WTC janitor pulls burn victim to safety after basement explosion rocks north tower seconds before jetliner hit top floors. Also, two other men trapped and drowning in a basement elevator shaft, were also pulled to safety from underground explosion...

"Seconds after the first massive explosion below in the basement still rattled the floor, I hear another explosion from way above," said Rodriguez. "Although I was unaware at the time, this was the airplane hitting the tower, it occurred moments after the first explosion."

But before Rodriguez had time to think, co-worker Felipe David stormed into the basement office with severe burns on his face and arms, screaming for help and yelling "explosion! explosion! explosion!"

David had been in front of a nearby freight elevator on sub-level 1 about 400 feet from the office when fire burst out of the elevator shaft, causing his injuries.

"He was burned terribly," said Rodriguez. "The skin was hanging off his hands and arms. His injuries couldn't have come from the airplane above, but only from a massive explosion below. I don't care what the government says, what scientists say. I saw a man burned terribly from a fire that was caused from an explosion below.

"I know there were explosives placed below the trade center. I helped a man to safety who is living proof, living proof the government story is a lie and a cover-up.
posted by Kevin at 4:18 PM

Yep, I'm monitoring the Prophet Yahweh mess, believe it or not. So far, he has just issued a bunch of insane religious rants that are a waste of time to read. This video, however, shows some wild chemtrail action over Las Vegas; no UFOs though. :(

It's interesting to see how the mind of a madman works. Prophet Yahweh (real name, Ramon Watkins) thinks the military is spraying the chemtrails in the sky to hide the UFOs he's summoning.

Was the point of this entire show to make anyone who mentions chemtrails appear nuts, you know, like that lunatic in Las Vegas who summons UFOs?

If you want to see the video, the link is on the right side of the page. It says:

Right Click and select 'Save Target As' to save
posted by Kevin at 4:00 PM

KH sent $30 along with the following:

Subject: A contribution to the "Get While the Gettin's Good" fund...

Note: So which part of NZ will it be - Hobbiton or Rohan?? I'm pretty sure you haven't chosen the Mt Doom area - it would take waaay too much compost...

:D
Let me know when you get that yurt park up & running!

KH

HEHE!
posted by Kevin at 2:11 PM

During the RUN 75, the average power output measured was 66,5 Watt with only 12,5 Watt at the input. The delta T was 4,6C with an average cooling water flow of 0.24 L/min. The average efficiency measured was 526 % during this test.
posted by Kevin at 1:05 PM

The Internal Revenue Service is investigating whether unauthorized people gained access to sensitive taxpayer and bank account information but has not yet exposed any privacy breaches, an official said on Friday.

The U.S. tax agency -- whose databases include suspicious activity reports from banks about possible terrorist or criminal transactions -- launched the probe after the Government Accountability Office said in April that the IRS "routinely permitted excessive access" to the computer files.

The GAO team was able to tap into the data without authorization, and gleaned information such as bank account holders' names, social security numbers, transaction values, and any suspected terrorist activity. It said the data was at serious risk of disclosure, modification or destruction.

"There is no evidence that anyone who was not authorized accessed the data outside the GAO," said Sheri James, a spokeswoman for the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), which is working with the IRS to address the concerns of the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress.

"The assessment remains ongoing at this time," James said.
posted by Kevin at 12:49 PM

It might go something like the scenario descried in this piece. I tend to believe, however, that tactical planning for The End is impossible. The thing to do is to get into a situation where you are content and relatively secure no matter what happens. If the bigtop comes down tomorrow, fine. If it doesn't, fine.
posted by Kevin at 12:39 PM

A suicide car bomber and gunmen ambushed a convoy carrying female U.S. Marines in Fallujah, killing two Marines and leaving another four American troops presumed dead, the military said Friday. At least one woman was killed and 11 of 13 wounded were female.

Related: Military Recruiters Use Pink T-Shirts to Attract Girls
posted by Kevin at 5:48 PM

I'd like a Double Western Mad Cow Cloned Cheesburger please:

Meat and milk from cloned farm animals is about to be declared safe for human consumption by the US Food and Drug Administration, one of the world's most powerful regulatory bodies.
posted by Kevin at 12:20 AM

This thing is very fragile:

Rats gnawing through cable helped cripple telecommunications services across New Zealand for more than four hours, an investigation has found.

