Two American Companies Layoff Hundreds Of Workers: Military Uniform Contracts Awarded To Prison Inmates
September 17th, 2012Via: Inquisitr:
Two American companies which make military uniforms are laying off hundreds of workers as the federal government decides to use prison inmates to make soldier fatigues. American Apparel currently charges $29.44 per uniform. The cost will increase by 15 percent when Federal Prison Industries (FPI) convicts begin sewing the clothing at a cost of $34.18 each. FPI also functions under the name UNICOR.
When the American Power Source government contract runs out in October, the work will shift from private sector employees to inmates. A 1930s federal laws allows Federal Prison Industries the first right of refusal on all United Stated government contracts, according to Fox News.
Widow of Flight 93 Pilot Died of Alcohol and Drug Caused Heart Failure
September 17th, 2012Via: NBC:
The widow of the pilot of United Flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001, died of heart failure caused by accidental alcohol and drug overdose, according to an autopsy released Friday.
Sandy Dahl, the wife of Captain Jason Dahl, died in May, at the age of 52 near Denver. The autopsy report from the Jefferson County Coroner’s office in Colorado said alcohol, painkillers, anti-depression drugs and anti-anxiety drugs were found in her system, The Denver Post reported. The coroner’s office found that Dahl’s death was “consistent with the combined impact of alcohol and multiple drug toxicity,” according to the Post.
PANASONIC, CANON CLOSE FACTORIES IN CHINA DUE TO VIOLENT PROTESTS
September 17th, 2012Via: NBC:
Major electronics firms Panasonic and Canon have temporarily suspended production at factories in China after a territorial dispute over a group of uninhabited islets in the East China Sea triggered violent anti-Japanese protests.
Sites linked to auto manufacturers Toyota and Honda have also been attacked in the unrest, which has forced frightened expatriates into hiding and sent relations between Asia’s two biggest economies into crisis.
Ratcheting up tensions further on Monday, Chinese state media warned Japan it could suffer another “lost decade” if trade ties soured. Japan counted China as its top trade partner last year, with total two-way trade of more than $340 billion.
Fewer Than 100 Adult Cod Left in the North Sea
September 17th, 2012Via: Telegraph:
A survey of catches at European ports has found that fishermen did not catch a single cod over the age of 13 last year.
The findings raise concerns for future stocks of cod, which become more fertile as they age. The fish can live as long as 25 years and grow to 6ft.
Researchers warned a lower life expectancy meant a lower birth rate and a faster decline.
Callum Roberts, professor of marine biology at York University, told the Sunday Times that intense industrial fishing meant that few fish survived beyond the age of four, when they reach sexual maturity.
“This means that there are fewer eggs and larvae to perpetuate future generations,” he said.
Related: Feds Declare Fishery Disaster in New England [h/t almaverdad2]
Cryptogon Readers Send Contributions
September 17th, 2012Thank you.
Anonymous – Gift for Our Boys
AS $25
MW $20
SP AU$50
AZ CA$40
France: Half of Drugs Prescribed Useless or Dangerous
September 17th, 2012Via: Guardian:
Half of all medicines being prescribed by doctors in France are either useless or potentially dangerous for patients, according to two eminent medical specialists. They blame the powerful pharmaceutical companies for keeping these drugs on sale at huge expense to the health system and the taxpayer.
Professor Philippe Even, director of the prestigious Necker Institute, and Bernard Debré, a doctor and member of parliament, say removing what they describe as superfluous and hazardous drugs from the list of those paid for by the French health service would save up to €10bn (£8bn) a year. It would also prevent up to 20,000 deaths linked to the medication and reduce hospital admissions by up to 100,000, they claim.
In their 900-page book The Guide to the 4,000 Useful, Useless or Dangerous Medicines, Even and Debré examined the effectiveness, risks and cost of pharmaceutical drugs available in France. Among those that they alleged were “completely useless” were statins, widely taken to lower cholesterol. The blacklist of 58 drugs the doctors claimed are dangerous included anti-inflammatories and drugs prescribed for cardiovascular conditions, diabetes, osteoporosis, contraception, muscular cramps and nicotine addiction.
…
Professor Even told the Guardian most of the drugs criticised in the book are produced by French laboratories. He accused the pharmaceutical industry of pushing medicines at doctors who then push them on to patients. “The pharmaceutical industry is the most lucrative, the most cynical and the least ethical of all the industries,” he said. “It is like an octopus with tentacles that has infiltrated all the decision making bodies, world health organisations, governments, parliaments, high administrations in health and hospitals and the medical profession.
“It has done this with the connivance, and occasionally the corruption of the medical profession. I am not just talking about medicines but the whole of medicine. It is the pharmaceutical industry that now outlines the entire medical landscape in our country.”
