Cryptogon Android App
July 26th, 2011Despite all the posts on Cryptogon about smartphones acting as tracking devices, many of you use them anyway. So, how about a Cryptogon Android app? A Cryptogon reader has created one and it’s available for free at Static Wave Studio. Thanks, Dave!
I had nothing to do with the creation of this application. That’s another way of saying: If you have any support issues contact the developer, not me. I don’t have an Android device and I have no interest in installing the emulator on my computer. Also, I didn’t inspect the source code and I make absolutely no claims about privacy or security. Use at your own rick, your mileage may vary.
Arkansas: Black Student Can’t Be Valedictorian
July 26th, 2011Via: Courthouse News Service:
A high school southeast of Little Rock would not let a black student be valedictorian though she had the highest grade-point average, and wouldn’t let her mom speak to the school board about it until graduation had passed, the graduate claims in Federal Court.
Kymberly Wimberly, 18, got only a single B in her 4 years at McGehee Secondary School, and loaded up on Honors and Advanced Placement classes. She had the highest G.P.A. and says the school’s refusal to let her be sole valedictorian was part of a pattern of discrimination against black students.
Wimberly says that despite earning the highest G.P.A. of the Class of 2011, and being informed of it by a school counselor, “school administrators and personnel treated two other white students as heir[s] apparent to the valedictorian and salutatorian spots.”
Research Credit: ottilie
Greece Nearing Default
July 25th, 2011Via: Washington Post:
Moody’s Investors Service again downgraded Greece’s credit standing Monday, setting the stage for a likely declaration that the country is in default as a newly approved rescue plan moves forward.
In the first review by a ratings agency of the plan approved by European leaders last week, Moody’s cast doubt on the long-term impact on the conditions under which heavily indebted euro zone countries will be able to borrow money.
U.S. Taxpayer Money Funneled to the Taliban
July 25th, 2011Flashback: NATO Forces Supplied Food, Water and Arms to Taliban Forces in Southern Afghanistan
Via: Washington Post:
A year-long military-led investigation has concluded that U.S. taxpayer money has been indirectly funneled to the Taliban under a $2.16 billion transportation contract that the United States has funded in part to promote Afghan businesses.
The unreleased investigation provides seemingly definitive evidence that corruption puts U.S. transportation money into enemy hands, a finding consistent with previous inquiries carried out by Congress, other federal agencies and the military. Yet U.S. and Afghan efforts to address the problem have been slow and ineffective, and all eight of the trucking firms involved in the work remain on U.S. payroll. In March, the Pentagon extended the contract for six months.
According to a summary of the investigation results, compiled in May and reviewed by The Washington Post, the military found “documented, credible evidence .?.?. of involvement in a criminal enterprise or support for the enemy” by four of the eight prime contractors. Investigators also cited cases of profiteering, money laundering and kickbacks to Afghan power brokers, government officials and police officers. Six of the companies were found to have been associated with “fraudulent paperwork and behavior.”
EnviroMission Plans Massive Solar Tower for Arizona
July 25th, 2011I think I first mentioned this on Cryptogon around 2003. Glad I didn’t hold my breath.
Via: Gizmag:
An ambitious solar energy project on a massive scale is about to get underway in the Arizona desert. EnviroMission is undergoing land acquisition and site-specific engineering to build its first full-scale solar tower – and when we say full-scale, we mean it! The mammoth 800-plus meter (2625 ft) tall tower will instantly become one of the world’s tallest buildings. Its 200-megawatt power generation capacity will reliably feed the grid with enough power for 150,000 US homes, and once it’s built, it can be expected to more or less sit there producing clean, renewable power with virtually no maintenance until it’s more than 80 years old. In the video after the jump, EnviroMission CEO Roger Davey explains the solar tower technology, the Arizona project and why he couldn’t get it built at home in Australia.
‘The Knights Templar’: Mexico’s Newest Drug Cartel [???]
July 25th, 2011Don’t miss the one about La Santa Muerte.
Via: Al Jazeera:
Pictures of the latest objects seized by the police in the Mexican state of Michoacan, revealed that the mysterious ‘Knights Templar” drug cartel is more bizarre than most people imagine.
There were four hooded tunics, with a red cross, a metal helmet, and a pamphlet or Templar rule book. This drug cartel claims to draw inspiration from the medieval Christian warriors who fought to protect Jerusalem and the Holy Grail.
No one knows if its founder, Servando Gomez, a school teacher, was a history enthusiast or simply read the Da Vinci Code.
The rules in the modern day ‘templar bible’ call for observance of ‘gentleman’ like behaviour and respect for women – but also state that any disclosure of knights templar activities will result in the death of the person and his whole family, and confiscation by the cartel of the snitch’s property…
The cartel is like a secret society.
The Mexican Templars have an initiation ritual, which apparently includes dressing up like knights from the Middle Ages, and performing blood pacts.
The cartel recruits drug users and enrolls them in the organisation’s rehabilitation centers; the process is closely monitored and has a strong religious component.
The double standard is striking: the Templars can not take drugs, and yet they run one of the biggest methamphetamines traffic corridors to the United States.
Are You Raising a Douchebag?
