U.S. Government: Single People Should Not Have Sex Until Age 30
November 30th, 2006Does this apply equally to all the hypocrite, closet gay Republicans and “Christian” man-boy lovers?
Via: USA Today:
The federal government’s “no sex without marriage” message isn’t just for kids anymore.
Now the government is targeting unmarried adults up to age 29 as part of its abstinence-only programs, which include millions of dollars in federal money that will be available to the states under revised federal grant guidelines for 2007.
The government says the change is a clarification. But critics say it’s a clear signal of a more directed policy targeting the sexual behavior of adults.
“They’ve stepped over the line of common sense,” said James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit that supports sex education. “To be preaching abstinence when 90% of people are having sex is in essence to lose touch with reality. It’s an ideological campaign. It has nothing to do with public health.”
Intelink.gov User Visits Cryptogon
November 30th, 2006The Open Source Information System/Intelink user (host: fw1.intelink.gov, ip: 65.222.132.2) conducted the following Google search: sean gorman homeland.
Pentagon Seeks Biofuel for Military Jets
November 30th, 2006Slap a clean-green bumper sticker on the fighter-bombers?
Via: World Tribune:
The U.S. Defense Department has launched an effort to reduce the military’s reliance on traditional aircraft fuel.
The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has released a tender for the exploration of energy alternatives for the military. Officials said DARPA has sought proposals from companies and universities that would increase fuel efficiency and produce biofuel for military jets from agriculture or aquaculture crops.
“DARPA seeks processes that use limited sources of external energy, that are adaptable to a range or blend of feedstock crop oils, and that produce process by-products that have ancillary manufacturing or industrial value,” the agency said.
Officials said commercial alternatives to traditional fuel have not met the higher energy density and wide-operating temperature range required for military aviation uses. They said the Pentagon has designed a program entitled BioFuels to convert crop oil to military aviation fuel, known as JP-8. Those invited to participate in the competition would deliver at least 100 liters of JP-8 surrogate biofuel for initial government laboratory testing.
On July 25, DARPA briefed prospective bidders on the program in Denver Colo. The agency plans to achieve a 60 percent or greater conversion efficiency of crop oil. Officials said the agency envisions increasing the efficiency to 90 percent conversions.
So far, biodiesel fuels have been 25 percent lower in energy density than JP-8. Officials said biodiesel did not flow properly at low temperatures in the atmosphere.
“It is anticipated that the key technology developments needed to obtain the program goal will result from a cross-disciplinary approach spanning the fields of process chemistry and engineering, materials engineering, biotechnology, and propulsion system engineering,” the agency said.
Officials said the program would evaluate the processing of crop oils into a JP-8 surrogate biofuel. They said laboratory-scale production would be tested at a Pentagon facility.
Steve’s New Business
November 30th, 2006Good luck, Steve! Sounds great:
I’m excited to announce that my wife and I just purchased a business. It’s a two-year old start-up company which serves as a dealer/retailer of “green” building supplies and products, chiefly Safecoat’s leading-brand non-toxic paints and cleaning products, that newly hip recycled cotton “blue-jean” insulation, a great recycled roofing-shingles product, and a range of renewable and organic flooring materials. Plus we can also offer a full line of solar equipment through an affiliation with AEE Solar in California. The former owners were extremely conscientious people, so everything we sell is as green as possible (not just greenwashed) and as locally produced as possible.
In fact the previous owners really only started it up because they were looking for a way to pay the bills while searching for their dream-land to become farmer/homesteaders on. When they finally found that, their job began to get in the way of their life, and they started spending less and less time at the shop. The community hated that they were rarely open. And yet they still managed to gross close to $100,000 in sales during the recent 12-month period–while spending maybe 5 hours a week at the business. Also, advertising has been all but non-existant.
They finally came to realize that they needed to shit or get off the pot, so they started shopping for a buyer, and long story short, I’m it.
Hold Our Breaths for Eestor Announcement?
November 30th, 2006Via: EVworld:
According to company president Ian Clifford, a five hundred pound EEStor power pack will give the car 100 miles+ range. He is confident that EEStor will pull the wraps of their mysterious “battery” very soon; his exact word was “imminent” and that I could, in fact, hold my breath for their announcement.
Related: Pay No Attention to the General as “Liberals” Launch Green Energy Fund
A Peace Symbol Wreath and The Prince of Darkness
November 30th, 2006Via Heraldnet:
Our holiday story begins in the Loma Linda subdivision, outside Pagosa Springs, Colo. A couple decorates their house with a wreath made in the shape of a peace symbol. A neighbor interprets the wreath, complete with a festive red bow, as a protest against the Iraq war. And some see it as a symbol of Satan, adds Bob Kearns, president of the Loma Linda Homeowners Association.
