Worms Fail to Thrive in Soil Containing Microplastics
September 14th, 2019Via: Guardian:
Worms fail to thrive in earth containing microplastics, new research has shown, adding to the growing body of evidence of impacts from the increasingly widespread contaminants on the natural world.
The rosy-tipped earthworm, Aporrectodea rosea, is one of the most common found in farmland in temperate regions. Scientists found that worms placed in soil loaded with high density polyethylene (HDPE) – a common plastic used for bags and bottles – for 30 days lost about 3% of their body weight, compared with a control sample of similar worms placed in similar soil without HDPE, which put on 5% in body weight over the same period.
Bas Boots, lecturer in biology at Anglia Ruskin University, and lead author of the study, said the specific reasons for the observed weight loss were not yet clear, but could be owing to the effects of microplastics on the worms’ digestion. “These effects include the obstruction and irritation of the digestive tract, limiting the absorption of nutrients and reducing growth,” he said.
Mark LaGanga’s WTC 9/11 Video
September 13th, 2019Via: YouTube:
Google Collects Face Data Now
September 12th, 2019Via: Cnet:
Google’s latest smart display brings with it a controversial new feature that’s always watching. Face Match, introduced on the Google Nest Hub Max, uses the smart display’s front-facing camera as a security feature and a way to participate in video calls. It also shows you your photos, texts, calendar details and so on when it recognizes your face.
This mode of facial recognition sounds simple enough at first. But the way companies like Google collect, store and process face data has become a top concern for privacy-minded consumers. Plenty of people want to know who has their personal information once it makes its way into the cloud.
U.S. Beats Saudi Arabia to Become Top Oil Exporter on Shale Boom
September 12th, 2019Via: Bloomberg:
The U.S. briefly became the world’s No. 1 oil exporter as record shale production found its way to global customers, and there are prospects for more.
Surging output from shale helped America ship almost nine million barrels a day of crude and oil products in June, surpassing Saudi Arabia, the International Energy Agency said in a report, citing gross export figures. There’s room to send even more supply overseas as companies add infrastructure to transport the burgeoning production from fields in Texas and New Mexico to the coast.
Israel Most Likely Behind Placement of Cell-Phone Surveillance Devices Near White House and Other Sensitive Locations Around Washington
September 12th, 2019Via: Politico:
The U.S. government concluded within the last two years that Israel was most likely behind the placement of cell-phone surveillance devices that were found near the White House and other sensitive locations around Washington, D.C., according to three former senior U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter.
But unlike most other occasions when flagrant incidents of foreign spying have been discovered on American soil, the Trump administration did not rebuke the Israeli government, and there were no consequences for Israel’s behavior, one of the former officials said.
The miniature surveillance devices, colloquially known as “StingRays,” mimic regular cell towers to fool cell phones into giving them their locations and identity information. Formally called international mobile subscriber identity-catchers or IMSI-catchers, they also can capture the contents of calls and data use.
California Approves Statewide Rent Control
September 11th, 2019Via: Reuters:
California lawmakers on Wednesday passed a statewide cap on annual rent increases for most tenants, the boldest step yet to address an affordable housing crunch that has helped push people into the streets.
The bill limits annual rent increases to 5% after inflation and takes effect from March of this year. It also imposes restriction on evictions without cause – a significant factor in the state’s burgeoning homeless population.
America’s “Deep State”: From the JFK Assassination to 9/11, Interview with Prof. Peter Dale Scott
September 11th, 2019This is from 2014.
Via: Global Research:
9/11 was the occasion for major changes both in American foreign and domestic policy, it is the reason we went almost immediately into Afghanistan and it is also why we began planning almost immediately to invade Iraq, which was based on the false assumption that Saddam Hussein had some connection with Al-Qaeda. Where evidence had been provided it was false evidence but the administration chose to believe it. From an American point of view the changes in foreign policy are perhaps not as serious as the implementation on that day of what we call continuity of government (COG) procedures, which have radically altered the status of the American constitution in this country. They had been planning for 20 years what to do in the case of a major emergency like 9/11, and the plans were worked on for two decades by Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, who were also the two men who implemented them on 9/11.
