Child Porn Probe Leads to FBI Headquarters
January 7th, 2011Via: The Smoking Gun:
The government’s pursuit of suspects trafficking in child pornography recently led federal agents to a familiar address–the FBI’s Washington, D.C. headquarters, where a bureau official is the subject of an ongoing criminal probe, The Smoking Gun has learned.
The investigation by the Department of Justice’s inspector general is focusing on FBI employee Joseph Bonsuk’s receipt of nearly 80 illicit images that were e-mailed to him by an Illinois sex offender whose rap sheet includes felony convictions for bank robbery and solicitation of a minor.
In a telephone interview last night, Bonsuk, 51, acknowledged that he is under investigation, but said that the matter was a “misunderstanding” and a “mix-up.”
Forum for the Future: Megacities On the Move, Four Scenarios
January 7th, 2011No thanks.
Via: Forum for the Future:
Megacities on the move presents four vivid scenarios exploring exploring how population growth, the energy we use, the strength or weakness of global institutions and other factors will shape our cities in 2040 and the way we access goods, services, information and other people.
Megacities on the move – Planned-opolis
Planned-opolis – In a world of fossil fuels and expensive energy, the only solution is tightly planned and controlled urban transport.
Megacities on the move – Sprawl-ville
Sprawl-ville – The city is dominated by fossil fuel-powered cars. The elite still gets around, but most urban dwellers face poor transport infrastructure.
Megacities on the move – Renew-abad
Renew-abad – The world has turned to alternative energy and high-tech, clean, well-planned transport helps everyone get around.
Megacities on the move – Communi-city
Communi-city – The world has turned to alternative energy, and transport is highly personalised with a huge variety of transport modes competing for road space.
Germany: How the Left Took Things Too Far
January 7th, 2011I wish that Joël van der Reijden, of isgp.eu (mirror), was still looking at these issues.
Via: Der Spiegel [WARNING: EXTREMELY DISTURBING]:
Germany’s left has its own tales of abuse. One of the goals of the German 1968 movement was the sexual liberation of children. For some, this meant overcoming all sexual inhibitions, creating a climate in which even pedophilia was considered progressive.
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The educators’ notes indicate that they placed a very strong emphasis on sex education. Almost every day, the students played games that involved taking off their clothes, reading porno magazines together and pantomiming intercourse.
According to the records, a “sex exercise” was conducted on Dec. 11 and a “fucking hour” on Jan. 14. An entry made on Nov. 26 reads: “In general, by lying there we repeatedly provoked, openly or in a hidden way, sexual innuendoes, which were then expressed in pantomimes, which Kurt and Rita performed together on the low table (as a stage) in front of us.”
The material introduced the broader public to a byproduct of the student movement for the first time: the sexual liberation of children. Besser passed on the reports to an editor at the West Berlin newspaper Der Abend, who published excerpts of the material. On April 7, 1970, the Berlin state parliament discussed the Rote Freiheit after-school center. As it turned out, the Psychology Institute at the Free University of Berlin was behind the center. In fact, the institute had established the facility and provided the educators who worked there. Besser now believes that it was a concerned employee who dropped off the reports at her door.
A few days later, Besser paid a visit to the Psychology Institute in Berlin’s Dahlem neighborhood, “to take a look at the place,” as she says. In the basement, Besser found two rooms that were separated by a large, one-way mirror. There was a mattress in one of the rooms, as well as a sink on the wall and a row of colorful washcloths hanging next to it. When asked, an institute employee told Besser that the basement was used as an “observation station” to study sexual behavior in children.
It has since faded into obscurity, but the members of the 1968 movement and their successors were caught up in a strange obsession about childhood sexuality. It is a chapter of the movement’s history which is never mentioned in the more glowing accounts of the era. On this issue, the veterans of the late ’60s student movement seem to have succumbed to acute amnesia; an analysis of this aspect of the student revolution would certainly be worthwhile.
Four Previously Abundant Species of Bumblebee Close to Disappearing in U.S.
January 7th, 2011Via: Reuters / ABC:
Four previously abundant species of bumblebee are close to disappearing in the United States, researchers reported on Monday in a study confirming that the agriculturally important bees are being affected worldwide.
They documented a 96 percent decline in the numbers of the four species, and said their range had shrunk by as much as 87 percent. As with honeybees, a pathogen is partly involved, but the researchers also found evidence the bees are vulnerable to inbreeding caused by habitat loss.
