tagged w/ News and Politics
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Under construction by contractors with top-secret clearances, the blandly named Utah Data Center is being built for the National Security Agency. A project of immense secrecy, it is the final piece in a complex puzzle assembled over the past decade. Its purpose: to intercept, decipher, analyze, and store vast swaths of the world’s communications as they zap down from satellites and zip through the underground and undersea cables of international, foreign, and domestic networks. The heavily fortified $2 billion center should be up and running in September 2013. Flowing through its servers and routers and stored in near-bottomless databases will be all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Google searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails—parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital “pocket litter.” It is, in some measure, the realization of the “total information awareness” program created during the first term of the Bush administration—an effort that was killed by Congress in 2003 after it caused an outcry over its potential for invading Americans’ privacy.
But “this is more than just a data center,” says one senior intelligence official who until recently was involved with the program. The mammoth Bluffdale center will have another important and far more secret role that until now has gone unrevealed. It is also critical, he says, for breaking codes. And code-breaking is crucial, because much of the data that the center will handle—financial information, stock transactions, business deals, foreign military and diplomatic secrets, legal documents, confidential personal communications—will be heavily encrypted. According to another top official also involved with the program, the NSA made an enormous breakthrough several years ago in its ability to cryptanalyze, or break, unfathomably complex encryption systems employed by not only governments around the world but also many average computer users in the US. The upshot, according to this official: “Everybody’s a target; everybody with communication is a target.”
For the NSA, overflowing with tens of billions of dollars in post-9/11 budget awards, the cryptanalysis breakthrough came at a time of explosive growth, in size as well as in power. Established as an arm of the Department of Defense following Pearl Harbor, with the primary purpose of preventing another surprise assault, the NSA suffered a series of humiliations in the post-Cold War years. Caught offguard by an escalating series of terrorist attacks—the first World Trade Center bombing, the blowing up of US embassies in East Africa, the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, and finally the devastation of 9/11—some began questioning the agency’s very reason for being. In response, the NSA has quietly been reborn. And while there is little indication that its actual effectiveness has improved—after all, despite numerous pieces of evidence and intelligence-gathering opportunities, it missed the near-disastrous attempted attacks by the underwear bomber on a flight to Detroit in 2009 and by the car bomber in Times Square in 2010—there is no doubt that it has transformed itself into the largest, most covert, and potentially most intrusive intelligence agency ever created.
In the process—and for the first time since Watergate and the other scandals of the Nixon administration—the NSA has turned its surveillance apparatus on the US and its citizens. It has established listening posts throughout the nation to collect and sift through billions of email messages and phone calls, whether they originate within the country or overseas. It has created a supercomputer of almost unimaginable speed to look for patterns and unscramble codes. Finally, the agency has begun building a place to store all the trillions of words and thoughts and whispers captured in its electronic net. And, of course, it’s all being done in secret. To those on the inside, the old adage that NSA stands for Never Say Anything applies more than ever.
UTAH DATA CENTER
When construction is completed in 2013, the heavily fortified $2 billion facility in Bluffdale will encompass 1 million square feet.
Utah Data Center
1 Visitor control center
A $9.7 million facility for ensuring that only cleared personnel gain access.
2 Administration
Designated space for technical support and administrative personnel.
3 Data halls
Four 25,000-square-foot facilities house rows and rows of servers.
4 Backup generators and fuel tanks
Can power the center for at least three days.
5 Water storage and pumping
Able to pump 1.7 million gallons of liquid per day.
6 Chiller plant
About 60,000 tons of cooling equipment to keep servers from overheating.
7 Power substation
An electrical substation to meet the center’s estimated 65-megawatt demand.
8 Security
Video surveillance, intrusion detection, and other protection will cost more than $10 million.
Source: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Conceptual Site plan
A swath of freezing fog blanketed Salt Lake City on the morning of January 6, 2011, mixing with a weeklong coating of heavy gray smog. Red air alerts, warning people to stay indoors unless absolutely necessary, had become almost daily occurrences, and the temperature was in the bone-chilling twenties. “What I smell and taste is like coal smoke,” complained one local blogger that day. At the city’s international airport, many inbound flights were delayed or diverted while outbound regional jets were grounded. But among those making it through the icy mist was a figure whose gray suit and tie made him almost disappear into the background. He was tall and thin, with the physique of an aging basketball player and dark caterpillar eyebrows beneath a shock of matching hair. Accompanied by a retinue of bodyguards, the man was NSA deputy director Chris Inglis, the agency’s highest-ranking civilian and the person who ran its worldwide day-to-day operations.
