Month: June 2011

US: Pregnant Women Who Lose Babies Face Murder Charges!

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– Outcry in America as pregnant women who lose babies face murder charges (Guardian, June 24, 2011):

Women’s rights campaigners see the creeping criminalisation of pregnant women as a new front in the culture wars over abortion.

Rennie Gibbs is accused of murder, but the crime she is alleged to have committed does not sound like an ordinary killing. Yet she faces life in prison in Mississippi over the death of her unborn child.

Gibbs became pregnant aged 15, but lost the baby in December 2006 in a stillbirth when she was 36 weeks into the pregnancy. When prosecutors discovered that she had a cocaine habit – though there is no evidence that drug abuse had anything to do with the baby’s death – they charged her with the “depraved-heart murder” of her child, which carries a mandatory life sentence.

Gibbs is the first woman in Mississippi to be charged with murder relating to the loss of her unborn baby. But her case is by no means isolated. Across the US more and more prosecutions are being brought that seek to turn pregnant women into criminals.

“Women are being stripped of their constitutional personhood and subjected to truly cruel laws,” said Lynn Paltrow of the campaign National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW). “It’s turning pregnant women into a different class of person and removing them of their rights.”

Read moreUS: Pregnant Women Who Lose Babies Face Murder Charges!

EU President Unveils New EU Headquarters, A £280 Million ‘Gilded Cage’

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Looks like a caged Illuminati beehive.

With its “humane gathering place”, “diversity carpet” and £280m cost it is perhaps apt that it has been heralded as the building that “houses the heart of Europe”.

– EU president unveils new £280m ‘gilded cage‘ (Telegraph, June 24, 2011):

While Herman Van Rompuy, the EU president, has described his “Europa building” as a “jewel box”, David Cameron has been less enthusiastic dubbing it a “gilded cage”.

But perhaps even more unfortunate is the moniker the edifice, which will house Mr Van Rompuy’s presidential office and be home to future Brussels summits from 2014, has earned from EU officials.

Built as a state of the art glass and wood wing to an existing Art Deco building, the complex will be focused around a womblike central structure providing a home for summits and meetings of Brussels officials or diplomats.

And it this organic looking “urn” shape has already been nicknamed the “E-Uterus” by Council of the EU officials who will be working in the new building.

“It looks like a womb and, I am sure, many grand visions of Europe will be birthed from there,” quipped one official.

Read moreEU President Unveils New EU Headquarters, A £280 Million ‘Gilded Cage’

China Opens String Of Spy Schools

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– China opens string of spy schools (Telegraph, June 24, 2011):

China has opened a string of spy schools since the beginning of the year in an attempt to significantly increase the training and recruitment of its agents.

Last week, China opened its eighth National Intelligence College on the campus of Hunan University in the central city of Changsha. Since January, similar training schools have opened inside universities in Beijing, Shanghai, Xian, Qingdao and Harbin.

The move comes amid growing worries in the West at the scale and breadth of Chinese intelligence-gathering, with MI5 saying that the Chinese government “represents one of the most significant espionage threats to the UK”.

Read moreChina Opens String Of Spy Schools

Fukushima: Radioactive Water Decontamination Restart Not In Sight, Water Storage Facilities To Overflow Around July 5th

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– Resumption of decontamination system not in sight (NHK, June 25, 2011):

The operator of the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has still not resumed operations of a system to decontaminate highly radioactive water.

Tokyo Electric Power Company had planned to start decontaminating and recycling the water by July 17th to cool the reactors.

Water is being injected continuously into the reactors and the resulting contaminated water is starting to fill up the storage facilities, raising fears that it will start overflowing around July 5th.

Read moreFukushima: Radioactive Water Decontamination Restart Not In Sight, Water Storage Facilities To Overflow Around July 5th

Fukushima: Possibly Zero Or Little Water Left Inside Reactor No. 2

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See also:

– The Fukushima Fuku-Ups Continue: Robot Fail, HoverDrone Fail, Water Decon Fail – OK for Ft Calhoun Spent Fuel Dry Cask To Be Dunked

– Radiation ‘Experiment’ In Japan Just Got Bigger, As Fukushima To Fit All Infants, Kindergarteners, School Children With Radiation Monitoring Badges

TEPCO = Lies, disinformation, propaganda and failure = Japan government

– TEPCO unable to gauge No.2 reactor water level (NHK, June 25, 2011):

The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says it still cannot obtain accurate data on the water level and pressure of the Number 2 reactor. It says a provisional measuring device installed earlier this week is not operating properly.

