Infinite

Department Of Homeland Security Now Armed For ’24-Year Iraq War’

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– Feds buying enough bullets for ’24-year war’ (WND, Feb 17, 2013)

Federal, non-military agencies, noted radio host Mark Levin last week, have purchased enough ammunition recently to not only shoot every American five times, but also engage in a prolonged, domestic war.

The numbers are based on recent reports that put the total federal ammunition buy in the last 10 months at approaching two billion rounds.

“To provide some perspective,” Levin noted, “experts estimate that at the peak of the Iraq war American troops were firing around 5.5 million rounds per month. At that rate, the [Department of Homeland Security] is armed now for a 24-year Iraq war. A 24-year Iraq war!”

What do federal agencies need with all that ammunition?

Read moreDepartment Of Homeland Security Now Armed For ’24-Year Iraq War’

New Technology Produces Solar Cells From Wood Pulp

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– [Hope] Technology to produce solar cell from wood pulp is developed, “Manufacturing cost is 1/100,000? (Fukushima Diary, Feb 19, 2013):

Associate professor Nogi from Osaka university developed the technology to produce solar cell from wood pulp with his developing team.

The manufacturing cost is 1/100,000 of the one with glass substrates, 1/500 ~ 5,000 of the one with plastic.

Read moreNew Technology Produces Solar Cells From Wood Pulp

30 Corporations With Over $163 Billion In Profits Paid Zero Taxes, Had Even A NEGATIVE $10.6 Billion Tax Liability

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Flashback:

Documentary: America: Freedom To Fascism – Director’s Authorized Version

– Abolish The Income Tax: You Won’t Believe Who Is Getting Away With Paying Zero Taxes While The Middle Class Gets Hammered (Economic Collapse, Feb 18, 2013):

The federal income tax is a bad joke and it needs to be abolished.  All over the nation, hard working American families are being absolutely crushed by oppressive levels of taxation, and our politicians are constantly coming up with new ways to extract money from all of us every single year.  Meanwhile, many ultra-wealthy Americans and many of the most profitable corporations in the country pay little to nothing in taxes.  In fact, as you will see below, there are dozens of very prominent corporations that make billions of dollars in profits and yet don’t pay a dime in taxes.  Tax avoidance has become a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States.  Those that have the resources to “play the game” use shell companies, offshore tax havens and the thousands of loopholes in our tax code to minimize their tax burdens as much as possible.  Meanwhile, the rest of us get absolutely hammered.  This is fundamentally unfair.  The federal income tax system is irreversibly broken at this point, and it is time to abolish it.  If you think that the federal income tax system can be “fixed”, then you probably have never studied it.  Our tax code is nearly 4 million words long and it is absolutely riddled with thousands of loopholes that favor big corporations and the ultra-wealthy.  We should come up with a better, fairer way to fund the government.  The United States once prospered greatly without a federal income tax, and it could do so again.

Read more30 Corporations With Over $163 Billion In Profits Paid Zero Taxes, Had Even A NEGATIVE $10.6 Billion Tax Liability

High Levels Of Radioactive Cesium Detected In Fish Off Chiba (200 Km From Fukushima Nuke Plant)

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– High levels of cesium detected in fish off Chiba (NHK, Feb 18, 2013):

Fish caught in waters off Choshi City in Chiba Prefecture have been found to contain radioactive cesium above the government safety limit.

Choshi is nearly 200 kilometers south of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Chiba Prefecture says it found 130 becquerels of cesium per kilogram in Japanese sea bass caught about 10 kilometers off Choshi on Thursday of last week. The acceptable limit is 100 becquerels.

It is the first time that higher-than-permitted levels of radioactive substances have been found in fish landed at ports in the prefecture.