Continue with link...Under construction by contractors with top-secret clearances, the blandly named Utah... more
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Dr. Daniel Fine of the New Mexico Center for Energy Policy discusses North Carolina's approach to shale gas and hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking." Fine offered these comments during a Feb. 27, 2012, presentation to the John Locke Foundation's Shafesbury Society. Video courtesy of CarolinaJournal.tv. Watch full-length video of JLF events here: http://www.johnlocke.org/events/videos.html
Dr. Daniel I. Fine works with the New Mexico Center for Energy Policy. He is a longtime research associate at the Mining and Minerals Resources Institute, MIT. Fine is also a policy adviser on nonconventional oil and gas. He is co-editor of Resource War in 3-D: Dependence, Diplomacy and Defense, and has contributed to Business Week, the Engineering and Mining Journal and the Washington Times. Fine has testified on strategic natural resources before the U.S. Senate committees on Foreign Affairs and Energy and Natural Resources. In this speech, he discusses "Shale Gas Wars: From Pennsylvania to North Carolina."
http://youtu.be/4Lbn9diK1PADr. Daniel Fine of the New Mexico Center for Energy Policy discusses North... more
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Posted on March 11, 2012 by TheTamminator // Hillbuzz
Up until yesterday, I really hadn’t taken the Ron Paul campaign very seriously. Most non-Paul voters probably felt like I did, and laughed him off as that “kooky Uncle” who didn’t have a chance in hell to win the Republican nomination for President.
Well, I’ve changed my mind. Big time.
Yesterday I attended the Republican organizational convention for my Senate district here in Minnesota, and what I witnessed was an organized take-over of our nomination process by Ron Paul cultists. They came to this convention with the sole intent to take over as many of the delegate seats as they could, and sadly, they succeeded.
When I arrived at the convention and took my place with my fellow precinct delegates, I quickly noticed that something was awry. As soon as the man leading the convention(the Convention Chair) began to ask if there were any motions to bring to the floor, several Paulbots lept to their feet to make motions asking to “suspend” the rules so that people who were in attendance could add their names to the delegate nominations. Before the convention, delegates had been contacted to see if we were interested in running for the State Delegate positions, and we were given plenty of time to put our names in the hat to run for these positions.
The Paulbots, who did NOT submit their names prior to the convention, were now demanding that they should added to the list of nominees that very day. This is normally outside of the rules, but the Paulbots(there were at least 50 of them spread throughout the auditorium) through a suspension of the rules, demanded that they be added to the list of nominees. It was difficult to override their votes, as they had descended en masse to this event, and the unsuspecting non-Paul delegates were confused as to what was going on!
After some manipulative moves on the floor, and by using Roberts Rules of order AGAINST the Convention Chair, they were able to add all of their names to the delegate nominations.
I’ve never seen such unmitigated rudeness at a convention before. The Paulbots would leap to their feet screaming “Point of order!” every time they thought that the chair was being dismissive of them.
The entire process was chaotic and psychotic, and the non-Paul delegates were stunned. They didn’t understand what was happening, and I tried to explain to an elderly woman from my precinct that this entire coup was PLANNED, and that the Paulbots had every intention of flooding the State delegates with Paul supporters.
In an effort to combat this craziness, I threw my own name into the ring for State Delegate, using the same rules that the Paulbots had gotten “suspended”. The way I figured it, if I could get on the State delegate list, I would take away at least ONE Paulbot.
I don’t think our convention was an isolated incident. If you read this article from the The Daily Caller you’ll see that this is happening Nationwide.
Luap Nor has got a plan, folks. If the Republican nomination goes to a brokered convention, the Ron Paul cultists plan to flood the nominating floor with Paul delegates. This is their only way to win the Presidential nomination, and they are dead serious in their intent to steal the Presidency, whether you like it or not.
I even asked one of the Paul supporters( a neighbor of mine that I happen to like a lot) who he would vote for (as a delegate) if the nomination went to someone like Romney. He told me straight up that he would NOT vote for the nominee, no matter who it was. He also told me that if they(the Paulbots) didn’t win enough delegates to win, then Ron Paul would run as third party.
So the next time you hear Ron Paul tell the media that he has no intention of running third party, you need to be aware that he is lying.
This convention dragged on for 8 hours yesterday, because the Paulbots slowed down the procedure with motions, amendments and screams of “point of order!” They have every intention of voting as many Ron Paul supporters into delegate positions as they can, and I’m guessing that they are doing this across the country. These people are very well organized, and we should no longer ignore them as the crazy cultists they appear to be, because the fact is, they mean business.
Luap Nor will do anything to win the Presidency, even if it means strong-arming conventions to do so. He’s not some “kooky Uncle” that I once joked about.
In my opinion, he’s dangerous.
Have you witnessed this kind of behavior at your convention?
What do you think we can do to combat these strong arm tactics?
But I guess it’s okay to steal delegates, eh, Ron?
Here’s the video from Denver. Very similar to my experience yesterday in Minnesota.
Read more http://hillbuzz.org/ron-pauls-devious-plan-to-steal-the-presidency-63749Posted on March 11, 2012 by TheTamminator // Hillbuzz
Up until yesterday, I really... more
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Use of paper money is a terrorist trait — if you don’t want to be considered suspect, the government commands you to use corporate-issued debit and credit cards, rather than its own currency. Via Boing Boing:
According to a set of guidelines sent out by the FBI as part of its Communities Against Terror program, ordinary citizens need to be on the lookout for suspicious characters who follow patterns of behavior of a covert operative.
