Madoff Accountant’s Son Commits Suicide in Ohio
November 18th, 2012Via: New York Post:
The 23-year-old son of the accountant who helped Bernie Madoff hide his Ponzi scheme shot himself in his apartment in Ohio, police said yesterday.
Jeremy Friehling’s shocking suicide comes two years after Madoff’s son, Mark, hanged himself with a dog leash in his family’s SoHo apartment on the second anniversary of his father’s arrest.
Friehling was the son of embattled accountant David Friehling, who pleaded guilty in 2009 to helping conceal Madoff’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme.
Faculty advisers at Ohio State University, where Friehling was a medical student, became concerned after he wrote suicidal posts on Facebook, according to Columbus Police Homicide.
They went to check on him on Thursday, but Friehling didn’t answer. Police officers forced their way into the apartment and found him dead with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
They Cracked This 250 Year-Old Code, And Found a Secret Society Inside
November 18th, 2012Shachtman’s dismissal of the modern day significance of secret societies is unfortunate. The fact that the two main candidates in the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election were both members of the same secret society, Skull and Bones, is just, “Fodder for conspiracy theorists.” Overall, though, the article is pretty interesting.
Via: Wired:
The master wears an amulet with a blue eye in the center. Before him, a candidate kneels in the candlelit room, surrounded by microscopes and surgical implements. The year is roughly 1746. The initiation has begun.
The master places a piece of paper in front of the candidate and orders him to put on a pair of eyeglasses. “Read,” the master commands. The candidate squints, but it’s an impossible task. The page is blank.
The candidate is told not to panic; there is hope for his vision to improve. The master wipes the candidate’s eyes with a cloth and orders preparation for the surgery to commence. He selects a pair of tweezers from the table. The other members in attendance raise their candles.
The master starts plucking hairs from the candidate’s eyebrow. This is a ritualistic procedure; no flesh is cut. But these are “symbolic actions out of which none are without meaning,” the master assures the candidate. The candidate places his hand on the master’s amulet. Try reading again, the master says, replacing the first page with another. This page is filled with handwritten text. Congratulations, brother, the members say. Now you can see.
For more than 260 years, the contents of that page—and the details of this ritual—remained a secret. They were hidden in a coded manuscript, one of thousands produced by secret societies in the 18th and 19th centuries.
ISRAEL: CABINET AUTHORIZED MOBILIZATION OF UP TO 75,000 RESERVISTS
November 17th, 2012Here we go again.
Via: Reuters:
Israel’s cabinet authorized the mobilization of up to 75,000 reservists late on Friday, preparing the ground for a possible Gaza invasion after Palestinians fired a rocket toward Jerusalem for the first time in decades.
Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial centre, also came under rocket attack for the second straight day, in defiance of an Israeli air offensive that began on Wednesday with the declared aim of deterring Hamas from launching cross-border attacks that have plagued southern Israel for years.
Hamas, the Islamist group that runs the Gaza Strip, claimed responsibility for firing at Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Israel said the rocket launched toward Jerusalem landed in the occupied West Bank, and the one fired at Tel Aviv did not hit the city. There were no reports of casualties.
The siren that sounded in Jerusalem stunned many Israelis. The city, holy to Jews, Muslims and Christians, was last struck by a Palestinian rocket in 1970, and it was not a target when Saddam Hussein’s Iraq fired missiles at Israel in the 1991 Gulf War.
Empirical Data Confirm Autism Symptoms Related to Aluminum and Acetaminophen Exposure
November 17th, 2012Via: Entropy:
Abstract: Autism is a condition characterized by impaired cognitive and social skills, associated with compromised immune function. The incidence is alarmingly on the rise, and environmental factors are increasingly suspected to play a role. This paper investigates word frequency patterns in the U.S. CDC Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) database. Our results provide strong evidence supporting a link between autism and the aluminum in vaccines. A literature review showing toxicity of aluminum in human physiology offers further support. Mentions of autism in VAERS increased steadily at the end of the last century, during a period when mercury was being phased out, while aluminum adjuvant burden was being increased. Using standard log-likelihood ratio techniques, we identify several signs and symptoms that are significantly more prevalent in vaccine reports after 2000, including cellulitis, seizure, depression, fatigue, pain and death, which are also significantly associated with aluminum-containing vaccines. We propose that children with the autism diagnosis are especially vulnerable to toxic metals such as aluminum and mercury due to insufficient serum sulfate and glutathione. A strong correlation between autism and the MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella) vaccine is also observed, which may be partially explained via an increased sensitivity to acetaminophen administered to control fever.
Permit Required for Homeless in Nevada City
November 17th, 2012Via: CBS:
A police chief says he’s found a one-of-a-kind way to manage a growing problem in his city, and it’s putting the homeless on the hot seat.
A new law would give Nevada City the power to hand out permits to a small group of homeless, which would give them permission to sleep in public. While the new ordinance would give some homeless a place to stay, it would tell others, mostly the troublemakers and the criminals, to stay away.
“I come down here every fall,” said Bob Barton, who chooses to be homeless in Nevada City.
For Barton, the new ordinance that would essentially identify law-abiding homeless and reward them is music to his ears.
“The goal is to start managing the homeless population within our city,” said Chief James Wickham.
Wickham asked council members to pass a no-camping ordinance.
“It just basically means you can’t set up a tent. You can’t live in your vehicle. You can’t live in the woods in Nevada City,” he said.
That is unless you have a permit.
Broadwell and Kelley Visited White House
November 17th, 2012Via: AP:
The two women at the center of the David Petraeus scandal — the biographer with whom he had an extramarital affair and the socialite who received worrisome emails that led investigators to uncover the illicit relationship — visited the White House on separate and apparently unrelated occasions. Neither woman met with President Barack Obama during their visits.