But the rodents will go unpunished as the telco instead goes after the humans who were unwitting collaborators in the shutdown.

Telephone, mobile, Internet and eftpos services affecting about 100,000 customers were lost on Monday and the nation's stock exchange closed for most of the trading day because of the outage.

The interruption occurred after two service pipelines on the North Island were knocked out within hours of each other -- one by a power company post-hole digger, the other by industrious rodents.
posted by Kevin at 12:13 AM

I need to convert my savings (US$) into falling New Zealand Dollars in the next couple of days. Can any FOREX experts out there tell me where I'm likely to get filled on a NZ$ bid over the next few days? Or do I count myself lucky, take the little bonus and pull the trigger now?

If you deal with FOREX and would like to share your opinions on the NZ$, please email me:

New Zealand's dollar declined amid speculation a report today will show economic growth is slowing, making it less likely the central bank will raise its benchmark interest rate anytime soon.

First-quarter gross domestic product probably rose 2.7 percent from the same quarter a year earlier, the slowest pace in two years, according to the median of 10 estimates in a Bloomberg survey. The release follows yesterday's current account report showing the deficit widened more-than-expected to a record as exports lagged imports.

"It is possible the expected increase in GDP will be lower due a larger-than-expected net export drag," said Sue Trinh, currency strategist at Bank of New Zealand Ltd. in Wellington. "The current account numbers reinforce to us that the top has been seen in the New Zealand dollar."
posted by Kevin at 6:52 PM

The other day, Becky---my fiancee---and I were driving through the lovely, master-planned community of Irvine, California. Irvine is a weird place. Everything is just perfect in Irvine. Perfect fake blond hair. Perfect fake boobs. Perfect fake tans (it's sunny most days). Perfect SUVs. Thousands of perfect homes that all look the same. All the perfect, little hyperactive brats gets perfect doses of psychiatric drugs from the perfect pharmacies located at any of the hundreds of millions of perfect strip malls.

You get the picture.

Perfection is difficult to maintain. For example, surveillance cameras are present at most intersections. There are LOTS of cops. If you want to have a garage sale in some parts of Irvine, the dictates of perfection require you to post "community approved" garage sale signs. There are also "community approved" For Sale signs when it comes time to sell your perfect dream stucco box in Irvine.

The appearance of the "natural world" in Irvine is especially weird. Countless numbers of man hours and God only knows how much money goes up in smoke just to make sure that every blade of grass is cut and manicured according to some Nazi specification. All trees and bushes are carved into Euclidian solid shapes by gangs of men armed with gas powered tools...

Which brings me to the reason why I'm writing this rant to all of you.

As Becky and I were making our way through the perfect, community approved gridlock traffic, we noticed a sign posted on a concrete planter/island in the middle of the road. The sign said, "Grass under renovation."

Grass under renovation.

It really hit both of us, at the same time: We have to get out of here.

And, as fate would have it, we're making damn fine progress on actually getting out of here.

Part of getting out of here involves sending all of our savings out of the U.S. to New Zealand.

After looking into how to avoid being defrauded by my bank when it comes to wire fees and the bogus exchange rate it provides to its customers/victims, I decided to sign up for a foreign exchange account at XE.com.

Now, which one of the following do you think would involve the most red-tape?

A) Getting a driver's license

B) Buying a gun

C) Setting up a corporation

D) Establishing a daytrading account to trade stocks and options on margin (that is, with money you don't have)

E) Having the ability to send your money out of the U.S. at will

Hmmm??? Any guesses?

'E' is the correct answer.

In order to open an account at XE, they have to verify that the applicant is not a terrorist, money launderer or other international criminal. They required scanned images of my driver's license and a major credit card (both sides). They required all of my banking information in order to contact the bank manager where the account was opened. A couple of contracts had to be printed out, signed and faxed back to XE. Then there was a phone interview where the account rep had me verify everything again. Also, why do I need this account?

