Libyan Rebels: DIY Weapons
June 15th, 2011Via: Al Jazeera:
As the war in Libya stretches on, the availability of arms and ammunition is becoming a problem for rebel fighters.
A school in Misurata has become the laboratory for invention of new weapons with the help of discards and scraps.
Change: First Lady Wants Hollywood to Excrete Even More Pro Military Propaganda
June 15th, 2011Reel Power: Hollywood Cinema and American Supremacy by Matthew Alford:
Hollywood is often characterized as a stronghold of left-liberal ideals. In Reel Power, Matthew Alford shows it is in fact deeply complicit in serving the interests of the most regressive U.S. corporate and political forces. Films like Transformers, Terminator: Salvation and Black Hawk Down are constructed with Defense Department assistance as explicit cheerleaders for the U.S. military, but Matthew Alford also emphasizes how so-called radical films like Three Kings, Hotel Rwanda and Avatar present watered-down alternative visions of American politics that serve a similar function. Reel Power is the first book to examine the internal workings of contemporary Hollywood as a politicized industry as well as scores of films across all genres. No matter what the progressive impulses of some celebrities and artists, Alford shows how they are part of a system that is hard-wired to encourage American global supremacy and frequently the use of state violence.
Via: CNBC:
Michelle Obama wants to see more stories of military families on TV and in movies, so she came to Hollywood to do something about it.
The first lady met with members of the writers, producers, directors and actors unions at the Writers Guild Theater to discuss Joining Forces, an initiative aimed at increasing public consciousness and support of military families.
Obama said she created the initiative with Jill Biden to help the nation understand “that when our country goes to war, we have families that are serving right along with them.”
During Monday’s hour-long program, Obama shared the stage with a National Guard pilot, a retired soldier and the wife of an Army officer. Writer-director JJ Abrams, whose film “Super 8” topped the weekend box office, moderated the discussion.
Research Credit: afterhours
Economic Data ‘Shows Troubling Mix of Weakness, Inflation’
June 15th, 2011I guess they don’t know the term stagflation over at Reuters.
Via: Reuters:
A closely watched measure of consumer prices logged its biggest rise in nearly three years in May and a regional factory gauge contracted this month, showing the economy facing a troubling mix of weakness and inflation.
The Labor Department said on Wednesday its Consumer Price Index, excluding food and energy, increased 0.3 percent, the largest gain since July 2008, after rising 0.2 percent in April.
Core inflation was lifted by steep rises in motor vehicle and apparel prices. Analysts pointed to supply chain disruptions from Japan’s earthquake as a factor behind the auto price rise.
Economists had expected the core CPI, which is closely watched by the Federal Reserve, to rise 0.2 percent. Overall inflation eased, rising 0.2 percent after a 0.4 percent gain in April, as energy prices finally fell.
Separately, the New York Federal Reserve Bank’s “Empire State” index — a measure of factory activity in New York state — contracted for the first time since November, surprising economists who had expected a rise.
China Hiding Extent of Lead Poisoning Among Children
June 15th, 2011Via: BBC:
China has been accused of trying to cover up the extent of lead poisoning among children, and of blocking effective testing and treatment.
A report by Human Rights Watch says local authorities in heavily-polluted industrial areas have been sending sick children back to contaminated homes.
It says that in these areas – Henan, Yunnan, Shaanxi and Hunan provinces – anyone who complains is being harassed.
China has promised to clean up chronic pollution from heavy metals.
But reports of poisoning remain widespread – hundreds of thousands of children are suffering from lead poisoning, the HRW report says.
It says that parents are being denied the right to tests and medical help, and says the government should stop delaying a meaningful response as the problem would damage future economic growth and health care.
Chinese Protests
June 15th, 2011Via: The Australian:
AN eruption of protests throughout China has sent armoured vehicles into town centres, prompted an internet blackout by the government and left thousands across the country blogging about “crazy” violence on the streets.
The summer surge of protests, which flared in the southern industrial hub of Zengcheng over the weekend, has been linked to a range of frustrations with modern China – furies that have drawn the government into crackdowns on activism and massive increases in the domestic security budget.
…
Although few see China as a likely arena for uprisings in the style of the Arab Spring, Beijing remains terrified that the fast-rising tally of localised protests could be linked via mobile social networking and Twitter-style websites.
Some Chinese academics believe that the true number of protests in the country last year was more than 180,000. After several big clashes in recent weeks the names of half a dozen big towns have been eradicated from the search engines of the country’s most popular microblogging sites.
$6.7 Billion In Cash Missing in Iraq
June 15th, 2011I don’t know how many times I’ve posted this one, but CNN has just aired a new piece about it, and, yep, the cash is still missing.
Maybe it went to the same place as the missing $2.3 trillion that Rumsfeld mentioned on September 10, 2001.
Via: CNN:
And Now… ‘Shit Burger’
June 15th, 2011Note the helpful label on the fridge.
Via: Inhabitat:
Yep, you heard me correctly — Japanese scientist Mitsyuki Ikeda has developed a “burger” made from soya, steak sauce essence, and protein extracted from human feces.
Related: Yes Men Hunger Presentation [Thanks, Dennis]
Half of Properties for Sale in California Are Distressed
June 15th, 2011Via: CNBC:
As big banks and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac push foreclosures through the pipeline, the inventory of REO (bank-owned) properties is rising.
That pushes distressed and overall home prices down.
Note in California, median home prices took their steepest dive in May, down 8.2 percent year over year to $280,000, as distressed sales made up more than half the market.
Related: U.S. Housing Crisis Is Now Worse Than Great Depression
Cryptogon Reader Sends Contribution
June 15th, 2011JS sent $20. Thank you, JS.
Europe Braces for Serious Crop Losses and Blackouts
June 14th, 2011Via: Scientific American:
One of the driest spring seasons on record in northern Europe has sucked soils dry and sharply reduced river levels to the point that governments are starting to fear crop losses and France, in particular, is bracing for blackouts as its river-cooled nuclear power plants may be forced to shut down.
French Agriculture Minister Bruno Le Maire warned this week that the warmest and driest spring in half a century could slash wheat yields and might even push up world prices despite the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization’s predicting a bumper global crop due to greater plantings.
France has pledged hundreds of millions of euros in aid to its drought-stricken livestock farmers, who have watched feed supplies dwindle and prices rise. Water restrictions are in place in more than half of the country’s administrative regions or departments.
“The situation is serious for French farmers. We wanted to act swiftly and on a large scale,” Le Maire told reporters last week.
And the French government has set up a committee to keep an eye on the country’s electricity supply situation and monitor river levels, as 44 of the 58 nuclear reactors that supply 80 percent of France’s electricity are cooled by river water.
The problem appears to be not that the reactors might overheat because of the lack of water but that the depleted rivers might overheat, creating ecological havoc, when the water returns to them after cooling the reactors.
