Real Headline: First U.S. Soldier Killed in Iraq Since Withdrawal of Combat Troops
August 23rd, 2010Combat Brigades in Iraq Under Different Name
Satire: Obama Declares Victory, Sort Of, Depending On How You Look At It, In Iraq
Via: Guardian:
An American soldier was killed by a rocket strike near Basra today, in the first US fatality since the last combat troops left Iraq.
Egg Recall
August 22nd, 2010Via: AP:
Two Iowa farms that recalled more than a half-billion eggs linked to as many as 1,300 cases of salmonella poisoning share suppliers of chickens and feed as well as ties to an Iowa business routinely cited for violating state and federal law.
Frederick Forsyth Claims NSA Wrecked Wife’s Computer by Remote
August 22nd, 2010I’d like to know more about what happened to her computer.
Via: BBC:
Frederick Forsyth, bestselling author of thrillers like The Day of the Jackal and The Dogs of War, was in the West African state of Guinea-Bissau last year when the president was assassinated.
His presence there, he now believes, led suspicious US intelligence forces to launch a cyber-attack on his wife’s computer.
…
Forsyth still writes a column for the Daily Express and says he thought he had better tell them what was going on in Guinea-Bissau. He does not use computers or mobile phones but borrowed a phone and dictated 1,000 words of copy.
“Unfortunately, the American intelligence services listened to it and wasted my wife’s computer screen and totalled all her lunch dates,” he claims.
Friends in ‘low places’
Mr Forsyth has no proof for this claim.
He suspected foul play as soon as he got back home to his farm in Berkshire and discovered that his wife’s computer had ceased to function.
He claims his suspicions were confirmed to him by his sources – the mysterious people who inform his thriller writing, whom he likes to describe as his “friends in low places”.
“Everything up there in the ether is intercepted, probably by the National Security Agency at Fort Meade in Maryland, and I think my report ended up somewhere on a desk at Fort Meade,” he says.
Gene Burnett – Jump You F*#kers (A Song For Wall Street)
August 22nd, 2010Research Credit: Carol
Hardship Withdrawals from 401(k) Retirement Plans Rose to Highest Level in Decade
August 22nd, 2010Via: CNN:
Hardship withdrawals from 401(k) retirement saving plans rose to the highest level in 10 years during the second quarter, Fidelity Investments said on Friday, in the latest sign of a dismal economy.
Fidelity reported that, as of the second quarter, 2.2% of all 401(k) participants had made a hardship withdrawal at some point over the preceding 12 months. That’s up from 2% in the prior year, and was the highest level in 10 years.
At the same time, the percentage of 401(k) participants that had an outstanding loan from their account rose to a record high of 22% in the second quarter. The average loan amount was $8,650 at the end of the quarter.
…
The top reasons people took loans and made withdrawals were to prevent foreclosure or eviction, pay for college, or purchase a home, according to the firm.
“The current economy has forced some workers to borrow from their 401(k) accounts in order to pay for critical living expenses, ultimately jeopardizing their future retirement,” said James MacDonald, president of workplace investing for Fidelity Investments.
Related: Small Investors Flee Stock Market
Combat Brigades in Iraq Under Different Name
August 22nd, 2010Via: Army Times:
As the final convoy of the Army’s 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, based at Fort Lewis, Wash., entered Kuwait early Thursday, a different Stryker brigade remained in Iraq.
Soldiers from the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the 25th Infantry Division are deployed in Iraq as members of an Advise and Assist Brigade, the Army’s designation for brigades selected to conduct security force assistance.
So while the “last full U.S. combat brigade” have left Iraq, just under 50,000 soldiers from specially trained heavy, infantry and Stryker brigades will stay, as well as two combat aviation brigades.
Related: Satire: Obama Declares Victory, Sort Of, Depending On How You Look At It, In Iraq
Blackwater Founder Moves to Abu Dhabi
August 22nd, 2010Via: New York Times:
Erik Prince, whose company, Blackwater Worldwide, is for sale and whose former top managers are facing criminal charges, has left the United States and moved to Abu Dhabi, according to court documents.
Mr. Prince, a former member of the Navy Seals and an heir to a Michigan auto parts fortune, left the country after a series of civil lawsuits, criminal charges and Congressional investigations singled out Blackwater or its former executives and other personnel. His company, now called Xe Services, has collected hundreds of millions of dollars from the United States government since 2001.
Current and former colleagues said Mr. Prince hoped to focus on security work from governments in Africa and the Middle East. They also said he was bitter about the legal scrutiny and negative publicity his company had received.
“He needs a break from America,” said one colleague, speaking only on the condition of anonymity about Mr. Prince’s long-rumored move.
