Terra Tech Corp: Vegetables Today, Pot Once It’s Legal
March 27th, 2014Via: Alternet:
State by state, the nation is beginning to chip away at marijuana prohibition. Especially since Colorado and Washington legalized the herb for recreational purposes last year, whispers of legalization and decriminalization are spreading like wildfire. But cultivation of the plant is still federally illegal, and often as states legalize either medically or recreationally, they find themselves in short supply.
A former Wall Street banker named Derek Peterson is now CEO of a company that could eventually turn the legal medicinal and recreational marijuana shortage into a myth. The company is called Terra Tech Corp, and since its inception in 2010, Peterson has made it his goal to set up farming facilities in various states to grow legal leafy greens like basil and thyme, and gearing up to switch over to cannabis. As soon as each state legalizes, Terra Tech plans to switch to cannabis production, coming out ahead of the curve.
A sustainable, hydroponic farming company, Terra Tech became the first publicly traded company to apply for a license to grow cannabis. Everyone on staff is fully trained to cultivate weed so that as soon as states legalize they can easily shift their facilities over, staff and greenhouses intact.
Antigun Politician Charged with Gun Trafficking, Wire Fraud
March 27th, 2014There’s a doosey in here.
One of the members of this criminal enterprise is, “Raymond ‘Shrimp Boy’ Chow, a longtime Chinatown gangster.” According to the piece, Chow is president of the Supreme Lodge of Chinese Freemasons of the world in San Francisco (see: Tiandihui).
Via: San Francisco Weekly:
State Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) and 19 other defendants appeared in court this afternoon to confront charges against them ranging from racketeering, gun-trafficking, and murder for hire.
The defendants — including Keith Jackson, a San Francisco political consultant, and Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow, a longtime Chinatown gangster — all arrived in civilian clothes while shackled at the wrist and waist.
By 3:30 p.m., only 12 of the defendants, including Jackson and Chow, had appeared before the judge to hear the charges against them. Yee, who as a legislator cracked down on guns, is now being charged with gun trafficking himself.
Yee, who was also charged with wire fraud, was released this afternoon on a $500,000 unsecured bond. He faces 16 years in prison. Yee will return to court on Monday at 9:30 a.m.
…
Hundreds of cops and FBI agents stormed businesses and homes in Chinatown this morning, including the offices of Gee King Tong Free Masons. Both Yee and Chow, who is now president of the Supreme Lodge of Chinese Freemasons of the world in San Francisco, were arrested during the police sweeps. News of the additional arrests trickled in throughout the day.
Emergency Preservation and Resuscitation
March 26th, 2014Via: New Scientist:
NEITHER dead or alive, knife-wound or gunshot victims will be cooled down and placed in suspended animation later this month, as a groundbreaking emergency technique is tested out for the first time.
Surgeons are now on call at the UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to perform the operation, which will buy doctors time to fix injuries that would otherwise be lethal.
“We are suspending life, but we don’t like to call it suspended animation because it sounds like science fiction,” says Samuel Tisherman, a surgeon at the hospital, who is leading the trial. “So we call it emergency preservation and resuscitation.”
The technique involves replacing all of a patient’s blood with a cold saline solution, which rapidly cools the body and stops almost all cellular activity. “If a patient comes to us two hours after dying you can’t bring them back to life. But if they’re dying and you suspend them, you have a chance to bring them back after their structural problems have been fixed,” says surgeon Peter Rhee at the University of Arizona in Tucson, who helped develop the technique.
This Is a Generic Brand Video
March 26th, 2014Vis: Dissolve.com / Vimeo:
This Is a Generic Brand Video from Dissolve on Vimeo.
Research Credit: JL
Eyes on Afghanistan as Next Lithium Motherlode
March 26th, 2014Via: oilprice.com
As American troops prepare to leave Afghanistan, the US has handed over prized mineral data to Kabul, which is hoping it can provide enough security to lure investors to key mineral deposits that could turn the country into the Saudi Arabia of Lithium in the best-case scenario, or another conflict minerals venue like Congo.
Earlier this month, the US Geological Survey handed Kabul highly advanced hyper-spectral imaging of mineral deposits covering about 70% of the countries territory, but security, infrastructure and legislation must be addressed before these deposits can be tapped into.
Joseph Catalino, acting director of the DOD task force, said the Defense Department’s Task Force for Business and Stability Operations (TFBSO) was working with private-sector firms to encourage them to invest in Afghanistan’s mineral and hydrocarbon sectors.
“Big companies, small companies, even really small companies are all asking the same questions — what’s there, where do we look and where do we drill? That’s where this data comes into play,” Catalino was quoted as saying.
Canada: Bill C-22, Nuclear Companies Win the Jackpot
March 26th, 2014Update: Current Liability Is Only $75 Million
J sent this piece in from HazMat Management:
The federal government has introduced legislation that will dramatically boost the civil liability ceiling for nuclear operators from $75 million to $1 billion.