…
The authors were commissioned by former President Nicolas Sarkozy to write a report over the Mediator affair, a drug developed for diabetes patients but prescribed as a slimming aid, that has been linked to the deaths of hundreds of patients who developed heart problems.
However, Even accused the industry of having a get-rich-quick attitude to making medicines and said it was interested in chasing only easy profits. “They haven’t discovered very much new for the last 30 years, but have multiplied production, using tricks and lies.
“Sadly, none of them is interested in making drugs for rare conditions or, say, for an infectious disease in countries with no money, because it’s not a big market. Nor are they interested in developing drugs for conditions like Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease because it too difficult and there’s not money to be made quickly.
“It has become interested only in the immediate, in short term gains. On Wall Street, the pharmaceutical industry is third after petrol and banking, and each year it increases by 20%. It’s more profitable than mining for diamonds.”
Boy Scouts Helped Alleged Molesters Cover Tracks for Decades
September 17th, 2012Via: Los Angeles Times:
Over two decades, the Boy Scouts of America failed to report hundreds of alleged child molesters to police and often hid the allegations from parents and the public.
A Los Angeles Times review of 1,600 confidential files dating from 1970 to 1991 has found that Scouting officials frequently urged admitted offenders to quietly resign — and helped many cover their tracks.
Volunteers and employees suspected of abuse were allowed to leave citing bogus reasons such as business demands, “chronic brain dysfunction” and duties at a Shakespeare festival.
The details are contained in the organization’s confidential “perversion files,” a blacklist of alleged molesters, that the Scouts have used internally since 1919. Scouts’ lawyers around the country have been fighting in court to keep the files from public view.
Thanks to the Purchaser of the Hohner Bravo Piano Accordion
September 17th, 2012You guys support Cryptogon by buying some pretty wild stuff on Amazon, but my jaw hung slack when I saw this in my commission report:
Hohner Bravo Piano Accordion
To the accordion playing Cryptogon reader out there somewhere: Thank you.
Panetta: China, Japan Heading Towards War
September 17th, 2012Via: AFP:
CHINA and other Asian countries could end up at war over territorial disputes if governments keep up their “provocative behaviour”, US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has said.
Speaking to reporters before arriving in Tokyo on a trip to Asia, Mr Panetta appealed for restraint amid mounting tensions over territorial rights in the East China Sea and the South China Sea.
“I am concerned that when these countries engage in provocations of one kind or another over these various islands, that it raises the possibility that a misjudgment on one side or the other could result in violence, and could result in conflict,” Mr Panetta said, when asked about a clash between Japan and China.
“And that conflict would then have the potential of expanding.”
The Pentagon chief’s trip coincides with an escalating row between Asia’s two largest economies over an archipelago in the East China Sea administered by Tokyo under the name Senkaku and claimed by China under the name Diaoyu.
Tensions have steadily mounted since pro-Beijing activists were arrested and deported after landing on one of the islands in August. Japanese nationalists then followed, raising their flag on the same island days later.
On Tuesday, Japan announced it had nationalised three of the islands in the chain, triggering protests in China. Tokyo already owns another and leases the fifth.
The uninhabited islands are in important sea lanes and the seabed nearby is thought to harbour valuable mineral resources.
Related:
More Anti-Japan Protests in China Over Islands
Angry Chinese Protesters Ransack Japanese Businesses
Anti-Japan Protests Spread in China
Image Gallery: Anti-Japanese Protests/Riots in China
Gold
September 16th, 2012Warning: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument.
I haven’t posted a gold chart in a long time. Gold has been painfully rangebound for months.
It has been very strong over the last few weekly candles and is now nearing a couple of overhead resistance levels. You can see how that sloppy double top worked for shorts back in March, but it’s knocking on that $1790 to $1802 door again, which probably means that it’s going to try to close the bigger gap. That would bring it back up to the all time high at $1920.
Spot Gold, Weekly Interval
My guess is that longs are in for a temporary shakeout around $1800, but that it will retest $1920 in relatively short order (weeks). If that happens, it will probably be the most watched double top situation in a generation. I don’t know what the plan is to prevent it from building a base over $1920, but I’d be ready for a pretty spectacular show.
In the event of a breakout above $1800, I definitely wouldn’t chase it long immediately. It will likely pullback and build a base before going higher.
In summary, for long swingers: Close it out, pare it down, hedge it into $1800. Initiate new longs on pullbacks above $1800. Then the same again—close it out, pare it down, hedge it into $1920.
As usual, permalongs yawn and wait for Bernanke’s next confetti cannon barrage.