The latest revelation from the FBI files? Paying in cash for coffee. The most recent update asks coffee shop owners, baristas and other customer-service specialists to lookout for the enemy who walks among us…Using cash for small purchases like a cup of coffee, gum and other items is a good indication that a person is trying to pass for normal without leaving the kind of paper trail created using a debit or credit card for small purchases.Use of paper money is a terrorist trait — if you don’t want to be... more
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If we are going to rebuild this nation we should start by cleaning up our work
area first.
Trash in our communities
Trash is building up in many communities across our nation.Large amounts of
trash is built up, along our roads, on our river banks and on our ocean beaches.
Storm drains run first to our creeks and rivers and then to the sea.
On our east coast cigaret buts all but pave side walks and choke storm drains.
Fast food wrappers, straws, plastic bottles, plastic grocery bags, drink cups and
plastic wrappers of every kind have infested our country.This same trash slowly
leaches out its poisons in to our water ways and fertile grounds. Ask not what
bitters the waters that where once sweet.
I am a carpenter by trade. When i start a new project i start by cleaning up my
work area and organizing my available resources, then i start building or
repairing, what ever the case may be.This proses of clean up and organization
gives me more accurate information to plan and lay out my project and is key to
efficient completion.These same principles simple as they may be will work with the
same efficient magic in rebuilding and repairing our nation. Lets clean up our
nation first and then see where we are, make a new plan.
Just because you cant see under the ground dose not mean nothing is happening
down there.The soil, the earth filters the water that makes it way down in to our
aquifers and then eventually becomes the water we drink and bathe our children
and our selves in.We are 98% water.The food we eat, plant or animal, is entirely
dependent on water.There is nothing more important than water to every one
and every thing.! This is a naked absolute truth.If we pollute water we are
betraying the one universal truth we know.The one true truth i know.Have a little
respect please, i am begging you,for the love of everything.Don't half hazerdley
cast your trash about, contain it,take responsibility for it,take ownership of your
community,clean it, it will repay your spirit with a feeling of belonging.You will
be taking a stand and as you share your experiences with others you will be
embraced by the community and others will take a stand with you.The sky's the
limit friend.Rebuild and rebirth your community,Discover and create a new
language of self respect.
The first step.
I don't just come begging,I have a potential solution
Have you ever heard of a flash mob? (If not Google it.)
Using flash mobs in conjunction with a website for smart phone citizen reporting,
Flash mobs organize and chose the location and time to remove trash from
the worst effected areas the citizens have reported.
With video cameras trash bags and grabbers the flash mob meets,
removes the trash and films the whole clean up in one hour.
That same day the filmmakers post the videos of the cleanup on YouTube
to raise awareness.
The added positive effect is that each participant gets to mingle and
strengthen there community first hand,creating a environment of a
human sense of belongingIf we are going to rebuild this nation we should start by cleaning up our work
area... more
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COLUMBUS – Before getting a prescription for Viagra or other erectile dysfunction drugs, men would have to see a sex therapist, receive a cardiac stress test and get a notarized affidavit signed by a sexual partner affirming impotency, if state Sen. Nina Turner has her way.
The Cleveland Democrat introduced Senate Bill 307 this week.
A critic of efforts to restrict abortion and contraception for women, Turner says she is concerned about men’s reproductive health. Turner’s bill joins a trend of female lawmakers submitting bills regulating men’s health. Turner said if state policymakers want to legislate women’s health choices through measures such as House Bill 125, known as the “Heartbeat bill,” they should also be able to legislate men’s reproductive health. Ohio anti-abortion advocates say the two can’t be compared.
Heartbeat bill sponsor Rep. Lynn Wachtmann, R-Napoleon, said comparing his bill to Turner’s would be like comparing apples to bananas. The Heartbeat bill would prohibit abortion once a heartbeat is detected, as early as six weeks into a pregnancy.
“I understand some women think my bill is a personal affront,” Wachtmann said. “Protecting the unborn — to compare this to Viagra is not even related.”
Under Senate Bill 307, men taking the drugs would continue to be tested for heart problems, receive counseling about possible side effects and receive information about “pursuing celibacy as a viable lifestyle choice.”
“Even the FDA recommends that doctors make sure that assessments are taken that target the nature of the symptoms, whether it’s physical or psychological,” Turner said. “I certainly want to stand up for men’s health and take this seriously and legislate it the same way mostly men say they want to legislate a woman’s womb.”
States passed a record 92 abortion-related bills in 2011, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that focuses on reproductive health. At the same time, fewer than one in four state legislators nationwide are women — they number 23 percent in Ohio — according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/dayton-news/bill-introduced-to-regulate-mens-reproductive-health-1341547.htmlCOLUMBUS – Before getting a prescription for Viagra or other erectile... more
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The Union of Concerned Scientists explains how they do it. To sum up:
Corporations suppress research. (”After pork producers contacted his supervisors, a USDA microbiologist was prevented from publishing research showing that emissions from industrial hog farms contained antibiotic-resistant bacteria.”)
