireball streaking across daytime Texas sky called a jet contrail by NASA? - April 10, 2012 –TEXAS – The Texas sky lit up during the daytime last week, much to the surprise of thousands of people who witnessed it.
ClimateCrocks: Show this to a Denier and Stand Back: Margaret Thatcher on Climate Change will Explode Heads - Guess she wasn’t listening to “Lord” Monckton very closely. I’ve been looking for this clip for a while. It shows what the value is of a political leader with a science background. (Thatcher was trained as a chemist)
WildlifeNews: New Mexico Cattle Association withdrawal from Mexican wolf collaboration is probably for the best
WBIR: Maryville TN awakened by 2.3 magnitude earthquake
ClimateCrocks: Heartland’s Truth-Challenged Harrison Schmidt Trolls NASA Nursing Home for New “List of Scientists”


America in Decline
ArsTechnica: Tennessee governor allows bill targeting science education to become law
Cryptogon: 3 Major Publishers Sue Open-Education Textbook Start-Up
LetsSmileToday: Calling 911 to Complain About Burger  - A Tennessee woman was so dissatisfied with her Hardee's hamburger that she called police twice to complain, resulting in her arrest on the charge of abusing the 9-1-1 system.
ProPublica: The Great American Foreclosure Story: The Struggle for Justice and a Place to Call Home
Sheila Ramos' grandsons, 10 and 13, started crying. They wanted to know where the house was. There wasn't one. There was only a tent.
They had flown from Florida, after Ramos had fallen hopelessly behind on the mortgage for her three-bedroom home, to this family-owned patch of rural land on Hawaii's Big Island. There, on a July night in 2009, they pitched a tent and, with no electricity, started a new life.

Popconorecord: Pa. joins cash-hungry states turning to lotteries



Food and Water
BigPictureAgriculture: Comprehensive Update on Farmland/Cropland Cash Rent Rates for the Midwest - With farmland prices escalating rapidly in recent years, rental rates have also been rising, and since half of Iowa and other Midwestern area.
StarTribune: Wafting poison makes fertile ground for suit in Stearns County - Oluf Johnson's 1,500-acre farm in Stearns County is an organic island in a sea of chemically treated corn and soybeans. Improperly applied pesticides repeatedly drift over from neighboring farms, often with dire consequences for Johnson. But now, thanks to a new court ruling, he and other farmers can sue to recover their losses.


Internet and Online Privacy News
BusinessInsider: New Social Startup Aims To Help You Share Things ONLY With People Who Need To Know - Social networks encourage you to share your life publicly. One startup called Everyme thinks there's a better way to share stuff..
CNN: When did Facebook become so uncool?
ModernSurvival: FCC Now Mandates Tracking ID’s In ALL Cell Phones

Technolog: Maryland is first state to ban employers from asking for Facebook passwords
 


Science and Technology
TechReview: Why Iran May Never Create a "Closed Internet"Iran could certainly cut off its global Internet connections. But whether it ever would is a question of politics and economics.
CNNMoney: Can Google get its groove back?
Wired: The 10 Biggest Tech Innovations of the New York Auto Show
ScienceDaily: Social Stress Changes Immune System Gene Expression in Primates — The ranking of a monkey within her social environment and the stress accompanying that status dramatically alters the expression of nearly 1,000 genes, a new scientific study reports
SingularityHub: Robots Will Drive, Bust Through A Wall, And Make Repairs In DARPA’s New Robotics Challenge


Medical and Health
ScienceDaily: Symptoms that mimic epilepsy linked to stress, poor coping skills
VancouverSun: Number of U.S. teen births lowest in 70 years - Could TV shows such as '16 and Pregnant' be working? 
CNN: Rose farm helps adults with autism bloom

RedditScience: Fecal Transplants 90% effective as a cure for C. difficile infection by reintroducing natural intestinal flora that combat the invasive bacteria.
Vitals: Opinion: It's time to hold doctors accountable for painkiller abuse 
CNN: Fatal car wrecks jump on tax day


