Hopefully Not Another Solyndra Fiasco In The Making…..
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Obama ‘Energy Security Trust’ Pushes Green Research And Natural Gas Development
The Huffington Post | By James Gerken Posted: 03/15/2013 2:47 pm EDT | Updated: 03/15/2013 5:13 pm EDT
President Barack Obama gestures while speaking at Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, Ill., Friday, March 15, 2013. Obama traveled to the Chicago area to deliver a speech to promote his energy policies. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
President Barack Obama toured the Argonne National Laboratory outside Chicago on Friday and announced his plans for an “Energy Security Trust” to further clean energy research and development in the U.S.
Obama said on Friday at Argonne, “We have to keep investing in scientific research,” and lamented the impact of the federal budget sequester on U.S. research. “We cant afford to miss these opportunities while the rest of the world races forward,” the president argued.
Obama’s plan also funds natural gas research, furthering the president’s forthright support of an “all of the above” energy strategy and “responsibly tapping” U.S. natural gas reserves.
The president’s “Blueprint for a Clean and Secure Energy Future” advocates for “accelerating the growth” of natural gas in the transportation sector. Although increased utilization of natural gas is partially responsible for a decline in U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, significant leakage of methane — a shorter-lived but more potent greenhouse gas than CO2 — may negate environmental benefits over coal.
Obama’s “blueprint” also gives a nod to the coal industry with “significant funding for clean coal technology.” Carbon sequestration from coal-fired power plants has been called “mythical” by environmentalists, who have criticized Obama’s Energy secretary nominee, Ernest Moniz, for supporting the concept.
The president originally proposed the Energy Security Trust in his 2013 State of the Union address. “If a nonpartisan coalition of CEOs and retired generals and admirals can get behind this idea, then so can we,” he declared. “Let’s take their advice and free our families and businesses from the painful spikes in gas prices we’ve put up with for far too long.”
Imagine an island so secluded there’s no electricity, there are no paved roads and in many cases, no plumbing. That island – called Lasqueti – is home to 400 people and less than an hour away from Vancouver.16×9 traveled there to see what it’s like to live off the grid.
Edible City is a fun, fast-paced journey through the Local Good Food movement that’s taking root in the San Francisco Bay Area, across the nation and around the world.
Introducing a diverse cast of extraordinary and eccentric characters who are challenging the paradigm of our broken food system, Edible City digs into their unique perspectives and transformative work, finding hopeful solutions to monumental problems.
Inspirational, down-to-earth and a little bit quirky, Edible City captures the spirit of a movement that’s making real change and doing something truly revolutionary: growing the model for a healthy, sustainable local food system.
The federal government’s big-picture approach to power transmission could help New Jersey recharge its own aggressive programs to develop solar power and other forms of renewable energy, said Roy M. Palk, Senior Energy Advisor for the national law firm LeClairRyan, during an Oct. 24 presentation to the New Jersey Bar Association’s Public Utilities Law Section.
“For decades, the United States lacked the underpinnings of any national policy aimed at encouraging closer coordination among users of the grid, from independent power producers and transmission owners, to decades-old, government-regulated public utilities,” said the Glen Allen, Va.-based attorney.
“But thanks to a series of FERC regulations-most recently Order 1000, a final version of which was published in May-the country now appears to be taking important steps toward creating a truly national energy-transmission grid along the lines of the Interstate Highway System.”
A 40-year veteran of the U.S. power industry and former president and CEO of East Kentucky Power Cooperative, Palk gave the presentation-”The Impact of Federal Regulatory Commission (FERC) Order 1000″-at LeClairRyan’s office in Newark. While New Jersey is second only to California in the development of solar power, he noted, its renewable-energy program has lost some momentum, in part because the country’s transmission grid continues to be so fragmented and antiquated.
“Over time, Order 1000 could help New Jersey and other states ramp up the amount of renewable energy they can move through the grid and bring to market,” Palk said. “This is important, because our financial and national security infrastructure is more dependent than ever on a reliable, robust and efficient transmission grid.”
During the presentation, Palk provided a contextual overview of FERC Order 1000 and its potential effects. This major policy experiment, he noted, aims to create an even playing field for transmission planning, construction and utilization, such that no single power resource ever holds another hostage.