Read moreHigh Levels Of Radioactive Cesium Detected In Fish Off Chiba (200 Km From Fukushima Nuke Plant)

The Reflation Party Is Ending As China Withdraws Market Liquidity For First Time In Eight Months

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– The Reflation Party Is Ending As China Withdraws Market Liquidity For First Time In Eight Months (ZeroHedge, Feb 19, 2013):

Since institutional memories are short, it is time to remind readers that it was the threat, and subsequent reality, of China overheating in the spring and summer of 2011 (when record high food prices sent the entire North African region in a state of coordinated revolt and gradually moved far east), when even the Great firewall of China could not block news of frequent break outs of localized violence from hungry and angry mobs, that halted and broke the spine of the great reflation trade then (and yes, 2013 has so far been a carbon copy replica of 2011 as we summarized in “It’s Deja Vu, All Over Again: This Time Is… Completely The Same“).

Furthermore, as only Zero Hedge forecast back in mid-2012, when ever other commentator was shouting over the rooftops that an RRR or interest rate cut out of Beijing was imminent, the PBOC would be the last to stimulate the market with monetary easing as it was well-aware that an entire developed world reflating at the same time would hit none other than China the fastest as the hot money flew straight into Shanghai. Just as it did in 2011. So instead China proceeded to engage in a series of daily reverse repos, or ultra-short term liquidity injections that prevented the advent of wholesale inflation: after all the Fed, the BOJ, the ECB and soon, the BOE, were doing it for them. And the last thing the country with the highest allotment of CPI, or book inflation, to food and energy can afford, is to let foreign central banks dictate its price level. After all, it has more than enough of its own.

Well, the Chinese New Year celebration is now over, the Year of the Snake is here, and those following the Shanghai Composite have lots to hiss about, as two out of two trading days have printed in the red. But a far bigger concern to not only those long the SHCOMP, but the “Great Reflation Trade – ver. 2013″, is that just as two years ago, China appears set to pull out first, as once again inflation rears its ugly head. And where the PBOC goes, everyone else grudgingly has to follow: after all without China there is no marginal growth driver to the world economy.

End result: China’s reverse repos, or liquidity providing operations, have ended after month of daily injections, and the first outright repo, or liquidity draining operation, just took place after eight months of dormancy.

From the WSJ:

Chinese authorities took a step to ease potential inflationary pressures Tuesday by using a key mechanism for the first time in eight months.

The move by the central bank to withdraw cash from the banking system is a reversal after months of pumping cash in. That cash flood was meant to reduce borrowing costs for businesses as the economy slowed last year—but recent data has shown growth picking up, along with the main determinants of inflation: housing and food prices.

Read moreThe Reflation Party Is Ending As China Withdraws Market Liquidity For First Time In Eight Months

Fallout Ruining Everything 180 Km Away Fukushima Nuke Plant

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From the article (180 km from Fukushima Daiichi):

“Everything I’ve done up till now, it’s all become no good. I can’t collect wild vegetables and I can’t sell my mushrooms. There are problems with the fish in the rivers and I have to worry about contamination levels in the wild game, too. That’s what makes me the most angry,” he said.

– Fukushima radiation threatens to wreak woodland havoc (Japan Times, Feb 17, 2013):

For Yuji Hoshino, mushrooms were a way of life. The 50-year-old farmer grew up watching his father raise shiitake mushrooms on their land at the foot of the mountains in Sano, southern Tochigi Prefecture.

Later, he became the one to yearly cut about 15,000 logs, each about a meter long and the diameter of a coffee saucer, from oak forests near his home. He would stud these logs with specially inoculated spore pegs and then stack them in forests and greenhouses for the crop to mature. Three to eight years later, hundreds of thousands of fleshy, white-and-brown mushrooms would be ready to pick.