Doomsteading, Gardening, Urban Farming
ModernSurvival: Pre-Made Soup Mixes Save Money And Time
You might also be interested in this older post on my art blog
PATurnerOutsiderArt: Dried Soup Mix Recipes - SOUP-MIX-IN-A-JAR RECIPES 
Grist: Get your subterranean doomsday condo — while supplies last!
CivilEats: Hunting for Invasive Species, with The Perennial Plate (VIDEO) - In the event of a nuclear disaster, zombies taking over the planet, or industrial food collapse, you’d want to be friends with the subject of our latest film. It’s a meditation on survival and the beauty of doing things that are no longer necessary, but still worth doing. It takes place on a fall day in Andalusia, Alabama where we (The Perennial Plate crew) collected invasive Corbicula Clams with Jimmy and Sierra Stiles. After wading in the river looking for the creatures, we cooked them over a fire… made by hand. Watch:
CanadianDoomer: Off-grid Carpentry
WaldenEffect: Storage shed solution
TheOilAge: US Army Preparing for Martial Law ?


Other News
CNN: Zimmerman's attorneys say they have lost contact with their client
NBC: George Zimmerman to be charged in Trayvon Martin case
MSNBC: Florida prosecutor to release new information in Martin shooting 
Hosted: Attorneys say Zimmerman is isolated, stressed out
Telegraph: Trayvon Martin killing: George Zimmerman's lawyers drop him - Lawyers acting for George Zimmerman, the neighbourhood watch captain who killed Trayvon Martin, dramatically dropped him as their client today, saying they have "lost contact" with him after days of erratic behaviour. 

StarTelegram: Arlington mayor was target of alleged murder-for-hire plot
MercuryNews: Charles Manson denied parole for 12th time
The one below is from RJ! Oh wow, this is so funny! LOL
This Is Why You Should Never Text And Walk At The Same Time
Like I always say: if you text and walk at the same time, you WILL run into a bear. It's simple, people.
 
TheGlobeAndMail: Wife of disgraced Chinese leader arrested for murder
Chinese army to help discipline party? - BEIJING: The PLA Daily - Chinese People's Liberation Army newspaper - on Tuesday suggested that the ruling Communist Party's military linked members could step in to ensure discipline in the party "if some members try to stray from the line''.
A commentary in the newspaper indicated that the army brass is worried about differences within the party ahead of the scheduled leadership change later this year while reminding its troops of the "party's absolute leadership" over the army.

Time: Reincarnate Rinpoche Taking Buddhism to Mongolia, Kalmykia - The Philly-born monk wanted to be like Michael Jordan but after meeting (and being cajoled) by the Dalai Lama, he now has a deeper and bigger mission 
Reuters: Attorneys for shooter in Trayvon Martin case step down

Boston.com: Woman who died in apparent chemical suicide in South End was Boston University researcher
Reuters: U.S. border agent accused of gun smuggling ordered detained


MarketDay: Family finds old stock certificate, says Coke owes them $130 millionCNN: Korean Air jetliner makes emergency landing at military base in Canada - NORAD jet fighters intercepted a Korean Air passenger jet and escorted it to a safe emergency landing at a military base on Vancouver Island
ChicagoTribune: Charles Manson's psychological records part of parole review

MSNBC: UFO video shot over South Korea: Is it fact or fake?
Flying saucer shot is hard to pin down, but red flags point to potential fakery
LAT: USC students killed: 1 shot while running for help; gunman sought


Politics
MercuryNews: Santorum's decision to call it quits puts chill on California primary
CNNMoney: Companies pressured over ties to 'Stand Your Ground' group
Boston.com: Santorum's early success pushed GOP to the right
LAT: If Romney fails, Rick Santorum is GOP's first in line for 2016
HubbertsArms: Willard Mitt Romney: The First “Citizens United” Candidate
HuffingtonPost: Massachusetts Senate Poll Shows Elizabeth Warren, Scott Brown Running ‘Neck-And-Neck’ 
CBS: Gingrich's check bounces in Utah



Forums
TinfoilPalace: A step forward in replacing women
TinfoilPalace: solar storm pattern
 
TheOilAge: Iran Escalates Again, Cuts Off Oil Shipments To Spain
TheOilAge: US Army Preparing for Martial Law ?
HubbertsArms: The US Army Is Stocking Up On A Ton Of Anti-Radiation Pills To Protect Troops
HubbertsArms: IT BEGINS: The First Casualty Of China's Real Estate Crash
SilentCountry: The Exurbs Are Slowly Dying
SilentCountry: Tattoos that receive magnetic waves

DestinyCalls: Living In Limbo - Understanding Bardo Realms
DestinyCalls: Occult Text Motherlode

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