Tug Vessel Hits Abandoned Gas Well in Barataria Waterway
July 28th, 2010Via: WWLTV:
The Coast Guard and the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office are maintaining a two mile safety perimeter around a damaged wellhead in the Barataria Waterway south of New Orleans.
A mix of natural gas, contaminated water and light crude oil is spewing 100 feet in the air.
According to the Coast Guard, the tug vessel Pere Ana C while pushing a dredge barge struck the abandoned wellhead around one Tuesday morning.
“The issue for the region right now is we have gas coming out of an uncontrolled well head,” said Coast Guard Captain John Arenstam. “We don’t want to introduce into the region is an ignition source.”
The accident happened halfway between Lafitte and Grand Isle, near the very same water polluted by the BP oil spill.
The well belongs to the now defunct Cedyco Corporation of Houston, Texas. It’s one of the many so called “orphaned wells-heads” spread across Barataria Bay.
Mexico: Prison Official Sent Inmates to Conduct Birthday Party Massacre
July 27th, 2010Via: Christian Science Monitor:
A prison director is suspected of arming inmates and sending them on the July 18 Mexico birthday party massacre that killed 17. To some, Mexico’s drug war seems ‘the script of a science fiction movie.’
When gunmen burst into a private birthday party on July 18 and opened fired on guests, killing 17, the attackers were initially suspected to be members of one of Mexico’s drug gangs, which have killed thousands of people in escalating violence over the past several years.
Nobody could have guessed they were jail inmates on assignment from their prison director.
It turns out that the gunmen behind the July 18 Mexico birthday party massacre had already been incarcerated for crimes in Mexico’s drug wars. Prison guards reportedly lent vehicles and weapons to the inmates to carry out a ‘revenge attack’ in the northern city of Torreon. Afterward, the inmates drove back to their cells in the nearby city of Gomez Palacio.
“According to witnesses, the inmates were allowed to leave with authorization of the prison director … to carry out instructions for revenge attacks using official vehicles and using guards’ weapons for executions,” Ricardo Najera, a spokesman from the attorney general’s office, revealed Sunday.
The attack may have been motivated by rival drug trafficking gangs, Mr. Najera said, though innocent people were among the victims. The prison director and security guard, among others, have been put under house arrest.
U.S. Rescue May Reach $23.7 Trillion (???)
July 27th, 2010Via: Bloomberg:
U.S. taxpayers may be on the hook for as much as $23.7 trillion to bolster the economy and bail out financial companies, said Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for the Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program.
The Treasury’s $700 billion bank-investment program represents a fraction of all federal support to resuscitate the U.S. financial system, including $6.8 trillion in aid offered by the Federal Reserve, Barofsky said in a report released today.
“TARP has evolved into a program of unprecedented scope, scale and complexity,” Barofsky said in testimony prepared for a hearing tomorrow before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
…
Barofsky said the TARP inspector general’s office has 35 ongoing criminal and civil investigations that include suspected accounting, securities and mortgage fraud; insider trading; and tax investigations related to the abuse of TARP programs.
H.R. 5741: Two Year Conscription for Americans Between Ages 18 and 42 for “National Service”
July 27th, 2010Conscription typically means compulsory military service. That’s not necessarily the case here, but it’s close enough.
Will there be arm bands? Happy Hope and Change.
Via: GovTrack:
HR 5741 IH
111th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 5741
To require all persons in the United States between the ages of 18 and 42 to perform national service, either as a member of the uniformed services or in civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security, to authorize the induction of persons in the uniformed services during wartime to meet end-strength requirements of the uniformed services, and for other purposes.
David de Rothschild: Masonic Handshake in Sydney; Was His Skull and Bones Belt Buckle on Board?
July 27th, 2010David de Rothschild wears a skull and crossbones belt buckle (I guess it’s the Jolly Roger given his recent voyage on the high seas), and he gave a masonic handshake for the cameras in Sydney.
Image: philly.com:
Image: Richardson’s Monitor of Freemasonry by Jabez Richardson, page 30:
Image: Outside:
Can you feel the clean, green love?