They ghostwrite articles. (”A 2011 analysis found evidence of corporate authorship in research articles on a variety of drugs, including Avandia, Paxil, Tylenol, and Vioxx.”)
They create front organizations. (”The Center for Consumer Freedom is a nonprofit that targets dietary guidelines recommended by the FDA, other government agencies, medical associations, and consumer groups. It was founded with a $600,000 grant from Philip Morris, but has also received funding from Cargill, National Steak and Poultry, Monsanto, and Coca-Cola.”)
They corrupt advisory panels. (”A few weeks before a CDC advisory panel met to discuss federal lead standards, two scientists with ties to the lead industry were added to the panel. The committee voted against tightening standards.”)
http://www.ucsusa.org/scientific_integrity/abuses_of_science/how-corporations-corrupt-science.htmlThe Union of Concerned Scientists explains how they do it. To sum up:
Corporations... more
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REPORTING FROM KABUL, AFGHANISTAN -- A lone American serviceman slipped away from his base in southern Afghanistan before dawn Sunday and went on a methodical house-to-house shooting rampage in a nearby village, killing 16 people, nearly all of them women and children, according to Afghan officials who visited the scene.
The NATO force confirmed that the assailant was in military custody, and that he had inflicted an unspecified number of casualties during the shooting rampage at about 3 a.m. Sunday. The U.S. Embassy called for calm and expressed deep condolences; the Taliban referred to the killings as an “act of genocide.”
The British Broadcasting Corp. reported that the shooter was a staff sergeant and a member of the U.S. special operations forces who had been involved in training the Afghan police. [Updated at 10:03 a.m.: The BBC later retracted the report.]
PHOTOS: Afghanistan shooting
The incident, potentially the worst atrocity of the 10-year war to be deliberately carried out by a single member of the Western military, represents a stunning setback to U.S.-Afghan relations, already shaken by last month’s burning of copies of the Koran at a U.S. military base north of Kabul.
Anti-U.S. sentiment flared into deadly riots after the Koran-burning at Bagram airfield came to light. American officials have said the action was a mistake and offered profuse apologies, but some Afghans, including lawmakers and senior clerics, brushed aside the apologies and called for harsh punishment of those involved.
The shooting early Sunday took place in Panjwayi district outside Kandahar city, in a village called Alkozai. U.S. military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was believed that the assailant had suffered a mental breakdown.
The NATO force issued a terse statement confirming casualties and promising a full investigation by U.S. and Afghan authorities. Later, the acting commander of the U.S.-led coalition, Lt. Gen. Adrian Bradshaw, expressed “deep regret and sorrow at this appalling incident.”
“I cannot explain the motivation behind such callous acts, but they were in no way part of authorized … military activity,” he said.
In the hours after the shooting rampage, casualty counts varied widely. By late afternoon, however, an official provincial delegation had arrived at the scene.
Haji Agha Lalai Dastgeeri, a member of that team, said the official tally was 16 dead. Nine of them were women, four were children and three were men, he said.
“I saw the dead bodies and visited the victims’ families,” he said soberly.
Earlier, Haji Mohammad Ehsan, the deputy head of Kandahar’s provincial council, had put the number of dead at 18. Javed Faisal, a spokesman for the Kandahar media center, said “up to 15” people had been killed, and several others wounded. The conflicting casualty counts could not immediately be reconciled.
The attacker’s motive was unknown, but relations between the U.S. military and ordinary Afghans have been highly fraught since February’s Koran-burning riots, which exacerbated longstanding tensions over civilian casualties and night raids led by U.S. special forces.
During more than a week of nationwide protests over the burning of the holy books that left at least 30 people dead, six U.S. service members were shot and killed by Afghan soldiers or, in the case of two of them, a worker at Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry. Two of the American troops who were killed were deployed in Kandahar province.
Kandahar, which is President Hamid Karzai’s home province, is also the birthplace and spiritual home of the Taliban. Panjwayi district was the scene of heavy fighting two years ago as U.S. forces made a major push to dislodge the insurgents, and parts of the district remain volatile.
The episode is certain to complicate U.S. dealings with Karzai, who has been resistant to American plans to try to inaugurate peace talks with the Taliban movement in the Gulf state of Qatar. The shooting comes days after an agreement to hand suspected insurgents in American custody over to the control of Afghan officials -- a process that is expected to take some months. Karzai had demanded an immediate handover of the main U.S. detention center.
Civilian casualties -- almost always accidentally inflicted when they come at the hands of the Western military -- have long been a sore point in the West’s dealings with Karzai. In a statement, the U.S. Embassy denounced “all violence against civilians,” and promised that the “individual or individuals responsible for this act will be identified and brought to justice.”REPORTING FROM KABUL, AFGHANISTAN -- A lone American serviceman slipped away from his... more
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Electrogravitics... This technology was being developed and tested in all major aerospace companies in the 1950's. Martin, Convair, Lear, Sperry, Raytheon, and many others all were eagerly studying electrogravitics. But in 1959 or early 1960, the technology became highly classified and the path to energy abundance was stymied. Here is a basic description of electrogravitics:
First One has to understand that the model offered by Einstein is flawed... There are other models. There is one in particular...