We don’t know in detail the plans but I think we can safely sum them up under three headings; one of them is warrantless surveillance, Edward Snowden has proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is massive in the country, and it is because of this COG implementation. One is warrantless detention; we had more than a thousand Muslims rounded up without a warrant and held. We have something called ‘habeas corpus’ in our common law: You are not supposed to hold people for very long without charging them. But more than a thousand people were detained and not charged, and some of them were tortured. That is a huge, huge change in the domestic condition of America.
And then finally the involvement of the military in what we call homeland security. The military now play a police role, and that too is something new. You would occasionally have the army called in briefly to deal with a crisis like the rioting we had in the inner cities in the 1960s. But to have a permanent army command for North America that is called NORTHCOM – that is very new; it is a radical change in the role of the army. And above all this is what I talk about in ‘Deep State’. We now have institutions, which are aiming to operate in America without being controlled by the American constitution. I don’t see how you could have a more radical change than that.
The Trillion-Dollar Military Still Isn’t Enough for the War Party
September 11th, 2019Via: Mises Institute:
Since the end of the Cold War in 1990, US defense spending has increased 182 percent in nominal terms, and 44 percent in inflation-adjusted terms. In inflation-adjusted terms, defense spending is now about equal with the all-time peak reached in 2011, and the White House’s Office of Management and Budget estimates that defense spending will reach an all-time high in 2020.
Why Don’t We Hear Much About Julian Assange?
September 11th, 2019Via: Medium:
In Orwell’s dystopian fiction 1984, the government’s mission through the Ministry of Truth is to supply its people with news, entertainment, books, films, plays and songs, packed with the information it wants the people to know. It constructs lies to fit the narrative it wishes to establish and sets about rewriting historical documents so they match the constantly changing current party line.
Have we slept walked our way into 1984 with the curious witchhunt of Julian Assange?
Trump Says Fed ‘Boneheads’ Should Cut Interest Rates to Zero ‘Or Less,’ U.S. Should Refinance Debt
September 11th, 2019As I was driving through town yesterday afternoon, I saw a bug eyed crazy dude on the side of the road. He was wearing a blanket and frantically babbling to the sky.
That’s about the level we’re at with the suggestion that the U.S. national debt could be refinanced.
Although…
I remember a conversation with my dad about twenty years ago. I was talking about the national debt, how it could never be paid back and how it would keep snowballing until it couldn’t anymore.
Dad’s response was something along the lines of: Simple. The president cancels the debt. The U.S. military has a lot of nuclear missiles and bombers and submarines. Let anyone who wants to collect try it. They were stupid enough to lend money to a country with that kind of firepower—that’s their fuckin’ problem. Fuck ’em.
I laughed and said, “Ok dad, sounds good.”
Then I played this song for dad. It became one of his favorites.
Maybe this could serve as the theme song for how America handles its finances when the debt charade finally breaks down.
F yez all, F yez all, F yez all
Via: CNBC:
President Donald Trump on Wednesday continued his verbal assault on the Federal Reserve, which he blames for slowing the economy, tweeting that the central bank should cut interest rates to zero or even set negative interest rates. The president also called Fed officials “boneheads” in the tweet.
“The Federal Reserve should get our interest rates down to ZERO, or less, and we should then start to refinance our debt. INTEREST COST COULD BE BROUGHT WAY DOWN, while at the same time substantially lengthening the term,” he said.
…
During a CNBC interview in May 2016, Trump said that if the economy turned south, he would try to get creditors to accept partial payment on U.S. debt.
“I would borrow, knowing that if the economy crashed, you could make a deal,” he said then.
His idea was that the U.S. would pay less than face value on the Treasury debt it issues to cover the burgeoning budget deficit.
