The Biggest Bank in France Has Suddenly Cut ATM Daily Cash Access Limit in Half
June 9th, 2011Via: Max Keiser:
I just got off the phone with Pierre Jananovic . . . La Banque Postale has lowered the limits on the amounts of cash customers can withdraw per week by 50%. First of all, for you Americans and Brits, the way France works its banking system – customers are limited to how much they can withdraw per week from their accts no matter what the balance. Now what has happened here is that Gold card members – who could take out 3,000 euros a week – are now limited to 1,500 a week.
Japan: High Radiation on the Ground in Tokyo
June 9th, 2011Definitely see: Interview: Arnie Gundersen Talks About Radioactive Dust from Fukushima in Seattle.
Via: YouTube:
Another beautiful day in Japan, I am 135 miles / 220 Km south of Fukushima, on the outskirts of the Tokyo area. It is Tuesday, June 7th, as you can see in the video, I just walk outside of my house and …. radiation. The air is not dangerous but the ground is. The radiation is much higher in low lying areas and the government here is desperately trying to keep it quiet.
Saudi Regime Delays Revolution with Payouts
June 9th, 2011Via: New York Times:
As one nation after another has battled uprisings across the Arab world, the one major country spared is also its richest — Saudi Arabia, where a fresh infusion of money has so far bought order.
The kingdom is spending $130 billion to pump up salaries, build housing and finance religious organizations, among other outlays, effectively neutralizing most opposition. King Abdullah began wielding his checkbook right after leaders in Tunisia and Egypt fell, seeking to placate the public and reward a loyal religious establishment. The king’s reserves, swollen by more than $214 billion in oil revenue last year, have insulated the royal family from widespread demands for change even while some discontent simmers.
U.S. Is Escalating War in Yemen
June 9th, 2011Via: New York Times:
The Obama administration has intensified the American covert war in Yemen, exploiting a growing power vacuum in the country to strike at militant suspects with armed drones and fighter jets, according to American officials.
The acceleration of the American campaign in recent weeks comes amid a violent conflict in Yemen that has left the government in Sana, a United States ally, struggling to cling to power. Yemeni troops that had been battling militants linked to Al Qaeda in the south have been pulled back to the capital, and American officials see the strikes as one of the few options to keep the militants from consolidating power.
Telecom New Zealand Overcharging: Contact the Commerce Commission
June 9th, 2011Reminder to those in New Zealand who are battling Telecom’s swindling: Gather all of your information and send it to the Commerce Commission.
Via: New Zealand Herald:
Telecom can’t count and could be overcharging thousands of customers’ broadband accounts.
That’s the message from some customers who are complaining Telecom has been over-counting their broadband usage for several months.
The Herald has received detailed internet usage logs from two Telecom customers – one in Dunedin and the other in New Plymouth – which show over-counting broadband downloads, in one period by as much as 139 per cent. Both have raised the matter repeatedly with Telecom, but have yet to get an explanation.
“We showed Telecom five days of data as early as February 14,” says director Mark Peisker of Dunedin’s CueClub. “There was massive variance between our data and that reported by the Telecom usage meter. I said to them: ‘Your counting has very little to do with what comes down my line to me’.”
CueClub’s data taken from its two internet routers shows an average of 62 per cent over-counting during a three month period – the worst month being May when Telecom counted an extra 118.24 gigabytes (GB) of usage amounting to $203.97 in overcharging.
Similarly Alister Lambert in New Plymouth first logged a fault with Telecom in January.
His monitoring of his router data over the last four months reveals over-counting of around 30 per cent each month.
Related: Don’t Be a Victim of Telecom New Zealand
Steve Jobs Proposes Eco Temple Headquarters for Apple as Factory Workers Who Make the Company’s Products Die from Explosions and Suicides
June 8th, 2011Can you believe this guy?
Here you go, Steve, read up, I bet your employees are: The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t.
Via: NBC:
Skip ahead about 2,000 years and think of the ruins of buildings that humans (or otherwise) might experience — much like travelers see the Acropolis today.
Apple’s newly proposed headquarters might spark speculation as to its purpose. A perfect circle, standing four stories tall, that housed 12,000 workers — and bucked convention by burying the parking lots and doubled the trees. Oasis? Maybe a temple? A killer shopping mall?
Or maybe a landed spaceship, as Steve Jobs described it to the Cupertino City Council on Tuesday night.
Boasting the world’s largest piece of architectural glass, the circular structure would be built on some former Hewlett-Packard property that Jobs’ team bought.
The entire area to be renovated is about 150 acres, according to Jobs. The campus design would actually increase green space and landscaping by about 350 percent more than at present. Campus parking goes underground to help increase the tree count from 3,700 to 6,000. The senior arborist at Stanford is overseeing that aspect of the project.