It's routine for house pets to receive pre-approved credit card offers. Many people "buy" homes for hundreds of thousands of dollars with no money down. Years later, they refinance those homes with interest only loans and take cash out in order to buy groceries, SUVs etc. Sure! Haul your fat ass down to WalMart and let it rip! You're a patriotic American with equity...

But try to take your chips off the table and get the hell out of this horror show before the big top collapses and suddenly you're dealing with a national security matter.

The moral of the story is this: When the music stops playing, don't get caught without a chair... And at least five quality acres surrounded by good neighbors.

By the grace of God (or dumb luck, depending on your perspective), it is still possible to get to a place that is more conducive to sanity and survival. Please use this time to procede to the nearest exit in an orderly manner. Either you move through that exit now, while it's relatively easy, or you try to get out with millions of other people who waited for clarity.

After all, there's nothing to see here.

Situation normal.

Grass under renovation.
posted by Kevin at 6:50 PM

You either buy food from corporations, or you're with the terrorists!

Related: Ran's Comments :.

They make ecological excuses but the real reason is to keep people dependent on the domination system for their food. Police threaten to destroy the crops, and they urge people to plant flowers and lawns! Here in America we have the same rule, but it's enforced with subtle propaganda associating flowers and nice lawns and clean (dead) supermarket food with higher social status. In a few years when we get desperate, they might have to use the police, or robot aircraft loaded with herbicides.
posted by Kevin at 2:19 PM

The Defense Department began working yesterday with a private marketing firm to create a database of high school students ages 16 to 18 and all college students to help the military identify potential recruits in a time of dwindling enlistment in some branches.

The program is provoking a furor among privacy advocates. The new database will include personal information including birth dates, Social Security numbers, e-mail addresses, grade-point averages, ethnicity and what subjects the students are studying.

Privacy advocates said the plan appeared to be an effort to circumvent laws that restrict the government's right to collect or hold citizen information by turning to private firms to do the work.
posted by Kevin at 1:44 PM

Buy more sh*t from Walmart, you patriotic Americans!

What the fascist, criminal Chinese regime can't buy, it will eventually try to take by force. The End:

A bold offer by a state-owned company here to outbid Chevron and take over a major California oil group suggests that China's rising economic clout has hit harder and faster than even many optimists predicted.

The $18 to $20 billion offer by China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) to secure Unocal, which has oil and gas reserves in Asia, underscores the magnitude of the energy needs of China as it continues its manufacturing juggernaut on the world stage. The bid is part of China's so-called energy diplomacy, which in recent years has witnessed a host of Chinese leaders, including President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, making deals worth tens of billions in Australia, Sudan, Iran, Khazakhstan, Venezuela, and Canada.
posted by Kevin at 12:46 PM

Property Ownership in America = Pay property taxes forever, or until corporate criminals get corrupt state and local officials to send people with guns to your house with an eviction notice.

If you can't see where this is headed, you will.

Wave your flag and have a nice day:

A divided Supreme Court ruled Thursday that local governments may seize people's homes and businesses against their will for private development in a decision anxiously awaited in communities where economic growth often is at war with individual property rights.

The 5-4 ruling - assailed by dissenting Justice Sanday Day O'Connor as handing "disproportionate influence and power" to the well-heeled in America - was a defeat for some Connecticut residents whose homes are slated for destruction to make room for an office complex. They had argued that cities have no right to take their land except for projects with a clear public use, such as roads or schools, or to revitalize blighted areas.

As a result, cities now have wide power to bulldoze residences for projects such as shopping malls and hotel complexes in order to generate tax revenue.
posted by Kevin at 12:02 PM

In case you haven't made time to download all of the Downing Street Memos, we at the RS Blog would like to offer our Cliffs Notes.
posted by Kevin at 10:42 PM

Bankrupt grocery chain Winn-Dixie said Tuesday it would close about a third of its 913 stores and cut 22,000 jobs as part of a plan to restructure and emerge from bankruptcy.

