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8/13/2005

Border Situation: State of Emergency Declared in New Mexico :.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson declared a state of emergency Friday in four counties along the Mexican border that he said have been "devastated" by crimes such as the smuggling of drugs and illegal immigrants.



New Data Support Global Warming :.

Though most scientists agree global warming is real, a few pieces of the puzzle have proved difficult to fit into place.

Critics of the warming theory have clung to these last bits of evidence. But new research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is putting another nail in the naysayers' coffin.

Most climate models predict that loading the atmosphere with carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, as humans have done for more than 150 years, should warm the troposphere - the lowest layer of atmosphere - faster than the planet's surface.

But temperature measurements from weather balloons and satellites show that while the surface has warmed, the troposphere has warmed more slowly and actually cooled slightly in some places since 1979.

"The skeptics have always used this as one of the arguments that climate scientists don't know what they're talking about and global warming isn't real," said climatologist John Chiang of the University of California, Berkeley.

Now, two groups of scientists have corrected errors in the temperature data, revealing the troposphere has warmed faster than the surface.


8/12/2005

A Lost Dubya 2004 Election Ad? :.

For your consideration...



There's a Law :.

From Jeff's entry today:
There will be no "Please Stand By" for America. No on/off toggle for totalitarianism will be thrown with Martial Law, and those expecting one may find themselves saying "Hey, this isn't so bad." America is passing through gradations of grey, the next nearly indistinguishable from the last. It's only in stepping back, in comparing now to then - five years ago; 10, 25 or 50 - that you realize how your eyes have adjusted to the dark.
Of course, there's nothing new under the sun. From They Thought They Were Free, by Milton Mayer:
To live in this process is absolutely not to be able to notice it - please try to believe me - unless one has a much greater degree of political awareness, acuity, than most of us had ever had occasion to develop. Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, "regretted," that, unless one were detached from the whole process from the beginning, unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these "little measures" that no "patriotic German" could resent must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. One day it is over his head.
So it goes...



OIL $66.40 $67.10

Why aren't they taking profits...

I know how to kill this rally! If I went long right now, it would go back down to $20/barrel.


8/11/2005

World's Largest Solar Installation to Use Stirling Engine Technology :.

Well, I guess They are going to try to keep this show going for as long as possible:

A Stirling engine is commonly referred to as an "external combustion engine" in contrast to the "internal combustion engines" found in most vehicles. Combine a Stirling engine with solar as the source of heat, and you have a highly efficient means of converting solar power into usable energy.

That is what Stirling Energy Systems has been perfecting for the 20 years.

Now they are ready to go big-time, with an agreement signed Tuesday with Edison International (NYSE:EIX) subsidiary Southern California Edison (SCE), the nation's leading purchaser of renewable energy.

On Tuesday they announced an agreement that could result in construction of a massive, 4,500-acre solar generating station in Southern California. The completed power station would be the world's largest solar facility, capable of producing more electricity than all other U.S. solar projects combined.



Scratch and Dent Loans :.

This is an interesting bit of lingo.

Scratch and Dent Loans:

Mortgage bankers might not like to admit it, but, as with many volume-driven businesses, mistakes, sometimes referred to as "scratch and dent" loans, are bound to occur.

Such mistakes often ultimately prevent the sale of certain loans to your primary investor base. Perhaps your company is moving from broker to banker, and you are new at having to live with what you fund. Or perhaps you're expanding geographically
and entering new markets at a frenetic pace, or maybe you're rolling out cutting-edge
products with limited time for training and oversight.

Aggressive loan officers and upper management are always looking to expand market share and top-line revenue, but often it is at the expense of pushing the envelope a bit too far, resulting in an increased percentage of scratch and dent and nonconforming loans.

The list of issues can range from the somewhat innocuous, such as a missed ratio or guideline requirement, to more serious problems, including first payment defaults, valuation discrepancies or even fraud. Either way, too many mistakes can cripple your liquidity and put you out of business overnight, unless you are prepared to deal with them immediately.



Malaysia, Blanketed in Noxious Haze, Declares Emergency :.

Malaysia declared a state of emergency in two coastal cities today as smoke drifting across the Straits of Malacca from forest fires in Indonesia blanketed parts of the peninsula in noxious haze, forcing the country's biggest seaport to shut down.