Tokyo Electric Power Company believes that readings by the original device are incorrect due to damage suffered in the March disaster.

Workers at the utility company entered the Number 2 reactor building and installed the provisional gauge on Wednesday. The company initially planned to have the gauge begin providing data on Thursday.

But it says as of Saturday, the device is not yet working properly.

TEPCO says this is because the temperature near the reactor containment vessel is so high that water inside the device’s pipes has evaporated.

Fuel meltdowns are believed to have occurred at the Number 1 through Number 3 reactors, leading to a possibility that there is little water left inside the Number 2 reactor.

Accurate measurement of the water level is essential for ensuring stable cooling of the reactor.

Read moreFukushima: Possibly Zero Or Little Water Left Inside Reactor No. 2

New Jersey Makes It Official: The Slashing Of Public Employee Benefits Has Begun

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– New Jersey Makes It Official: The Slashing Of Public Employee Benefits Has Begun (Business Insider, Jun. 24, 2011):

New Jersey lawmakers voted to pass Governor Christie’s sweeping cuts in public worker benefits last night.

Despite the 8,500 protesters outside the capital building and a loud public outcry, the bill passed with a vote of 46-32.

Read moreNew Jersey Makes It Official: The Slashing Of Public Employee Benefits Has Begun

Madoff Trustee Seeks $19 Billion From JPMorgan

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Flashback:

– JP Morgan Suspected Bernie Madoff Running A Ponzi Scheme 18 Months Before His Scam Was Revealed

– JP Morgan ‘Ignored Bernard Madoff Red Flags’

– Markopolos: I gift wrapped and delivered the largest Ponzi scheme in history to the SEC

– Whistleblower document warned SEC in Nov. 2005 about Madoff’s Ponzi scheme

– Madoff trustee seeks $19 billion from JPMorgan (Reuters, June 24, 2011):

* Trustee Irving Picard triples lawsuit to $19 billion

* JPMorgan, Madoff’s main bank, calls lawsuit meritless (Adds details from lawsuit, JPMorgan comment, background, dateline, bylines)

NEW YORK, June 24 (Reuters) – The trustee seeking money for Bernard Madoff’s victims is now seeking $19 billion from JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), tripling the amount he hopes to recover from what was once the imprisoned Ponzi schemer’s main bank.

The amended complaint was filed by the trustee Irving Picard just three days after the second-largest U.S. bank agreed to pay $153.6 million to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission fraud charges.

Picard previously sought to recover $6.4 billion from JPMorgan, including $1 billion representing fraudulent transfers and claims, and $5.4 billion of damages.

“JPMorgan Chase’s bankers literally watched the fraud unfold before their very eyes,” Deborah Renner, a lawyer representing Picard, said in a statement.

Read moreMadoff Trustee Seeks $19 Billion From JPMorgan

The Papas And The Papas: Greece’s First Family

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See also:

– PIMCO, The World’s Biggest Bond Fund, Expects Greece And Other European Economies To Default – Allianz Global Investors Capital: Greek Default ‘Inevitable’

– The Papas And The Papas: Greece’s First Family (ZeroHedge, June 24, 2011):

With the resurgence of Greece back to the top of global news, incompetence and labor strikes charts (just like back in 2010 at roughly this time, which is to be expected since 2011 has been following the 2010 script to the dot) there has been far too little focus in the mainstream media on the family whose actions were responsible for Greece’s rise to glory and subsequent collapse into default. As Associates Press notes in its report the ruling family, “One family has dominated Greek politics for more than half a century: the Papandreous.” For all those who are wondering who the men behind the curtain, or as the case may be, front and center, are, the following expose is for you.

The Papandreous: Greece’s first family


One family has dominated Greek politics for more than half a century: the Papandreous.

A George Papandreou was in charge in the 1960s at a time of constitutional upheaval. And a George Papandreou rules now amid a financial crisis that threatens the nation with ruin.

Read moreThe Papas And The Papas: Greece’s First Family

The Truth About Greece – Democracy vs Mythology – The Battle in Syntagma Square

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Nassim Nicholas Taleb is the Lebanese-American philosopher who formulated the theory of “Black Swan Events” – unpredictable, unforeseen events which have a huge impact and can only be explained afterwards. Last week, on Newsnight, he was asked by Jeremy Paxman whether the people taking to the streets in Athens was a Black Swan Event. He replied: “No. The real Black Swan Event is that people are not rioting against the banks in London and New York.”

See also:

– Former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury Dr. Paul Craig Roberts: Revolution is the Only Answer (For Greece, Ireland etc.)