The model, which I say is a far better one than relativity, is subquantum kinetics (SQK). Its developer, Dr. Paul A. LaViolette (an interesting character, to say the least), started with chemical kinetics (as above, so below?) and came up with SQK, being very concerned by its gravitational predictions. He had not heard of the Biefeld-Brown Effect, nor the work of T. Townsend Brown. He struggled with these predictions until He encountered Brown's work, discovering that SQK predicted exactly what Brown was showing experimentally.
Why is SQK better than relativity?
It takes no element on faith: Einstien's relativity is based on the faith that matter somehow "bends" space-time. Nowhere does He explain (or even try to) HOW or WHY this might be. One just has to take it on faith.
It explains things without the need for "renormalization;" relativity ends in infinities without this mathematical fudge.
It integrates EM with gravity. Einstein Himself died still trying to do so.
And it still predicts things like the lensing of light, the apparent time dilation, and all other predictions of relativity, plus more - all of which are testable (string theory is 100% untestable).
In fact, many of the mysteries of Einsteinian mathematics are predicted in SQK.
I recommend reading a book called Secrets of Antigravity Propulsion, by Dr. LaViolette, for more on the Biefeld-Brown Effect, Brown's work, electrogravitics, SQK, and more. It can be read here:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/47447158/secrets-of-antigravity-propulsion-pdf-november-11-2010-11-21-pm-28-7-meg
In SQK, positively charged particles have a positive gravity potential "well." Negatively charged particles have a negative gravity potential "hill." The positive particle's "well" is just the smallest fraction bigger than the negative "hill," accounting for the apparent weakness of gravity, where essentially even amounts of positively charged and negatively charged particles make up common matter, and in quantities as big as the earth, say, offer a slight "well" overall, thus explaining why We are aware of gravity at all.
The Biefeld-Brown Effect was discovered when it was noted that a dielectric with electrodes attached at either end, would lose weight when charged if the positive pole was pointed upwards on a scale, and gain weight when reversed. Higher voltage increased this effect. Study showed that the higher the K of the dielectric, the more pronounced the weight changes became, as well. Asymmetrical electrodes increased the effect. Also, a non-linear dielectric produced greater changes than a linear one. With high K, non-linear dielectrics, a substantial force could be observed, even to the point of levitation and a local gravity field was induced.
If, say, four devices were placed on a cross, each oriented 90° to the center and pointing in the same direction relative to that center, and a shaft was set at center and into a generator, when small amounts of energy are used at high voltage on the units, the resulting rotation will induce a greater output at the generator than the input to the units. Overunity is achieved.
________________
To sign a petition for the release of electrogravitics from black projects, please sign this petition and spread the information. If We can reach the tipping point of awareness, We can demand this technology:
http://www.change.org/petitions/us-military-release-the-technology-of-electrograviticsElectrogravitics... This technology was being developed and tested in all major... more
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(A letter to injustice and tyranny.
This letter is to all it irritates and all it inspires.)
Dear Tyranny and Injustice
My soul trembles, i feel the pain of injustice in my heart.
How dare you disrespect my human right of dignity.
We are your masters, we are the people.
Step forward and be counted- for the people-not against.
There is no line,there is only people,people on earth at home.
The devouring of people will stop now!
Hear the roar echo in the heart of the people.
The human soul will swallow you tyranny.
As for corporations.
We the people enjoy your efficiency and structures of cooperation.
We the fortunate eat from your bowl, but mind your nobility,
we the people vote for you with our dollars,the peoples man hours!
Ye be Nobel chaps or we will vote you out!
People, audit the planet now, every recorded moment,
root out tyranny and injustice, bring it in to the light.
We will no longer hide our faces or quiet our voices .
We will be thinking about you with clarity.
You will look us in our eyes.
We will not have your fear.
You will chose your side.
Your indifference blinds you.
We, counted seven billion,are not as ignorant as your actions lead us to belive you think we are.
The peoples call is not revolution, our intelligence is beyond that.
We seek truth and a balanced justice in all matters hear on earth,
transparent for all to see, for all to chose , least not one!
We the people are evolving into our intelligence,maturing.
Seizing the day.
Tyranny lay down your weapons and tactics or we will gobble you up
with the same indifference you gave the people you were given the responsibility to steward.
Peace rains supreme now.
Its day has come in the form of a letter to the peoples heart,
from one human to another to connect souls each to each other.
Share this with your brothers and sisters,your fathers and mothers.
A voice from the wilderness of humanity, an American son .
Thanks be to you human, every last one.
Seth.
find more of my actives at http://sethgezzsoupscoop.blogspot.com/(A letter to injustice and tyranny.
This letter is to all it irritates and all it... more
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Our news media are so focused on the issues and the rhetoric spewed over them, that their lenses are NOT shining a light on the very thing that millions are craving; solutions.
