Archive for August, 2010
Plane Carrying Former Senator Ted Stevens Crashes in Alaska
August 10th, 2010Update: Ted Stevens Killed In Plane Crash Via: CBS News: Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican senator in U.S. history who lost his seat after a corruption conviction that was later dismissed, was killed Tuesday in a small plane crash in Alaska. He was 86. A family friend said Stevens was among five people killed in […]
U.S. Electricity Blackouts Skyrocketing
August 10th, 2010Via: CNN: Throughout New York City, about 52,000 of ConEd’s 3.2 million customers lost power during the heat wave. Triple-digit temperatures forced residents like 77 year-old Rui Zhi Chen, to seek shelter at one of the city’s 400 emergency cooling centers. “It felt like an oven in my home and on the street,” Chen said. […]
Many Girls Now Begin Puberty at Age 7, 8
August 10th, 2010See: Child Diabetes Blamed on Food Sweetener: Scientists have proved for the first time that a cheap form of sugar used in thousands of food products and soft drinks can damage human metabolism and is fueling the obesity crisis. Fructose, a sweetener derived from corn, can cause dangerous growths of fat cells around vital organs […]
U.S. to Sell $30 Billion Worth of Fighter Jets to Saudi Arabia
August 9th, 2010Via: Wall Street Journal: The Obama administration plans to sell advanced F-15 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia but won’t equip them with long-range weapons systems and other arms whose inclusion was strongly opposed by Israel, diplomats and officials said. The proposed $30 billion, 10-year arms package, which would be one of the biggest single deals […]
Goldman Sachs Involved with Despicable Bucket Shop Education Scams
August 9th, 2010Via: Bloomberg: Carrianne Howard dreamed of designing video games, so she enrolled in a program at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, a for-profit college part-owned by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Her bachelor’s degree in game art and design cost $70,000 in tuition and fees. After she graduated in December 2007, she found a job […]
Germany: ‘Radioactive Boars’
August 9th, 2010Via: AFP: Radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster is still poisoning Germany’s boars nearly 25 years on, with authorities fighting to keep toxic meat off the market as the wild boar population rockets. The boars feed off mushrooms, truffles and wild berries which still contain high levels of caesium-137, carried in the radioactive cloud […]
“The U. S. patent code was never meant to cover your genes, your cells, your blood, or the marrow in your bones. But it does.”
August 9th, 2010Via: Esquire: Like, for example, the gene called BRCA1. There’s a chance you have that gene. There’s an even better chance your wife has it, or your sister or your mom, because that’s the gene for breast cancer. If you could test yourself for BRCA1 right now, or if you could test your wife or […]
Appeals Court Rules Against Secret Police GPS Tracking
August 9th, 2010Via: Wired: A federal appeals court ruled Friday that the police can’t covertly track a suspect’s car using a GPS device for an extended period of time without getting a warrant. The ruling in the D.C. Court of Appeals overturned the conviction of a suspected cocaine dealer, saying that the use of a secret GPS […]
Flywheel Power Grid Storage Project
August 9th, 2010Via: Cnet: Beacon Power on Monday said it has closed a $43 million loan guarantee with the Department of Energy for a project to use flywheels to buffer 20 megawatts of power on the grid. The loan covers 62.5 percent of the estimated $69 million needed to construct the flywheel storage plant in Stephentown, N.Y. […]
Matt Simmons Dead “Of An Apparent Heart Attack”
August 9th, 2010Update: Reader Email F writes: You probably want to avoid wild speculation but do you have any possible insights into this, assuming it’s not “natural causes” or an accident? All along, I never really knew what to make of Matt Simmons. I didn’t post the Bloomberg video below because (no offense intended to family and […]