– Alex Andreou: Democracy vs Mythology – The Battle in Syntagma Square (Naked Capitalism,June 21, 2011):

I have never been more desperate to explain and more hopeful for your understanding of any single fact than this: The protests in Greece concern all of you directly.

What is going on in Athens at the moment is resistance against an invasion; an invasion as brutal as that against Poland in 1939. The invading army wears suits instead of uniforms and holds laptops instead of guns, but make no mistake – the attack on our sovereignty is as violent and thorough. Private wealth interests are dictating policy to a sovereign nation, which is expressly and directly against its national interest. Ignore it at your peril. Say to yourselves, if you wish, that perhaps it will stop there. That perhaps the bailiffs will not go after the Portugal and Ireland next. And then Spain and the UK. But it is already beginning to happen. This is why you cannot afford to ignore these events.

Read moreThe Truth About Greece – Democracy vs Mythology – The Battle in Syntagma Square

5 Russian Nuclear Experts Who Helped Design Iran Facility Killed In Plane Crash – Engines Not To Blame For Crash: Aviation Committee

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– Engines not to blame for TU-134 crash – aviation committee (RT, June 23, 2011)

Russian aviation experts have ruled out technical failure as a cause of the fatal passenger jet crash in the country’s north-west. The Russian president wants Tupolev TU-134s to be withdrawn from the country’s passenger fleet.

– Nuclear experts killed in Russia plane crash helped design Iran facility (Haaretz, June 23, 2011):

The five Russian scientists were among 44 killed earlier this week; no official investigation of foul play has been opened, though Iranian nuclear experts have in the past been involved in similar accidents.

The five nuclear experts killed in a plane crash in northern Russia earlier this week had assisted in the design of an Iranian atomic facility, security sources in Russia said on Thursday.

The five Russian experts were among the 44 passengers killed when the Tupolev-134 plane broke up and caught fire on landing outside the northern city of Petrozavodsk on Monday.

ROUNDUP: Birth Defects Caused By World’s Top-Selling Weedkiller, Scientists Say

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– Roundup: Birth Defects Caused By World’s Top-Selling Weedkiller, Scientists Say (Huffington Post, June 24, 2011):

WASHINGTON — The chemical at the heart of the planet’s most widely used herbicide — Roundup weedkiller, used in farms and gardens across the U.S. — is coming under more intense scrutiny following the release of a new report calling for a heightened regulatory response around its use.

Critics have argued for decades that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup and other herbicides used around the globe, poses a serious threat to public health. Industry regulators, however, appear to have consistently overlooked their concerns.

Read moreROUNDUP: Birth Defects Caused By World’s Top-Selling Weedkiller, Scientists Say

Japan Radiation Experiment: Government To Track Health Af All Fukushima Prefecture Residents For 30 Years

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To see what will kill these people first. Will it be radiation related heart attacks or cancer?

– Radiation ‘Experiment’ In Japan Just Got Bigger, As Fukushima To Fit All Infants, Kindergarteners, School Children With Radiation Monitoring Badges:

… these are not “dosimeters” but “glass badges” that passively collect radiation information. It won’t help these children or their parents to avoid high-radiation areas and spots, it won’t tell them how much radiation they will have been exposed unless they are sent in to a company to interpret the data.

– Radioactive Playground In Tokyo Metro Area!

– Are Japan Kids Being (Ab)Used For Radiation Research?

– Fukushima City (Over 290,000 People) Is In Danger: Greenpeace Detects Cobalt-60 And High Radiation ‘Hot Spots’ – Children Should Be Evacuated Immediately

– Fund to track Fukushima health (Japan Times/Kyodo News, June 24, 2011):

The government plans to establish a ¥103 billion fund to track the health of all Fukushima Prefecture residents for 30 years, because of radiation leaking from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, government sources said Thursday.

The government plans to allocate ¥78 billion in a second supplementary budget for the current fiscal year and intends to ask plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. to contribute ¥25 billion.

The study will manage and monitor the health of the prefecture’s residents amid concern about the long-term impact from radiation that continues to leak from the plant more than three months after the crisis started.

Read moreJapan Radiation Experiment: Government To Track Health Af All Fukushima Prefecture Residents For 30 Years

Magnitude 7.3 Earthquake Of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands

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Don’t miss:

– Global Earthquake Update And Overview: Continuing Worldwide Unrest – Yellowstone, Cascades, California (06/22/2011)

– ‘It was shaking and rumbly’: Tsunami warning in ALASKA as huge earthquake strikes coast (Daily Mail, June 24, 2011):

A magnitude-7.3 earthquake shook a large swath of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands on Thursday evening as a tsunami warning was issued.