During my 4+ years of no regular paychecks and recreating/educating myself based on my skills and passions, I traveled, (whenever I had gas money!), giving hunger and related issues a voice through videos, photos, blogs and lots of comments in social media forums.
I quickly learned that there are really innovative solutions popping up in communities all over; many formed through coalitions of organizations, businesses, schools, etc., that other communities could learn from, if a light/lens was shown upon all these 'Great Ideas That Work', (GITW). I also realized that I on my own, wasn't going to have the reach to help those communities and millions of people.
Then, I had my own GITW! What if there were a contest, where people from all over could submit their essays, photos and videos, folk could vote for the winning entries, exposure in media/social media would be great and we could publish a book and a feature length documentary out of the entries? So... I made a video proposal to The Ellen DeGeneres Show, figuring she likes positivity, hope, cool things and she has a far reach. https://bitly.com/wWSjR8
I have yet to hear from Ellen's staff and this week, the toll of so long without a regular income, will claim my home. I want to get this idea viral and for some major entity to MOVE on helping the millions of hopeless, using ideas that already exist. (I'd also like them to give me a job but my higher purpose has always been to help others.)
GE, parent company of MSNBC/NBC/CNBC tout their work in innovation and between the 3 aforementioned networks, have millions of devoted viewers that could go out in their communities, (if they don't already know what GITW in their regions!), and seek/document/submit, so that we could start repairing the severe fracture in America's foundation; the diminishing middle class which is swelling the ranks of the impoverished.
I'll be spending the day making a video proposal to GE and several other entities I feel could step up and pull this project off, but hope that y'all can help me send my video proposal to Ellen, viral. I need a miracle and so do millions of others. Wouldn't it feel great knowing you helped change a life and/or millions, with a small action?
Please start pushing our national and local news media, to start reporting on solutions. A small spark can unleash a wildfire.Our news media are so focused on the issues and the rhetoric spewed over them, that... more
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When the state of California added the compound 4-methylimidazole, also known as 4-MI or 4-MEI, to its list of known carcinogens in 2011, it created a problem for the soda industry.
The caramel color they used to give colas that distinctive, brown hue contained levels of 4-MI that would have warranted a cancer warning label on every can sold in the state.
And this wasn't the industry's only challenge. The Center for Science in the Public Interest petitioned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to ban ammonia-sulfite caramel color. It's a request the CSPI repeated this week after finding 4-MI in samples of Coke and Pepsi.
"This is nothing more than CSPI scare tactics, and their claims are outrageous," writes the American Beverage Association in a statement released to the media.
"The science simply does not show that 4-MEI foods or beverages is a threat to human health," the statement continues.
And the FDA seems to agree.
FDA spokesman Douglas Karas wrote in a statement that the FDA is currently reviewing the CSPI petition, but "it is important to understand that a consumer would have to consume well over a thousand cans of soda a day to reach the doses administered in the studies that have shown links to cancer in rodents."
But in order to meet the requirements of California law — and avoid cancer warning labels on cans — soda manufacturers have come up with a solution: switch to a new, low 4-MI formulation of caramel coloring. Coca-Cola tells The Salt they've already begun the change.
"The company did make the decision to ask its caramel suppliers to make the necessary manufacturing process modifications to meet the requirement of the State of California," Diana Garza Ciarlante, a Coca-Cola spokeswoman, wrote in an email.
Garza Ciarlante says caramel coloring in all Coke products has always been safe.
"The fact is that the body of science about 4-MEI in foods or beverages does not support the erroneous allegations that CSPI would like the public to believe," she writes. Outside of California, no regulatory agency concerned with protecting the public's health has stated that 4-MI is a human carcinogen.
"Caramel color is now — and has always been — safe and harmless" says Ted Nixon, CEO of D.D. Williamson, the world's largest supplier of caramel color.
He explained that in order to modify the caramel color to reduce the levels of 4-MI, he sent his scientists back to the drawing board to change the manufacturing process.
"We did have to change these various inputs of temperature, pressure and the various ingredients we're using in order to change [4-MI concentrations]," Nixon says.
And Nixon says he'll be able to meet the demand of all of his soda clients, in rolling out this modified caramel color in products nationwide, and worldwide.
Coke says it will expand the use of the low-4-MI caramel color nationally, though Garza Ciarlante says it's important to note that the modifications will not change Coca-Cola products.When the state of California added the compound 4-methylimidazole, also known as 4-MI... more
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We all knew Mitt Romney was the likely, if unexciting, choice for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. But here we are after Super Tuesday and would you believe Rick Santorum is still Romney's biggest competition?
So, what's the reason for Santorum's surge?
We've broken down the conversation on social media over the past several months and matched it up to Santorum's rise in the polls to illustrate just how this happened.
