“Days of Cheap Food Are Over”
September 8th, 2007Via: Guardian:
Supermarket pledges to drive down the price of staple goods and help cash-strapped shoppers looked increasingly vulnerable last night after Britain’s biggest food manufacturer insisted even the largest superstore groups would have to stomach higher prices from suppliers that are struggling with steep rises in ingredient costs.
Research Credit: Becky
Indian Software Firm to Outsource to U.S.
September 8th, 2007Before you listen to this, try to think of all the reasons why Wipro would want to do this. There are several.
Via: NPR:
Morning Edition, September 6, 2007 · Indian software firm Wipro plans to open a big software design center in Atlanta. The Bangalore, India-based firm expects to hire around 500 computer programmers in the next three years. It’s a curious turnabout from the much more familiar story: a U.S. software company creating jobs in India.
More: Slashdot
Cryptogon Reader Contributes $20
September 7th, 2007Thanks MS!
Gold Rallies Through $700 as U.S. Payrolls Fall
September 7th, 2007WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument.
We all know that this is what gold “should” be doing. That’s what scares me. I wonder what’s different about now?
Yeah, I know. Take your pick.
Can we get some Central Bank selling in here, please, so we can all buy more at lower prices?
For now, hats off to all Cryptogon gold bugs.
Via: FXStreet:
Gold rallied sharply in afternoon trade, breaking through the 700 usd level for the first time since May 2006, after US payrolls fell for the first time in four years, sparking a drop in the dollar.
The precious metals surged through 700 usd per ounce within minutes of the data being released, and later set a fresh 16-month high of 704.60 usd.
…
“People were looking for cash, but now people are looking for a safe haven for money. They are not happy with currencies, they are not happy with the banks, so gold is providing them with that opportunity,” said Simon Weeks, an analyst at Scotia Mocatta.
John Young “Interview” with ABC News
September 7th, 2007Via: Cryptome:
After about 15 minutes Zach ordered, “now say directly to the camera, ‘I posted the names of 2,619 CIA sources.'”
I shouted, “enough of this shit,” then to the cameraman, “turn the camera on Zack, I want you to film him while I question him.”
I yanked out my spy camera and began taking shots of him and the narc-stakeout setup.
I ordered, “get on the stool.” He did.
Research Credit: JM
Bush at OPEC, uh APEC
September 7th, 2007Oh man.
Via: Yahoo / AP:
President Bush had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day at the Sydney Opera House.
He’d only reached the third sentence of Friday’s speech to business leaders, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, when he committed his first gaffe.
“Thank you for being such a fine host for the OPEC summit,” Bush said to Australian Prime Minister John Howard.
Oops. That would be APEC, the annual meeting of leaders from 21 Pacific Rim nations, not OPEC, the cartel of 12 major oil producers.
Bush quickly corrected himself. “APEC summit,” he said forcefully, joking that Howard had invited him to the OPEC summit next year (for the record, an impossibility, since neither Australia nor the U.S. are OPEC members).
The president’s next goof went uncorrected — by him anyway. Talking about Howard’s visit to Iraq last year to thank his country’s soldiers serving there, Bush called them “Austrian troops.”
That one was fixed for him. Though tapes of the speech clearly show Bush saying “Austrian,” the official text released by the White House switched it to “Australian.”
Then, speech done, Bush confidently headed out — the wrong way.
He strode away from the lectern on a path that would have sent him over a steep drop. Howard and others redirected the president to center stage, where there were steps leading down to the floor of the theater.
Spy Satellites Turned on the U.S.
September 7th, 2007Bird’s eye view of the next “event”?
Via: ABC News:
Traditionally, powerful spy satellites have been used to search for strategic threats overseas ranging from nuclear weapons to terrorist training camps.
But now the Department of Homeland Security has developed a new office to use the satellites to secure U.S. borders and protect the country from natural disasters.
Department of Homeland Security officials testified Thursday before the House Homeland Security Committee about the program and faced extensive criticism about the privacy and civil liberty concerns of the new office, called the National Applications Office.
The purpose of the National Applications Office is to provide the Department of Homeland Security and civil, state and local emergency planners with imagery and data from satellites run by the National Reconnaissance Office and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency.
Syria Fires on Israeli War Planes
September 6th, 2007Via: AFP:
Syria said its air defences opened fire on Israeli warplanes which had violated Syrian airspace at dawn on Thursday, ratcheting up the tensions between the neighbouring foes.
A Syrian cabinet minister warned that the nation’s leadership was considering its response to the Israeli “aggression” while in Jerusalem the military declined any comment.
“Enemy Israeli planes penetrated Syrian airspace from the Mediterranean Sea heading towards the northeast, breaking the sound barrier,” a Syrian army spokesman told the official SANA news agency.
“Our air defences repulsed them and forced them to leave…after the Israeli planes dropped munitions, without causing human or material loss,” he said, without giving further information on what exactly was dropped.
Syria’s allegations came amid a war of words with Israel, with each blaming the other for stoking regional tensions and for the failure to revive peace talks that have been stalled for seven years.
Information Minister Mohsen Bilal told pan-Arab satellite television Al-Jazeera that Syria’s leadership was “giving serious consideration to its response… to this aggression.”
In Jerusalem, the Israeli military refused to comment on Syria’s claims, saying: “We do not comment on such reports.”
Related: Gold, Oil Moving Up to Critical Resistance Levels
Judge Wants Everyone in UK on DNA Database
September 6th, 2007Via: Guardian:
The entire UK population and every visitor to Britain should be put on the national DNA database, a top judge said today.
Lord Justice Sedley, one of England’s most experienced appeal court judges, described the country’s current system as “indefensible”.
“We have a situation where if you happen to have been in the hands of the police, then your DNA is on permanent record. If you haven’t, it isn’t … that’s broadly the picture,” Sir Stephen Sedley told the BBC.
“It also means that a great many people who are walking the streets, and whose DNA would show them guilty of crimes, go free.”
He said that expanding the existing database to cover the whole population had “serious but manageable implications”.
Unauthorized Motorcade Drives Into APEC High Security Zone, Punter Emerges from Limousine Dressed as Bin Laden
September 6th, 2007I wonder if they drew straws to see who would have to wear the Bin Laden outfit.
Via: news.com.au:
ELEVEN members of the ABC’S The Chaser team have been detained by police while performing a prank at Sydney’s InterContinental Hotel, ABC management said today.
Among those arrested were on-screen stars Julian Morrow and Chas Licciardello.
“At this stage we can confirm that Julian Morrow and Chas Licciardello have been detained,” said Peter Ritchie, a spokesman for the broadcaster.
The arrests were made after the group drove a fake motorcade down Macquarie St in the APEC restricted zone.
Licciardello was reportedly dressed as Osama bin Laden, and was arrested after he emerged from one of the vehicles to the embarrassment of security forces.
Somehow, the team managed to avoid the massive security contingent to get as far as they did.
They had crossed Bent St and stopped at Bridge St when they were arrested.