Related:
Workers Assembling Apple Products Urged to Sign Anti Suicide Pledge
Another Foxconn Employee Commits Suicide
Los Angeles Abandons Red Light Cameras; Most Citations Unpaid
June 8th, 2011Via: CBS:
The civilian board that oversees the Los Angeles Police Department has put the brakes on the city’s red-light traffic camera program.
The Police Commission agreed Tuesday to reject a proposal from police officials to award a new contract to the company that has been operating the cameras.
An audit last year questioned the effectiveness of the program, finding that a majority of citations have gone uncollected. Commissioner Alan Skobin says that since the courts don’t pursue drivers who refuse to pay the tickets, the camera program lacks enforcement power.
Poll: 48% of Americans Say That Another Great Depression Is Likely to Occur in the Next Year
June 8th, 2011Via: CNN:
Forty-eight percent say that another Great Depression is likely to occur in the next year – the highest that figure has ever reached. The survey also indicates that just under half live in a household where someone has lost a job or are worried that unemployment may hit them in the near future. The poll was conducted starting Friday, when the Labor Department reported that the nation’s jobless rate edged up to 9.1 percent.
“The poll reminded respondents that during the Depression in the 1930s, roughly one in four workers were unemployed, banks failed, and millions of Americans were homeless or unable to feed their families,” says Holland. “And even with that reminder, nearly half said that another depression was likely in the next 12 months. That’s not just economic pessimism – that’s economic fatalism.”
According to the survey, more than eight in ten Americans say that the economy is in poor shape, a number that has stubbornly remained at that level since March.
And Now… Obama Pledges Help for Greek Bailout
June 8th, 2011Via: CNBC/Reuters:
President Barack Obama on Tuesday urged European countries and bondholders to prevent a “disastrous” default by Greece and pledged U.S. support to help tackle the country’s debt crisis.
Obama, whose political prospects have suffered from persistently high unemployment and ballooning U.S. debt, has pinpointed the euro zone crisis as one foreign “headwind” hitting the U.S. economy.
Interview: Arnie Gundersen Talks About Radioactive Dust from Fukushima in Seattle
June 8th, 2011Keep an eye on the situation with reactor 4.
Via: Chris Martenson:
Arnie Gundersen: Yea, and actually we should extend this to the West Coast, because the same particles there too. To answer your question about Tokyo; what I’m advising people in Tokyo who are there now, is take your shoes off at the door, wet dust. Don’t dry dust. We are actually finding that contamination inside houses is higher now than contamination outside because it has been trucked in over the last two months and it hasn’t left. And if you dry dust you throw all of that radioactive material up into the air. I am also advising friends there to buy these little HEPA filters, high efficiency particulate filters that look like a little round device that sits on the floor, and change the filters frequently. Also advising people to remove the filters in their air conditioners and the air conditioner in their car, and replace them. Because they pick up particles over the last couple of months and it is a good time to replace them as well. Also telling people don’t do any demolition work. The last thing you want to do right now is tear a wing off your house because you will stir up that dust, not knowing exactly what’s in it, you run a risk of contamination.
The other things I am telling friends in Tokyo is keep your eye on Unit Four. If there is an earthquake and Unit Four topples don’t believe the authorities you are well beyond where science has ever imagined and it is time to get on a flight and get out of there.
…
Chris Martenson: Alright, to wrap this up, I am just interested in for all of our listeners who may live in Japan or live in the West Coast or wherever they may be; if there is an aftershock and if Building four sort of topples over what would your advice be, I heard your advice to the people in Japan, get on a plane if possible or get far away or know which way the wind is moving and go in the other direction. What would you do if you were in the United States and you saw that that had happened?
Arnie Gundersen: Well, I am in touch with some scientists now who have been monitoring the air on the West Coast and in Seattle for instance, in April, the average person in Seattle breathed in 10 hot particles a day.
Chris Martenson: What? I did not know that.
Arnie Gundersen: Well, the report takes some time to make its way into the literature. The average human being breathes about 10 meters a day of air, cubic meters of air. And the air out in the Seattle area are detecting, when they pull 10 cubic meters through them, this is in April now, so we are in the end of May so it is a better situation now. That air filter will have 10 hot particles on it. And that was before the Unit Four issue. Clearly we all can’t run south of the equator to our second homes in Rio or something like that. But it will stay north of the equator for anyone who has a Leer jet and can get out. But I guess what I am advising at that point is keep your windows closed. I would definitely wear some sort of a filter if I was outside. I certainly wouldn’t run and exercise until I was sure the plume had dissipated. This isn’t now. This is, as you were saying, this is worst case. If Unit Four were to topple, I would close my windows, turn the air conditioner on, replace the filters frequently, damp mop, put a HEPA filter in the house and try to avoid as much of the hot particles as possible. You are not going to walk out with a Geiger counter and be in a plume that is going to tell you the meter. The issue will be on the West Coast, hot particles. And the solution there is HEPA filters and avoiding them.
Research Credit: Pookie
