New Details Emerge on How the U.S. Government Armed Mexican Drug Cartels
October 1st, 2012Via: ABC / Univision:
On January 30, 2010, a commando of at least 20 hit men parked themselves outside a birthday party of high school and college students in Villas de Salvarcar, Ciudad Juarez. Near midnight, the assassins, later identified as hired guns for the Mexican cartel La Linea, broke into a one-story house and opened fire on a gathering of nearly 60 teenagers. Outside, lookouts gunned down a screaming neighbor and several students who had managed to escape. Fourteen young men and women were killed, and 12 more were wounded before the hit men finally fled.
Indirectly, the United States government played a role in the massacre by supplying some of the firearms used by the cartel murderers. Three of the high caliber weapons fired that night in Villas de Salvarcar were linked to a gun tracing operation run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), according to a Mexican army document obtained exclusively by Univision News.
Univision News identified a total of 57 more previously unreported firearms that were bought by straw purchasers monitored by ATF during Operation Fast and Furious, and then recovered in Mexico in sites related to murders, kidnappings, and at least one other massacre.
As part of Operation Fast and Furious, ATF allowed 1,961 guns to “walk” out of the U.S. in an effort to identify the high profile cartel leaders who received them. The agency eventually lost track of the weapons, and they often ended up in the hands of Mexican hit men , including those who ordered and carried out the attack on Salvarcar and El Aliviane, a rehabilitation center in Ciudad Juarez where 18 young men were killed on September 2, 2009.
About One in Four People Out of Work in Spain and Greece
October 1st, 2012Via: Telegraph:
Eurozone unemployment has hit a record high, revealing further evidence of a two-speed Europe as increasing numbers of young people in Spain, Greece and Italy desperately seek work while Germany’s jobless rate continues to fall.
…
The overall unemployment rate in Spain has reached 25.1pc, while the latest data from Greece for June shows a figure of 24.4pc. The outlook is far more optimistic in Germany, however, where just 5.5pc of people are out of work.
Related: 10% Miss Work Because of Depression
Jamie Lamb Hilton
October 1st, 2012Incredible.
Via: New York Daily News:
A former beauty queen says she is “pretty well back to normal” after undergoing a remarkable brain surgery in which 25 percent of her skull was stored in her abdomen for safe-keeping.
Modern Wheat a ‘Perfect, Chronic Poison’
October 1st, 2012Via: CBS News:
The Rockwell International Integrated Space Plan
October 1st, 2012Via: Grist:
Sean Ragan of MAKE magazine just posted this amazing graphic, which he tracked down after being mildly obsessed with it for more than a decade. It’s an “Integrated Space Plan” drawn up by Rockwell International, a conglomerate of manufacturing companies in the aerospace, electronics, and truck component industries. The plan was created in the ’80s, and is supposed to be a detailed flow chart for establishing a permanent human presence in space. And it. Is. Amazing.
More: The Rockwell International Integrated Space Plan
Research Credit: RP
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October 1st, 2012Thanks to the owners of incathedra.com and F* Systems (not the real company name) for signing up for hosting with BlueHost. F* Systems guys: Considering your company’s line of work, I seriously doubt that you want to be mentioned here, but if you do, please email me from your domain and I’ll post it.
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October 1st, 2012Thank you.
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U.S. Military Deaths in Afghanistan Hit 2,000
September 30th, 2012Via: AP:
The killing of an American serviceman in an exchange of fire with allied Afghan soldiers pushed U.S. military deaths in the war to 2,000, a cold reminder of the perils that remain after an 11-year conflict that now garners little public interest at home.
The toll has climbed steadily in recent months with a spate of attacks by Afghan army and police — supposed allies — against American and NATO troops.
Air Force Might Move X-37B Operations to Florida
September 30th, 2012Via: Florida Today:
The military’s mysterious mini-shuttle operations might be consolidated on Florida’s Space Coast, and the upcoming third flight of the Air Force vehicle might land at Kennedy Space Center’s three-mile shuttle runway.
In what could be an economic boon for an area still reeling from the 2011 retirement of the U.S. shuttle fleet, the Air Force said Thursday it was considering moving X-37B operations to KSC or Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
China: 50ft Tsunami of Foam Sweeps Through Village After Chemical Spill
September 30th, 2012Harmless. Nothing to see here. Carry on.
Via: Daily Mail:
This wall of foam sparked widespread panic among locals as it rushed along a river in southern China.
The mass of soapy suds blanketed the water in Xintang, in China’s Guangdong province, leading to evacuations along the banks of the river.
But officials have now said the only threat posed by the foam – thought to have been caused by chemicals washed into the river – was the possibility of ‘one or two dead fish’ lurking in the bubbles.