Read moreFallout Ruining Everything 180 Km Away Fukushima Nuke Plant

Retail Apocalypse

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– Retail Apocalypse: Why Are Major Retail Chains All Over America Collapsing? (Economic Collapse, Feb 17, 2013):

If the economy is improving, then why are many of the largest retail chains in America closing hundreds of stores?  When I was growing up, Sears, J.C. Penney, Best Buy and RadioShack were all considered to be unstoppable retail powerhouses.  But now it is being projected that all of them will close hundreds of stores before the end of 2013.  Even Wal-Mart is running into problems.  A recent internal Wal-Mart memo that was leaked to Bloomberg described February sales as a “total disaster”.  So why is this happening?  Why are major retail chains all over America collapsing?  Is the “retail apocalypse” upon us?  Well, the truth is that this is just another sign that the U.S. economy is falling apart right in front of our eyes.  Incomes are declining, taxes are going up, government dependence is at an all-time high, and according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the percentage of the U.S. labor force that is employed has been steadily falling since 2006.  The top 10% of all income earners in the U.S. are still doing very well, but most U.S. consumers are either flat broke or are drowning in debt.  The large disposable incomes that the big retail chains have depended upon in the past simply are not there anymore.  So retail chains all over the United States are now closing up unprofitable stores.  This is especially true in low income areas.

When you step back and take a look at the bigger picture, the rapid decline of some of our largest retail chains really is stunning.

Read moreRetail Apocalypse

Russia: Chelyabinsk Meteor Was Largest Object To Hit Earth In More Than A Century, Say Scientists

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– The Search Is on for Meteorite (Wall Street Journal , Feb 19, 2013):

The meteor that crashed to earth in Russia was about 55 feet in diameter, weighed around 10,000 tons and was made from a stony material, scientists said, making it the largest such object to hit the Earth in more than a century.

Large pieces of it have yet to be found. However, a team from Ural Federal University, which is based in Yekaterinburg, collected 53 fragments, the largest of which was 7 millimeters, according to Viktor Grokhovsky, a scientist at the university.

It is the largest reported meteor since the one that hit Tunguska, Siberia, in 1908, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The U.S. agency’s new estimate of the meteor’s size was a marked increase from its initial one.

Read moreRussia: Chelyabinsk Meteor Was Largest Object To Hit Earth In More Than A Century, Say Scientists

US: No. 1 In Healthcare Spending, Last In Life Expectancy

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– U.S. ranks first in healthcare spending but last in life expectancy (Natural News, Feb 18, 2013):

If you think pharmaceutical drugs, vaccines, and various other instruments of modern Western medicine are responsible for improving quality of life and increasing the average lifespan in America, think again. A report recently issued by the National Research Council (NRC) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) reveals that the U.S. spends up to 250 percent more on healthcare than most other developed nations, and yet has the lowest life expectancy rate among all these same nations.

Entitled U.S. Health in International Perspectives: Shorter Lives, Poorer Health, the report compares the latest available data on mortality and health outcomes in the United States with that of 16 other so-called “peer” nations, including Japan, Switzerland, Australia, and Canada. Each of these other countries is considered to be roughly on par with the U.S. in terms of income and government structure, and each represents an important cross-section of the collective welfare of the developed world.

Based on the figures, the U.S. far outspends all other developed nations on healthcare expenditures, ranking in at a whopping $8,233 annually per person, on average. The only nation that even comes close to this figure is Norway, which spends roughly $5,388 annually per person on medical expenditures, or roughly 65 percent of what the U.S. spends. Iceland, whose economy recently made a huge comeback after its citizens forcibly dismantled the nation’s corrupt central bank, only spends about $3,309 annually per person.

Read moreUS: No. 1 In Healthcare Spending, Last In Life Expectancy

UBS: The British Pound Is At Risk Of ‘Large-Scale Devaluation’

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– Forex Flash: The British pound is the next big devaluation story – UBS (Nasdaq, Feb 17, 2013):

Sterling is likely to be the next major currency that depreciates strongly, says Mansoor Mohi-uddin, Head of Foreign Exchange Strategy at UBS Macro Research.

“As central banks tolerate higher levels of inflation, the pound is set to weaken further across the board particularly against our favourite G4 currency, the US dollar” Mr. Mohi-uddin adds.

He concludes: “The GBP seems clearly at risk of following the yen and suffering the next large scale devaluation. As a result, we issued a recommendation that clients buy a six-month sterling put/US dollar call option with a strike of 1.4800.”