“The intent is to promote regional and interregional coordination as never before,” Palk said.
“The three primary components of the order deal with transmission-planning, cost-allocation reforms-i.e., who picks up the cost of energy transmission and under what circumstances-and the overall interplay of regulated power generators and movers. FERC Order 1000 also strongly encourages non-jurisdictional entities, whether a startup focused on renewable energy, say, or a municipal electric group, to explain how they aim to fit into the evolving grid.”
Palk provided a short history of the order and its predecessors, and also discussed the current role of the nation’s regional transportation organizations (RTOs), the voluntary formation of which was encouraged by FERC Order 2000. “The goal was to administer the transmission grid on a regional basis throughout North America, including Canada,” Palk noted.
“Some of these RTOs are very large. Valley Forge, Pa.-based PJM, for example, serves all or part of 13 states and the District of Columbia. In other words, utilities across North America have already gained substantial experience in working together to move power across the grid.”
FERC Order 1000 aims to take this collaboration to the next level. It directed public utilities to submit their plans for cost-sharing and regional coordination by Oct. 11, with plans for inter-regional planning and cost-allocation methodologies due April 11, 2013. Some utilities in the South and Midwest now have until Feb. 8 to submit their cost-sharing and regional coordination plans, thanks to a 120-day deadline extension.
Like many in the industry, Palk is cautiously optimistic about the impact of FERC Order 1000. “FERC’s order to create a level playing field among the utilities could help open the transmission market, to be sure, but this can only happen if the components of accessibility are fully complied with and available to all of the utilities and the purchasers of power,” he said.
“The order calls for ‘fair and equitable’ cost-allocation, for example, but the subjectivity here makes this fertile ground for disputes and challenges. The definition of ‘fair,’ after all, depends on whose ox is getting gored.”
Order 1000 has generated no shortage of doubters and skeptics, particularly when it comes to these cost-sharing formulae, Palk noted.
“Will the smaller-scale grid users be forced to pay unfair rates in order to piggyback on the growing grid?” he asked. “Will the big utilities, in the end, be allowed to dictate unfavorable terms and shape the evolution of the nation’s transmission infrastructure in ways that benefit their own bottom lines?”
The U.S. power industry is watching to find out whether the regulations will accomplish their aims, or if they will fizzle and fail.
“In coming months, FERC’s analysts will be looking hard at the submitted filings to see whether they are the product of realism and good faith, or of a more provisional attitude in which companies are, not to put too fine a point on it, mostly ‘looking out for No. 1,’ ” Palk said. “But I am hopeful FERC Order 1000 will be a success. After all, the stakes here could hardly be higher.”
SoloPower, a San Jose, Calif.-based solar power company, is set this week to open a $340 million manufacturing facility in Portland, Ore. When it does, it takes a key step toward qualifying for a per-approved $197 million federal loan guarantee.
If this sounds familiar it’s because SoloPower is drawing comparisons to Solyndra, the Fremont, Calif., solar power company that managed to snag $535 million in federal loan guarantees before the whole thing collapsed last year, raising a howl from critics of the Obama administration’s use of federal fund to jump start what are supposed to be promising, job-creating green-tech companies.
According to a report from Reuters, SoloPower uses some of the same technology as Solyndra to make lightweight, flexible solar panels. Given the political hay Obama’s critics made last year from Solyndra’s failure, comparisons were inevitable.
SoloPower will, of course, do its best to fend off comparisons, claiming its products are more versatile, it has a better business plan and it has stricter cost controls than its ill-fated predecessor. That could well be. It’s certainly starting production on a smaller scale than Solyndra. Its plant in Portland will initially employ only about 90 people. Solyndra had about 1,100 on its payroll when it pulled the plug.
But SoloPower is also painfully aware that collecting any federal funding these days comes brings intense scrutiny. The loan guarantee, conditionally approved in 2011, comes from the same Energy Policy Act pool of money that backed Solyndra. At the same time, solar power market conditions remain tough in the face of shrinking government subsidies and stiff competition from China.
All this piles enormous pressure on SoloPower. Meanwhile, opponents of government investment in any industry are watching their every move like buzzards, or hawks, depending on your viewpoint.
