Serbian Man Has Lived in a Grave for 15 Years: ‘I am More Afraid of the Living than of the Dead’
March 4th, 2013Via: Daily Mail:
A homeless man has told how he began sleeping with the dead when he moved into a cemetery 15 years ago.
Bratislav Stojanovic, 43, has shared the burial plot with the ashes of a a family who died out more than 100 years ago in Nis, Serbia.
But after giving the grave a changing tombs-style makeover the former construction worker said he feels at home.
Pfc. Bradley E. Manning’s Statement for the Providence Inquiry
March 4th, 2013Via: alexaobrien.com:
The statement below was read by Private First Class Bradley E. Bradley at the providence inquiry for his formal plea of guilty to one specification as charged and nine specifications for lesser included offenses. He pled not guilty to 12 other specifications. This transcript was taken by journalist Alexa O’Brien at the Article 39(a) session of United States v. Pfc. Bradley Manning on February 28, 2013 at Fort Meade, MD, USA.
Research Credit: luky
Cryptogon Reader Sent $90
March 4th, 2013Thanks very much to AF for sending $90 at the end of February, and making the month’s wide earnings miss a bit less wide.
Hipster Job Market: 22-22-22
March 3rd, 2013Via: New York Times:
Ms. McIntyre is just one 20-something — a population historically exploitable as cheap labor — learning that long hours and low pay go hand in hand in the creative class. The recession has been no friend to entry-level positions, where hundreds of applicants vie for unpaid internships at which they are expected to be on call with iPhone in hand, tweeting for and representing their company at all hours.
“We need to hire a 22-22-22,” one new-media manager was overheard saying recently, meaning a 22-year-old willing to work 22-hour days for $22,000 a year. Perhaps the middle figure is an exaggeration, but its bookends certainly aren’t.
Related: $10 An Hour Jobs Requiring College Degrees
Americans Renouncing Citizenship to Become British Increases 3X Over Last Five Years
March 3rd, 2013Sounds like out-of-the-pan-and-into-the-fire to me, but to each his own.
Via: Telegraph:
London-based American lawyers, who specialise in tax and immigration, report a threefold increase over the last five years in the number of American citizens who are giving up their citizenship – a process known as “renunciation”.
DHS Using Customized Versions of Predator Drones
March 3rd, 2013Via: Cnet:
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has customized its Predator drones, originally built for overseas military operations, to carry out at-home surveillance tasks that have civil libertarians worried: identifying civilians carrying guns and tracking their cell phones, government documents show.
The documents provide more details about the surveillance capabilities of the department’s unmanned Predator B drones, which are primarily used to patrol the United States’ northern and southern borders but have been pressed into service on behalf of a growing number of law enforcement agencies including the FBI, the Secret Service, the Texas Rangers, and local police.
Homeland Security’s specifications for its drones, built by San Diego-based General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, say they “shall be capable of identifying a standing human being at night as likely armed or not,” meaning carrying a shotgun or rifle. They also specify “signals interception” technology that can capture communications in the frequency ranges used by mobile phones, and “direction finding” technology that can identify the locations of mobile devices or two-way radios.
Spending: With Sequestration and Without Sequestration
March 2nd, 2013HC asks:
“I was curious why you’re not covering the whole sequestration flap that’s saturating the media right now.”
The reason why I haven’t been is because it’s a trivial event, either way. Soviet America is so far gone, so dependent on insane state expenditures, that the propaganda outlets lose their mind at the prospect of any budget cuts at all.
Here: Look upon this reduced spending and tell me if this looks like a bid deal to you. (Chart at link.)
The ship of fools sails on.
I’m not saying that this won’t impact some individuals who will stop receiving government paychecks, but in terms of the big picture, mainly, that the U.S. is broke, it’s trivial.
Via: Bloomberg:
Automatic spending cuts that are scheduled to begin today will have a “very small” impact on the U.S. economy, according to John Taylor, an economics professor at Stanford University in California.
The CHART OF THE DAY shows the difference in federal spending with and without the reductions, known as sequestration, will be $42 billion in the fiscal year ending in September 2013, or 0.26 percent of gross domestic product, according to data provided by Taylor, who was Treasury Under Secretary for International Affairs from 2001 to 2005 under President George W. Bush.
Related: Mayor Bloomberg On National Debt: ‘People Do Seem Willing To Lend Us An Infinite Amount Of Money’
U.S. Navy Will Run Drone Missions 24/7 Out of Point Mugu
March 2nd, 2013Via: Gizmodo:
I talked to the U.S. Fleet Forces Command, which had plenty to say about the upcoming drone playground, which is just one of “several bases throughout the world” the Navy wants. Each will host Tritons, with Point Mugu boasting four, conducting around five missions every single day. That’s over 1,800 takeoffs or landings every year, from the Malibu spot alone. The goal is 24/7 surveillance—an American eye over the water at all times, during wartime, during peacetime, and all the time.
Florida Man Feared Dead After Sinkhole Swallows Him
March 2nd, 2013Via: Reuters:
A Florida man was missing and feared dead on Friday after a sinkhole suddenly opened up under the bedroom of his suburban Tampa home, police and fire officials said.
Rescuers responded to a 911 call late on Thursday after the family of Jeff Bush, 36, reported hearing a loud crash in the house and rushed to his bedroom.
“All they could see was a part of a mattress sticking out of the hole,” said Hillsborough County Fire Rescue Chief Ron Rogers. “Essentially the floor of that room had opened up.”
Mayor Bloomberg On National Debt: ‘People Do Seem Willing To Lend Us An Infinite Amount Of Money’
March 2nd, 2013What could possibly go wrong?
Via: Politicker:
Furthermore, while saying the federal deficit does indeed need to be curtailed, Mr. Bloomberg argued the United States could owe “an infinite amount of money” and there is no specific amount that would cause the country to default.
“We are spending money we don’t have,” Mr. Bloomberg explained. “It’s not like your household. In your household, people are saying, ‘Oh, you can’t spend money you don’t have.’ That is true for your household because nobody is going to lend you an infinite amount of money. When it comes to the United States federal government, people do seem willing to lend us an infinite amount of money. … Our debt is so big and so many people own it that it’s preposterous to think that they would stop selling us more. It’s the old story: If you owe the bank $50,000, you got a problem. If you owe the bank $50 million, they got a problem. And that’s a problem for the lenders. They can’t stop lending us more money.”