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts: America Shamed Again: A Colonized People

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Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during President Reagan’s first term. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal. He has held numerous academic appointments, including the William E. Simon Chair, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University, and Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University.

– America Shamed Again: A colonized people — Paul Craig Roberts (Feb 17, 2013):

Americans have been shamed many times by their elected representatives who cravenly bow to vested interests and betray the American people. But no previous disgraceful behavior can match the public shame brought to Americans by the behavior of the Senate Republicans in the confirmation hearing of Senator Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense.

Read moreDr. Paul Craig Roberts: America Shamed Again: A Colonized People

Chimpanzee Memory Study Suggests Apes’ Short-Term Recall Better Than Humans’

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– Chimpanzee Memory Study Suggests Apes’ Short-Term Recall Better Than Humans’ (Huffington Post, Feb 17, 2013):

Boston — Chimpanzees may have more smarts than humans, at least regarding short-term memories, new research suggests.

A Japanese researcher presented a video showing the remarkable abilities of a chimpanzee named Ayumu, here at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Thursday (Feb. 14). When the numbers 1 through 9 appeared randomly on a screen and then disappeared, the chimpanzee was able to recall the exact sequence and location of each number. Ayumu has also learnt numbers 1 through 19 and is able to touch each one in ascending order, which hasn’t been shown before, Tetsuro Matsuzawa, a researcher at Kyoto University’s Primate Research Institute, told Livescience.

As Matsuzawa showed the video to a room of scientists and journalists, murmurs of amazement were heard. “Don’t worry, nobody can do it,” Matsuzawa said, with an almost mischievous smile. “It’s impossible for you.”

Read moreChimpanzee Memory Study Suggests Apes’ Short-Term Recall Better Than Humans’

Sensational Breakthrough: The First Bionic Hand That Can Feel

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The hand will be attached directly to the patient’s nervous system via electrodes

– A sensational breakthrough: the first bionic hand that can feel IIndependent, Feb 17, 2013):

The first bionic hand that allows an amputee to feel what they are touching will be transplanted later this year in a pioneering operation that could introduce a new generation of artificial limbs with sensory perception.

The patient is an unnamed man in his 20s living in Rome who lost the lower part of his arm following an accident, said Silvestro Micera of the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland.

The wiring of his new bionic hand will be connected to the patient’s nervous system with the hope that the man will be able to control the movements of the hand as well as receiving touch signals from the hand’s skin sensors.

Read moreSensational Breakthrough: The First Bionic Hand That Can Feel

Scientists Create ‘Sixth Sense’ Brain Implant To Detect Infrared Light

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– Scientists create ‘sixth sense’ brain implant to detect infrared light (Telegraph, Feb 17, 2013):

A brain implant which could allow humans to detect invisible infrared light has been developed by scientists in America.

Scientists have created a “sixth sense” by creating a brain implant through which infrared light can be detected.

Although the light could not be seen lab rats were able to detect it via electrodes in the part of the brain responsible for their sense of touch.

Similar devices have previously been used to make up for lost capabilities, for example giving paralysed patients the ability to move a cursor around the screen with their thoughts.

But the new study, by researchers from Duke University in North Carolina, is the first case in which such devices have been used to give an animal a completely new sense.

Dr Miguel Nicolelis said the advance, reported in the Nature Communications journal this week, was just a prelude to a major breakthrough on a “brain-to-brain interface” which will be announced in another paper next month.

Speaking at the annual meeting of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science in Boston on Sunday, he described the mystery work as something “no one has dreamed could be done”.

The second paper is being kept secret until it is published but Dr Nicolelis’s comments raise the prospect of an implant which could allow one animal’s brain to interact directly with another.

Read moreScientists Create ‘Sixth Sense’ Brain Implant To Detect Infrared Light

DARPA Wants To Watch You Type

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– DARPA wants to watch you type (Foreign policy, Feb 15, 2013):

DARPA is getting serious about one of the issues that cyber-security professionals inside and outside government regularly bemoan: the relative inability of weak passwords to protect…anything.

