Archive for June, 2009
Fed Buying Treasuries; China Selling Treasuries
June 17th, 2009Here’s some music to accompany this post. Amazon.com Widgets Via: Reuters: The Federal Reserve is buying Treasuries maturing May 2016 through May 2019 on Wednesday, the New York Federal Reserve said on its Website. The purchase, which started at 10.16 a.m. (1416 GMT) and ends at 11 a.m. (1500 GMT), is part of the U.S. […]
U.S. State Department Speaks to Twitter Over Iran
June 17th, 2009The Internet has been playing an increasingly important role in international politics. One highly significant effect of Internet use overseas has been to circumvent the informational controls imposed by authoritarian regimes on their citizens… Predictions… The Internet will be used as a tool of statecraft by national governments… The Internet will play an increasingly significant […]
NSA Intercepts of the Private Telephone Calls and E-Mail Messages of Americans Are Broader Than Previously Acknowledged
June 17th, 2009In the New York Times piece below, we learn that an email database used by the NSA is called PINWALE. Back in 2006, William M Arkin, a Washington Post blogger, published a list of hundreds of terms that were allegedly associated with NSA projects. Along with the list, he wrote: I could write volumes about […]
Obama Blocks List of Visitors to White House
June 17th, 2009Obama is embracing his inner Cheney. Via: MSNBC: The Obama administration is fighting to block access to names of visitors to the White House, taking up the Bush administration argument that a president doesn’t have to reveal who comes calling to influence policy decisions. Despite President Barack Obama’s pledge to introduce a new era of […]
Error Message
June 17th, 2009Some of you may have seen an intermittent error message when visiting Cryptogon. Instead of the main text section, an error message appeared that started out like this: Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 33554432 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 24 bytes)… I have stopped calling the script that was causing the problem on most […]
“Schoolchildren could be first in line for swine flu vaccine this fall — and schools are being put on notice that they might even be turned into shot clinics.”
June 17th, 2009Via: AP: Schoolchildren could be first in line for swine flu vaccine this fall — and schools are being put on notice that they might even be turned into shot clinics. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Tuesday she is urging school superintendents around the country to spend the summer preparing for that […]
Freak Beijing Storm Turns Day Into Night
June 16th, 2009Via: ABC: China correspondent Stephen McDonell and ABC cameraman Rob Hill saw day turn into night as a freak storm swept across the capital Beijing today. “It was pitch black outside and you could see people looking out from the office towers across the road from us,” McDonell said. “In a couple of the photos […]
Church of England Attempts to Broaden Appeal with Songs by U2 and Prayers for Google and WalMart Executives
June 16th, 2009Via: Telegraph: Christian services that feature DJs, songs of the Irish band U2 and prayers for the chief executives of Google and Wal-Mart are being promoted by the Church of England. The ideas for alternative-style worship are part of an initiative launched by Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, to appeal to the younger […]
Bill Gates Helps Fund Mass Circumcision Programme
June 16th, 2009Via: New Scientist: Microsoft founder Bill Gates last week injected $50 million into a programme to circumcise up to 650,000 men in Swaziland and Zambia. The goal of the project is to curb the transmission of HIV in two of the AIDS hotspots of the world, as circumcision has been shown to more than halve […]
Ahmadinejad Stresses Need for a New World Order
June 16th, 2009Via: PressTV: Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calls for the creation of a new world order in dealing with the many challenges arising in the international political arena. “What we need now is a dramatic change in world political thought,” said President Ahmadinejad in a Tuesday address to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Moscow. “Western-style […]