Residents of small coastal towns were sent to higher ground as officials issued a tsunami warning in the trembler’s wake.

Read moreMagnitude 7.3 Earthquake Of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands

The Fukushima Fuku-Ups Continue: Robot Fail, HoverDrone Fail, Water Decon Fail – OK for Ft Calhoun Spent Fuel Dry Cask To Be Dunked

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– Fukushima Fuku-Ups Continue (Asian-Week, June 24, 2011):

AP reports that
the Japanese have finally brought out their own robots instead of the military-strength Roombas. Well, the Quince robot built by Chiba Institute of Technology specifically for nuclear disasters was sent to unit 2 to have a peek at the radioactive stew in the basement. but got stuck at a staircase landing. Plus the cable to drop a gauge into the basement didn’t work either. The T-hawk hover drone gizmo they got from the US military also landed or landed or crashed depending on who was writing on the roof of Unit 2, the building that still has a roof. It’s on its side, so I’d call that a crash.

What somebody called their try at making Fukushima Springs Bottled Water failed when their spectacular hacked together cesium filter essentially bottled up more radioactive bad crap to render the filter too hot for workers to even remove after a matter of hours when they were planning on the water being much less severely contamainated so that it was supposed to run for a month. That’s a problem because they can’t dump any more water to cool things if they don’t have any place to put it, and it goes into the ocean.

Read moreThe Fukushima Fuku-Ups Continue: Robot Fail, HoverDrone Fail, Water Decon Fail – OK for Ft Calhoun Spent Fuel Dry Cask To Be Dunked

Accumulated INTERNAL Radiation Exposure In Fukushima Prefecture Residents Exceeded 3 Millisieverts For About 2 Months

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– High level of radiation exposure estimated (NHK, June 24, 2011):

A group of doctors has found that the estimated level of accumulated internal radiation exposure for people living in Fukushima Prefecture has exceeded 3 millisieverts.

The researchers, including doctors who have provided medical care to A-bomb survivors, conducted analysis on the food and urine of 15 residents in Iitate Village and Kawamata Town in Fukushima Prefecture. These areas are about 40 kilometers from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

They estimate that residents have been internally exposed to up to 3.2 millisieverts for about 2 months, measuring from the date of the accident in March until early May.

Read moreAccumulated INTERNAL Radiation Exposure In Fukushima Prefecture Residents Exceeded 3 Millisieverts For About 2 Months

Global Earthquake Update And Overview: Continuing Worldwide Unrest – Yellowstone, Cascades, California (06/22/2011)

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Update:

– Magnitude 7.3 Earthquake Of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands

Monitor the quakes via the sites below:

Read moreGlobal Earthquake Update And Overview: Continuing Worldwide Unrest – Yellowstone, Cascades, California (06/22/2011)

Radiation ‘Experiment’ In Japan Just Got Bigger, As Fukushima To Fit All Infants, Kindergarteners, School Children With Radiation Monitoring Badges

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See also:

– Radioactive Playground In Tokyo Metro Area!

– Are Japan Kids Being (Ab)Used For Radiation Research?

– Michio Kaku: These Humans Are Guinea Pigs! (Video – 60 Minutes)

– #Radiation in Japan: “Experiment” Just Got Bigger, As Fukushima to Fit All Infants, Kindergarteners, School Children with Radiation Monitoring Badges (EX-SKF, June 23, 2011):

(CORRECTION: From NHK English it was not clear how young these children could be, but I checked the NHK Japanese, and found out that they will distribute these badges to 0-year-olds and older, all the way to junior high school students.)

There they go. Dr. Shunichi Yamashita must be thrilled for the prospect of a research of a lifetime!

Fukushima Prefecture decided to fit ALL kindergarteners, elementary school and junior high school children in Fukushima Prefecture, 280,000 of them, with what NHK World called “dosimeter” to monitor the radiation level as experienced by these small and young children.

From NHK World (English) (6/24/2011):

Fukushima Prefecture has decided to distribute dosimeters to about 280 thousand children to monitor their radiation exposure caused by the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Read moreRadiation ‘Experiment’ In Japan Just Got Bigger, As Fukushima To Fit All Infants, Kindergarteners, School Children With Radiation Monitoring Badges

Debris From Japanese Tsunami Headed For Pacific ‘Garbage Patch’

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– Debris from Japanese tsunami headed for Pacific ‘garbage patch’ (Telegraph, June 23, 2011):

Millions of tons of debris washed out to sea from north-east Japan by the March 11 tsunami has embarked on a 10-year circuit of the Pacific, endangering shipping and wildlife.