Here’s a story about two organizations — a brewery and a hospital — that you wouldn’t ordinarily think would work together. They are surprisingly bringing down the hospital’s energy costs in a mutually beneficial way. The arrangement moves the hospital one step closer to its goal of being completely energy independent by 2014!
Surprise: The GAO predicts that two new EPA coal regulations will cause a significant increase in electricity prices and create serious “reliability challenges” in many coal-dependent areas of the country. Via the Hill (my emphasis):
The GAO report said between 2 and 12 percent of coal-fired electric capacity would come offline as a result of the rules… The report also said adhering to the rules would be tougher in coal-heavy states, most of which are located in the South. It noted electricity rates could rise as much as 13 percent, though over time fluctuations might be less than historical levels.
Senator Jay Rockefeller (D., W.V.), who commissioned the report, mysteriously calls it a “victory for EPA supporters.” But I wouldn’t count on President Obama to trumpet these results in his campaign to win over the citizens of coal country in key swing states.
Coal accounts for about half of U.S. electricity production, the GAO notes, and upwards of 70 percent in Ohio, Kentucky, New Mexico, and West Virginia. In the Midwest, nearly a fifth of coal-fired electricity capacity could be taken offline. Costs to power companies of complying with these rules are estimated at $16 to $21 billion annually.
Put this together with EPA regulations announced earlier this year, which would in effect ban new coal-fired electricity production in the United States, and you are potentially looking at much higher prices for the energy that people use to run their homes and businesses.
On the one hand, Obama claims to follow an “all-of-the-above” energy strategy. On the other, his EPA and Department of Energy wage a war on coal through sweeping regulations and subsidies to coal competitors. (If you think war is an unfair metaphor, consider the words of this fallen EPA administrator.)
And as Kevin Williamson points out, the attack on coal will likely end up shifting production to older, dirtier plants in countries such as China, which already uses more coal than the United States, Japan, and Europe combined.
When Danish author Karen Blixen penned her autobiography “Out of Africa”, she wrote of the fierce leopards and lions that prowled the coffee estate she farmed at the foot of Kenya’s Ngong hills.
Today, that farm is a leafy upmarket suburb of the rapidly growing capital Nairobi, swallowed up by breakneck urbanisation that has turned a century-old colonial railway yard into a traffic-clogged major city.
But the sharp toothed big cats have remained, finding themselves under growing pressure as one of Africa’s fastest growing cities creeps onto ancient migration routes and hunting grounds.
“There have been no attacks on humans — only dogs — but as the encroachment increases the probability of attacks grows,” said Francis Gakuya, chief vet for Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), as captured lion cubs growled in the background.
Pacing in a cage at the KWS headquarters in Nairobi, four orphaned cubs hiss and snarl at vets taking care of them — then give a surprisingly powerful roar for a two-month-old baby already the size of a small dog.
Wildlife rangers were forced to shoot dead the cubs’ mother after it was spotted in Nairobi’s Karen suburb and it charged before it could be darted. The cubs are now being looked after.
But it is not the only recent case. Conservationists warn of the growing likelihood of closer interaction between wildlife and humans if development is not managed in a sustainable manner.
Another lioness captured last month later escaped back into the park, a 117 square kilometre (45 square mile) wilderness where buffalo and rhino roam just seven kilometres (four miles) from the bustling high-rise city centre.
Wildlife officials have issued warnings to residents near the park to call them “should they see another lion in their area as it is possible more than one lion had strayed from the park.”
Traps are set out when a big cat is reported but the wily lions have so far avoided the baited cages – sparking concern in residents, fearful at night when guard dogs howl that a lion could be hunting in the back yard.
“Lions can hide invisible in the long grass so it’s frightening they could be around waiting to pounce,” said Mary Okello, who lives close to where recent lions were caught.
Visit the park and one is rewarded by the bizarre sight of long-necked giraffes running through wide plains of yellow grass with the gleaming skyscrapers of Nairobi’s business district rising in the distance.
– ‘The lion loses out’ –
Although fenced in on the city side — some bars even have terraces where one can view animals over a cold drink — the park is open-sided elsewhere else to allow the annual wildlife migration in search of grazing.
Zebra and wildebeest in the park migrate from the protected Nairobi national park through informal wildlife corridors, areas where pastoralist herders graze their cattle. But Kenya’s population is quickly growing.
