This first story is from the Ozarker and you know what, this made my day! Thanks Ozarker!
Crowds gather to sing song killer hates
A show of unity in Oslo on the ninth day of the trial of Ander Behring Breivik. Tens of thousands of people braved the rain to sing a popular children's song calling for fraternity and peace ridiculed by Breivik for its embrace of diversity.
A show of unity in Oslo on the ninth day of the trial of Ander Behring Breivik. Tens of thousands of people braved the rain to sing a popular children's song calling for fraternity and peace ridiculed by Breivik for its embrace of diversity.
And here's another excellent essay from our good friend Bill Hicks!
Return with me now to the year 1972. That was quite a tumultuous time in America. The Vietnam War was winding down, a controversial new sitcom named All in the Family topped the Neilson ratings and had tongues wagging around water coolers all across the nation, a young filmmaker named Francis Ford Coppola scored his first big success with The Godfather, starring a young, unknown actor named Al Pacino…oh, and incumbent President Richard Nixon scandalized the nation by raising the then-unprecedented sum of $40 million for his reelection campaign, much of it from wealthy, fat cat donors.
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! Don't forget to check out their blogs and sites and support their work. And don't forget to visit the forums linked at the bottom of the post.
Remember, RJ posts his weekly financials wrapup this afternoon and the Ozarker posts her writing on Saturday afternoons so be sure to check them out!
Peak Oil and Energy News
Minyanville: Oil To Retailers: Pay Attention - Oil prices have remained stubbornly high during the “mini-correction,” proving that risk assets remain resilient despite Europe and banking policies on both sides of the pond.
WSJ: OIL FUTURES: Oil Little Changed As Market Digests Mixed News
Philly.com: Ethanol, environmental mandates blamed for Phila. refinery woes
BusinessInsider: The SEC Has Launched An Inquiry Into Chesapeake Energy And Its CEO
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Securities and Exchange Commission has opened an informal inquiry into Chesapeake Energy Corp's controversial program that granted Chief Executive Aubrey McClendon a share in each of the natural gas producer's wells, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday.Chron: Texas GOP outrage at EPA official’s ‘crucify’ comment grows: Abbott denounces ‘radical’ agenda; Poe wants official fired Texas Republicans are steaming mad about comments made by the Environmental Protection Agency’s regional director for Texas, who off-handedly compared the EPA’s regulatory strategy to old-fashioned crucifixions.
Statesman: EPA official apologizes for use of word 'crucify'
NYT: Natural Gas Is on a Roll, Executive Declares - A “perfect storm” of economic and regulatory factors is driving major United States utilities to rapidly switch from coal to natural gas as an electric power source, the top executive of one of the nation’s largest utilities said on Thursday.
WashingtonPost: How to calculate the true cost of energy - There are two ways to think about the cost of energy. There’s the dollar amount that shows up on our utility bills or at the pump. And then there’s the “social cost” — all the adverse consequences that various energy sources, from coal to nuclear power, end up foisting on the public.
ETFDaily: There’s An Enormous Amount Of Money To Be Made In Natural Gas
Global Conflict
The following video is horrific.
I'm just going to post the link and you decide if you want to view it.
read the description by the person posting the video.
BURIED ALIVE ON CAMERA: SYRIA SHOCKING VIDEO !!!
UPI: Japan, India discuss defense cooperation
US to move marines out of Japan
Japan and the US have agreed to relocate thousands of US marines from Okinawa in a move aimed at reducing the island's military burden amid lingering anger among residents over pollution, accidents and crime.
UPI: Iran's Oil Ministry under cyberattack - Iran's Oil Ministry, already battling stringent economic sanctions aimed at throttling the country's oil exports, is now having to fight on another front: cyber attacks.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, April 26 (UPI) -- Iran's Oil Ministry, already battling stringent economic sanctions aimed at throttling the country's oil exports, is having to fight on another front: cyberattacks.BBC: Bin Laden wives 'being deported'
In what may be an effort by the United States and Israel to disrupt oil exports, the backbone of Iran's increasingly battered economy, the computer systems of the ministry and the Iran National Oil Co. were attacked Sunday by a virus the ISNA news agency identified without elaboration as "Viper."