The French environmental group Robin des Bois estimates that a large percentage of the 25 million tons of debris created by the magnitude 9 earthquake and the tsunami that it triggered has been sucked out to sea.

Read moreDebris From Japanese Tsunami Headed For Pacific ‘Garbage Patch’

Fukushima: Unmanned Helicopter Crash Lands On Roof Of Reactor No. 2

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– Unmanned helicopter crash lands at nuke plant (NHK, June 24, 2011):

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says it lost control of an unmanned helicopter during a flight near the No. 2 reactor building, forcing the controller to make an emergency landing on a roof there.

Tokyo Electric Power Company says the remote-controlled light helicopter took off from an observatory south of the Fukushima plant just past 6:30 AM on Friday. Its mission was to collect airborne radioactive substances around the No. 2 reactor building.

Read moreFukushima: Unmanned Helicopter Crash Lands On Roof Of Reactor No. 2

Levee North Of Brownville, Near Cooper Nuclear Plant Fails

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Floodwaters from the Missouri river overtop a levy in Brownville, Neb., Sunday, June, 19, 2011. When the Missouri River reached 42.5 feet, or 899 feet above sea level Sunday morning, the Nebraska Public Power District issued a flooding alert for its nuclear power plant, Cooper Nuclear Station. Cooper, located near Brownville, is at 903 feet elevation, and NPPD officials said the river would have to climb to 902 feet at Brownville before officials would shut down the plant. (AP)

– Levee breaks north of Brownville (Journal Star, June 23, 2011):

A levee three miles north of Brownville in Missouri failed at about 9 p.m. Thursday, right in front a pair of people patrolling there.

Read moreLevee North Of Brownville, Near Cooper Nuclear Plant Fails

GREECE: Get Ready For 40 Hours That Will Decide The Fate Of The Euro

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– GREECE: Get Ready For 40 Hours That Will Decide The Fate Of The Euro (Business Insider, June 24, 2011):

Get ready for the most exciting 40 hours of your life.

Greece has just announced (via Bloomberg) the official schedule of the austerity debate.

It will start on June 27 at 6:00 PM (11:00 AM ET). The final debate will start at 10:00 AM (3:00 AM ET) on the 29th).

Already this morning, futures dipped just on one comment from a PASOK (ruling party MP) on how he might vote against the measure.

This debate will be filled with comments and tension, and should be totally wild.

Read moreGREECE: Get Ready For 40 Hours That Will Decide The Fate Of The Euro

Third World America: Drowning In Debt And Choking On Lies Third World – By Janet Tavakoli

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– Third World America: Drowning In Debt And Choking On Lies (Business Insider, June 24, 2011):

If a drunk driver crashed his speeding rental car crashed into your house and killed your spouse, you would be outraged if law enforcers took bribes and refused to give the driver a blood test. If the judge then gave the killer a small fine and ordered you to pay the fine and pay for all the damages, you’d be outraged. If the government then handed the drunk-driver keys to a bigger faster rental car, handed the drunk driver an even bigger bottle of whiskey and then gave you the rental bill, you’d storm Washington and blizzard elected officials with protests and organize friends and associates to vote these malefactors, the elected officials that betrayed your trust, out of office.

Read moreThird World America: Drowning In Debt And Choking On Lies Third World – By Janet Tavakoli

Austrian Company Debuts Revolutionary Wingless Aircraft

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– Austrian company debuts revolutionary wingless aircraft (PhysOrg, June 24, 2011):

A firm from Austria, Austrian Innovative Aeronautical Technology (IAT21) has unveiled a new type of aircraft that flies without wings or rotors, at the Paris Air Show. Though not actually flown at the show, spokesmen for the new aircraft, named D-Dalus (no doubt after the tragic Greek figure Daedalus, who lost his son Icarus when his wings melted as he flew too close to the sun) claim the aircraft is capable of both hovering and flying forward as fast as a jet, all with very little noise.

The is actually based on old technology; it flies by means of rotating discs surrounded by blades whose angle of attack can be altered in flight. The discs are spun by means of a conventional . What’s new is the computer and software that controls the blades, allowing for very precise flying. The company says D-Dalus can hover next to a wall, maneuver though buildings or even lay still atop a moving bobbing ship in bad weather by pushing itself down against the deck.

Read moreAustrian Company Debuts Revolutionary Wingless Aircraft