—
Via: Huffington Post:
Imagine you could go to Las Vegas, and it didn’t matter how much you bet, you could only lose $100. Wouldn’t you take bigger risks? Of course you would. Unfortunately this is precisely the scenario facing the nuclear industry.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has proposed a new law to shield nuclear companies from responsibility in the event of an accident. If passed Bill C-22 would cap the liability of reactor operators to $1 billion after a reactor accident.
This is a pittance. It means that the event of Fukushima-scale accident, reactor operators would be responsible for less than 1 per cent of damage they cause. Canadians would cover the rest.
Worse, Bill C-22 would completely absolve companies that design or service Canada’s reactors of responsibility — even if their negligence caused an accident.
The bill tells nuclear companies it’s okay for them to have no skin in the game. If passed, the game will be rigged. Bill C-22 would guarantee nuclear companies always hit the jackpot no matter the risks.
Research Credit: P7y845W4
Facebook Buys Virtual Reality Co. Oculus for $2 Billion
March 25th, 2014Reality 1440×900 by EranFolio on deviantART
Via: AP:
Facebook has agreed to buy Oculus for $2 billion, betting that its virtual reality technology may be a new way for people to communicate, learn or be entertained.
“This is a long-term bet on the future of computing,” said Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg Tuesday on a call with analysts. “I believe Oculus can be one of the platforms of the future.”
Oculus makes the Oculus Rift, a virtual reality headset that’s received a lot of attention from video game developers, though it has yet to be released for consumers. The headsets cover a user’s eyes and create an immersive world that reacts to turning one’s head or moving back and forth.
Beyond games, Zuckerberg said virtual reality headsets might someday be used to enjoy a courtside seat at a basketball game, study in a classroom, consult with a doctor face-to-face or shop in a virtual store. The technology also has social applications, he said.
“Imagine sharing not just moments with friends online but entire experiences and adventures,” he said.
Related: Facebook Too Creepy for Minecraft Developer
The Most Popular Show In America Is Basically NSA Propaganda
March 25th, 2014Via: Business Insider:
NCIS and its sibling NCIS: Los Angeles are the top-rated dramas on television, a distinction they have held for several years.
Next season there will be a third iteration, which ones hopes will be titled NCIS: Spinoff. As Quartz’s Jason Lynch notes, viewers love these formulaic procedurals—while critics ignore them.
But what exactly are so many Americans watching—and rooting for—when they tune in for these TV shows? A closer look reveals that both series are uncomfortably akin to a cheering section for the NSA: The shows depict a world in which terrorists planning mass slaughter are under every bed, in which viewers root for the good-looking, wisecracking agents to smash down doors without warrants; in which super-advanced electronic surveillance is used exclusively to protect the public. In the NCIS version of reality, we’ll all die unless powerful government agencies treat the United States Constitution like a big joke.
Bloomberg’s Censorship of China Story
March 25th, 2014Via: New York Times:
Ben Richardson, an editor at large in Asia at Bloomberg News, announced his resignation on Monday, citing the company’s handling of an investigative report in China late last year.
He is the third reporter or editor to leave the organization since several news organizations reported last November that Bloomberg had declined to publish an investigative article that explored financial ties between one of the wealthiest men in China and the families of top Chinese leaders.
“I left Bloomberg because of the way the story was mishandled, and because of how the company made misleading statements in the global press” afterward, he said in an email to the media news site Romenesko. He also wrote that Bloomberg employees faced legal action if they spoke out publicly.
Sinkhole of Bureaucracy
March 24th, 2014Via: Washington Post:
The trucks full of paperwork come every day, turning off a country road north of Pittsburgh and descending through a gateway into the earth. Underground, they stop at a metal door decorated with an American flag.
Behind the door, a room opens up as big as a supermarket, full of five-drawer file cabinets and people in business casual. About 230 feet below the surface, there is easy-listening music playing at somebody’s desk.
This is one of the weirdest workplaces in the U.S. government — both for where it is and for what it does.
Here, inside the caverns of an old Pennsylvania limestone mine, there are 600 employees of the Office of Personnel Management. Their task is nothing top-secret. It is to process the retirement papers of the government’s own workers.
But that system has a spectacular flaw. It still must be done entirely by hand, and almost entirely on paper.
The employees here pass thousands of case files from cavern to cavern and then key in retirees’ personal data, one line at a time. They work underground not for secrecy but for space. The old mine’s tunnels have room for more than 28,000 file cabinets of paper records.
This odd place is an example of how hard it is to get a time-wasting bug out of a big bureaucratic system.
Held up by all that paper, work in the mine runs as slowly now as it did in 1977.
Research Credit: Eileen