Guardian: Images of Osama bin Laden killing not to be released, judge orders
Hosted: 27 injured in 4 blasts in eastern Ukraine city
CNN: Explosions hit Syrian capital, 9 dead
MSNBC: Sources: Scant evidence 'torture' helped war on terror, Senate probe finds
WASHINGTON - A nearly three-year-long investigation by Senate Intelligence Committee Democrats is expected to find there is little evidence the harsh "enhanced interrogation techniques" the CIA used on high-value prisoners produced counter-terrorism breakthroughs.
People familiar with the inquiry said committee investigators, who have been poring over records from the administration of President George W. Bush, believe they do not substantiate claims by some Bush supporters that the harsh interrogations led to counter-terrorism coups.
SeattlePI: Blasts northeast of Baghdad kill 9 Iraqis
Guardian: Charles Taylor war crimes trial - live coverage of the verdict - Judges at a war crimes tribunal in the Netherlands convict the former Liberian president of aiding and abetting atrocities in neighbouring Sierra Leone
CSMonitor: London neighborhood sealed off by armed police after suicide bomb threatGuardian: Charles Taylor war crimes trial - live coverage of the verdict - Judges at a war crimes tribunal in the Netherlands convict the former Liberian president of aiding and abetting atrocities in neighbouring Sierra Leone
SeattlePI: Palestinian government cracks down on critics - JERUSALEM (AP) — The government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has moved to silence critics, raising new concerns about freedom of expression in the West Bank.
Chron: US: Mexico seized 68,000 guns from US since 2006
BBC: Profile: Syrian city of Hama
Reuters: China's space know-how said threat to U.S., Taiwan
OWS/Protests
CivilEats: Occupy the Farm: A Model of Resistance
We all know that “Every Day is Earth Day” and many environmentalists
feel that their eating habits are their daily affirmation of a
commitment to the planet. But what does it look like to take action for
the environment, beyond the fork? There are many options, of course, but
one particularly inspirational tactic manifested this past Earth Day in
Albany, CA.
On April 22, a week after the International Day of Peasant Struggle,
hundreds of Bay Area food sovereignty activists and community members
broke the locks on a huge piece of urban agricultural land, tore up
mustard weeds, and planted veggies. “Occupy the Farm”
was organized as an occupy-style protest, including tent encampments
and a “farmers assembly,” but with one very meaningful difference: This
act of “moral obedience” (AKA civil disobedience) was the direct
outgrowth of years of neighborhood organizing around the piece of land
in question.MotherJones: Occupy's Big Stakes on May Day: Relevance - On the first of May, the Occupy Wall Street movement hopes to leverage the labor holiday known as May Day and muster enough people power to blockade the Golden Gate Bridge—assuming, that is, that striking bridge workers take the lead.
Hacker/Wikileaks News
Guardian: Bradley Manning judge warns military prosecutors in WikiLeaks case - Judge refuses to dismiss most serious charge but tells prosecution it must prove private knew he was aiding the enemy
Domestic Financial News
WSJ: US GDP Growth Slows
LAT: Economic growth slows in first quarter
ETFDailyNews: 5 New Reasons The Federal Reserve Is Lying To The American People
PHILADELPHIA—The Justice Department said Thursday that it indicted six men on charges of tricking investors into paying upfront fees to connect them with lenders, without delivering. Prosecutors say the men defrauded more than 800 people of at least $10 million.Reuters: How American municipalities can learn from Parisian mistakes - Across the nation cash-strapped municipalities are considering the sale of their public-utility systems. These moves are intended to raise cash and rid the municipalities of expensive liabilities such as debt service and pension obligations. But officials considering this approach might do well to look to France and other nations that are rapidly moving in the opposite direction with a “remunicipalization” of their utility systems. In 2010, Paris, in the best known case of remunicipalization, ended contracts with the world’s two biggest water service companies, Suez and Veolia, bringing an end to their 100-year private duopoly. The reversal of a century-old practice in Paris was an acceleration of an international movement away from private control.
