North Carolina: Panhandling Permits
September 29th, 2009Via: WRAL:
During the down economy, panhandling-related offenses are on the rise in Raleigh. So far this year, police have arrested 212 people on charges, such as panhandling without a permit, loitering and pedestrian interference.
During the same time last year, 162 people had been arrested.
Martin Sansalone said he knows how to panhandle within the city’s guidelines. He has been asking for money on the corner of Interstate 440 and Poole Road for four years.
The 62-year old says, for him, begging is about survival.
“I couldn’t pay the bills,” he said.
Sansalone lives in a homeless campsite in the woods near the intersection.
“We are just gambling out here right now,” he said of life on the streets.
On a good day, Sansalone said he can make $20 an hour panhandling, but he must have a permit from the Raleigh Police Department.
“Oh yeah, I got a permit,” he said Monday afternoon.
The permits last a year and without one, beggars could be arrested and fined.
Thomas Mills was charged Friday with begging without a permit, according to an arrest warrant. The 38-year-old homeless man was taken into custody on the corner of I-440 and Hillsborough Street.
“If they are going to be panhandling, begging in the city of Raleigh, they are expected to have that permit,” said Raleigh police spokesman Jim Sughrue.
The permits are free, but a photo ID is needed to apply.
“Once it is made certain they are not people who are wanted for anything, then a permit can be issued to them,” Sughrue said.
The permits are designed to help police identify the panhandlers, while also pointing out guidelines. The permit asks that there be no aggressive begging and no blocking traffic. Panhandlers are also advised to stay away from ATM machines and to operate between the hours of 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.
When Farming Is Just About Money: New Zealand’s Biggest Dairy Farmer Allows Calves to Starve to Death
September 29th, 2009If you’re outside of New Zealand, chances are that this isn’t all over your mainstream media. In New Zealand, this is a very big story.
Anytime food production is turned into an industrial process that involves commoditization and absurd commitments to international bankers, there are going to be atrocities.
Predictably, much of the outrage is directed at Allan Crafar. And yes, clearly, the guy lost the plot and his miscalculations finally resulted in… this.
In what kind of environment can something like this happen, and who’s actually benefiting from the financial arrangements that are making these large scale farms possible?
This is much bigger than Allan Crafar and a bunch of dead calves.
Dairy farming is a strategic component of New Zealand’s economy. Fonterra is the corporation that moves the milk around, makes lots of products out of it, and sells all of that stuff domestically and abroad. Fonterra is largest corporation in New Zealand and it alone is responsible for about 25% of New Zealand’s exports. Fonterra is responsible for about 40% of the global trade in dairy products.
Farmers have gone “all in” with mostly Australian and Dutch banks to borrow the huge sums of money required to establish dairy operations. The result is that ninety five percent of the milk that’s produced in New Zealand is exported. (Most of the profits earned by the banks are exported as well.)
What’s the real cost of producing this much milk on pasture?
People are jumping up and down over the dead calves in this ugly incident. Yes. That’s definitely horrible. However, look at the mouth of a river in a region where intensive dairying is underway. See that brown water? That’s the dirt washing out to sea. Too many animals. Not enough trees (cleared to make cow pastures). Lots of rain. All of this adds up to soil erosion.
In New Zealand, we’re proud of the fact that animals are raised on pasture, but most people don’t stop to think about what it takes to grow all of that grass.
HAHA. Nuts.
Now, why not just back it off a bit, run fewer animals over larger areas, etc.? Why are such high levels of intensity required for agricultural production in New Zealand?
Remember the part above about absurd commitments to international bankers?
I need to be VERY careful about what I say here because New Zealand is a village, and somebody’s auntie will know someone who will know someone, but let’s just say that I know some dairy farmers. When I learned what these people were paying in interest to the bank on a weekly basis, I took a step back in disbelief and my jaw hung slack. If a farmer has taken out a loan to buy a dairy farm, that guy is now engaged in a white knuckle death match between everything that happens on the farm, good and bad, and the bank.
Price of milk solids down?
“Pay me,” says the bank.
Fertilizer price triples in two years?
“Pay me,” says the bank.
Price of diesel fuel keeping farmers awake at night?
“Pay me,” says the bank.
Etc. It goes on and on, and on and on.
Obviously, farmers wouldn’t be doing it if it wasn’t worth it, and when times are good, that’s fine, but… what happens when the situation tightens up?
There is no government teat in New Zealand for farmers. There are no subsidies at all. New Zealand plays by free trade standards that few other countries abide by. New Zealand is the only country in the developed world that has totally dismantled farm subsidies. (I think farm subsidies are very bad, but I also think that very large scale farming is very bad.) The point is: At the end of the day, either a farmer can make his loan payments, or he can’t.
Eventually, in the process of going for broke, something usually breaks. In this particular case, there was a pile of calf carcasses on New Zealand television in prime time. There might be international economic implications for New Zealand because of this. However, the maximum-extraction-to-pay-interest-to-bankers reality that’s driving this kind of thing won’t come up.
