Ron Paul’s Biggest Supporter Is a Bilderberg Group Steering Committee Member
February 10th, 2012Via: BuzzFeed:
The largest donor to a SuperPAC supporting Ron Paul is Peter Thiel, the sort of ultra-wealthy, super-national figure Paul and his supporters love to hate.
Thiel — who gave $900,000 to the pro-Paul group Endorse Liberty — made his fortune as the co-founder of PayPal; he was also an early investor in Facebook, and is now a major player in the world of high-tech venture capital. He’s also a devoted libertarian and devoted Republican: He hosted a fundraiser for the confrontational gay conservative group GOProud at his grand apartment off Union Square in 2010.
Thiel is also a member of the steering committee of the Bilderberg Group, the elite, invitation-only conference that’s the frequent subject of conspiracy theories.
“They probably get together and talk about how they’re going to control the banking systems of the world and natural resources,” Paul said in 2008.
Thiel shares, though, Paul’s anti-government, and anti-Establishment, impulses. He has funded a prize to encourage talented students to drop out of college, and is a major supporter of the cause of “Seasteading,” creating independent, water-borne cities free of national law.
More: Aftermath News
Research Credit: roaches
U.S. Licenses First Nuclear Reactors Since 1978
February 10th, 2012Via: MSNBC:
It’s been 34 years — and several nuclear accidents later — but a divided federal panel on Thursday licensed a utility to build nuclear reactors in the U.S. for the first time since 1978.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s chairman, Gregory Jaczko, opposed licensing the two reactors at this time even though he had earlier praised their design.
“There is still more work” to be done to ensure that lessons learned from Japan’s Fukushima disaster last year are engrained in the reactor design, he told his colleagues. “I cannot support this licensing as if Fukushima never happened. I believe it requires some type of binding commitment that the Fukushima enhancements that are currently projected and currently planned to be made would be made before the operation of the facility.”
“There is no amnesia,” responded Commissioner Kristine Svinick, speaking for the 4-1 majority and noting that the industry has been directed to adopt those lessons.
The licensing covers two reactors estimated to cost $14 billion that the Southern Company wants to add to its existing Vogtle nuclear plant in Georgia. Preliminary work has already begun and plans are for the first new reactor to be operating in 2016.
U.S. Marines Posed with Banner of Nazi SS
February 10th, 2012Via: Telegraph:
A US Marine sniper team posed with a flag emblazoned with the symbol of the Nazi SS while on duty in Afghanistan, the Pentagon has admitted.
A photograph leaked onto the internet showed the heavily-armed troops crouching in front of the banner as it hung below the American flag.
The lightning symbol, once worn by the unit tasked with the extermination of Europe’s Jews, sparked immediate outrage and put the Marines back on the defensive just weeks after an online video showed troops from a different unit urinating on the bodies of dead Taliban fighters.
The photograph was reportedly taken in September 2010 by members of 1st Reconnaissance Battalion at a base in the Sangin district of Helmand province.
…
A spokeswoman said the icon had been used by the troops to identify themselves as scout snipers, a designation unique to the Marine Corps, and was never intended to have Nazi connotations.
In a statement the Corps said: “Certainly, the use of the ‘SS runes’ is not acceptable and scout snipers have been addressed concerning this issue. ‘SS runes’ are prohibited from use as a symbol or any other use.”
“Rest assured, the Marine Corps does not allow the use of ‘SS runes’.”
LAPD: High-Tech Crime-Fighting ‘War Room’
February 10th, 2012Via: CBS:
The LAPD is fighting crime from a high-tech war room that gives it eyes all over the city. The surveillance hub is now a model for police forces around the world and KCAL9 got an exclusive tour inside from Chief Charlie Beck.
“We are targets on our own soil,” says Beck. “We have to be ready.”
What began as a grass roots idea following the 9/11 terrorist attacks is now a state-of-the-art real-time analysis critical response center. It’s called RACR, and it’s located in the heart of downtown Los Angeles.
“This is a system that cuts through the red tape, that gets information to the people that need it,” says Chief Beck. He calls it “the brains of the department, twenty-four/seven.”
Police in the activity center monitor live feeds of city and traffic cameras, counter-terrorism information, and real-time crime mapping, with cutting edge software.
“If we didn’t have that we would be operating blind,” says Capt. Sean Malinowski, the Commanding Officer at RACR. “Essentially we’re always activated here.”
Facebook Value Tops $100 Billion Based on Private Market
February 9th, 2012Via: Bloomberg:
Facebook Inc. (FB)’s privately traded shares have risen 10 percent since the dominant social network filed for an initial public offering, pushing its market value past $100 billion, according to SharesPost Inc.
SharesPost managed the auction of 150,000 shares of Facebook’s Class B common stock at a clearing price of $44, compared with $40 Feb. 2, according to a statement from the private-stock marketplace yesterday. That values Facebook at $102.6 billion based on an estimated 2.33 billion shares, including stock tied to options that may be issued later.