A spokesman for the prime minister's office said the state of emergency had been imposed on Kuala Selangor and busy Port Klang, with residents advised to stay indoors. Schools have also been closed as the haze has spread to cover much of the populous central state of Selangor, he said, including the adjacent capital, Kuala Lumpur.



OIL $66

And all the rats just keep running around the maze like everything is fine...


8/10/2005

Warming Hits 'Tipping Point' :.

A vast expanse of western Sibera is undergoing an unprecedented thaw that could dramatically increase the rate of global warming, climate scientists warn today.

Researchers who have recently returned from the region found that an area of permafrost spanning a million square kilometres - the size of France and Germany combined - has started to melt for the first time since it formed 11,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age.

The area, which covers the entire sub-Arctic region of western Siberia, is the world's largest frozen peat bog and scientists fear that as it thaws, it will release billions of tonnes of methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere.


Research Credit: JJ



RUMORS: Four Star General Fired For Organizing Coup Against Neo-Cons? :.

Rumors started flowing within minutes of this story breaking yesterday. And I'm asking you to file this in the rumor category. If you email me with such-and-so isn't a credible source of information. It hasn't been triple checked. X said Y about Z. Save it. (Feel free to post your grievances in the forum.)

On the other hand, anyone who thinks a four-star general gets canned within a few months of retirement for, "personal misconduct" needs to set the crack pipe down. I'm not saying this is the explanation, but it's worth keeping in mind:

The head of Fort Monroe's Training and Doctrine Command, four star general Kevin P. Byrnes, was fired Tuesday apparently for sexual misconduct according to official sources.

Other sources however have offered a different explanation for Byrnes' dismissal which ties in with the Bush administration's unpopular plan to attack Iran and the staged nuclear attack in the US which would provide the pretext to do so.

According to reporter Greg Szymanski, anonymous military sources said that Brynes was the leader of a faction that was preparing to instigate a coup against the neo-con hawks in an attempt to prevent further global conflict.

Indications are that, much like popular opinion amongst the general public, half the military oppose the neo-con's agenda and half support it.

Further revelations were imparted by journalist Leland Lehrman who appeared today on The Alex Jones Show.

Lehrman's army sources, including a former Captain in intelligence, became outraged when they learned that the official story behind 9/11 was impossible.

They told Lehrman that the imminent Northcom nuclear terror exercise based in Charleston, S.C, where a nuclear warhead is smuggled off a ship and detonated, was originally intended to 'go live' - as in the drill would be used as the cover for a real false flag staged attack.

This website has relentlessly discussed similar style drills which took place on the morning of 9/11 and on the morning of 7/7 in London.

"Speculation exists that he had potentially discovered the fact that it was gonna go live and that he was trying to put a stop to it or also speculation indicates that he may be part of a military coup designed to prevent the ridiculous idea of doing a nuclear war with Iran," said Lehrman.


Related: Things Go Sliding

Related: Alleged Affair Involved a Female Civilian <--- Par for the course. Who is she? That might be interesting. I wonder what other cards They can play on guys at this level... Videotape of... well... Who knows? Why pull out the big guns to compromise someone when all that's required is good, clean heterosexual impropriety?



U.S. Border Patrol Agent: Illegal Alien, and Alien Smuggler :.

I sh*t you not:

A U.S. Border Patrol agent accused of being an illegal alien and smuggling other illegals into the United States faces a bail hearing today in federal court in San Diego.

Oscar Antonio Ortiz, 28, a Mexican citizen born in Tijuana, is charged with using a fraudulent birth certificate to obtain a job with the agency in 2001 and alien smuggling. The numbered certificate claimed he was born in Chicago, although authorities have since discovered it belonged to a man born a month earlier.


Research Credit: ME



OIL $64.20 $64.60 $65

* gasp *



Eat Like a Gourmand at 99 Cents Only Stores :.

I did pretty well with grocery store dumpster diving for my fresh fruit and vegetable fare back in the early 1990s. But when you need a little more:

The trick to culling the haute cuisine from the 99 Cents Only bulk and batteries is to go at it like a diamond carver. When I shop, I dedicate at least a solid hour. I start at one end, ignore the harsh and Spartan lighting, the Third World Babylon of languages---I ignore all this and methodically parse each aisle for the edibles. I read labels as if they were lurid novels. And when I find something good, I buy a lot of it because I know it won't last the afternoon. And I don't go looking for anything in particular because the 99-cents gods are random and cruel.

