Parents Banned from Taking Pictures of Their Own Children at Sports Day
June 19th, 2009The people who come up with this nonsense are mentally ill, and so are the people who obey it.
Via: Telegraph:
Mrs Ethelston’s Church of England Primary School, in Uplyme, Devon, prohibited photos and video filming, claiming it was due to changes in child protection and images legislation.
It is the first time the school has taken such measures.
Parents criticised the move and said they felt there was no legal reason why they cannot take photos for personal use.
Jane Souter, who has a son at the school and is chair of the Parents Teachers and Friends Association, said: “It is a shame but that is the way it is all going now, you are not allowed to do a lot of things because of rules and regulations.
“A lot of the parents think it is a great shame. There are people who have been there for many, many years and they are upset about it, although they do not blame the school.
“It is sad that you are not allowed to take pictures of your own children.
“It is all to do with the pictures getting into the wrong hands and the school has to follow its own code of conduct. “I am sure the school do not like it just as much as we do.”
Images Reveal Full Horror of ‘Amazon’s Tiananmen’
June 19th, 2009Via: Independent:
First, the police fire tear gas, then rubber bullets. As protesters flee, they move on to live rounds. One man, wearing only a pair of shorts, stops to raise his hands in surrender. He is knocked to the ground and given an extended beating by eight policemen in black body-armour and helmets.
Demonstrators getting worked-over by the rifle butts and truncheons of Peru’s security forces turn out to be the lucky ones, though. Dozens more were shot as they fled. You can see their bullet-ridden bodies, charred by a fire that swept through the scene of the incident, which has since been dubbed “the Amazon’s Tiananmen”.
The events of Friday, 5 June, when armed police went to clear 2,000 Aguaruna and Wampi Indians from a secluded highway near the town of Bagua Grande, are the subject of a heated political debate. They have sparked international condemnation and thrown Peru’s government into crisis.
Yet until today, details were shrouded in mystery. Now, pictures have emerged. They were taken at the scene by two Belgian aid workers, Marijke Deleu and Thomas Quirynen, and provide compelling details of the chaotic confrontation that killed a reported 60 people, many of them unarmed, with vast numbers still unaccounted for.
“At first, we saw police firing guns and tear gas at a mass of protesters,” said Ms Deleu, who reached the highway at 7am, an hour after heavily armed police arrived at the location, 870 miles north of Lima. “Then we saw them beating and kicking people detained on the ground. Later, they shot people in the back as they started fleeing.”
A dossier of photographs, many too graphic to be printed in this newspaper, will be shown to MPs at the House of Commons on Monday by Ms Deleu and Mr Quirynen, who are volunteers for Catapa, a Flemish organisation supporting indigenous communities in Peru, Bolivia and Guatemala.
Called Death at Devil’s Bend, it attempts to explain what happened when police tried to evict the indigenous tribespeople, who had been blockading the road for several weeks in protest at new laws allowing energy and mining companies to exploit swaths of their ancestral homelands.
One series shows police stopping a passing ambulance. They force four injured protesters out of the vehicle, and beat them for several minutes, claiming, without any apparent justification, that their vehicle was carrying concealed weapons. Another, taken later in the day shows rows of wounded being treated in local hospitals. Nineteen are at Bagua Grand; 47 in Bagua Chica. Many have heavy bruising, and bandages covering bullet wounds.
“Several people said they had been shot while they were fast asleep,” said Ms Deleu. “They claim the police woke them up by opening fire. One of the bodies had a bullet wound in his shoulder, which suggested to me that he’d been shot while lying down.”
Further pictures, which will only fuel rumours of a government-orchestrated cover-up, show twisted corpses of native Indians lying by the side of the road. When tribal leaders tried to collect them, they came under fire and were refused access. By the next day, the corpses had disappeared.
The Peruvian President, Alan Garcia, has claimed 32 people were killed in the incident, of which 23 were police officers. However human rights lawyers and news reports put the number of confirmed deaths at closer to 60, and say hundreds are still missing.
Until this week, many international observers have been unable to visit the region because of a curfew. Pressure groups have accused security forces of burying and burning corpses to hide the extent of the death toll.
“There needs to be an independent investigation to establish exactly what happened,” said Jonathan Mazower of Survival International, which will today publish Ms Deleu and Mr Quirynen’s dossier on its website. “Our initial reaction to these dramatic photographs is that they may provide the first impartial account of what actually went on.”
The pictures emerged as Alberto Pizango, the head of Aidesep, the organisation representing 56 of Peru’s indigenous tribes, arrived in Nicaragua, after being granted political asylum. Last week, he was prosecuted for “sedition, conspiracy and rebellion”.
Meanwhile Mr Garcia has been forced to suspend the introduction of laws allowing foreign companies to exploit the rainforest. His Prime Minister Yehude Simon resigned on Monday, joining populist minister Carmen Vildoso, who quit last week during a general strike in protest at the incident.
