Archive for February, 2008
The Three Trillion Dollar War
February 26th, 2008Via: Times Online: The Bush Administration was wrong about the benefits of the war and it was wrong about the costs of the war. The president and his advisers expected a quick, inexpensive conflict. Instead, we have a war that is costing more than anyone could have imagined. The cost of direct US military operations […]
Russia Quietly Prepares to Switch Some Oil Trading from Dollars to Rubles
February 26th, 2008Via: International Herald Tribune: Russia, the world’s second-largest oil-exporting nation after Saudi Arabia, has been quietly preparing to switch trading in Russian Ural Blend oil, the country’s primary export, from the dollar to the ruble. But the change, if it comes, is still some time off, industry analysts and officials said. The Russian effort began […]
Producer Prices in U.S. Increase More than Twice Forcast Rate
February 26th, 2008Via: Bloomberg: Prices paid to U.S. producers rose more than twice as much as forecast in January, pushed up by higher fuel, food and drug costs, signaling inflation may keep accelerating even as growth slows. The 1 percent increase followed a 0.3 percent drop in December, the Labor Department said in Washington. The median forecast […]
Wheat Breaches $12 for First Time After Biggest Gain Since 2002
February 26th, 2008Via: Bloomberg: Chicago wheat prices rose by the most in more than five years, breaching $12 a bushel for the first time as investors poured money into agricultural commodities on signs that global crop production isn’t keeping pace with demand. Global wheat stockpiles will probably fall to a 30-year low this year, while corn inventories […]
‘PANIC’ WHEAT BUYING ACROSS THE U.S.
February 26th, 2008Via: North Queensland Register: In the wheat price surge on Monday this week, the leading wheat contract in Minneapolis, US, rose by more than the entire worth of the contract just months ago. Prices rallied by $5.75 a bushel, or by nearly 30pc, at one point from Friday’s close. Eight months ago on June 19, […]
U.S. National Security Agency Visits Cryptogon
February 26th, 2008The NSA user (host: anubis.restarea.ncsc.mil, ip: 144.51.79.100) accessed the following pages on Cryptogon: Home Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Geothermal Power in Alaska Holds Hidden Model for Clean Energy The session on Cryptogon began with a referral from here: http://www.cotse.net/users/ddevries/link.html
Emblems from the Pentagon’s Black World
February 25th, 2008I Could Tell You but Then You Would Have to Be Destroyed by Me: Emblems from the Pentagon’s Black World by Trevor Paglen: Shown here for the first time, these seventy-five patches reveal a secret world of military imagery and jargon, where classified projects are known by peculiar names (“Goat Suckers,” “None of Your Fucking […]
White House Admits NSA Intercepts of Traffic Inside U.S. Are Ongoing
February 25th, 2008Mmm hmmm. Via: Reuters: The Bush administration said on Saturday U.S. telecommunications companies have agreed to cooperate “for the time being” with spy agencies’ wiretaps, despite an ongoing battle between the White House and Congress over new terrorism surveillance legislation. The Justice Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a joint […]
New Evidence Challenges Official Story of RFK Shooting
February 25th, 2008Via: Guardian: The official record states that senator Robert F Kennedy, like his brother before him, was killed by a crazed lone gunman. But the assassination of a man who seemed to embody so much hope for a bitterly divided country embroiled in an unpopular war still troubles this nation. Little about the official explanation […]
Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion
February 25th, 2008This is a similar concept to what these Alaskans have done. If you have a big temperature differential, there’s potential for electricity generation (even if the overall conversion efficiency is very low). Via: Telegraph: The French inventor Georges Claude is largely forgotten today; if he is remembered at all, it is as the creator of […]