The result: This is what happens when you let the campaigns and the mainstream media set the agenda.We all knew Mitt Romney was the likely, if unexciting, choice for the Republican... more
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No one is really covering this bill and the major media call it non-controversial. The innocent sounding bill titled The Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011 was passed Tuesday with only three dissenting votes including Ron Paul, and passed unanimously in the Senate. This bill dubbed the Anti-Occupy law was passed without one single Democrat speaking up for the first Amenndment.
Once this Bill is signed into law some believe it will make it a felony to excercise your first Amendment rights of Free Speech. Several of those commenting opined that the nearly unanimous vote proves that despite all the posturing both parties stand shoulder to shoulder in their defense of the greed and entitlement of the 1% from the rest of us. When you couple this with the indefinite detention of Americans in the National Defense Authorization Act it is clear that Obama is part of a ruling corporate oligarchy and is surely no Progessive.
Among the controversial provisions of H.R. 347 is a section that is vague and open to interpretation that would make it a felony to enter or remain in an area designated as restricted. Because of the Secret Service protection at the national political party conventions this summer they could easily be declared restricted areas for the purpose of stifling dissent.
In addition, even a peaceful sit-in could be termed a felony if interpreted to mean blocking ingress or egress from a designated building. This section of the law could clearly be used to criminalize a broad range of formerly legal activities.
Defenders and apologists for mainly Democrats and Obama supporters claim this act is completely innocent and all of us who believe differently have drunk Ron Paul's Kool-Aid again. But a post on George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley's blog page notes that the imprecise languange, just as in the NDAA, creates risks and can most definately be seen as a threat to our First Amendment right to Free Speech, Freedom of Assembly, and Freedom to Petition our government. None of that is very comforting in light of the the Patriot Act and surveillance of and wire tapping of Americans.
Tonight you no longer need to be a conspiracy theorist to have real questions about whether we are becoming a police state.
Continue reading on Examiner.com H.R 347 could be making the First Amendment illegal. - Philadelphia Progressive | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/progressive-in-philadelphia/h-r-347-could-be-making-the-first-amendment-illegal#ixzz1oMTbb6FhNo one is really covering this bill and the major media call it non-controversial. The... more
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There has been a great deal of concern recently over proposed legislation and treaties — such as SOPA, PIPA, ACTA, and TPP — that would hand the copyright industries what are widely seen as unwarranted powers to go after allegedly infringing websites.
According to TechDirt’s Glyn Moody, however, informal deals struck between governments and corporations could be just as harmful — and the British government is currently engaged in just such an effort.
Moody, the author of Rebel Code: Linux and the Open Source Revolution, writes that “with the implicit threat that tough legislation will be brought in if voluntary agreements aren’t drawn up promptly enough, governments are using this technique to avoid even the minimal scrutiny that consultations on proposed new laws would permit.”He points to a post by James Firth which reveals that “the UK government and in particular Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture, Communications and the Creative Industries, is pressurising search engines to police search results in a way that goes well beyond notice and take-down.”
What the British government is after amounts to the artificial promotion of “approved” online music and film services, combined with a blacklist of websites accused of infringement which would be completely excluded from search results.
As Moody notes, a system of this sort could easily lead to the censorship of a great deal of legitimate content with no oversight or appeal. So far, the search engine companies appear reluctant to go along with doctoring search results to favor a single industry’s economic interests, especially since it could lead them to incur charges of colluding in anti-competitive behavior. However, they may be willing to go along with an advertising blacklist, which would be less extreme but no less high-handed.
“Legislation, with full consultation from all parties, is a far better way of proceeding,” Moody concludes. “After all, it’s why we have a legislative process with checks and balances in the first place — to craft a solution that is both workable and fair. The new fashion for backroom agreements among a small group of unelected insiders is nothing less than an attack on that process, and hence on democracy itself.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/03/04/search-engines-pressured-to-doctor-results-to-favor-copyright-industries/There has been a great deal of concern recently over proposed legislation and treaties... more
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Two Japanese researchers recently introduced a prototype for a device they call a SpeechJammer that can literally “jam” someone’s voice — effectively stopping them from talking. Now they’ve released a video of the device in action.
“We have to establish and obey rules for proper turn-taking,” write Kazutaka Kurihara and Koji Tsukada in their article on the SpeechJammer (PDF). “However, some people tend to lengthen their turns or deliberately disrupt other people when it is their turn … rather than achieve more fruitful discussions.”
The researchers released the video after their paper went viral Thursday, to the authors’ apparent surprise. “Do you know why our project is suddenly becoming hot now?” asked Kurihara, a research scientist at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Tsukuba, in an e-mail exchange with Wired.com. (Kurihara’s partner Tsukada is an assistant professor at Ochanomizu University in Tokyo.)
The design of the SpeechJammer is deceptively simple. It consists of a direction-sensitive microphone and a direction-sensitive speaker, a motherboard, a distance sensor and some relatively straightforward code. The concept is simple, too — it operates on the well-studied principle of delayed auditory feedback. By playing someone’s voice back to them, at a slight delay (around 200 milliseconds), you can jam a person’s speech.