BusinessInsider: Peak Housing, Peak Fraud, Peak Suburbia and Peak Property TaxesTransitionVoice: Love and money; Why Chrisitianity is incompatible with capitalism
BusinessInsider: Here's The Jobless Claims Chart That Scares The Crap Out Of Everyone
ETFDailyNews: NETFA: Organized Crime Comes To ETFs
ETFDailyNews: Paper Money: The Barbarous Relic
TwentyCentParadigms: Who Bails Out the IMF? - Us, says Simon Johnson: Over the weekend, the monetary fund became a lot more leveraged — that is, its debt increased relative to its equity. The potential future liability to American taxpayers went up, because the risk of large credit losses increased, and those losses would need to be covered by shareholders (and the American stake in the fund is 17.69 percent of quota, with 16.8 percent of the votes).
Reuters: Jobless claims suggest stumbling labor recovery - The number of Americans lining up for new jobless benefits fell slightly last week but remained above levels posted earlier this year, suggesting improvement in the labor market is stalling.
CSMonitor: 'Fiscal cliff' threatens economy on Dec. 31, Bernanke warns Congress - At year-end, a range of tax cuts are set to expire, potentially dampening consumer spending. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said Wednesday there's not much he can do if Congress doesn't act.
Zerohedge: The Sell-Side Take On The Tepid GDP Growth
BusinessInsider: 20 Cities Getting Crushed By Foreclosures
EconomyWatch: Congress steering US economy toward a 'fiscal cliff'
JOC: US Containerized Imports Rose 7.3 Percent in March
WashingtonPost: GDP report: rate of US economic growth slows to 2.2% - The U.S. economic recovery slowed in the first three months of the year, with growth falling to an annual rate of 2. 2 percent, as government spending declined and businesses invested less, the Commerce Department said Friday.
CalculatedRisk: Real GDP increased 2.2% annual rate in Q1 - From the BEA: Real gross domestic product -- the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States -- increased at an annual rate of 2.2 percent in the first quarter of 2012 (that is, from the fourth quarter to the first quarter), according to the "advance" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
WashingtonPost: Ben Bernanke vs. Paul Krugman - I spent my first year at The Washington Post sitting about 10 feet away from Binyamin Appelbaum. It was a great learning experience. Appelbaum, who is now at the New York Times, doesn’t ask questions so much as he springs traps. And he sprung one on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke at a press conference on Wednesday.
ThinkProgress: Media Jump On Idea That Social Security Is Going Bankrupt, Ignore Easy Way To Ensure Its Future
Reuters: Falling home prices drag new buyers under water - More than 1 million Americans who have taken out mortgages in the past two years now owe more on their loans than their homes are worth, and Federal Housing Administration loans that require only a tiny down payment are partly to blame.
Global Financial News
Eurozone: The Secret System That Blew Another Hole In The Euro
NYT: S.&P. Cuts Its Rating on Spain, Citing Debt
NYT: Ford’s Challenges Mount in Europe - FRANKFURT — Stephen T. Odell, the chief executive of Ford’s European operations, is among those who welcome the new rhetorical emphasis on economic growth over budget cutting by the region’s political leaders.
Reuters: Sarkozy swings further right, Hollande holds lead
Bloomberg: Spain Cut by S&P for 2nd Time This Year on Banks, Economy. - Spain's sovereign credit rating was cut for the second time this year by Standard & Poor's on concern that the country will have to provide further fiscal support to banks as the economy contracts. S&P lowered the long-term grade to BBB+ from A, with a negative outlook. Spain’s short-term rating was reduced to A-2 from A-1, New York-based S&P said in a statement yesterday.
Zerohedge: European Confidence Tumbles To November 2009 Levels, Euro-Wide Double Dip Inevitable
Bloomberg: China Helps First-Home Buyers as Market Cools
Spiegel: 'Europe Could Economize Itself to Death' - Leaders across Europe continued to struggle Thursday with backlash against the largely German-driven austerity measures imposed as a result of the ongoing euro zone debt crisis.