Disclosure Statement: JH and I dated for about a year, but I'm not the ex (with the canned fish craving) that she mentions.


8/9/2005

U.S. ARMY FOUR STAR GENERAL RELIEVED OF COMMAND :.

Update: Sexual Misconduct?

Are they going to suicide him now, or later?

I wonder what this guy was really up to?! Notice how they took him down with merely a few months to go until retirement? The message is, "If We can do this to a four star general, imagine what We can do to you. Keep your mouth shut, or else."

The Army, in a rare disciplinary act against a four-star officer, said Tuesday it relieved Gen. Kevin P Byrnes of his command after an investigation into unspecified "personal conduct."

Byrnes was relieved as commander of U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command on Monday by Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker, according to a brief statement issued by Army headquarters at the Pentagon.

In that post, Byrnes oversaw all Army training programs and the development of war-fighting guidelines.

Although disciplinary action against general officers is not uncommon, it is extremely rare for a four-star general to be relieved of command. Byrnes held the position as commander of Training and Doctrine Command since November 2002. Before that he was director of the Army staff at Army headquarters in the Pentagon.

"The investigation upon which this relief is based is undergoing further review to determine the appropriate final disposition of this matter," the Army statement said.



Man Killed by WalMart Employees :.

Always low prices... and the occasional murder in the parking lot:

Portz said three employees caught Driver, who twisted and turned until his shirt came off and he broke free and ran.

"They chased him right past me," said Portz, who followed the chase, then saw four or five employees hold Driver on the ground. Driver was pleading with them to let him up, Portz said. "The blacktop was just blistering," he said.

The high temperature at Bush Intercontinental Airport Sunday was 96 degrees.

Portz said one of the Wal-Mart employees had Driver in a choke hold as other employees pinned his body to the ground.

"He was begging, 'Please, I'm burning, let me up,' " Portz said of Driver. "He'd push himself up off the blacktop, like he was doing a push-up.

"About 30 people were saying, 'Let him up, it's too hot,' " Portz said. He said another employee brought a rug for Driver to lie on, but one of those holding Driver said he was fine where he was. "After about five minutes, (Driver) said, 'I'm dying, I can't breathe, call an ambulance,' " Portz said.

Employees struggled with Driver before he was handcuffed, Martin said.

"There was a struggle, and when they finally succeeded after getting him detained in handcuffs, he continued to struggle," Martin said.

After Driver was handcuffed, Portz said one employee had his knee on the man's neck and others were putting pressure on his back.

"Finally the guy stopped moving" and the employees got off him, Portz said. "They wouldn't call an ambulance.

"I looked at him and said, 'Hey, he's not breathing,' but one guy told me (Driver) was just on drugs. I told them his fingernails were all gray, and finally they called an ambulance."

Martin said investigators have no indication that Driver was intoxicated.



Next Generation Killer Drones: Piloted by Teenagers :.

Oh yeah, SkyNet will be handling take offs and landings:

The Army has finally settled on a company to build its next generation of long-range killer drones, according to Defense Daily.

General Atomics, maker of the wildly succesful Predator robo-plane, got the $214 million gig to build 48 of the Extended Range Multi-Purpose drones. The first of them should be ready to go by 2008. 132 are planned, all told.

Defense News notes that "unlike Predator, the ERMP will be able to take off and land automatically" -- handing off the trickiest parts of piloting a drone to a computer. Which means that the ERMP can be flown by young enlisted men, instead of by the ex-fighter pilots, who now operate the Predator fleet.



Cisco Gear Vulnerable to Hack that Could Wipe IOS :.

HA! Incredible:

During his presentation, Lynn offered a quick demo of how he could access the root of a Cisco router remotely. Like the first runner breaking the four-minute-mile mark, Lynn emboldened other researchers to go out and see for themselves.

Lynn said in his press conference one day later that his Black Hat presentation was perhaps only 5 percent of what someone would need to know to wreak havoc on the Internet, but he confirmed that his exploit, which he is legally barred from sharing, has the potential to harm hardware: "It's a software flaw that damages hardware." What he means is that by remotely attacking the Cisco IOS Shellcode, you could destroy the instruction set on the hardware that tells the router to turn on again.