The land is under threat from increasing urbanisation and more intensive agriculture, and the routes used by migrating herds in search of fresh grass — and the carnivores that follow for fresh meat — are growing narrower.
“Some can’t find their way through, and they get stranded,” said Nicholas Oguge, President of the Ecological Society for Eastern Africa.
“There is an urgent need for an effective land policy…without establishing formal wildlife corridors, Nairobi National Park will become like an island, a large contained zoo,” added Oguge, a professor at the University of Nairobi.
The situation has changed dramatically in recent decades. In the 1970s residents used to report roaming herds of wildebeest several hundred thousand strong. Today, in comparison, there are just a relative handful of wildebeest left.
Conservationists say wildlife protection is a low priority for city officials struggling with multiple challenges in a grossly unequal capital of some 3.5 million people with overstretched basic services and infrastructure.
In Nairobi, lavish villas rub shoulders with squalid slums and cramped high rise apartments.
“Nairobi National Park is a microcosm of what is happening elsewhere,” said Luke Hunter, president of the wild cat conservation group Panthera, noting that lions have lost over 80 percent of their historic lands across Africa.
“In protected areas lions do well… but outside they are getting hammered.”
Kenyan wildlife officials and other conservation groups are working to support the establishment of a wildlife corridor, including mapping the key routes, but it is no easy matter, said Paul Mbugua, KWS assistant director.
“It would be good to have corridors in place, but we have a challenge as all the land to the south of Nairobi is owned by somebody,” Mbugua said.
Land in Kenya is both increasingly expensive and a highly political issue.
Kenya plunged into violence after disputed 2007 elections, with land grievances a key contributing factor to the explosion of brutal killings, and demarcating protected corridors is harder than simply drawing lines on a map.
Lion attacks on livestock are reported, but there have been no recent attacks on humans in Nairobi, experts say, but contact will grow as the city expands.
“Lions respect and fear people and try to get out of the way,” added Hunter.
“But with development in areas important to lions, people and lions will mix more and more… and an individual lion can be incredibly dangerous. In that mix, inevitably it is the lion that loses out.”
A 13-year-old inventor in Kenya has come up with a low-cost, eco-friendly way to protect his family’s livestock that could also serve as a solution to a serious problem in his country — managing human-wildlife conflict.
With their land located near Nairobi National Park, an area boasting the world’s highest density of lions, Richard Turere’s family often saw their cows, sheep, or goats fall prey to the hungry big cats. But Richard, who herds and protects the family’s livestock, noticed that lions stayed away as long as someone was walking around outside with a flashlight. The African innovation blog AfriGadget describes the clever idea he concocted next:
[Richard] took the LED bulbs from broken flashlights and rigged up an automated lighting system of four or five torch bulbs around the cattle stockade. The bulbs are wired to a box with switches, and to an old car battery charged with a solar panel that operates the family television set. The lights [point] outwards into the darkness. They flash in sequence, giving the impression that someone is walking around the stockade.
Reducing Human-Animal Conflict
Since installing the system, Richard’s family has experienced no problems with night predation by lions, though neighboring homesteads lost animals before he set up the lights in their yards too, AfriGadget reported.
Human-animal conflict is on the rise in both Africa and Asia as wildlands get converted to agricultural use and human settlements encroach ever-closer on animal habitat. Typically both sides suffer, with farmers losing valuable animals and crops and many lions and other wild creatures being killed in retaliation.
Due in part to conflict with humans, along with habitat destruction and climate change, the Kenya Wildlife Service predicted in 2009 that the country’s lions could be extinct within 20 years or less.
A Cheap, Local Solution
From chili-treated ping-pong balls to beehive fences, a lot of creative solutions are being developed to allow people and wildlife to live in harmony. Richard’s lighting system, which he created with no books or access to technical information, costs less than $10, compared to lion-proof fences that require $1,000 worth of materials plus transportation and labor.
A PhD student at The University of Western Australia is working on an ambitious project. Julia Reisser, who has studied sea turtles for the last nine years, wants to create the first map that shows distribution of floating marine plastics in Australian waters. That map will be overlapped with information about pathways of sea turtle hatchlings, and hopefully will shed light on where the most dangerous areas for growing sea turtles may exist.