Via: Independent:
Money will get you a lot of things, including a 60-ft catamaran built almost entirely out of recycled plastic bottles, held together with organic glue made from cashew nuts and sugar cane. But the joy of stepping on to dry land after navigating such a vessel on a gruelling 128-day journey across the Pacific is one of those things that money simply can’t buy.
Yesterday David de Rothschild, scion of one of the world’s richest banking fortunes, could finally put the regular bouts of chronic sea-sickness behind him as he and his five crew mates birthed their unusual vessel, the Plastiki, in Sydney Harbour after four months at sea.
Related: What’s the Story with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Belt Buckle?
What I Did When I Couldn’t Find a Job
July 27th, 2010Via: Chronicle of Higher Education:
It was a bit of a shock, losing all expectations. For years—all my life, really—parents, teachers, and guidance counselors had told me that if I went to a good college and did well, I would be able to find a job after graduation that would, with a little ladder-climbing, keep me comfortable and financially secure. After I graduated in May 2009, in political science, I moved back home to St. Louis to start my career, but there simply were no jobs to be found.
Over several months, I sent out more than 500 résumés for all sorts of jobs all over the country, but I got only two interviews and no offers.
I couldn’t find a job, but neither could anyone I knew. Now, more than a year after graduation, most of my college friends still live at home, and many of those who have moved out are borrowing money from their parents to eat and pay rent. A few have internships, but most of those are unpaid, and few are likely to lead to jobs. Two friends who studied psychology for four years now work off the books at a sandwich shop. Another, who got her master’s in development studies from Cambridge, became a barista at Starbucks.
Some are applying to grad school just to have something to do, but the prospect of racking up thousands more dollars in student debt is crushing. The rest are still looking, sending out résumés, going to career fairs, volunteering for experience, and networking. Some have given up. We are a whole generation graduating into a job market that has no room for us.
So I moved to India.
NSA: New 1.8 Million Square Foot Building at Fort Meade
July 27th, 2010This is in addition to the new 1.5 million square foot facilities in Texas and Utah.
Via: WBAL:
A draft environmental impact statement said that a project by the National Security Agency will bring 6,500 workers to the Fort Meade area, challenging the area’s infrastructure.
The NSA statement said the planned expansion will cost at least $2 billion.
The project, called Site M, will include a 1.8 million-square-foot building on land at Fort Meade that is currently used by two golf courses.
EFF Wins New Legal Protections for Video Artists, Cell Phone Jailbreakers, and Unlockers
July 26th, 2010Via: EFF:
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) won three critical exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) anticircumvention provisions today, carving out new legal protections for consumers who modify their cell phones and artists who remix videos — people who, until now, could have been sued for their non-infringing or fair use activities.
“By granting all of EFF’s applications, the Copyright Office and Librarian of Congress have taken three important steps today to mitigate some of the harms caused by the DMCA,” said Jennifer Granick, EFF’s Civil Liberties Director. “We are thrilled to have helped free jailbreakers, unlockers and vidders from this law’s overbroad reach.”
The exemptions were granted as part of a statutorily prescribed rulemaking process, conducted every three years to mitigate the danger the DMCA poses to legitimate, non-infringing uses of copyrighted materials. The DMCA prohibits “circumventing” digital rights management (DRM) and “other technical protection measures” used to control access to copyrighted works. While the DMCA still chills competition, free speech, and fair use, today’s exemptions take unprecedented new strides towards protecting more consumers and artists from its extensive reach.
The first of EFF’s three successful requests clarifies the legality of cell phone “jailbreaking” — software modifications that liberate iPhones and other handsets to run applications from sources other than those approved by the phone maker. More than a million iPhone owners are said to have “jailbroken” their handsets in order to change wireless providers or use applications obtained from sources other than Apple’s own iTunes “App Store,” and many more have expressed a desire to do so. But the threat of DMCA liability had previously endangered these customers and alternate applications stores.
In its reasoning in favor of EFF’s jailbreaking exemption, the Copyright Office rejected Apple’s claim that copyright law prevents people from installing unapproved programs on iPhones: “When one jailbreaks a smartphone in order to make the operating system on that phone interoperable with an independently created application that has not been approved by the maker of the smartphone or the maker of its operating system, the modifications that are made purely for the purpose of such interoperability are fair uses.”