Dallas Law Cracks Down on Feeding the Homeless :.

Illegal feeding?

Under a new ordinance, charities, churches and individuals will be allowed to serve food only at approved locations. Violations will be punishable by fines of $200 to $2,000.



The Monsanto Pig (Patent Pending) :.

"If these patents are granted, Monsanto can legally prevent breeders and farmers from breeding pigs whose characteristics are described in the patent claims, or force them to pay royalties," says Then. "It's a first step toward the same kind of corporate control of an animal line that Monsanto is aggressively pursuing with various grain and vegetable lines."


8/8/2005

Pentagon Plans to Send More Troops to Iraq :.

Anticipating a new burst of insurgent violence, the Pentagon plans to expand the U.S. force in Iraq to improve security for a planned October referendum and a December election.

Although much public attention has been focused recently on the prospect of reducing U.S. forces next spring and summer, defense officials foresee the likelihood of first increasing troop levels.



Brace for Impact: Banking on Illegal Immigrants :.

It doesn't matter who signs on the dotted line, as long as they sign:

The banking industry is opening its doors to a controversial new market: illegal immigrants.

Despite heated political debate in Washington over illegal immigration in the United States, an increasing number of banks are seeing an untapped resource for growing their own revenue stream and contend that providing undocumented residents with mortgages will help revitalize local communities.

It's a win-win situation, they say.

But skeptics worry about the message these home loans send to illegal immigrants: break our laws and we'll reward you with a home.

"It's institutionalizing illegality," said Marti Dinerstein, president of Immigration Matters, a New York-based think tank. "Now there's no distinction being made between the people that follow all the rules and those who break our laws by entering the country or overstaying their visas."

Dinerstein also worried that lack of knowledge on the part of illegal immigrants could pave the way for abuse in the form of predatory lending.


Related: The Banks Go Begging :.

"Big banks need asset generators, and corporate loans are just not profitable," says David Hendler, an analyst at CreditSights. "Consumer loans are needed."



OIL $63.40 $64

If only I'd bought those out of the money calls... * sigh *



Video Game: Shattered Union :.

This is... Uh... I'm speechless. Utterly speechless.

Research Credit: BW



Terrorists Turn to the Web as Base of Operations :.

I shouldn't even post this article because it's so riddled with bullcrap! Just wait, only terrorists will refuse to use non DRM operating systems.

From my essay, Militant Electronic Piracy:
Expect a legislated, "national security" justification for Microsoft's long awaited (and dreaded) Digital Rights Management scheme, codenamed Longhorn. Microsoft will tout Longhorn as the solution to piracy and other "terrorist" uses of computers and the Internet. Besides turning each computer into a tamper proof vending machine (this will mean The End of general purpose computing), Longhorn will provide an astonishing surveillance capability to ACS law enforcement, intelligence and military organizations. Those who refuse to use Longhorn will increasingly find themselves locked out of networks. The goal will be to apply maximum surveillance and control to "trusted" users on the Internet.
Related: Trusted Computing



Straight-Shootin' George Galloway :.

Imagine, for a moment, that the US was invaded by an army from Saudi Arabia for the transparent purpose of securing America's great natural wealth. And, imagine that tens of thousands of American people were killed in that invasion, entire cities were leveled as reprisal for resisting, and scores of Americans were tortured and humiliated in the most despicable manner.

What type of man would risk his own life to travel to the United States to fight for the liberation of the American people from Saudi oppression?

A terrorist or a martyr?


Research Credit: GH



War Plans Drafted to Counter Terror Attacks in U.S. :.

The U.S. military has devised its first-ever war plans for guarding against and responding to terrorist attacks in the United States, envisioning 15 potential crisis scenarios and anticipating several simultaneous strikes around the country, according to officers who drafted the plans.

The classified plans, developed here at Northern Command headquarters, outline a variety of possible roles for quick-reaction forces estimated at as many as 3,000 ground troops per attack, a number that could easily grow depending on the extent of the damage and the abilities of civilian response teams.

The possible scenarios range from "low end," relatively modest crowd-control missions to "high-end," full-scale disaster management after catastrophic attacks such as the release of a deadly biological agent or the explosion of a radiological device, several officers said.