People, in general, don’t want to hear about it. They’re too busy trying to come up with interest payments.
Via: Interest New Zealand [WARNING: Graphic images and video.]:
New Zealand’s biggest privately held dairying operation allowed dozens of calves on one of its massive farms on North Island’s central plateau to slowly dehydrate to death earlier this month, triggering a MAF investigation but no prosecution.
New York Health Workers: Get Vaccinated or Get Fired
September 29th, 2009There are many people reading this who work in health care. How hard would it be to “obtain” a sample of the actual H1N1 vaccine and have it analyzed?
What I mean is: A sample from the stuff that is actually distributed to clinicians and meant for use on the public. Assuming that a sample of the vaccine could be obtained, what would be the (approximate) cost to have it analyzed and what types of organizations could do that properly?
Is it possible that this would be done as a matter of routine? If so, where do we look to find that information?
Via: Newsday:
Despite a planned rally in Albany Tuesday to protest a state regulation requiring health care workers be vaccinated against influenza — both seasonal and swine flu — New York’s top public health official predicts dissenters will ultimately extinguish their anger and roll up their sleeves.
The regulation, which was approved in August, comes with a stinging addendum: Get vaccinated or get fired.
But some nurses and many other health care providers say the regulation violates their personal freedom and leaves them vulnerable to vaccine injury. And they cite deaths associated with the last federal government swine-flu vaccination program in 1976.
Bank of England Calls Emergency Meeting Over Sterling
September 28th, 2009Via: Telegraph:
The Bank of England has summoned the City’s leading economists to an unprecedented meeting in Threadneedle Street, as the pound plunges amid growing confusion over its radical Quantitative Easing (QE) policy.
The Bank will host a seminar of all London’s major economists next Tuesday – the first time it has invited them in en masse in recent memory – in what has been construed as a sign that it fears market participants are starting to lose faith in its efforts to pump cash into the economy. The move has also sparked speculation that it is poised to announce a major change to the monetary policy framework, although insiders dismissed such suggestions.
It came after the minutes from the Bank’s latest Monetary Policy Committee meeting revealed that the idea of cutting the interest rate banks are paid on the reserves they hold there was not discussed this month. The pound has lurched lower in recent weeks, thanks in part to speculation that the Bank will impose charges on banks for holding excessive amounts of cash in reserve at its vaults. Under QE, it is pumping £175bn into the economy, but much of this cash is sitting in banks’ reserve accounts rather than being recycled and flowing around the broader economy.
The suspicion that the Bank will soon take action to mitigate this has pushed down market interest rates sharply and contributed to an almost 5pc fall in the pound against other leading currencies. It has caused gilt prices and short-term interest rates to fluctuate wildly in recent weeks.
The Bank’s seminar, chaired by deputy Governor Charlie Bean, alongside chief economist Spencer Dale and markets director Paul Fisher, is intended to clear up this confusion. It sparked anticipation in the City not merely because the Bank has a reputation for extreme secrecy, but because some suspect it may come alongside an announcement over the Bank’s reserves policy. Others suspect the Bank is concerned that many think either that QE amounts to printing money, much as Zimbabwe and Weimar Germany did, or that it simply is not working.
However, insiders insisted that although the meeting was unusual, it is merely intended to mark six months since the policy began.
Spain: More Bad Economic News
September 28th, 2009Via: Telegraph:
Spain is sliding into a full-blown economic depression with unemployment approaching levels not seen since the Second Republic of the 1930s and little chance of recovery until well into the next decade, according to a clutch of reports over recent days.
The Madrid research group RR de Acuña & Asociados said the collapse of Spain’s building industry will cause the economy to contract for the next three years, with a peak to trough loss of over 11pc of GDP. The grim forecast is starkly at odds with claims by premier Jose Luis Zapatero, who still says Spain’s recession will be milder than elsewhere in Europe.
RR de Acuña said the overhang of unsold properties on the market, or still being built, has reached 1,623,000 . This dwarfs annual demand of 218,000, and will take six or seven years to clear. The group said Spain’s unemployment will peak at around 25pc, comparable to the worst chapter of the Great Depression.
Escalator Fall Kills Hedge Fund Manager
September 28th, 2009Via: NBC News:
A hedge fund executive died early Sunday morning after falling three floors from an escalator at The Pier Shops at Caesars, according to police.
Atlantic City police said James Vellanti, 40, fell from the third to the first floor. Vellanti lived in Clinton, Hunterdon County and was Chief Operating Officer for the hedge fund JNF Asset Management, LLC in New York. His LinkedIn profile says he went to West Chester University in the 1980s.
This is the second incident at The Pier. In August, Frank Gilbert, of Galloway Township, plunged about 40 feet and died of head injuries. Witness said Gilbert, 25, sat on the moving handrail and fell backward, according to Press of Atlantic City.
Washington State Lifts Limit on Mercury Preservative in Swine-Flu Shots
September 28th, 2009Via: Seattle Times:
In preparation for swine-flu vaccinations next month, Washington’s Health Department on Thursday temporarily suspended a rule that limits the amount of a mercury preservative in vaccines given to pregnant women and children under the age of 3.