“The early life of sea turtles occurs at the ocean’s surface, where there’s an increasing amount of floating plastics that are proving fatal to hatchlings,” PhD student Julia Reisser says in an article from University of Western Australia. “My work is identifying the places contributing most to the increase in plastics in Australia’s oceans and how this links to sea turtle life cycles.”
The problem of plastic pollution in our oceans cannot be understated. Many marine species mistake the plastic for food, which can be lethal. As you can see, a bit of floating plastic could look a lot like these jellyfish a Green sea turtle is munching on:
Mistaking plastics for food has devastating consequences, causing internal damage or starvation:
The idea of creating a map of floating plastic is exciting, but also extremely challenging. One of the biggest issues behind marine plastic pollution is that it is extremely hard to quantify and understand because the ocean is so vast and forever moving, carrying plastics with it. Luckily, though, researchers like Reisser are not giving up, and her research could mean a lot of saving sea turtles. Six of the seven sea turtle species on earth are listed as threatened or endangered, so the more we can do to help hatchlings reach adulthood, the better.
Workers from Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife remove marine organisms in order to prevent invasive species from a derelict Japanese dock that washed up on Agate Beach. Credit: OSU’s Hatfield Marine Science Center.
When debris from the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan began making its way toward the West Coast of the United States, there were fears of possible radiation and chemical contamination as well as costly cleanup. But a floating dock that unexpectedly washed ashore in Newport this week and has been traced back to the Japanese disaster has brought with it a completely different threat – invasive species.
Scientists at Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center said the cement float contains about 13 pounds of organisms per square foot. Already they have gathered samples of 4-6 species of barnacles, starfish, urchins, anemones, amphipods, worms, mussels, limpets, snails, solitary tunicates and algae – and there are dozens of species overall.
“This float is an island unlike any transoceanic debris we have ever seen,” said John Chapman, an OSU marine invasive species specialist. “Drifting boats lack such dense fouling communities, and few of these species are already on this coast. Nearly all of the species we’ve looked at were established on the float before the tsunami; few came after it was at sea.”
Chapman said it was “mind-boggling” how these organisms survived their trek across the Pacific Ocean. The low productivity of open-ocean waters should have starved at least some of the organisms, he said.
“It is as if the float drifted over here by hugging the coasts, but that is of course impossible,” Chapman said. “Life on the open ocean, while drifting, may be more gentle for these organisms than we initially suspected. Invertebrates can survive for months without food and the most abundant algae species may not have had the normal compliment of herbivores. Still, it is surprising.”
Jessica Miller, an Oregon State University marine ecologist, said that a brown algae (Undaria pinnatifida), commonly called wakame, was present across most of the dock – and plainly stood out when she examined it in the fading evening light. She said the algae is native to the western Pacific Ocean in Asia, and has invaded several regions including southern California. The species identification was confirmed by OSU phycologist Gayle Hansen.
“To my knowledge it has not been reported north of Monterey, Calif., so this is something we need to watch out for,” Miller said.
Miller said the plan developed by the state through the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and Oregon State Parks is to scrape the dock and to bag all of the biological material to minimize potential spread of non-native species. But there is no way of telling if any of the organisms that hitchhiked aboard the float from Japan have already disembarked in nearshore waters.
“We have no evidence so far that anything from this float has established on our shores,” said Chapman. “That will take time. However, we are vulnerable. One new introduced species is discovered in Yaquina Bay, only two miles away, every year. We hope that none of these species we are finding on this float will be among the new discoveries in years to come.”
The possibilities are many, according to Miller.
“Among the organisms we found are small shore crabs similar to our Hemigrapsus that look like the same genus, but may be a different species,” Miller said. “There were also one or more species of oysters and small clam chitons, as well as limpets, small snails, numerous mussels, a sea star, and an assortment of worms.”
Invasive marine species are a problem on the West Coast, where they usually are introduced via ballast water from ships. OSU’s Chapman is well aware of the issue; for several years he has studied a parasitic isopod called Griffen’s isopod that has infested mud shrimp in estuaries from California to Vancouver Island, decimating their populations.
In 2010, an aggressive invasive tunicate was found in Winchester Bay and Coos Bay along the southern Oregon coast. Known as Didemnum vexillum, the tunicate is on the state’s most dangerous species list and is both an ecological and economic threat because of its ability to spread and choke out native marine communities, according to OSU’s Sam Chan, who chairs the Oregon Invasive Species Council.