BusinessInsider: Why The China Bubble Could Be Far Worse Than Japan In The 1980s
Hosted: Geithner asks China to let its currency strengthen
AU.News: Spanish jobless rate soars to record 24.4%
Bloomberg: France Unemployment Near 10%
Counterpunch: The Meaning of “Austerity Measures”
The eurozone is slipping into a recession that could have been avoided. Had policymakers provided fiscal support for stricken countries in the South and guarantees on their government bonds, (as the USG does for US Treasuries) then their economies could have continued to grow while the necessary reforms were put in place. But the Troika (The IMF, the ECB, and the European Commission) decided to make the bailouts conditional on member states’ acceptance of harsh austerity measures which forced leaders to slash government payrolls, services and programs. The result was entirely predictable; economic activity began to sputter as one country after another succumbed to a vicious slump.ChicagoTribune: Spain to increase VAT rate, other taxes in 2013
Reuters: Romanian government toppled, Czechs face test too - Romania's opposition torpedoed the center-right cabinet in a confidence vote on Friday, raising the prospect of months of political turmoil and questions over a belt-tightening campaign that has caused a wave of protests against IMF-backed reforms.
Canada.com: Moody's downgrades Ontario after S&P
Commodities/Metals
ETFDaily: Will Silver and Platinum Outperform Gold In The Near Future?
ResourceInvestor: Copper, Crude Oil Rise after Fed Upgrades Outlook - Commodity prices are pushing broadly higher as the impact of yesterday’s Federal Open Markets Committee monetary policy announcement continues to be digested across financial markets.
US1: May Silver’s Precise Bounce Is Encouraging
ETFDaily: Gold’s Long-Term Price Picture Remains Bullish
Environmental
USGS
M 5.1, Sulawesi, Indonesia
ExtinctionProtocol: Antarctic ice melting from below, reveals satellite - “Underwater volcanism is also sublimating portions of the Antarctica ice mass from underneath.
WashingtonPost: Authorities investigate reports of damage, injuries from rare nighttime tornadoes in Colorado.
USAToday: 3 tornadoes reported in southeast Colorado - Authorities are investigating reports of damage to some homes following up to three early-morning tornadoes in southeast Colorado.
ExtinctionProtocol: Poison skies: Hanging over Japan is a Fukushima nuclear crisis that’s far from over
NTI: Audit Confirms EPA Radiation Monitors Broken During Fukushima Crisis
CNN: Scientists: Giant cannibal shrimp invasion growing
SkepticalScience: Alberta’s bitumen sands: “negligible” climate effects, or the “biggest carbon bomb on the planet”?An invasion of giant cannibal shrimp into America's coastal waters appears to be getting worse.Researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported Thursday that sightings of the massive Asian tiger shrimp, which can eat their smaller cousins, were 10 times higher in 2011 than in 2010.
DailyMail: By 'eck! It's Yorkshire's Robinson Crusoe: Brit who bought a cut-price island in the Seychelles 50 years ago... and still lives in blissful solitude with 120 giant tortoises
GlobalResearch: Fukushima: A Nuclear War without a War: The Unspoken Crisis of Worldwide Nuclear Radiation - The dumping of highly radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean constitutes a potential trigger to a process of global radioactive contamination. Radioactive elements have not only been detected in the food chain in Japan, radioactive rain water has been recorded in California:
America in Decline
BeforeItsNews: "Houstonians Revolt Over TSA On Buses!"...
TheNation: The Other America, 2012: Confronting the Poverty Epidemic - The side streets of central Clarksdale are lined with tiny, dilapidated wooden homes. Most residents here make do without basic services and amenities, including anything beyond a bare-bones education, and many lack access to the broader cash economy. In contrast, the stately old townhouses in the historic district—places where several Mississippi governors grew up, where the young Tennessee Williams ran around while staying with his grandparents—look like the scenic backdrop to a romantic film set in the antebellum South.