Some of the worst-case scenarios involve three attacks at the same time, in keeping with a Pentagon directive earlier this year ordering Northcom, as the command is called, to plan for multiple simultaneous attacks.

The war plans represent a historic shift for the Pentagon, which has been reluctant to become involved in domestic operations and is legally constrained from engaging in law enforcement. Indeed, defense officials continue to stress that they intend for the troops to play largely a supporting role in homeland emergencies, bolstering police, firefighters and other civilian response groups.

But the new plans provide for what several senior officers acknowledged is the likelihood that the military will have to take charge in some situations, especially when dealing with mass-casualty attacks that could quickly overwhelm civilian resources.

"In my estimation, [in the event of] a biological, a chemical or nuclear attack in any of the 50 states, the Department of Defense is best positioned -- of the various eight federal agencies that would be involved -- to take the lead," said Adm. Timothy J. Keating, the head of Northcom, which coordinates military involvement in homeland security operations.



Dem Bones, Dem Bones :.

You've probably already seen the morning buzz that McCallum is likely to be named acting deputy Attorney General, which will make him - how 'bout that? - the only official with oversight of special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's Plame investigation, the scope of which is reputed to have broadened beyond Plame, as that single thread is deeply woven into the administration's tapestry of crimes.


8/7/2005

Cryptogon Readers Order Limu

Thanks CI and MH. I hope you enjoy your Limu! Remember to take at least four ounces per day.

Recent thoughts on Limu...

I've just written an entry about Limu, but decided not to post it here. I attached it to the bottom of, My Limu Story, if you're interested.




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Fatal Harvest: The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture by Andrew Kimbrell Readers will come to see that industrial food production is indeed a "fatal harvest" - fatal to consumers, as pesticide residues and new disease vectors such as E. coli and "mad cow disease" find their way into our food supply; fatal to our landscapes, as chemical runoff from factory farms poison our rivers and groundwater; fatal to genetic diversity, as farmers rely increasingly on high-yield monocultures and genetically engineered crops; and fatal to our farm communities, which are wiped out by huge corporate farms.

Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America by Bertram Myron Gross This is a relatively short but extremely cogent and well-argued treatise on the rise of a form of fascistic thought and social politics in late 20th century America. Author Bertram Gross' thesis is quite straightforward; the power elite that comprises the corporate, governmental and military superstructure of the country is increasingly inclined to employ every element in their formidable arsenal of 'friendly persuasion' to win the hearts and minds of ordinary Americans through what Gross refers to as friendly fascism.

The Good Life
by Scott and Helen Nearing
Helen and Scott Nearing are the great-grandparents of the back-to-the-land movement, having abandoned the city in 1932 for a rural life based on self-reliance, good health, and a minimum of cash...Fascinating, timely, and wholly useful, a mix of the Nearings' challenging philosophy and expert counsel on practical skills.

Silent Theft: The Private Plunder of Our Common Wealth by David Bollierd In Silent Theft, David Bollier argues that a great untold story of our time is the staggering privatization and abuse of our common wealth. Corporations are engaged in a relentless plunder of dozens of resources that we collectively own—publicly funded medical breakthroughs, software innovation, the airwaves, the public domain of creative works, and even the DNA of plants, animals and humans. Too often, however, our government turns a blind eye—or sometimes helps give away our assets. Amazingly, the silent theft of our shared wealth has gone largely unnoticed because we have lost our ability to see the commons.

The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It: The Complete Back-To-Basics Guide by John Seymour The Self Sufficient Life and How to Live It is the only book that teaches all the skills needed to live independently in harmony with the land harnessing natural forms of energy, raising crops and keeping livestock, preserving foodstuffs, making beer and wine, basketry, carpentry, weaving, and much more.

When Corporations Rule the World by David C. Korten When Corporations Rule the World explains how economic globalization has concentrated the power to govern in global corporations and financial markets and detached them from accountability to the human interest. It documents the devastating human and environmental consequences of the successful efforts of these corporations to reconstruct values and institutions everywhere on the planet to serve their own narrow ends.

The New Organic Grower: A Master's Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener This expansion of a now-classic guide originally published in 1989 is intended for the serious gardener or small-scale market farmer. It describes practical and sustainable ways of growing superb organic vegetables, with detailed coverage of scale and capital, marketing, livestock, the winter garden, soil fertility, weeds, and many other topics.