Archive for February, 2009
Wikileaks: A Billion Dollars Worth of Quazi Secret Congressional Reports
February 9th, 2009For those who want to cut right to the chase: Torrents. Via: Wikileaks: Wikileaks has released nearly a billion dollars worth of quasi-secret reports commissioned by the United States Congress. The 6,780 reports, current as of this month, comprise over 127,000 pages of material on some of the most contentious issues in the nation, from […]
Calculate How Much the Government Has Promised to Take from Your Family
February 9th, 2009Bailout Calculator
Police Agencies in Texas Stealing Property from People Who Haven’t Even Been Charged with Criminal Activity
February 9th, 2009Via: Express News: A two-decade-old state law that grants authorities the power to seize property used in crimes is wielded by some agencies against people who never are charged with — much less convicted of — criminal activity. Law enforcement authorities in this East Texas town of 1,000 people seized property from at least 140 […]
New Database Will Store Details for All 250 Million Passenger Movements In and Out of the UK Each Year
February 8th, 2009Via: Times: THE government is building a secret database to track and hold the international travel records of all 60m Britons. The intelligence centre will store names, addresses, telephone numbers, seat reservations, travel itineraries and credit card details for all 250m passenger movements in and out of the UK each year. The computerised pattern of […]
84 killed in Deadliest-Ever Australian Wildfires
February 8th, 2009Via: MSNBC: Entire towns have been seared off the map by wildfires raging through southeastern Australia, burning people in their homes and cars and raising the death toll Sunday to 84, making it the country’s deadliest fire disaster. Victoria state Premier John Brumby described the fire zone as “hell on earth” after touring devastated areas […]
Obama’s NSC Will Get Sweeping New Powers
February 8th, 2009Via: MSNBC: President Obama plans to order a sweeping overhaul of the National Security Council, expanding its membership and increasing its authority to set strategy across a wide spectrum of international and domestic issues. The result will be a “dramatically different” NSC from that of the Bush administration or any of its predecessors since the […]
French Fighter Planes Grounded by Computer Virus
February 8th, 2009Via: Telegraph: French fighter planes were unable to take off after military computers were infected by a computer virus, an intelligence magazine claims. The aircraft were unable to download their flight plans after databases were infected by a Microsoft virus they had already been warned about several months beforehand. At one point French naval staff […]
IMF Says Advanced Economies Already in Depression
February 8th, 2009Via: Bloomberg: Advanced economies are already in a “depression” and the financial crisis may deepen unless the banking system is fixed, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said. “The worst cannot be ruled out,” Strauss-Kahn said in Kuala Lumpur, where he was attending a gathering of central bankers from Southeast Asia. “There’s a lot […]
Again: Plague-Infested Mice Missing From New Jersey Research Lab
February 8th, 2009Via: nj.com: The frozen remains of two lab mice infected with deadly strains of plague were lost at a bioterror research facility at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark — the same high-security lab where three infected mice went missing four years ago. The latest incident, which led to an […]
Best Reason Yet for Driving a Bulky SUV: You Might Stand a Better Chance of Surviving if the Cops Open Fire on You for No Reason
February 8th, 2009Via: Californian: Police opened fire on an unarmed couple during a routine traffic stop late Tuesday night because one officer “thought he was shot,” a high-ranking Salinas Police Department official said Thursday. “He saw what he perceived as a threat and thought he was shot, and based on that both officers discharged their firearms,” said […]