July 25th, 2011Via: Details:
Let us begin with the assumption that if you are a parent, you wish for your child every advantage and opportunity. From the ergonomic high chair to that all-important first sushi experience and beyond, life should be as golden for your little one as it is for, say, Pax Jolie-Pitt.
But inevitably the moment arrives when all your doting and care come back on you in the form of a precocious little barb that reminds you in no uncertain terms of . . . you. It might be that his friend Jake’s eighth-birthday party was “unbelievably lame” or that “it’s weird that Brandon’s family flies first-class and we don’t,” or maybe it’s simply that “these taquitos taste like turd.”
It’s then that you must reckon with the real possibility that your drive to make little Johnny better, smarter, and hipper has merely turned him into a douchebag. Put it this way: If it’s your child, not you, who gets to choose your weekend brunch spot, or if he’s the one asking how the branzino is prepared, it’s probably time to take a hard look at your own behavior.
Gold Went Vertical for About 45 Minutes In Early Trading
July 25th, 2011Warning: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument.
Probably nothing, maybe something: There was a very sharp move higher (to a new record) on gold in early trading coming out of the weekend. It went close to vertical for the first 45 minutes of trading and hit a new high of $1623.17. Prices have pulled back from the highs, but are holding above the previous resistance/range.
Some factor (take your pick) has spooked market participants over the weekend and they stood on the buy side as soon as the market opened.
Asian stock markets are down slightly, but nothing unusual at all so far.
Iran: Nuclear Scientist Shot Dead in Tehran
July 24th, 2011Via: BBC:
An Iranian scientist believed to have links to the country’s nuclear programme has been shot dead outside his home in Tehran, Iranian media say.
Isna news agency named him as Daryoush Rezaei, 35, adding that his wife was wounded and rushed to hospital.
In 2010, nuclear scientist Massoud Ali Mohammadi was killed by a remote-controlled bomb in Tehran.
Iran blamed that attack on Israeli secret service Mossad. Israel has long warned about Iran’s nuclear programme.
Some reports said the latest attack involved assailants on a motorcycle, who shot him in the neck in front of his house.
Mr Rezaei was said to be a physicist at a Tehran university, where media reports described him variously as a teacher, researcher and student.
Several have linked him to the country’s nuclear programme.
Isna said that Mr Rezaei was an expert with links to the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran.
Fed Audit Reveals $16 Trillion in Secret Loans
July 24th, 2011Via: Bernie Sanders – U.S. Senate:
The first top-to-bottom audit of the Federal Reserve uncovered eye-popping new details about how the U.S. provided a whopping $16 trillion in secret loans to bail out American and foreign banks and businesses during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. An amendment by Sen. Bernie Sanders to the Wall Street reform law passed one year ago this week directed the Government Accountability Office to conduct the study. “As a result of this audit, we now know that the Federal Reserve provided more than $16 trillion in total financial assistance to some of the largest financial institutions and corporations in the United States and throughout the world,” said Sanders. “This is a clear case of socialism for the rich and rugged, you’re-on-your-own individualism for everyone else.”
Among the investigation’s key findings is that the Fed unilaterally provided trillions of dollars in financial assistance to foreign banks and corporations from South Korea to Scotland, according to the GAO report. “No agency of the United States government should be allowed to bailout a foreign bank or corporation without the direct approval of Congress and the president,” Sanders said.
The non-partisan, investigative arm of Congress also determined that the Fed lacks a comprehensive system to deal with conflicts of interest, despite the serious potential for abuse. In fact, according to the report, the Fed provided conflict of interest waivers to employees and private contractors so they could keep investments in the same financial institutions and corporations that were given emergency loans.
For example, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase served on the New York Fed’s board of directors at the same time that his bank received more than $390 billion in financial assistance from the Fed. Moreover, JP Morgan Chase served as one of the clearing banks for the Fed’s emergency lending programs.
In another disturbing finding, the GAO said that on Sept. 19, 2008, William Dudley, who is now the New York Fed president, was granted a waiver to let him keep investments in AIG and General Electric at the same time AIG and GE were given bailout funds. One reason the Fed did not make Dudley sell his holdings, according to the audit, was that it might have created the appearance of a conflict of interest.
To Sanders, the conclusion is simple. “No one who works for a firm receiving direct financial assistance from the Fed should be allowed to sit on the Fed’s board of directors or be employed by the Fed,” he said.
The investigation also revealed that the Fed outsourced most of its emergency lending programs to private contractors, many of which also were recipients of extremely low-interest and then-secret loans.
The Fed outsourced virtually all of the operations of their emergency lending programs to private contractors like JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo. The same firms also received trillions of dollars in Fed loans at near-zero interest rates. Altogether some two-thirds of the contracts that the Fed awarded to manage its emergency lending programs were no-bid contracts. Morgan Stanley was given the largest no-bid contract worth $108.4 million to help manage the Fed bailout of AIG.
A more detailed GAO investigation into potential conflicts of interest at the Fed is due on Oct. 18, but Sanders said one thing already is abundantly clear. “The Federal Reserve must be reformed to serve the needs of working families, not just CEOs on Wall Street.”
To read the GAO report, click here.
Research Credit: rbnz