ThinkProgress: House GOP Threatens Government Shutdown To Get Steeper Cuts To Food Assistance, Financial Regulations - House Republicans made it clear earlier this year that they had no intention of upholding the debt deal reached in 2011, despite a vow from President Obama that he would veto any appropriations bills that attempted to cut more spending than was agreed upon last August and a pledge from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) that the deal would be upheld in the Senate. After earlier indications that they would make substantial cuts to domestic programs to preserve defense spending, the House Appropriations Committee made it official yesterday, setting a spending level $27 billion below the level agreed to in the debt deal. The committee, bowing to the GOP’s more conservative wing, will make deep cuts to food assistance, financial regulations, and a host of other programs, setting up the potential for a government shutdown when the fiscal year ends in October, Politico reports:
ModestoBee: Sacramento cops, firefighters face layoffs unless they give more to pensions - Sacramento's police officers and firefighters have been presented with a stark choice: They can contribute more toward their pensions, or watch nearly 100 of their comrades lose their jobs.
Food and Water
Grist: Meet a pesticide even conventional vegetable farmers fear
McClatchy: Mad cow investigation leads to Tulare County, Calif., dairy
BusinessInsider: See What Goes Into High-End Chocolate And Why It Costs So Much
Internet and Online Privacy News
ArsTechnica: Judge orders woman to go online, retrieve psychic chats
If you're going to consult a psychic about your boss, make sure you realize one key difference between off-line and online attempts to commune with the world beyond: online conversations are logged. If you eventually file a lawsuit against your employer, your employer will probably want to see those logs—and a court will probably agree.HubbertsArms: CISPA, “National Security,” and the NSA’s Ability to Read Your Emails
Techland: CISPA: House Vote Sets up Senate Cybersecurity Showdown
TechnoLog: CISPA veto could protect privacy, say experts, but Congress presses ahead
"It doesn't get much better than a veto threat," says Michelle Richardson, Legislative Counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union.TruthOut: The CISPA Scoop: White House Threatens Veto of Cybersecurity Bill Amid Online Protests
She's talking about the announcement from the White House regarding the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act. Earlier this week, a statement from the administration said that President Barack Obama's office threatened to veto it if it passed. Well, it was passed by the House of Representatives late on Thursday. Killing CISPA is exactly what the ACLU and other civil liberty advocates have been working hard to do for the past two weeks, and they welcome the president's opposition. House speaker John Boehner, however, does not. Prior to the Thursday vote, Boehner rejected the administration's criticism that CISPA could lead to invasion of Americans' privacy.
Alternet: 4 Things to Know About CISPA
Science and Technology
ScientificAmerican: India Becomes World's Top Spammer
IBTimes: The Space Shuttle Enterprise Over New York On Its Last Flight: Slideshow
CosmicLog: Blue Origin lifts its veil of secrecy: Spaceship design passes test - In a rare news release, Blue Origin — the rocket venture backed by Amazon.com billionaire Jeff Bezos — says it has successfully tested the design for its orbital spaceship during a series of wind-tunnel tryouts.
TechnoLog: July 9 could be 'Internet doomsday' for some (so check your PC or Mac)
July 9 might be "Internet doomsday" for PC and Mac users who haven't taken steps to make sure their systems are not infected with what's being called DNSChanger malware.CosmicLog: Stonehenge's eerie sounds revived
That's right: Your Internet connection may not work that day because the safety net now in place from the FBI against the malware will be removed then, and if your computer is infected, you won't be able to get to the Internet.
SingularityHub: Singularity Song Sweeps Seattle’s Airwaves
ArsTechnica: Whatcha lookin' at? The attention of crowds shows no tipping pointsIt's a familiar experience: you're walking through a crowded area, when you spot someone staring intently at some distant spot.
ArsTechnica: The hard drives most likely to expose your data aren't your own
Medical and Health
ScientificAmerican: 9 Percent of Older Adults Have Osteoporosis
TheChart: Berries may delay memory decline
As the number of Americans living with Alzheimer's disease continues to rise, researchers are investigating various ways that people can prevent memory decline through nutrients in foods we might eat often anyway.
