Archive for December, 2010
X-37B Returns to Earth After Seven Months in Orbit; Mission and Capabilities Remain Classified
December 3rd, 2010Via: AP: The U.S. Air Force’s secrecy-shrouded X-37B unmanned spaceplane returned to Earth early Friday after more than seven months in orbit on a classified mission, officials said. The winged craft autonomously landed at at Vandenberg Air Force Base on the California coast 130 miles northwest of Los Angeles, Vandenburg spokesman Jeremy Eggers said. “It’s […]
WikiLeaks Open Thread
December 3rd, 2010I’m officially exhausted with the WikiLeaks spectacle. I’m now blocking any mention of WikiLeaks and Julian Assange from my feeds and email submissions. Enough already. Wake me up when I can locally search the whole damn thing on my own. This clown act is a bore. Ok, so these were the stories that caught my […]
Feds Warrantlessly Tracking Americans’ Credit Cards in Real Time
December 3rd, 2010As bad as the information below might seem, it’s actually worse than that. This is from 2008, but it’s a keeper: The Last Roundup: MAIN CORE. Via: Wired: Federal law enforcement agencies have been tracking Americans in real-time using credit cards, loyalty cards and travel reservations without getting a court order, a new document released […]
The New Poor: Unemployed, and Likely to Stay That Way
December 3rd, 2010A new cafe opened up out at the coast from where I am here in New Zealand. I was eating there, using my netbook, and the owner offered to get me on the Wi-Fi network he had running in there. We chatted about our past lives. That dude did nearly THREE DECADES of wrench turning […]
Court Ruling: Monsanto’s Genetically Engineered Sugar Beets Pose Risk of Irreparable Environmental Harm
December 3rd, 2010In case you’re wondering how this is going to wind up (on appeal), here are some hints: Monsanto Wins as Supreme Court Backs Alfalfa Seed Planting Change We Can Believe In: Obama Chooses Monsanto Creature, Tom Vilsack, for Secretary of Agriculture Has Obama Ever Met an Industrial Food Shill He Didn’t Appoint? Obama Gives Key […]
DynCorp and Afghan “Dancing Boys”
December 3rd, 2010Well, well, well. Related Search: DynCorp Human Trafficking Via: Guardian: A scandal involving foreign contractors employed to train Afghan policemen who took drugs and paid for young “dancing boys” to entertain them in northern Afghanistan caused such panic that the interior minister begged the US embassy to try and “quash” the story, according to one […]
Atlanta: Hundreds Line Up For Help Heating Homes
December 3rd, 2010Via: Atlanta Journal Constitution: As metro Atlanta’s temperatures grow colder, the demand for heat is, well, heating up. A day after hundreds of people queued up outside a Marietta community center to apply for assistance with heat and power bills, hopeful applicants began lining up again around midnight, waiting in the sub-freezing temperatures for the […]
NASA Finds New Arsenic-Fed Life Form
December 2nd, 2010300 sextillion stars in the universe and people are surprised by this development? Via: PC World: NASA’s announcement Thursday afternoon has shown that alien life might have been under scientists’ noses all along. A press conference with a team of researchers revealed that alien life forms could exist in drastically different forms than previously thought. […]
Nigeria to Charge Dick Cheney in Pipeline Bribery Case
December 2nd, 2010Via: Bloomberg: Nigeria will file charges against former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and officials from five foreign companies including Halliburton Co. over a $180 million bribery scandal, a prosecutor at the anti-graft agency said. Indictments will be lodged in a Nigerian court “in the next three days,” Godwin Obla, prosecuting counsel at the Economic […]
Fed Withholds Collateral Data for $885 Billion in Financial-Crisis Loans
December 2nd, 2010“Collateral.” *wink* Via: Bloomberg: The Federal Reserve withheld details on individual securities pledged as collateral by recipients of $885 billion in central bank loans, denying taxpayers a measure of the risks they faced from its emergency aid.