CRYPTOGON READER CONTRIBUTES $100
November 29th, 2006What can I say? I’ve been sitting here for an hour trying to think about what to write…
Maybe I should just go back to looking for the type of compelling information that is useful to readers like AS.
Thanks, AS.
Gingrich: Reexamine Freedom of Speech to Meet the Threat of Terrorism
November 29th, 2006Would you like an order of freedom fries with that?
Via: Union Leader:
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich yesterday said the country will be forced to reexamine freedom of speech to meet the threat of terrorism.
Gingrich, speaking at a Manchester awards banquet, said a “different set of rules” may be needed to reduce terrorists’ ability to use the Internet and free speech to recruit and get out their message.
U.S., CHINA and EUROPE: FINGERS ON TRIGGERS IN MEXICAN STANDOFF
November 29th, 2006Another day, another déjà vu moment for Cryptogon readers who remember this post.
Those of you who are executing your plans, just keep plugging away. As everyone else panics, you don’t have to. That’s the beauty of being through (or close to) the EXIT before the alarm sounds. That’s why you have supported Cryptogon. That’s why you took action. You knew this was going to happen. You’re going to be much better off than those who listened to “expert” advice, or are still waiting for clarity.
Was that a good pep talk? Because I’m scared shitless! Being right about the direction of things doesn’t make it any less frightening when it happens.
Via: Globe and Mail:
The sudden weakness of the U.S. dollar began late last week, soon after Chinese officials suggested that holding a lot of dollars might be a losing investment strategy. Investors read that as a signal that the massive trade and financial imbalances between Asia and the U.S. may be about to unwind.
The chief worry is that if China’s central bank — the largest foreign holder of U.S. dollars — begins to unload its reserves, the dollar will plunge. With China’s yuan effectively pegged to the dollar, other leading currencies would move higher after the realignment.
There’s no evidence yet that’s what China is actually doing. But few investors want to be the ones left holding dollars when the plunge comes. “People are getting very nervous,” said Andrew Busch, chief foreign exchange strategist at BMO Nesbitt Burns in Chicago.
“It’s a wonderful behavioural science experiment and it’s being played out with billions of dollars. The first to get out tips the scales.”
…
Also pushing the movement in currencies is the slowing U.S. economy, which could force the U.S. Federal Reserve Board to cut interest rates in the coming months. Meanwhile, the European Central Bank is looking at a possible interest rate increase next month.
The net effect is to make euros more attractive. It has also begun to encourage Europeans to buy more imported goods, and even take trips to the United States.
The British pound is rising alongside the euro, spurring a resurgence of holiday shopping junkets to New York by British tourists, according to Dee Byrne, spokeswoman for the Association of British Travel Agents.
“There has been an upturn in bookings to the States, for Christmas shopping in particular,” Ms. Byrne told Reuters News Agency. “People are going to New York to do their Christmas shopping, where they will get much more for their money: It couldn’t have come at a better time.”
But other experts see a much more ominous impact of these potentially seismic currency shifts.
The surging euro could cause permanent damage to the European economy, and even spur calls for exchange rate controls.
Peter Morici, a former chief economist at the U.S. International Trade Commission, said China is to blame for unleashing a potentially destabilizing period of currency realignment by stubbornly refusing to let its currency float to absorb its soaring trade surplus with the rest of the world.
“The long-term consequences of this could be trade chaos,” warned Mr. Morici, now a business professor at the University of Maryland.
Talk of exchange rate controls in Europe is an ominous reminder of the 1930s, when protectionism and currency controls helped trigger a global recession.
“It’s like water. There are too many dollars out there, looking for a place to go,” Mr. Morici said. “China is pushing on a wall of competitive devaluation.”
Investors are betting the most likely place for all those dollars to go is the euro — often touted as a reserve currency for the world. “The Europeans wanted a reserve currency and now they’re about to find out what it’s like,” Mr. Morici said.
Dollar Whacked Down to Near 15-Year Low vs. Sterling
November 29th, 2006Via Telegraph:
The dollar tumbled to a near a 15-year low against sterling yesterday on fresh signs of economic trouble in the United States.
An 8.3pc crash in US industrial orders and an admission by the Federal Reserve chairman that Washington does not know how bad housing really is set off another day of wild gyrations on the currency markets.