Vitals: 200 now sick in salmonella sushi outbreak
CNN: Searching for a medical miracle
Vitals: One-third of US workers don't get enough sleep
Overall, 30 percent of employed U.S. adults reported getting less than six hours of sleep a night, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in its report. The National Sleep Foundation recommends that healthy adults get seven to nine hours of sleep.DoctorTipster: Stroke Risk High In Patients Off Anticoagulant Therapy
ScienceDaily: Sperm viability greatly reduced in offspring of animals treated with common antibiotic tetracycline - ScienceDaily (Apr. 27, 2012) — In a paper published April 27 in Nature's open access journal Scientific Reports, researchers at the University of Nevada, Reno report that male pseudoscorpions treated with the antibiotic tetracycline suffer significantly reduced sperm viability and pass this toxic effect on to their untreated sons. They suggest that a similar effect could occur in humans and other species.
Doomsteading, Gardening, Urban Farming
RelaxShacks: Mariah Coz and her "Comet Camper"- a revamped Avalon (Tiny House On Wheels)
PRWeb: “Packing a Bug Out Bag Has Never Been More Crucial,” Says AbsoluteRights.com
ModernSurvivalBlog: Guest Post: Why I prepare
BeforeItsNews: "3 Ways To Hide Valuables At Home - Video"
Other News
Reuters: Florida judge blocks drug tests for state workers
WashingtonPost: Secret Service investigating news reports of agents using prostitutes ...
LAT: LAPD adds 30 officers to area around USC - New security measures following the slayings of two foreign students will also include sharing of crime data with USC public safety officials and installation of more security cameras.
ChicagoTribune: Attorney: George Zimmerman's website collected $200000 before shutdown
IBTimes: French Presidential Hopeful Hollande Will Uphold Ban On Face Covering
IBTimes: Controversy Sparked After Afro Style Washing Sponge Is Launched In Markets [PHOTOS]
CNN: Philadelphia man finds self on missing children's website
(CNN) -- More than a year ago, Steve Carter was browsing online and came across a missing children's website.CNN: Judge delays decision on Zimmerman contributions
To his astonishment, after clicking through the pages, he found himself.What followed was a yearlong story of self-discovery.Carter, a 35-year-old software salesman, was adopted at age 4 from an orphanage in Honolulu. When he grew up, got married and thought about having his own children, the Philadelphia resident grew more curious about his own roots.
Guardian: Chinese state media fails to report escape of blind activist
DigitalJournal: Have sex with your dead wife — Egypt's Islamic gov law proposal?
Politics
Alternet: John McCain Lights Into 'Imaginary' War On Women
MSNBC: Agenda 21: Arizona close to passing anti-UN-sustainability bill
Arizona lawmakers appear close to sending to Gov. Jan Brewer a tea party-backed bill that proponents say would stop a United Nations takeover conspiracy but that critics claim could end state and cities’ pollution-fighting efforts and even dismantle the state unemployment office.HuffingtonPost: Arizona Tea Party-Backed Bill Gutting Sustainability Efforts Advances: -- An Arizona Tea Party-backed bill that would gut government-run green programs in the state may have the support it needs to go before Gov. Jan Brewer (R). In a preliminary voice vote on Wednesday, the Arizona House approved a bill introduced by Tea Party member Rep. Judy Burges (R-Sun City West) with the stated goal of preventing "social engineering ... including where we live, what we eat." Burges' bill, Senate Bill 1507, targets a United Nations declaration promoting international environmental sustainability, which was adopted by the governments of 172 nations -- including the United States under the George H. W. Bush Administration -- in 1992.
A final legislative vote is expected Monday on a bill that would outlaw government support of any of the 27 principles contained in the 1992 United Nations Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, also sometimes referred to as Agenda 21.
Forums
TinfoilPalace: HUGE chemtrail operation over northern Greece
TinfoilPalace: MUST READ: Imminent Major Quakes
TheOilAge: Templar's Card Game
TheOilAge: Pentagon creates spy unit directed at Iran, China
HubbertsArms: In the US, how many folks livelihood is directly tied to government spending?
HubbertsArms: Target offers 3D body scanner to measure customers
SilentCountry: How today's generation fixes real life problems
SilentCountry: Democrats to introduce WORK Act to give all mothers the same choice
DestinyCalls: Living In Limbo - Understanding Bardo Realms
DestinyCalls: Electromagnetic Effects On The Human Brain, Prepare For Cosmic Intervention
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