Rendell’s Office Releases Content of All Bulletins on Planned Protests
September 21st, 2010Here’s the document dump: PA Intelligence Bulletins.
Via: Philadelphia Inquirer:
The bulletins, issued to police, public officials, and commercial interests three times a week since October, were prepared by a private contractor that the state Office of Homeland Security hired last year for $103,000 without competitive bidding. Much of their content – such as announcements of protest events – was readily available through Internet searches.
The contractor the state hired, the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response, lists offices in Philadelphia, Washington, and Jerusalem. The state Homeland Security Office in turn disseminated the information to a yet-undisclosed list of police, elected officials, and others in the private sector, Rendell spokesman Gary Tuma said.
Rendell said Tuesday that the contract would be terminated next month when it comes up for renewal. The state still receives alerts from the institute, but none has been disseminated since Monday, Tuma said.
Research Credit: PP
Pope’s Astronomer Says He Would Baptise an Alien
September 21st, 2010Why is the pace picking up?
Via: Guardian:
Aliens might have souls and could choose to be baptised if humans ever met them, a Vatican scientist said today. The official also dismissed intelligent design as “bad theology” that had been “hijacked” by American creationist fundamentalists.
Guy Consolmagno, who is one of the pope’s astronomers, said he would be “delighted” if intelligent life was found among the stars. “But the odds of us finding it, of it being intelligent and us being able to communicate with it – when you add them up it’s probably not a practical question.”
Speaking ahead of a talk at the British Science Festival in Birmingham tomorrow, he said that the traditional definition of a soul was to have intelligence, free will, freedom to love and freedom to make decisions. “Any entity – no matter how many tentacles it has – has a soul.” Would he baptise an alien? “Only if they asked.”
Consolmagno, who became interested in science through reading science fiction, said that the Vatican was well aware of the latest goings-on in scientific research. “You’d be surprised,” he said.
Alien Field Trip
September 21st, 2010Related: Britain: Children Traumatized by ‘War of Worlds’ Abduction of Teacher
Research Credit: HS
Pentti Linkola, Finnish Environmentalist: “Kill Defectives”
September 21st, 2010Via: penttilinkola.com
“We will have to…learn from the history of revolutionary movements — the national socialists, the Finnish Stalinists, from the many stages of the Russian revolution, from the methods of the Red Brigades — and forget our narcissistic selves.”
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“Our only hope lies in strong central government and uncompromizing control of the individual citizen.”
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“Birthgiving must be licenced. To enhance population quality, genetically or socially unfit homes will be denied offspring, so that several birth licences can be allowed to families of quality.”
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“Kill defectives.”
Saudi King Meets Top U.S., Canadian Counter-Terror Officials
September 20th, 2010Via: AFP:
Saudi King Abdullah and security czar Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz have held talks with top intelligence and counter-terror officials from the United States and Canada, the SPA news agency reported.
John Brennan, assistant to US President Barack Obama for homeland security and counter-terrorism, discussed in Jeddah on Sunday “issues that concern the two countries” with King Abdullah, Deputy Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef and intelligence chief Prince Muqrin bin Abdul Aziz, the state news agency said without elaborating.
Afterward, Brennan held talks with Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz, the country’s senior domestic security official for 35 years.
“The meeting focused on the need to … build strong and fruitful cooperation to reduce the spread of terrorism in all countries in the world, especially in the Middle East, and the importance of working together to fight Al-Qaeda and terrorism,” SPA said.
Separately the Saudi king and his security officials met Richard Fadden, director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, to discuss “issues of mutual interest.”
The meetings with King Abdullah were also attended by Saudi ambassador to the United States Adel Jubeir, a close advisor to the Saudi king on foreign affairs.
Ally’s GMAC Mortgage Halts Home Foreclosures in 23 States
September 20th, 2010Via: Bloomberg:
Ally Financial Inc.’s GMAC Mortgage unit told brokers and agents to halt foreclosures on homeowners in 23 states including Florida, Connecticut and New York.
GMAC Mortgage may “need to take corrective action in connection with some foreclosures” in the affected states, according to a two-page memo dated Sept. 17 and obtained by Bloomberg News. Ally Financial spokesman James Olecki confirmed the contents of the memo. Brokers were told to stop evictions, cash-for-key transactions and lockouts, regardless of occupant type, with immediate effect, according to the document, addressed to GMAC preferred agents.
