Holder Cleared in Justice Gunwalking Probe
September 20th, 2012Mmm hmm.
Via: CBS:
The Justice Department’s inspector general cleared Attorney General Eric Holder Wednesday of knowing about the gun-walking operation known as Fast and Furious that allowed thousands of weapons to cross into Mexico.
But Inspector General Michael Horowitz concluded that there were “serious failures” at both the Justice Department and its Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives going back more than six years, CBS Radio News reporter Stephanie Lambidakis reports.
Horowitz found that no one running the operations — not agents, nor prosecutors, nor managers — questioned the wisdom of letting guns vanish across the border with Mexico, where they ended up in the hands of drug traffickers.
BPA: It’s Not That Bad, It’s Worse
September 20th, 2012Via: Smithsonian Magazine:
Now comes another piece of data on a potential risk from BPA but in an area of health in which it has largely been overlooked: obesity. A study by researchers from New York University, published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association, looked at a sample of nearly 3,000 children and teens across the country and found a “significant” link between the amount of BPA in their urine and the prevalence of obesity.
“This is the first association of an environmental chemical in childhood obesity in a large, nationally representative sample,” said lead investigator Leonardo Trasande, who studies the role of environmental factors in childhood disease at NYU. “We note the recent FDA ban of BPA in baby bottles and sippy cups, yet our findings raise questions about exposure to BPA in consumer products used by older children.”
Nanostructured Thermoelectric Material Breaks Record for Turning Heat Into Electricity
September 20th, 2012Definitely don’t hold your breath while you wait for this one to power your flux capacitor, but it’s interesting anyway.
Via: Nature:
A scrambled-up material has broken the record for converting heat into electricity. Findings published today in Nature suggest that disorder may be the key to creating a new generation of energy-harvesting technologies.
…
The material had a conversion efficiency of about 15% — double that of normal PbTe thermoelectrics.
Man Pays for Cross-Country Trip Using Only Bacon as Currency
September 20th, 2012The story below is a corporate stunt, but I enjoy bartering work for food. You may remember how some people paid me for some computer work with heifer. I just did another computer job (maybe 30 minutes) and was given enough seafood delicacies to feed six adults and two children with some left over.
Via: Travelers Today:
Travel can be expensive. One man is using a unique way to pay for a trip as a challenge. Pennsylvania comedian Josh Sankey is on a mission to make a cross-country road trip from New York to Los Angeles with no other currency but bacon.
Sankey isn’t carrying any cash or credit cards as he makes his cross country trip. He is paying for everything from gas to lodging by using uncooked bacon as currency. He set off on his trip with 3,000 pounds of the popular meat and he seems to be getting good deals with it so far.
“I got two tickets to the Jets game for six bricks [of bacon],” Sankey told ABC. “They were pretty good seats, too.”
Sankey’s trip is part of a promotion for bacon producer Oscar Mayer. He is being followed by a film crew as they document Sankey’s bacon barter.
Sankey, of New Castle, kicked off his trip in New York on Sept. 9. He has until Sept. 23 to make it to Los Angeles as he barters the bacon that he’s towing in a trailer.
Sankey has made some interesting trades so far along his journey. He was able to get a taxi ride in NYC, Jets tickets, lodging at stranger’s houses who he met through Twitter, homemade moonshine and wine, jumper cables, gas money and more. Sankey was even able to hire 29 college interns for 100 pounds of bacon in Lafayette, Ind. However the strangest trade was paying a fan with 200 bricks of bacon to get a bacon tattoo, which cost another 200 bricks of bacon.
iTravel: Apple’s Secret Plan to Join iPhones with Airport Security
September 20th, 2012If you have been waiting for a good one for the top of your Not-The-Onion pile, this is it.
Via: CNN:
Apple is releasing a mobile wallet app called Passbook which could lead to some of the ideas suggested in these iTravel patent schematics, which were submitted in 2008. The patent was granted last July.