The job cuts represent about 28 percent of Winn-Dixie's total work force. The cuts will affect stores as well as corporate offices, the company said in a statement.
posted by Kevin at 11:42 PM

By the end of the year, America's bubbling housing prices will likely flatten or pop, causing an economic slowdown, economists warned in a flurry of reports yesterday and today.

Red flags issued by such diverse sources as the Merrill Lynch investment firm, the University of Maryland and the UCLA Anderson Forecast warn that a stumble in housing prices could take a major bite out of economic growth, damaging the already weak job market.

Rising housing prices, as witnessed in Chula Vista and throughout the county, have been a key engine of the economy, with refinancings and home equity loans fueling retail sales and construction activity.

Other signs of economic trouble also loomed yesterday. The price of oil surged to a 20-year high of almost $60 a barrel and the nation's leading economic indicators fell twice as much as had been projected.

But the economists warned that the most serious problem is in the overpriced housing market.

"Policy-makers need to reckon with the end of the housing boom, which has been holding up consumer spending and the economy," said Peter Morici, economist at the University of Maryland. "With so many buyers benefiting from creative and highly questionable mortgage schemes, and regulators expressing concern about those practices, a pullback in the housing sector seems inevitable. When that happens, growth will skid."
posted by Kevin at 7:32 PM

FRONTLINE returns to Iraq, this time to embed with Halliburton/KBR, and to take a hard look at private security contractors like Blackwater, Aegis and Erinys, who play an increasingly critical role in running U.S. military supply lines, providing armed protection, and operating U.S. military bases. These private warriors are targeted by insurgents and in turn have been criticized for their rough treatment of Iraqi civilians. Their dramatic story illuminates the Pentagon's new reliance on corporate outsourcing and raises tough questions about where they fit in the chain of command and the price we are paying for their role in the war.
posted by Kevin at 7:27 PM

The ultra-violent, U.S.-trained elite, Mexican paramilitary commandos known as the "Zetas," responsible for hundreds of murders along the border this year, have expanded their enforcement efforts on behalf of a drug cartel by setting up trafficking routes in six U.S. states.

A U.S. Justice Department memo says the U.S.-trained units have recently moved operations into Houston, San Antonio and the states of California, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida. They have been operating in Dallas for at least two years, according to the feds.
posted by Kevin at 7:22 PM

The bookish calm of a public library might not seem like the most obvious place to hunt for terrorists, but according to a report, the FBI and other US law enforcement agencies involved in counter-terrorism have made more than 200 requests for information about borrowers from libraries since September 11.
posted by Kevin at 7:19 PM

Don't take any flights, Mr. Naudin. Please don't take any flights.
posted by Kevin at 3:13 PM

In other news, mercenaries, employed by the U.S. government, represent the second largest military presence in Iraq, after the U.S. military. Have a nice day:

Many insurgents conducting attacks in Iraq are primarily motivated by money instead of ideology, and can receive $150 for setting a bomb and more for other types of assaults, a top U.S. general asserted Tuesday.
posted by Kevin at 11:03 AM

Anyone waiting for a pullpack to buy some out of the money long contracts for fall?

UPDATE 12PM PST: August Contract Hit $60.10.
posted by Kevin at 10:58 AM

As I read this, I wondered: Have any leading biologists died in the last few days?

The World Health Organization (WHO) is attempting to clarify from China, reports that the government there encouraged farmers to use a human anti-viral drug to treat birds infected with a deadly strain of avian flu.

This action would be breaking international guidelines.

Scientists have long feared the bird flu, which although infectious in birds, does not spread easily among humans, could mutate into a form capable of generating a pandemic in which millions of people without immunity could die.

According to reports, Chinese farmers, acting with government encouragement, had tried to suppress major bird flu outbreaks among chickens with amantadine, which would possibly make it useless in fighting human influenza.
posted by Kevin at 10:27 AM

* gasp *
posted by Kevin at 10:39 PM

Even though I haven't made a black and white print since 1991, this news made me a bit sad:

Ending a century-old tradition, Eastman Kodak Co. will soon stop making black-and-white photographic paper, a niche product for fine-art photographers and hobbyists that is rapidly being supplanted by digital-imaging systems.
posted by Kevin at 12:39 AM