It is difficult to assess how much of a threat the organisms on the newly arrived float may present, the researchers say. As future debris arrives, it may carry additional species, they point out. However, this dock may be unique in that it represents debris that has been submerged in Japan and had a well-developed subtidal community. This may be relatively rare, given the amount of debris that entered the ocean, the researchers say.
“Floating objects from near Sendai can drift around that coast for a while before getting into the Kuroshio current and then getting transported to the eastern Pacific,” Chapman said. The researchers hope to secure funding to go to Japan and sample similar floats and compare the biological life on them with that on the transoceanic dock.
The scientists say the arrival of the dock is also a sobering reminder of the tragedy that occurred last year, which cost thousands of lives.
“We have to remember that this dock, and the organisms that arrived on it, are here as a result of a great human tragedy,” Miller said. “We respect that and have profound sympathy for those who have suffered, and are still suffering.”
Boeing reports that Sojitz Corporation, a global trading company headquartered in Tokyo, has entered into an agreement with Boeing’s Information Solutions division for advanced network assessment.
The contract is Boeing’s first international cybersecurity agreement and highlights the company’s commitment to growing its cybersecurity business in Asia.
The value of the contract is not being disclosed.
“Boeing recognizes the significant level of trust placed in us with this award by Sojitz Corporation,” said Bryan Palma, vice president of the Secure Infrastructure Group in Boeing Information Solutions.
“Expanding our longstanding relationship into network security reinforces the priority of cybersecurity in the Japanese market.”
“Sojitz is making major investments to strengthen our network infrastructure and requiring more integrated solutions to manage the security of these assets,” said Ken Kuribayashi, Sojitz Aerospace Department general manager.
“This agreement allows Sojitz to take advantage of Boeing’s extensive cybersecurity expertise by providing the tools and integrated solutions needed to improve our situational awareness and response capabilities.”
Northrop Grumman has been awarded a cybersecurity contract to develop, integrate and sustain cloud-based information repositories in an integrated product development team environment with the government.
The competitively awarded, multimillion-dollar contract from the Maryland Procurement Office is for one year with four additional option years.
“The win is a major step toward our strategic goal of becoming the leading systems integrator of cloud-based information management systems for cybersecurity,” said Kathy Warden, vice president and general manager for Northrop Grumman’s Cyber Intelligence division. “We are committed to supporting our customers and helping them achieve their mission goals.”
Northrop Grumman has a legacy of strong program performance in large data repository programs with the intelligence community. Further, Northrop Grumman has invested in cloud-based information management performance test beds and works with many leading vendors to characterize and measure product performance.
Northrop Grumman is an industry leader in all aspects of computer network operations and cybersecurity, offering customers innovative solutions to help secure the nation’s cyber future. For more about cybersecurity at Northrop Grumman, go to http://www.northropgrumman.com/cybersecurity.
Here are some statistics to start: During a recent training class on identity theft I learned that bank robberies in the past year resulted in around $60 million in loses to US banks with the average incident being around $4,300.00. In the same your, bank fraud/identity theft resulted in around $20 billion with the average incident being around $79,000.00!!!
With numbers like that it is easy to assume that almost every adult today has either had their identity stolen or knows someone who has had this wonderful experience. With such heavy dependence on computers and heavy usage of mobile banking, smartphones, Wi-Fi, “Wi-Fi” credit cards and poorly handled personal data, it is easy to see why so many of us fall victim to this. As a police officer in the largest city in Texas, I respond to a very high number of incidents involving identity theft and have received additional training and education in dealing with this type of crime. Here I am going to provide some insight on how to prevent you from falling victim to this with some simple, practical and free advice that will greatly decrease the probability of your identity or that of your family members (and kids) from being stolen.
1. Limit the personal information you carry in your wallet/purse.
I will start by saying that there are VERY few reasons to carry a Social Security Card in your wallet, yet in nearly every robbery and/or burglary of a motor vehicle I have worked where someone’s wallet or purse was stolen, one article always missing is the victim’s Social Security Card (and many times the SSN’s of other family members including young children). Once this information is “out there” it can be nearly impossible to recover it in its entirety. It’s like ripping open a bean bag and then trying to pick up every spec of Styrofoam. This can be especially problematic when this information belongs to a minor, whose credit won’t become an issue until they are much older and begin applying for credit cards, jobs, military, etc.
