Archive for May, 2009
Elsevier Published Six Fake Medical Journals
May 11th, 2009Via: Guardian: The relationship between big pharma and publishers is perilous. Any industry with global revenues of $600bn can afford to buy quite a lot of adverts, and pharmaceutical companies also buy glossy expensive “reprints” of the trials it feels flattered by. As we noted in this column two months ago, there is evidence that […]
G20 Police ‘Used Undercover Men to Incite Crowds’
May 11th, 2009Via: Guardian: An MP who was involved in last month’s G20 protests in London is to call for an investigation into whether the police used agents provocateurs to incite the crowds. Liberal Democrat Tom Brake says he saw what he believed to be two plain-clothes police officers go through a police cordon after presenting their […]
Allen Stanford: “May Have Been a U.S. Government Informer”
May 10th, 2009This has to get rolled up. This has to go away. —Cryptogon, 2/21/09 Allen Stanford would be very familiar with the story of how Barry Seal met his end; shot dead as he sat in his Cadillac, with George H.W. Bush’s personal phone number in a box of documents in his trunk. So, what precautions […]
Telegraph: MPs’ Expenses
May 10th, 2009Someone has leaked a series of documents to the Telegraph that detail MPs’ living expenses. It looks like pretty standard stuff to me; possibly suitable for your files on political fat bastardism. Via: Telegraph: The Telegraph’s investigation into how politicians – from Gordon Brown and his Cabinet to backbenchers of all parties – exploit the […]
CIA Open Source Center Translation of Secret Israeli Ministry of Defense Database Shows the Full Extent of Illegal Israeli Settlements in Gaza and the West Bank
May 9th, 2009Via: Wikileaks: In late January, WikiLeaks released a 186 page secret Israeli Ministry of Defense database, which showed the full extent of illegal Israeli settlements in Gaza and the West Bank. A version of the document had first been obtained by the well regarded Israeli newspaper Haaretz. The leak made headlines, but its global political […]
Top White House Aide Resigned Today for His Role in Air Force Activity Over New York City
May 9th, 2009Via: AP: A top White House aide resigned today for his role in Air Force One’s $328,835 photo-op flyover above New York City that sparked panic and flashbacks to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. His resignation was made public at the same time the photo of the flyover was released by the White House. Louis […]
Mission to Break up Pacific Island of Trash Twice the Size of Texas
May 8th, 2009This one always gets to me, not matter how many times I read about it. Via: Times Online: A high-seas mission departs from San Francisco next month to map and explore a sinister and shifting 21st-century continent: one twice the size of Texas and created from six million tonnes of discarded plastic. Scientists and conservationists […]
Fed Sees Up to $599 Billion in Bank Losses
May 8th, 2009Via: Wall Street Journal: The federal government projected that 19 of the nation’s biggest banks could suffer losses of up to $599 billion through the end of next year if the economy performs worse than expected and ordered 10 of them to raise a combined $74.6 billion in capital to cushion themselves. The much-anticipated stress-test […]
China’s Major Ports Unload 24% More Iron Ore Imports in April
May 7th, 2009Wow. I wouldn’t have guessed this one. Via: Bloomberg: China, the world’s largest consumer of iron ore, said its major ports unloaded 24 percent more of the imported steelmaking ingredient in April from a year ago, a record for a second month. Ships dropped 53.5 million metric tons of iron ore last month at major […]
Bank of England to Print Extra 50 Billion Pounds
May 7th, 2009Via: Reuters: The Bank of England stepped up its campaign to boost the struggling economy, raising the size of its asset purchase programme on Thursday in a surprise move tantamount to printing an extra 50 billion pounds to get banks lending again. The central bank kept rates at a record low of 0.5 percent as […]