Copenhagen Suborbitals
August 22nd, 2010Homebrew submarine: Check
Homebrew rocket: Check
Homebrew sealaunch platform: Check
The countdown is running on the test flight:
The micro spacecraft (MSC) Tycho Brahe-1 is the payload of the HEAT booster. It is a pressurized volume providing support for one upright standing/half-sitting person, with a full view through a polymer plexiglas-dome to experience the entire ballistic ride. Based on the expected flight data and future test-flights, g-force loads and rocket orientation, we will determine the seating construction and necessary support to ensure a safe human travel.
No matter what happens:
Via: Copenhagen Suborbitals:
Our mission is very simple. We are working towards launching a human being into space. This is a non-profit suborbital space endeavor lead by Kristian von Bengtson and Peter Madsen, based entirely on sponsors and volunteers.
Related: Something Awful Thread with Posts by Copenhagen Suborbitals Team Members
U.S. Scientist Retracts Assurances Over Success of Gulf of Mexico Cleanup
August 21st, 2010Via: Guardian:
White House claims that the worst of the BP oil spill was over were undermined yesterday when a senior government scientist said three-quarters of the oil was still in the Gulf environment and a research study detected a 22-mile plume of oil in the ocean depths.
Bill Lehr, a senior scientist at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) departed from an official report from two weeks ago which suggested the majority of the oil had been captured or broken down.
“I would say most of that is still in the environment,” Lehr, the lead author of the report, told the house energy and commerce committee.
The growing evidence that the White House painted an overly optimistic picture when officials claimed two weeks ago the remaining oil in the Gulf was rapidly breaking down fuelled a sense of outrage in the scientific community that government agencies are hiding data and spinning the science of the oil spill. No new oil has entered the Gulf since 15 July, but officials said yesterday the well is unlikely to be sealed for good until mid-September.
Related: Gulf of Mexico: Continuous Oil Plume Over 35KM in Length, at Approximately 1100M Depth
The Julian Assange Allegations
August 21st, 2010Update: Warrant Canceled
Mmm hmm.
Via: BBC:
Swedish authorities have cancelled an arrest warrant for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange on accusations of rape and molestation.
The Swedish Prosecution Authority website said the chief prosecutor had come to the decision that Mr Assange was not suspected of rape.
The warrant was issued late on Friday.
Wikileaks, which has been criticised for leaking Afghan war documents, had quoted Mr Assange as saying the charges were “without basis”.
That message, which appeared on Twitter and was attributed directly to Mr Assange, said the appearance of the allegations “at this moment is deeply disturbing”.
In a series of other messages posted on the Wikileaks Twitter feed, the whistle-blowing website said: “No-one here has been contacted by Swedish police”, and that it had been warned to expect “dirty tricks”.
The Swedish Prosecution Authority website said chief prosecutor Eva Finne had come to the decision that Julian Assange was not suspected of rape and so was not subject to arrest. It said Eva Finne would make no further immediate comment.
—End Update—
The fact that I’m reading about this damn near everywhere, and that so many people are submitting it, is giving me a really bad feeling. The hive mind of Reddit is upvoting “character assassination” type comments to the top. Be extremely careful when coming to the same conclusion as the zombie herd on Reddit.
I’m coming out with a solid: I don’t know what the f*&@ is happening here.
Via: AP:
The founder of WikiLeaks was accused of rape in a Swedish arrest warrant Saturday that turned the spotlight onto the former hacker who’s infuriated governments with his self-proclaimed mission to make secrets public.
The accusation was labeled a dirty trick by Julian Assange and his group, who are preparing to release a fresh batch of classified U.S. documents from the Afghan war.
Swedish prosecutors urged Assange — a nomadic 39-year-old Australian whose whereabouts were unclear — to turn himself in to police to face questioning in one case involving suspicions of rape and another based on an accusation of molestation.
They issued a warrant for his arrest, a move that doesn’t necessarily mean that criminal charges will be filed. Investigators want him in custody because they believe there is a risk he will obstruct the probe by destroying evidence, said Karin Rosander, a spokeswoman for the Swedish Prosecution Authority.
“The next step is that we interrogate him,” she said. “Then we’ll see what happens.”
Assange has no permanent address and travels frequently — jumping from one friend’s place to the next. He disappears from public view for months at a time, only to reappear in the full glare of the cameras at packed news conferences to discuss his site’s latest disclosure.
He was in Sweden last week seeking legal protection for the whistle-blower website, which angered the Obama administration for publishing thousands of leaked documents about U.S. military activities in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Assange dismissed the rape allegations in a statement on WikiLeaks’ Twitter page, saying “the charges are without basis and their issue at this moment is deeply disturbing.”
Keep in Mind: WikiLeaks Founder, “Constantly Annoyed that People Are Distracted by False Conspiracies Such as 9/11?