Petraeus resigned as CIA director last week after acknowledging an affair with writer Paula Broadwell. In briefings Friday with lawmakers on Capitol Hill, the retired four-star general was apologetic and regretful and insisted that his resignation was related only to his personal behavior.
Paula Broadwell, who was writing a book about Petraeus and eventually became his paramour, attended meetings in June 2009 and June 2011 on Afghanistan-Pakistan policy in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which is located in the White House complex, a White House official said.
Jill Kelley, the Tampa, Fla., socialite who initiated the investigation that revealed the affair, and her twin sister had two “courtesy” meals at the White House mess as guests of a midlevel White House aide in September and October, the official said. Kelley and her family also received a White House tour on the weekend before the Nov. 6 election.
Related:
Wow, Check Out the Background of the Twin’s Ex-Husband
also
Research Credit: alvinroasting, conceptualdecay
Ingress: Google’s Strange New Game
November 16th, 2012John Hanke is the head of Niantic Labs, the Google unit that created Ingress, a new global augmented reality game.
Let’s quickly look at some of what Hanke was up to before he worked at Google.
After graduation from the University of Texas at Austin, Hanke, “Worked in foreign affairs for the US Government in Washington, DC and Southeast Asia.” Nice and vague. *wink* *wink*
Hanke went on to become the CEO of Keyhole, Inc., a company that specialized in geospatial data visualization and had multiple connections to the black world. Keyhole, Inc. received financial backing from the CIA (via In-Q-Tel). Google acquired Keyhole, Inc. and the associated technologies became Google Earth, Google Maps, and other Google services.
This is relatively bland so far, I know, but I’ll leave it up to you to decide if any of the following is strange, given Hanke’s long association with the U.S. Government.
It might be helpful to keep Secrets in Plain Sight in mind as you wade into this one.
In Ingress, Google wants people to be physically present at the locations that are in the game to confront, “A mysterious energy,” and to, “Choose a side.”
“The Enlightened” seek to embrace the power that this energy may bestow upon us.
“The Resistance” struggle to defend, and protect what’s left of our humanity.
Fabian Bustamante, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the McCormick School of Engineering, has looked at using the type of technology used in Ingress for what he calls, “Soft control.”
What’s going on here?
Rather than trying to guess about what might be happening here, I’m going to have to simply bask in the weirdness of this one for a while.
Via: IGN:
This world around you is not what it seems. Our future is at stake, and you must choose a side.
A mysterious energy has been unearthed by a team of scientists in Europe. The origin and purpose of this force is unknown, but some researchers believe it is influencing the way we think. We must control it or it will control us.
“The Enlightened” seek to embrace the power that this energy may bestow upon us.
“The Resistance” struggle to defend, and protect what’s left of our humanity.
Install Ingress and transform your world.
—
Google’s top-secret Niantic Project has been picking up plenty of buzz lately around all the usual tech blogs. Since November 1st a Google-hosted investigation board has been stoking these fires with cryptic videos featuring ominous voiceovers that drop phrases like “There’s more to the world than you can see.” A poster featuring encoded text superimposed over photos taken near CERN is another early post on this “Sphere of Weirdness.”
An independent wiki has even been set up to help sort out the signal from the noise. Reddit has also gotten in on the act.
In a reveal sure to disappoint some (while alternately thrilling mobile gamers), Google has revealed that Project Niantic is in fact tied to the launch of a new location-based mobile game called Ingress, developed by Google itself.
Securing the Homeland: You Might Be A Terrorist If… (Hotel Guest Edition)
November 16th, 2012Via: Public Intelligence:
Known or possible terrorists have displayed suspicious behaviors while staying at hotels overseas…
Not providing professional or personal details on hotel registrations—such as place of employment, contact information, or place of residence.
Using payphones for outgoing calls…
…
Refusal of housekeeping services for extended periods.
…
Use of cash for large transactions…
Poverty: 50 Million Americans Struggling to Survive
November 15th, 2012The United States is projected to spend an estimated US$323 billion for development and procurement on the F-35 program, making it the most expensive defense program ever. The total lifecycle cost for the entire American fleet is estimated to be US$1.51 trillion over its 50-year life, or $618 million per plane.
—Wikipedia, Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II
Via: CBS:
As President Barack Obama is set to begin his second term, new statistics on America’s poverty rate indicate that nearly 50 million Americans, more than 16 percent of the population, are struggling to survive.
New figures released by the Census Bureau this week found a spike in poverty numbers last year, going from 49 million in 2010 to 49.7 million last year. The numbers may come as a surprise to Congress, which estimated in September that the poverty rate would drop to 46.2 million. One of the most startling findings showed that almost 20 percent of American children continue to live in poverty.
The Associated Press reports that the new figures are based on an updated formula devised by the Census Bureau to help give the government a better understanding for how to use safety-net programs.
The numbers found that Hispanics and people living in urban areas had a higher chance of struggling to make it financially. Poverty among full-time and part-time workers also saw a jump from its 2010 numbers.
Based on the formula implemented by the Census Bureau, California tops the list as the sate most likely to bring about poverty.
Broadwell Had Substantial Classified Data on Computer
November 15th, 2012Hmm.
Via: Reuters:
A computer used by Paula Broadwell, the woman whose affair with CIA Director David Petraeus led to his resignation, contained substantial classified information that should have been stored under more secure conditions, law enforcement and national security officials said on Wednesday.
The contents and amount of the classified material – and questions about how Broadwell got it – are significant enough to warrant a continuing investigation, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to comment publicly.
Related: Clinton-Lewinsky “Spinners” Resurface