And Now: Shit in the Cookie Dough
June 19th, 2009Via: AP:
Food maker Nestle USA on Friday voluntarily recalled its Toll House refrigerated cookie dough products after a number of illnesses were reported by those who ate the dough raw.
The company said the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control are investigating reported E. coli illnesses that might be related to the ingestion of raw cookie dough.
In a statement, the FDA said there have been 66 reports of illness across 28 states since March. About 25 people have been hospitalized, but no one has died.
The FDA advised consumers to throw away any prepackaged, refrigerated Nestle Toll House cookie dough products in their homes. Retailers, restauranteurs and employees at other food-service operations should also not sell or serve any of the products.
Nestle spokeswoman Roz O’Hearn said “this has been a very quickly moving situation,” adding the company took action less than 24 hours after hearing of the problem.
O’Hearn said the company will “cooperate fully” with the FDA’s investigation.
The recall includes refrigerated cookie bar dough, cookie dough tub, cookie dough tubes, limited edition cookie dough items, seasonal cookie dough and Ultimates cookie bar dough. It does not affect any other Toll House products.
E. coli is a potentially deadly bacterium that can cause bloody diarrhea, dehydration and, in the most severe cases, kidney failure.
Consumers Could Get Up to $4,500 Toward New Car
June 19th, 2009What did the filthy criminals on Wall Street have to buy to get their taxpayer funded bonus payments?
Via: AP:
Car shoppers could take advantage of government incentives worth up to $4,500 this summer to send their old gas guzzler to the scrap heap in favor of a more fuel-efficient new vehicle.
President Barack Obama is expected to sign into law the “cash for clunkers” program, which was approved by the Senate on Thursday. For owners of low-mileage models such as the 1994 Ford Bronco, 1998 Nissan Pathfinder or the 1995 Chevrolet Blazer, the plan could give them a reason to visit their local car dealer during an economic downturn.
“I’ve been sitting on the fence for about a year,” said Jim Seegraves, 44, of East Lansing, Mich., who has been looking to replace his 2000 GMC Sierra pickup truck. “This legislation will help me get over the hump and get the car that I want.”
The bill provides $1 billion for the auto sales program from July through November and the Congressional Budget Office expects that with a total of $4 billion, about 1 million new vehicles could be purchased. The government is expected to implement the program by early August.
Automakers and their unions have lobbied heavily for the incentives to help the auto industry boost sales and stabilize General Motors Corp. and Chrysler Group LLC, which have received billions of dollars for government-led bankruptcies. In May, U.S. auto sales were 34 percent lower than a year ago and the industry expects to sell less than 10 million vehicles in the U.S. in 2009, compared to more than 16 million in 2007.
Here’s how the plan works: Car owners could get a voucher worth $3,500 if they traded in a vehicle getting 18 miles per gallon or less for one getting at least 22 mpg. The voucher would grow to $4,500 if the new car’s mileage was 10 mpg higher than the old vehicle. The mpg figures are listed on the car’s window sticker.
Owners of sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks or minivans getting 18 mpg or less could receive a voucher for $3,500 if their new truck or SUV got at least 2 mpg higher than their old vehicle. The voucher would increase to $4,500 if the mileage of the new truck or SUV was at least 5 mpg higher than the older vehicle.
The program was aimed at replacing older vehicles — built in model year 1984 or later — and would not make financial sense for someone owning a vehicle with a trade-in value greater than $3,500 or $4,500.
A 1998 Jeep Cherokee 4-wheel-drive with about 150,000 miles, for example, might only get $1,000 to $1,500 as a trade-in vehicle, according to estimates by Kelley Blue Book. Since the 1998 Cherokee gets about 17 mpg, an owner could parlay it into a new Ford Escape Hybrid — 2009 versions get 28-to-32 mpg — and maximize their trade-in to $4,500.
Dealers would apply the vouchers to the purchase or lease of a qualifying vehicle and ensure that the older vehicles are crushed or shredded. The new vehicle must have a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of less than $45,000.
U.S. Treasury Will Attempt to Auction a Record $104 Billion In Debt Next Week
June 19th, 2009And the Fed will just hit the BID button when nobody else will.
Via: CNBC:
The Treasury announced Thursday a record $104 billion worth of bond auctions for next week, part of its herculean efforts to finance a rescue of the world’s largest economy.
The sales will exceed the previous record of $101 billion set in auctions that took place in the last week of April and consist of two-year, five-year and seven-year securities. That record was matched by another $101 billion week in May.
Though next week’s total was broadly in line with expectations, worries about supply have weighed on the U.S. government bond market, which will see a mammoth $2 trillion worth of new debt issued this year.
“Maybe the Treasury market reacted a little negatively and it will continue to be like this,” said Suvrat Prakash, U.S. interest rate strategist with BNP Paribas in New York. “Supply announcements and auctions on the horizon will make the market a bit nervous about upcoming debt.”
Bond prices were lower already in anticipation of the Treasury’s announcement and continued to sell off in reaction.
City Asks Prospective Employees for Usernames and Passwords to Websites They Use
June 19th, 2009Oh sure.