Sonic devices have popped up in pop culture in the past. In sci-fi author J.G. Ballard’s short story “The Sound-Sweep,” published in 1960, a vacuum cleaner called a “sonovac” sweeps up the debris of old sounds. The wily German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen had plans for a “sound swallower,” which would cancel unwanted sounds in the environment using the acoustic principle of destructive interference. And in 1984 German film Decoder, special yellow cassette tapes play “anti-Muzak” that destroys the lulling tones of Muzak, stimulating diners at a fast-food restaurant to throw up en masse and start rioting.
But instead of sci-fi, the Japanese researchers behind the SpeechJammer looked to medical devices used to help people with speech problems. Delayed auditory feedback, or DAF, devices have been used to help stutterers for decades. If a stutterer hears his own voice at a slight delay, stuttering often improves. But if a non-stutterer uses a DAF device designed to help stutterers, he can start stuttering — and the effect is more pronounced if the delay is longer, up to a certain point.
“We utilized DAF to develop a device that can jam remote physically unimpaired people’s speech whether they want it or not,” write the researchers. “[The] device possesses one characteristic that is different from the usual medical DAF device; namely, the microphone and speaker are located distant from the target.”
Being at a distance from the target means it’s possible to aim the device at people who are several feet away — sort of like a TV B-Gone, but for people. Bothered by what someone at a meeting is saying? Point the SpeechJammer at him. Can’t stand your nattering in-laws? Time for the SpeechJammer. In the wrong hands — criminals, for instance, or repressive governments — the device could have potentially sinister applications. For now, it remains a prototype.Two Japanese researchers recently introduced a prototype for a device they call a... more
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WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) – In what some experts are calling a strong indicator of improvement in the economy, Republicans in recent weeks have begun renewing their claims that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.
While most economists agree that any significant improvement in the US economy is generally accompanied by an uptick in GOP questions about Mr. Obama’s place of birth, there is now an econometric tool for measuring the increase in those claims: the so-called S & P Birther Index.
The Birther Index, established in 2008, measures the occurrences of such words as “birth certificate,” “Kenya,” and “wasn’t born here” in Republican statements about the President, and has proven to be a surprisingly reliable tool for tracking improvements in the economy.
Harland Dorinson, the economist who devised the S & P Birther Index, said that as the economy recovers the index also shows a strong surge in statements questioning the President’s Christianity.
“As unemployment started going down, we saw an increase in references to Mr. Obama being a Muslim,” he said. “This is generally a very bullish sign for the economy.”
But Mr. Dorinson was quick to add that while the surge in references to Mr. Obama being “an Islamic socialist born in a mud-hut in Nairobi” is encouraging, the economy is not out of the woods yet.
“We won’t be fully in a recovery until the Republicans start calling him a Wiccan,” he said. “And if they start saying he’s a Satanist who practices human sacrifice
BorowitzReport.comWASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) – In what some experts are calling a strong... more
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Dr. Daniel Fine of the New Mexico Center for Energy Policy discusses North Carolina's approach to shale gas and hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking." Fine offered these comments during a Feb. 27, 2012, presentation to the John Locke Foundation's Shafesbury Society. Video courtesy of CarolinaJournal.tv. Watch full-length video of JLF events here:
Daniel Fine discusses North Carolina's approach to shale gas and hydraulic fracturing (two minutes)---
http://youtu.be/4Lbn9diK1PA
The full one hour video can be seen here-->"North Carolina?s approach to natural gas fracking" ---> http://lockerroom.johnlocke.org/2012/02/27/no...
Dr. Daniel I. Fine works with the New Mexico Center for Energy Policy. He is a longtime research associate at the Mining and Minerals Resources Institute, MIT. Fine is also a policy adviser on nonconventional oil and gas. He is co-editor of Resource War in 3-D: Dependence, Diplomacy and Defense, and has contributed to Business Week, the Engineering and Mining Journal and the Washington Times. Fine has testified on strategic natural resources before the U.S. Senate committees on Foreign Affairs and Energy and Natural Resources. In this speech, he discusses "Shale Gas Wars: From Pennsylvania to North Carolina."Dr. Daniel Fine of the New Mexico Center for Energy Policy discusses North... more
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The Wilmington City Council has a message for men -- sperm are people, too.
The council for Delaware's largest city passed a resolution by an 8-4 vote Thursday calling on the Delaware legislature, other state legislatures and the U.S. Congress to pass laws granting "personhood" rights to eggs and sperm. The resolution was authored by councilwoman Loretta Walsh as a protest in the current battle over women's health care access.
"[E]ach 'egg person' and each 'sperm person' should be deemed equal in the eyes of the government and be subject to the same laws and regulations as any other dependent minor and be protected against abuse, neglect or abandonment by the parent or guardian," says the resolution. "[L]aws should be enacted by all legislative bodies in the United States to promote equal representation, and should potentially include laws in defense of 'personhood,' forbidding every man from destroying his semen."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/02/wilmington-city-council-sperm-egg-personhood_n_1316924.html?ref=politicsThe Wilmington City Council has a message for men -- sperm are people, too.
The... more
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