Archive for April, 2008
Major Banks in Trouble
April 8th, 2008Via: Bloomberg: Bank holding companies including Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. have the thinnest safety cushion against losses in seven years. The margin may erode further in coming weeks. Credit ratings on $704 billion of bonds have been cut this year following the collapse of the U.S. housing market. […]
New Zealand to Accelerate the Exportation of Its Remaining Top Soil to China
April 8th, 2008Kiwis will get even cheaper jandles in return. Bargains. Sorry, I don’t feel like looking at this one squarely in the eyes right now. It’s too grim, and too close to home. Via: New Zealand Herald: Helen Clark said the free trade agreement opened the door for New Zealand business to step up the pace […]
Warning: Google Is In Your Driveway
April 8th, 2008Via: The Smoking Gun: Faced with a lawsuit by a Pittsburgh couple who claims that their privacy was invaded by Google’s “Street View” mapping technology, the search giant has removed images of the family’s home from its servers. Several photos of the Oakridge Lane home of Aaron and Christine Boring have been yanked from Google […]
Wired: Do We Have a Right to “Mental Privacy”?
April 8th, 2008The point is moot since the average person’s mind has already been destroyed and filled with nonsense. The tech that’s coming will be targeted at those of us who are trying to feign ignorance, obedience and apathy in order avoid being branded as a thought criminal. But even then… Why? The U.S. Government already has […]
In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop
April 8th, 2008Yikes! I like the one about the guy who stirs protein powder in with his coffee. Madness. It sounds like these bozos don’t need to worry about going to hell; they’ve made it real in their lives already. Now, where are these $30,000 per-year-to-start blogging jobs? If that’s the going rate in a “digital-era sweatshop,” […]
Survivalism: The New Black
April 8th, 2008I feel somehow… unclean when the New York Times reads like the Cryptogon archives, circa 2003. Even though I’ve seen much of “this” coming for years, to finally read it in the most criminally corrupt rag of them all makes me glad that I changed my perspective from sudden crash to more of a slow, […]
IMF Board Backs Plan to Sell 403.3 Tons from Gold Holdings
April 8th, 2008Via: Dow Jones: The International Monetary Fund’s executive board Monday signed off on a broad financial reform plan that proposes to put 403.3 tons of its vast gold holdings up for sale. IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn applauded the board’s decision to propose a new framework designed to close a projected $400 million income- expenditure […]
Food Additives Could be as Damaging as Lead
April 8th, 2008Via: Independent: Artificial food colours are set to be removed from hundreds of products after a team of university researchers warned they were doing as much damage to children’s brains as lead in petrol. Academics at Southampton University, who carried out an official study into seven additives for the Food Standards Agency (FSA), said children’s […]
The Audacity of Depression
April 7th, 2008I don’t do it justice by just quoting this little bit. Settle in, pour yourself a nice, stiff drink. Via: Joe Bageant: Over the past couple of years I’ve had hundreds of encounters with reading Americans — and by encounters I mean conversations, not falling off chairs — which is to say book loving, thinking […]
Wind Power That Floats
April 7th, 2008Look at the effort that’s going into keeping the platforms in place. It seems absolutely stupid. Why not focus on harnessing the awesome power of the waves instead? Investors understand “wind power.” They don’t yet understand “wave power.” So it goes… Via: MIT Technology Review: Offshore wind-farm developers would love to build in deep water […]
