Archive for July, 2011
Mass Psychosis in the U.S. – How Big Pharma Got Americans Hooked on Anti-Psychotic Drugs
July 18th, 2011Via: Al Jazeera: Has America become a nation of psychotics? You would certainly think so, based on the explosion in the use of antipsychotic medications. In 2008, with over $14 billion in sales, antipsychotics became the single top-selling therapeutic class of prescription drugs in the United States, surpassing drugs used to treat high cholesterol and […]
Japan’s ‘Throwaway’ Nuclear Workers
July 18th, 2011Via: Reuters: A decade and a half before it blew apart in a hydrogen blast that punctuated the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl, the No. 3 reactor at the Fukushima nuclear power plant was the scene of an earlier safety crisis. Then, as now, a small army of transient workers was put to work to […]
Moody’s Suggests U.S. Eliminate Debt Ceiling
July 18th, 2011Why not? If eliminating any speed bumps along the road to hyperinflation will ease “periodic uncertainty” well, golly, let it rip! Via: Reuters: Ratings agency Moody’s on Monday suggested the United States should eliminate its statutory limit on government debt to reduce uncertainty among bond holders. The United States is one of the few countries […]
Gold: $1601
July 18th, 2011Warning: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument. Update: Silver Squint hard enough at the daily silver chart and a possible reverse top hat pops out. (Bullish.) —End Update— New record high. That is all.
Verizon Refuses to Itemize $4.19 Charge on Customer’s Bill, Tells Her to Get a Lawyer and a Subpoena
July 18th, 2011Representing herself, she took Verizon to court and won. Via: philly.com: Bernice Keebler had a simple complaint: Verizon billed her $4.19 for six “local calls” but wouldn’t tell her where she’d called – not unless she got a lawyer and a subpoena. To Keebler, that stretched the bounds of fair dealing beyond the breaking point. […]
Billionaire’s Son and Girlfriend Die Within Days of Each Other; Girlfriend’s Bound and Naked Body Found Hanging from Mansion’s Balcony
July 18th, 2011Update: Death of Rebecca Zahau Officially Declared a Suicide Via: Los Angeles Times: Rebecca Zahau, the girlfriend of pharmaceutical executive Jonah Shacknai who committed suicide at his Coronado mansion, was distraught over injuries his son suffered in her care and that is apparently why she decided to hang herself, authorities said Friday. Zahau’s nude body […]
Police Across the Nation Will Roll Out Face-Recognizing iPhone Tech This Year
July 17th, 2011Via: Popular Science: A controversial piece of facial recognition technology … is rolling out in police stations across the country this fall, and naturally not everyone is happy about it. The Mobile Offender Recognition and Identification System (MORIS) uses an augmented iPhone to snap pictures of faces, scan fingerprints, and even to image irises, and […]
Pentagon Wants a Social Media Propaganda Machine
July 16th, 2011Via: Wired: You don’t need to have 5,000 friends of Facebook to know that social media can have a notorious mix of rumor, gossip and just plain disinformation. The Pentagon is looking to build a tool to sniff out social media propaganda campaigns and spit some counter-spin right back at it. On Thursday, Defense Department […]
And Now… Bodyguard Who Killed Karzai’s Brother Was Trusted CIA Contact
July 16th, 2011Via: Independent: The bodyguard who assassinated President Hamid Karzai’s brother had been working closely with US Special Forces and the CIA before he was recruited by the Taliban, raising fears over the Islamist movement’s increasingly sophisticated intelligence apparatus which has managed to threaten the inner circles of power in Afghanistan. Sardar Mohammad, who shot Ahmed […]
Beef Contamination Spreads in Japan as Cattle Eat Radiation-Tainted Straw
July 15th, 2011Rice straw. Via: Bloomberg: More beef from cattle in Japan that ate straw tainted by radiation has found its way into the food supply, deepening concern about the safety of meat as the country struggles to contain the spread of the contamination. Cattle at the farm in Asakawa, about 60 kilometers from the crippled Fukushima […]