The company will also suspend sales of properties on which it has already foreclosed. The letter tells brokers to notify buyers that the company will extend the closing date on all sales by 30 days. Buyers will be able to cancel their agreement to purchase and get their deposit back, according to the letter.
Related: GMAC Mortgage: “Proudly Executing Up To 10,000 Fake Documents Per Month”
FDA Rules Won’t Require Labeling of Genetically Modified Salmon
September 20th, 2010Via: Washington Post:
As the Food and Drug Administration considers whether to approve genetically modified salmon, one thing seems certain: Shoppers staring at fillets in the seafood department will find it tough to pick out the conventional fish from the one created with genes from another species.
Despite a growing public demand for more information about how food is produced, that won’t happen with the salmon because of idiosyncracies embedded in federal regulations.
The FDA says it cannot require a label on the genetically modified food once it determines that the altered fish is not “materially” different from other salmon – something agency scientists have said is true.
Perhaps more surprising, conventional food makers say the FDA has made it difficult for them to boast that their products do not contain genetically modified ingredients.
Street View: Thousands of Germans Ask Google to Blur Their Homes
September 20th, 2010Via: Spiegel:
Germans are amongst the most frequent users of Google’s Street View service, but that doesn’t mean they want pictures of their homes on the Internet. At least 100,000, and possibly a lot more, have registered online to have their homes made unrecognizable.
Germans may have a reputation for staring at people, but they apparently don’t like it when the favor is returned. SPIEGEL has learned that more than 100,000 people have already registered with Google to have their homes blurred out of the Google Street View service, which is slated for launch by the end of the year.
Google would not provide concrete information at the time SPIEGEL went to press late last week as to how many objections it had received in Germany, but sources with inside information close to the company said the figure was in the several hundreds of thousands.
End the Misery of PMS With… (Wait for it)
September 20th, 2010Via: University of Birmingham:
Neuroscientists at the University of Birmingham are working on a novel approach to ending the scourge of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) after identifying, for the first time, an organic cause for the condition.
Researchers led by Dr Thelma Lovick have shown that premenstrual-like symptoms can be triggered in female rats by a change in the level of secretion of one of the female sex hormones that normally occurs towards the end of the menstrual cycle in women.
In the Birmingham tests the PMS could be prevented by giving low doses of the commonly prescribed anti-anxiety drug fluoxetine (Prozac).
Dr Lovick and her team believe that if affected women were to take a very low dose of fluoxetine for just a few days during the premenstrual period, they should avoid developing the negative physical and emotional symptoms that characterise the syndrome.
‘All that would be needed for countless women to benefit from what could be a simple and accessible treatment, involving a drug that is already in widespread use, is clinical tests to refine it and identify the optimal dosing strategy,’ she says.
U.S. Debt Actually $200 Trillion?
September 20th, 2010Via: NewsCore:
THE actual figure of the US’ national debt is much higher than the official sum of $US13.4 trillion ($14.3 trillion) given by the Congressional Budget Office, according to analysts cited on Sunday by the New York Post.
“The Government is lying about the amount of debt. It is engaging in Enron accounting,” said Laurence Kotlikoff, an economist at Boston University and co-author of The Coming Generational Storm: What You Need to Know about America’s Economic Future.
“The problem is we’re seeing an explosion in spending,” added Andrew Moylan, director of government affairs for the National Taxpayers Union.
In 1980, the debt – the accumulated red ink incurred by the Federal Government – was $US909 billion.
This represented some 33 per cent of gross domestic product, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
Thirty years later, based on this year’s second-quarter numbers, the CBO said the debt was $US13.4 trillion, or 92 per cent of GDP.
The CBO estimates the debt will be at $US16.5 trillion in two years, or 100.6 per cent of GDP.
But these numbers are incomplete.
They do not count off-budget obligations such as required spending for Social Security and Medicare, whose programs represent a balloon payment for the Government as more Americans retire and collect benefits.
In the case of Social Security, beginning in 2016, the US Government will be paying out more than it is collecting in taxes.
Without basic measures – such as payment cuts or higher payroll taxes – the system could be on the road to bankruptcy, according to officials.
“Without changes,” wrote Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue, “by 2037 the Social Security Trust Fund will be exhausted. There will be enough money only to pay about $US0.76 for each dollar of benefits.”
Mr Kotlikoff and Mr Moylan agree US national debt is much more than the official $US13.4 trillion number, but they disagree over how to add up the exact number.
Mr Kotlikoff says the debt is actually $US200 trillion.