That valuation would place Facebook higher than PepsiCo Inc. (PEP), the snackmaker that traces its roots back more than a century, and Citigroup Inc., the third-biggest U.S. bank by assets.
Detroit Citizens No Longer Rely on Police as Self-Defense Killings Skyrocket
February 9th, 2012Via: The Daily:
Justifiable homicide in the city shot up 79 percent in 2011 from the previous year, as citizens in the long-suffering city armed themselves and took matters into their own hands. The local rate of self-defense killings now stands 2,200 percent above the national average. Residents, unable to rely on a dwindling police force to keep them safe, are fighting back against the criminal scourge on their own. And they’re offering no apologies.
“We got to have a little Old West up here in Detroit. That’s what it’s gonna take,” Detroit resident Julia Brown told The Daily.
The last time Brown, 73, called the Detroit police, they didn’t show up until the next day. So she applied for a permit to carry a handgun and says she’s prepared to use it against the young thugs who have taken over her neighborhood, burglarizing entire blocks, opening fire at will and terrorizing the elderly with impunity.
“I don’t intend to be one of their victims,” said Brown, who has lived in Detroit since the late 1950s. “I’m planning on taking one out.”
…
The city’s wealthier enclaves have hired private security firms. Intimidating men in armored trucks patrol streets lined with gracious old homes in a scene more likely seen in Mexico City than the United States.
That kind of paid protection can run residents anywhere from $10 to $200 per month, and companies say business is good.
“We’re booming,” said Dale Brown, the owner of Threat Management Group, which along with Recon Security patrols neighborhoods like Palmer Woods in black Hummers.
“We’re paramilitary, but we’re positive. I’m not a vigilante. I’m an agent of change.”
Research Credit: roaches
Fewer Young Adults Hold Jobs Than Ever Before
February 9th, 2012Via: CNN:
The share of young adults with jobs has hit its lowest level since the government started keeping records just after World War II.
By the end of 2011, only 54.3% of those between the ages of 18 and 24 were employed, according to a Pew Research Center report released Thursday. And the gap in employment between the young and all working-age adults is roughly 15 percentage points — the widest on record.
Los Angeles County OKs $1,000 Fine For Throwing Football, Frisbee On Beaches
February 9th, 2012Via: CBS:
When you head down to the beach for a little fun this summer, county officials want you to leave the pigskin at home.
The Board of Supervisors this week agreed to raise fines to up to $1,000 for anyone who throws a football or a Frisbee on any beach in Los Angeles County.
In passing the 37-page ordinance on Tuesday, officials sought to outline responsibilities for law enforcement and other public agencies while also providing clarification on beach-goer activities that could potentially disrupt or even injure the public.
The updated rules now prohibit “any person to cast, toss, throw, kick or roll” any object other than a beach ball or volleyball “upon or over any beach” between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
Exceptions allow for ball-throwing in predesignated areas, when a person obtains a permit, or playing water polo “in or over the Pacific Ocean”.
However, during the winter off-season, the new rules will be relaxed.
Britain: TomTom Tech to Set Driver Insurance Premiums
February 9th, 2012Definitely watch, “15 Million Merits,” the second episode of Black Mirror, to see where this economic model is headed.
The potential for nightmarish implementations of this is pretty much unlimited.
Via: PC Pro:
TomTom has signed a deal with an insurance company to use its satnav technology to measure driving ability to set premiums.
The satnav specialist said it has teamed up with Motaquote on Fair Pay Insurance – a product that the companies claim rewards ‘good’ drivers with lower premiums, using technology to monitor driver behaviour.
Related: The Future Where Soda Cans Have Screens
Google Will Pay People to Authoritatively Root Themselves: Track 100% of Web Usage Via Dedicated Hardware
February 9th, 2012If that black box option doesn’t require the browser plugins…
1) Connect to VPN
2) Let Google collect a bunch of encrypted data that tells them nothing about what you’re doing online
3) Profit?
haha.
I haven’t read the fine print, though.
Via: Ars Technica:
Google is working to collect information about Internet users that it can’t get from just monitoring its own browser, services, and Android devices. The company has set up a new program called Screenwise, which offers money to users who install a black box on their home network to “measure Internet use.” A smaller amount of money will go to those who install a browser extension on their computers that will do the same thing.
Google quietly started up the Screenwise data collection program Tuesday night, taking the e-mail addresses of people who are interested in “add[ing] a browser extension that will share with Google the sites you visit and how you use them.” For their participation, Google offers the extension users a $5 Amazon gift card for signing up and another $5 gift card for every three months they stay with the program. Less publicly, Google also started looking for people who would install a piece of hardware on their network to do more extensive monitoring.