“We provide incontrovertible evidence that multiple Bombus species have experienced sharp population declines at the national level,” the researchers reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, calling the findings “alarming.”
“These are one of the most important pollinators of native plants,” Sydney Cameron of the University of Illinois, Urbana, who led the study, said in a telephone interview.
Germany: 4,700 Farms Closed Due to Dioxin Contamination of Animal Feed
January 7th, 2011Via: BBC:
German officials are investigating possible “illegal activity” after a company allegedly supplied 25 animal feed makers with 3,000 tonnes of contaminated fatty acids.
Tests from the Harles und Jentzsch plant in Schleswig Holstein found excessive levels of the poisonous chemical dioxin, officials said.
Some 4,700 German farms have been shut.
Officials say the dioxin levels pose no risk to humans, but contamination fears have spread across Europe.
Initially, the scare was confined to Germany but then it emerged that a batch of eggs had been exported to Holland and from there to Britain.
British authorities said that the amounts of dioxin – which is linked to the development of cancer in humans – in any egg would be very small, and not enough to be dangerous.
The dioxin scare has prompted South Korea to block imports of German pork and poultry products because of health concerns, local media reported on Friday.
Czech Doctors Go for Broke
January 7th, 2011Via: BBC:
Dozens of Czech hospitals could find themselves struggling to provide basic care on 1 March after almost 4,000 doctors – one quarter of the total number working in the country’s hospitals – tendered their resignations in protest at low wages.
The resignations are being co-ordinated by the doctors’ union (Lok), which says successive Czech governments have done nothing to improve doctors’ salaries since the fall of communism.
Peter Papp, 31, is an oncologist working at a hospital in Usti nad Labem, an industrial city about an hour’s drive north of Prague. He spent six years at medical school followed by three years on the cancer wards of two district hospitals.
With maximum overtime, Dr Papp’s gross salary is $1,165 (£750, 880 euros) per month, well below the national average.
After tax, health and social insurance payments, he takes home around $900 dollars, less than a car mechanic or waiter.
With rent in the Usti area at around $350 per month, he is left with slightly more than $500 to feed, clothe, transport and entertain himself. After devoting the last nine years of his life to medicine, Dr Papp has had enough.
“I’m not willing to work for the salary of a McDonald’s employee,” he told me, pointing out that he had made more money teaching English to pay his way through medical school.
China Buys Up EU Government Debt
January 7th, 2011Via: Global Post:
China has been increasing its holdings of European government debt, including that issued by Spain, amid the euro-zone crisis, Chinese Vice Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng was quoted as saying on Thursday.
The Spanish daily El Pais on Thursday cited Spanish government sources as saying China has committed to buy about 6 billion euros ($7.89 billion) worth of Spanish sovereign debt.
In a statement on the ministry’s website, Gao also said that China was confident in Spanish and European financial markets and confident that they would be able to overcome Europe’s debt crisis, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Number of Poor May Be Millions Higher
January 7th, 2011Via: AP:
The number of poor people in the U.S. is millions higher than previously known, with 1 in 6 Americans — many of them 65 and older — struggling in poverty due to rising medical care and other costs, according to preliminary census figures released Wednesday.
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Under a new revised census formula, overall poverty in 2009 stood at 15.7 percent, or 47.8 million people. That’s compared to the official 2009 rate of 14.3 percent, or 43.6 million, that was reported by the Census Bureau last September.
Research Credit: GP
U.S. Sending 1,400 More Marines to Afghanistan
January 6th, 2011Via: AFP:
The United States is sending an additional 1,400 Marines to southern Afghanistan to help counter a Taliban offensive ahead of mandated US troop reductions, a Pentagon official said on Thursday.
Drone May Be Coming to Miami-Dade
January 6th, 2011Via: WSVN:
A new piece of technology may soon be coming to South Florida, but is already raising concerns from residents.
The Miami-Dade Police Department recently finalized a deal to buy a drone, which is an unmanned plane that is equipped with cameras. Drones have been used for years in Iraq and Afghanistan in the war against terror.
Many residents are concerned that the new technology will violate their privacy.
MDPD purchased a drone named T-hawk from defense firm Honeywell to assist with the department’s Special Response Team’s operations. The 20-pound drone can fly for 40 minutes, reach heights of 10,500 feet and cruise in the air at 46 miles an hour. “It gives us a good opportunity to have an eye up there. Not a surveilling eye, not a spying eye. Let’s make the distinction. A surveilling eye to help us to do the things we need to do, honestly to keep people safe,” said Miami-Dade Police Director James Loftus.