Via: Montana’s News Station:
Applying for a job with the City of Bozeman? You may be asked to provide more personal information than you expected.
That was the case for one person who applied for employment with the City. The anonymous viewer emailed the news station recently to express concern with a component of the city’s background check policy, which states that to be considered for a job applicants must provide log-in information and passwords for social network sites in which they participate.
The requirement is included on a waiver statement applicants must sign, giving the City permission to conduct an investigation into the person’s “background, references, character, past employment, education, credit history, criminal or police records.”
“Please list any and all, current personal or business websites, web pages or memberships on any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include, but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube.com, MySpace, etc.,” the City form states. There are then three lines where applicants can list the Web sites, their user names and log-in information and their passwords.
Allen Stanford Surrenders to FBI
June 19th, 2009Via: Washington Post:
R. Allen Stanford, under investigation in an alleged $8 billion fraud involving sales of certificates of deposit through his Antiguan bank, surrendered to federal agents yesterday, his attorney said.
The case is one of the largest alleged financial frauds in U.S. history and comes just months after New York financier Bernard L. Madoff pleaded guilty to charges in a Ponzi scheme of up to $50 billion.
Stanford, 59, was taken into custody yesterday by FBI agents who were waiting outside his girlfriend’s house in Fredericksburg, Va., said Dick DeGuerin, an attorney for the Texas financier.
“Federal agents in black SUVs surrounded his girlfriend’s house this afternoon, and just sat there,” DeGuerin said. “I told him to walk out and introduce himself. So he did, and he asked them, ‘If you’ve got a warrant, take me into custody. If you don’t, I’m going to Houston.’ And they did, so they arrested him.”
Stanford is scheduled to appear in federal court in Richmond this morning. DeGuerin said he didn’t know whether Stanford would be returned to Houston to face criminal charges handed down yesterday in a sealed indictment by a federal grand jury.
Federal prosecutors may announce as early as today charges against Stanford on securities fraud, according to a government official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil lawsuit against Stanford and business associates in February, accusing them of running a massive fraud through Antigua-based Stanford International Bank.
Stanford has said he did nothing wrong. “I’m not a damn swindler,” he told Bloomberg News in April.
Cash to Become Extinct as Chips Take Off
June 18th, 2009Via: News AU:
CASH is accelerating down the path to extinction as new technologies threaten to mark the end of loose change within a decade.
Bank and credit union bosses say cash won’t be alone, with wallets and credit cards also likely to disappear too.
They told The Advertiser’s round table forum that cash and cards will be replaced by computer chips embedded in mobile phones, watches or other portable devices.
Australian Central chief executive Peter Evers believes cash will be replaced for most transactions in five-to-seven years.
“Cash will disappear as there will be other forms of carrying cash, stored value in your phone or whatever it might be. It will transfer automatically,” he said.
“We’re very close in countries around the world. If you go in to Hong Kong or Singapore, the low-value transactions have already disappeared. You can’t go anywhere, like on public transport, without pre-purchasing a card.
Nanotechnology: The New Asbestos?
June 18th, 2009Via: Food Navigator:
The safety risks of nanotechnology use by the food industry could make it “the new asbestos”, says toxicologist Dr George Burdock of the Burdock Group.
Nanotechnology refers to controlling matter at an atomic or molecular scale measured in nanometers, or millionths of millimeters. In the food industry, the technology has excited manufacturers as its potential uses are explored, including detecting bacteria in packaging, or producing stronger flavors and colorings.
But Dr Burdock claims that manufacturers lack understanding about how particles can change when they are shrunk to nano-size, and the current economic situation has exacerbated potential dangers, as some cost-cutting companies could look to cheaper, less reliable safety assessments.
Altered properties
One of the major safety worries about nanotechnology has been the suggestion that such small particles could feasibly cross cellular membrane barriers, meaning that an ingredient that is currently GRAS (generally recognized as safe) could become dangerous if it is nano-sized – a worry that Dr Burdock shares.
He told FoodNavigator-USA.com: “The problem is that a lot of food ingredient manufacturers are looking at ingredients and saying that a product is GRAS, but if it’s nano-sized it’s going to have different properties.
“The answer is that if you nano-size the particle you have to test it like a new substance. This is what could make nanotechnology the new asbestos.”
His views were echoed in a new report from the Investor Environmental Health Network (IEHN) released on Tuesday which discusses what it terms “disturbing asbestos-nanotech parallels”.
According to the report, “some of these technologies are showing signs of posing serious hazards to human health and the environment, including the same kind of grave threats resulting from exposure to asbestos.”
Britain: First Trial Without Jury Approved
June 18th, 2009Via: BBC:
The Court of Appeal has ruled that a criminal trial can take place at Crown Court without a jury for the first time in England and Wales.
The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, made legal history by agreeing to allow the trial to be heard by a judge alone.
It is the first time the power has been used since it came into force in 2007.
The case concerns four men accused of an armed robbery at Heathrow Airport in 2004. The judge said jury “tampering” was a “very significant” danger.