“Copyright law has long held that making programs interoperable is fair use,” confirmed Corynne McSherry, EFF’s Senior Staff Attorney. “It’s gratifying that the Copyright Office acknowledges this right and agrees that the anticircumvention laws should not interfere with interoperability.”
WikiLeaks Founder, “Constantly Annoyed that People Are Distracted by False Conspiracies Such as 9/11”
July 26th, 2010People often ask me if I think this source is disinfo or if that source is disinfo…
My response is always: TREAT EVERY SOURCE AS DISINFO.
You’ll avoid disappointment when the thing starts serving up rat poison—which, unfortunately, happens a lot.
I haven’t shared this before, but in early 2008, someone from WikiLeaks wrote to me. This person wondered why I hadn’t mentioned WikiLeaks on Cryptogon. He wondered if maybe I hadn’t heard of it, or had concerns that it was a front of some sort.
I simply wrote back that I was aware of WikiLeaks, and that I was hopeful and skeptical at the same time.
That remains my stance today; on WikiLeaks and every other source.
So, who knows… I’ve read interesting things on WikiLeaks, many of which I have linked to from here. Does that mean that I’m sure it’s not some kind of front or honeypot? Not at all. How could I know for sure, given what’s knowable in the public domain about WikiLeaks?
Julian Assange’s recent comment in the Belfast Telegraph about 9/11, however, may be a more tangible source of concern for me. I know Assange isn’t an idiot, so I see three other possibilities:
1. He is profoundly ignorant of the vast body of material that demonstrates that the 9/11 spectacle was a false flag operation.
2. He’s “picking his battles” and not wanting to have to deal with the inevitable conspiracy theory stigma that could threaten his media access
3. He’s running a limited hangout/honeypot
Of these three options, I doubt that it’s number two.
Also, I’m aware of all the stuff John Young has up over at Cryptome from some anonymous mole on a private WikiLeaks list. Again, who knows.
Vet the data as you would anything else from any source. Use your skills of discernment. For me, the most worrying thing about WikiLeaks is the promotion it receives from the corporate media. Even the trash talking Wired is promoting Wikileaks by constantly mentioning it.
In the end, though, obsessing about disinfo this and disinfo that is generally a waste of time. It’s safe to assume that damn near everything we come across contains disinfo.
There is the issue of stench, however. Sources that say, categorically, that there’s nothing to see here on 9/11 smell really bad to me. As bad as anything can smell. (See my maggot bucket if you think that I don’t know what smells bad.)
We just saw the WikiLeaks release of the Afghanistan information, does Assange forget the pretext that was used for the invasion?
9/11 remains the elephant in the room.
Via: Belfast Telegraph:
His obsession with secrecy, both in others and maintaining his own, lends him the air of a conspiracy theorist. Is he one? “I believe in facts about conspiracies,” he says, choosing his words slowly. “Any time people with power plan in secret, they are conducting a conspiracy. So there are conspiracies everywhere. There are also crazed conspiracy theories. It’s important not to confuse these two. Generally, when there’s enough facts about a conspiracy we simply call this news.” What about 9/11? “I’m constantly annoyed that people are distracted by false conspiracies such as 9/11, when all around we provide evidence of real conspiracies, for war or mass financial fraud.” What about the Bilderberg conference? “That is vaguely conspiratorial, in a networking sense. We have published their meeting notes.”
Raw Food Raid in Los Angeles
July 26th, 2010Via: Los Angeles Times:
With no warning one weekday morning, investigators entered an organic grocery with a search warrant and ordered the hemp-clad workers to put down their buckets of mashed coconut cream and to step away from the nuts.
Then, guns drawn, four officers fanned out across Rawesome Foods in Venice. Skirting past the arugula and peering under crates of zucchini, they found the raid’s target inside a walk-in refrigerator: unmarked jugs of raw milk.
“I still can’t believe they took our yogurt,” said Rawesome volunteer Sea J. Jones, a few days after the raid. “There’s a medical marijuana shop a couple miles away, and they’re raiding us because we’re selling raw dairy products?”
Cartons of raw goat and cow milk and blocks of unpasteurized goat cheese were among the groceries seized in the June 30 raid by federal, state and local authorities — the latest salvo in the heated food fight over what people can put in their mouths.
Research Credit: ltcolonelnemo