To overcome the fact that passwords can be stolen or hacked — and don’t necessarily protect a computer once the authorized user is logged on — the Pentagon’s research arm has kicked off a $14 million effort to develop sensors that can constantly monitor users’ online behavior to determine whether they are who they say they are.

Read moreDARPA Wants To Watch You Type

WA: Hanford Nuclear Tank Is Leaking Liquids

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From the article:

“Central to that cleanup is the removal of millions of gallons of a highly toxic, radioactive stew — enough to fill dozens of Olympic-size swimming pools — from 177 aging, underground tanks. Many of those tanks have leaked over time — an estimated 1 million gallons of waste — threatening the groundwater and the neighboring Columbia River, the largest waterway in the Pacific Northwest.”

– Hanford Nuclear Tank in Wash. Is Leaking Liquids(ABC News, Feb 16, 2013):

The long-delayed cleanup of the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site became the subject of more bad news Friday, when Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced that a radioactive waste tank there is leaking.

The news raises concerns about the integrity of similar tanks at south-central Washington’s Hanford nuclear reservation and puts added pressure on the federal government to resolve construction problems with the plant being built to alleviate environmental and safety risks from the waste.

The tanks, which are already long past their intended 20-year life span, hold millions of gallons of a highly radioactive stew left from decades of plutonium production for nuclear weapons.

Read moreWA: Hanford Nuclear Tank Is Leaking Liquids

Drones Are Taking To The Skies In The U.S.

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– Drones are taking to the skies in the U.S. (Los Angeles Times, Feb 15, 2013):

WASHINGTON — While a national debate has erupted over the Obama administration’s lethal drone strikes overseas, federal authorities have stepped up efforts to license surveillance drones for law enforcement and other uses in U.S. airspace, spurring growing concern about violations of privacy.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday it had issued 1,428 permits to domestic drone operators since 2007, far more than were previously known. Some 327 permits are still listed as active.

Operators include police, universities, state transportation departments and at least seven federal agencies. The remotely controlled aircraft vary widely, from devices as small as model airplanes to large unarmed Predators.

The FAA, which has a September 2015 deadline from Congress to open the nation’s airspace to drone traffic, has estimated 10,000 drones could be aloft five years later. The FAA this week solicited proposals to create six sites across the country to test drones, a crucial step before widespread government and commercial use is approved.

Local and state law enforcement agencies are expected to be among the largest customers.

Read moreDrones Are Taking To The Skies In The U.S.

Why Almost Everyone in Russia Has A Dash Cam In Their Car

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– Why Almost Everyone in Russia Has a Dash Cam (Wired, Feb 15, 2013):

How is it possible that a dozen different motorists around the Russian city of Chelyabinsk were able to capture video of a massive meteor flying through the sky? Because almost everyone in Russia has a dash-mounted video camera in their car.

The sheer size of the country, combined with lax — and often corrupt — law enforcement, and a legal system that rarely favors first-hand accounts of traffic collisions has made dash cams all but a requirement for motorists.

“You can get into your car without your pants on, but never get into a car without a dash cam,” Aleksei Dozorov, a motorists’ rights activist in Russia told Radio Free Europe last year.

Read moreWhy Almost Everyone in Russia Has A Dash Cam In Their Car

Gun Dealers Report Shortages Of Ammunition

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– Gun dealers report shortages of ammunition (USA Today, Feb 18, 2013):

Retailers say much of the demand is from gun owners who are stockpiling in case certain weapons are banned.

Gun shops are running low on ammunition from a run by customers fearful of potential gun-control legislation, according to gun retailers and customers.

Prices have more than doubled over past year in some shops, retailers are putting limits on the amount a customer can buy, and some common types of ammunition, such as .22-caliber long rifle shells, are hard to get.

Read moreGun Dealers Report Shortages Of Ammunition