The preservative, thimerosal, has never been linked to any health problems, said Secretary of Health Mary Selecky. But a vocal minority believes the compound could be linked to autism. The state Legislature adopted the limit in 2006.
Thimerosal has been eliminated from most vaccines in the United States, but it will be added to the bulk of the swine-flu vaccine being produced to stem a pandemic that health officials estimate could sicken more than a third of the state’s residents.
Pregnant women and young children are considered at high risk for swine flu, and lifting the mercury limits will give them quicker access to the vaccine, Selecky said.
“It’s vital that everyone in a high-risk group has the choice to be vaccinated when swine-flu vaccine becomes available,” she said.
U.S. Intelligence Budget: $75 Billion, 200,000 Operatives
September 28th, 2009Via: Dissident Voice:
Speaking at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club September 15, Director of National Intelligence Admiral Dennis C. Blair, disclosed that the current annual budget for the 16 agency U.S. “Intelligence Community” (IC) clocks-in at $75 billion and employs some 200,000 operatives world-wide, including private contractors.
In unveiling an unclassified version of the National Intelligence Strategy (NIS), Blair asserts he is seeking to break down “this old distinction between military and nonmilitary intelligence,” stating that the “traditional fault line” separating secretive military programs from overall intelligence activities “is no longer relevant.”
As if to emphasize the sweeping nature of Blair’s remarks, Federal Computer Week reported September 17 that “some non-federal officials with the necessary clearances who work at intelligence fusion centers around the country will soon have limited access to classified terrorism-related information that resides in the Defense Department’s classified network.” According to the publication:
Under the program, authorized state, local or tribal officials will be able to access pre-approved data on the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network. However, they won’t have the ability to upload data or edit existing content, officials said. They also will not have access to all classified information, only the information that federal officials make available to them.
The non-federal officials will get access via the Homeland Security department’s secret-level Homeland Security Data Network. That network is currently deployed at 27 of the more than 70 fusion centers located around the country, according to DHS. Officials from different levels of government share homeland security-related information through the fusion centers. (Ben Bain, “DOD opens some classified information to non-federal officials,” Federal Computer Week, September 17, 2009)
Since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the federal government has encouraged the explosive growth of fusion centers. As envisaged by securocrats, these hybrid institutions have expanded information collection and sharing practices from a wide variety of sources, including commercial databases, among state and local law enforcement agencies, the private sector and federal security agencies, including military intelligence.
But early on, fusion centers like the notorious “red squads” of the 1960s and ’70s, morphed into national security shopping malls where officials monitor not only alleged terrorists but also left-wing and environmental activists deemed threats to the existing corporate order.
It is currently unknown how many military intelligence analysts are stationed at fusion centers, what their roles are and whether or not they are engaged in domestic surveillance.
If past practices are an indication of where current moves by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) will lead, in breaking down the “traditional fault line” that prohibits the military from engaging in civilian policing, then another troubling step along the dark road of militarizing American society will have been taken.
Berkeley and DARPA: Cyborg Beetle Piloted by Remote Control
September 28th, 2009Via: Wired:
The creation of a cyborg insect army has just taken a step closer to reality. A research team at the University of California Berkeley recently announced that it has successfully implanted electrodes into a beetle allowing scientists to control the insect’s movements in flight. “We demonstrated the remote control of insects in free flight via an implantable radioequipped miniature neural stimulating system,” the researchers reported in their new paper for Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience. ” The pronotum mounted system consisted of neural stimulators, muscular stimulators, a radio transceiver-equipped microcontroller and a microbattery.”
The research, supported by the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is part of a broader effort, called the HI-MEMS program, which has been looking specifically at different approaches to implanting micro-mechanical systems into insects in order to control their movements.
A number of research teams working on this ambitious project have reported specific successes. For example, researchers at the University of Michigan have demonstrated implants in a flying moth, but the Berkeley scientists appear to have demonstrated an impressive degree of control over their insect’s flight; they report being able to use an implant for neural stimulation of the beetle’s brain to start, stop, and control the insect in flight. They could even command turns by stimulating the basalar muscles.
Eventually, the mind-controlled insects could be used to “serve as couriers to locations not easily accessible to humans or terrestrial robots,” they note.
More: Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience: Remote Radio Control of Insect Flight:
We demonstrated the remote control of insects in free flight via an implantable radio-equipped miniature neural stimulating system. The pronotum mounted system consisted of neural stimulators, muscular stimulators, a radio transceiver-equipped microcontroller and a microbattery. Flight initiation, cessation and elevation control were accomplished through neural stimulus of the brain which elicited, suppressed or modulated wing oscillation. Turns were triggered through the direct muscular stimulus of either of the basalar muscles. We characterized the response times, success rates, and free-flight trajectories elicited by our neural control systems in remotely-controlled beetles. We believe this type of technology will open the door to in-flight perturbation and recording of insect flight responses.
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