“Empty pocket” travel apps would eliminate the need to carry credit cards, airline tickets, boarding passes, baggage claim stubs, car or hotel reservations, or even personal identification.
European Union Bans Full Body Airport Scanners Over Safety Concerns, Why Are They Still Allowed in the U.S.?
September 20th, 2012Because they go great with the GMO corn based diet?
Via: Daily Mail:
Controversial airport ‘strip-search’ full body scanners are to be scrapped after they failed to get approval from European bosses.
Experts feared the ‘naked’ body scanners, which use X-ray technology to show up hidden explosives or weapons, could emit harmful levels of cancer-causing radiation.
The move in Europe begs the question — why are they still allowed in the United States? Hundreds of the devices are in use at at least 68 airports across the nation.
Research Credit: almaverdad2
Ghost Warehouse Stocks Haunt China’s Steel Sector
September 20th, 2012This one about the steel will seem very familiar to anyone who has looked into various “gold” ETF and storage schemes offered by large banks around the world.
Via: Reuters:
Chinese banks and companies looking to seize steel pledged as collateral by firms that have defaulted on loans are making an uncomfortable discovery: the metal was never in the warehouses in the first place.
China’s demand has faltered with the slowing economy, pushing steel prices to a three-year low and making it tough for mills and traders to keep up with payments on the $400 billion of debt they racked up during years of double-digit growth.
As defaults have risen in the world’s largest steel consumer, lenders have found that warehouse receipts for metal pledged as collateral do not always lead them to stacks of stored metal. Chinese authorities are investigating a number of cases in which steel documented in receipts was either not there, belonged to another company or had been pledged as collateral to multiple lenders, industry sources said.
Ghost inventories are exacerbating the wider ailments of the sector in China, which produces around 45 percent of the world’s steel and has over 200 million metric tons (220.5 million tons) of excess production capacity. Steel is another drag on a financial system struggling with bad loans from the property sector and local governments.
“What we have seen so far is just the tip of the iceberg,” said a trader from a steel firm in Shanghai who declined to be identified as he was not authorized to speak to the media. “The situation will get worse as poor demand, slumping prices and tight credit from banks create a domino effect on the industry.”
Research Credit: alvinroasting
Harvard Losing Out to South Dakota in Graduate Pay
September 19th, 2012Via: Bloomberg:
Harvard University’s graduates are earning less than those from the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology after a decade-long commodity bull market created shortages of workers as well as minerals.
Those leaving the college of 2,300 students this year got paid a median salary of $56,700, according to PayScale Inc., which tracks employee compensation data from surveys. At Harvard, where tuition fees are almost four times higher, they got $54,100. Those scheduled to leave the campus in Rapid City, South Dakota, in May are already getting offers, at a time when about one in 10 recent U.S. college graduates is out of work.
France to Close Embassies in Fear of Cartoon Backlash
September 19th, 2012Via: France24:
The French foreign ministry announced Wednesday that France will close 20 of its embassies in Muslim countries this Friday following the publication of controversial Prophet Mohammed cartoons by satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo. Major protests in the Muslim world generally take place after Friday prayers.
The illustrations, which show the Prophet Mohammed naked and refer to the incendiary US-made film which has been fueling deadly unrest among Muslim communities for over a week, hit newsstands across France on Wednesday.
Related: The Onion: No One Murdered Because Of This Image [NSFW]
Tungsten-Filled 10 Oz Gold Bar Found In Manhattan
September 19th, 2012Via: ZeroHedge:
Moments ago, Myfoxny reported that a 10-ounce gold bar costing nearly $18,000 turned out to be a counterfeit. The discovery was made by the dealer Ibrahim Fadl, who bought the PAMP bar in question from a merchant who has sold him real gold before. “But he heard counterfeit gold bars were going around, so he drilled into several of his gold bars worth $100,000 and saw gray tungsten — not gold. The bar was filled with tungsten, which weighs nearly the same as gold but costs just over a dollar an ounce.”