It is also smart to only carry the credit cards you will be using that day and for each card you have, store the 1-800 number and card number so you can contact the appropriate personnel in the event of a lost or stolen card. Keep all sensitive information (Social Security Cards, credit cards, passports) in a secure place, preferably a fireproof safe or safety deposit box.
Also, check your credit cards to determine if they are “WIFI” enabled. (Pic enclosed) If they are you need to take special care with such cards and there are several options to choose from. You can wrap these cards in foil or purchase a special foil lined sleeve. Another way to disable this feature is to take a screwdriver and hammer and smash the Wi-Fi chip or simply take your card to your bank and ask to trade out your current Wi-Fi card for a more vintage (Wi-Fi-less) model.
There are many cases of credit card information being stolen via electronic pick pocketing at crowded locations like airports where a person passes in close proximity to another carry a briefcase with an electronic scanner and is able to obtain your credit card information just as if you were scanning it for a purchase transaction. (Check out this news story)
2. Never shop online with a credit card that is attached to your primary bank account.
If you must purchase products online (as I do frequently), use a prepaid credit card or open a separate account that has limited funds available to meet the demands of the purchase and no more.
Also, do not check bank accounts or make purchase on unsecure /free Wi-Fi, work computers or smartphones. We would like to think we can trust family members, friends and co-workers (especially other officers!), however, many thefts, including identity thefts are perpetrated by those closest to us. (look up the word purloin!)
3. Never provide anyone with social security information over the phone as there are plenty of other ways to prove your identity. (No financial institution will EVER call you and ask you to prove your identity.)
Some people make the mistake of beginning with a stone that is not coarse enough. Learn how to avoid common knife sharpening mistakes in this free tools video.
Expert: Thomas Stuckey
Bio: Thomas Stuckey of Knife Sharpest has been sharpening knives for 20 years. He also designs and crafts custom knives and is a professional knife and tomahawk thrower.
Filmmaker: Mark Bullard
500 showers heated from one small compost pile how to tutorial
http://www.permies.com
Brian Kerkvliet from Inspiration Farm tells us about his little compost pile that provided 500 hot showers. Compost heat can, indeed, be captured to heat water. After the hot showers, you have a lovely pile of compost! The moisture from the shower feeds mushrooms! Hot water, compost and mushrooms. Permaculture!
Australia on Thursday announced it will create the world’s largest network of marine sanctuaries, with limits placed on fishing, oil and gas exploration off the coast.
The new reserves cover 3.1 million square kilometres, or more than one-third of Australian waters, taking in significant marine breeding and feeding grounds.
The announcement, after years of planning and consultation, came ahead of the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development next week in Brazil, which Environment Minister Tony Burke and Prime Minister Julia Gillard will attend.
“It’s time for the world to turn a corner on protection of our oceans,” Burke said. “And Australia today is leading that next step.
“This new network of marine reserves will help ensure that Australia’s diverse marine environment, and the life it supports, remain healthy, productive and resilient for future generations.”
The network will increase the number of marine reserves from 27 to 60, expanding protection of creatures such as the blue whale, green turtle, critically endangered populations of grey nurse sharks, and dugongs.
It has taken six years of traveling to all seven continents to pull together the footage featured in this amazing short film by Sean White, an award-winning photographer and film-maker with credits with the likes of National Geographic Channel, Discovery Channel, History Television, PBS, Sports Illustrated, and more.
White writes, “Terra Sacra Time Lapses is a short film featuring remote landscapes and ancient monuments from around the globe. These images were photographed during my assignments and personal travels between 2006-2012. I’ve combined my favourite shots from these trips into non-narrative film that touches on a theme close to my heart: Sacred Earth.”
According to Matador Network, White wants to create a feature-length version of this film: “I would love to revisit many of the locations in this film and other powerful sacred sites around the world to create a feature-length “Terra Sacra”. The film would combine real-time, slow-motion, and motion control time lapse imagery – all in stereoscopic 3D. If you are an angel investor, potential sponsor, broadcaster, distributor or someone deeply passionate who would would like to get involved, please don’t hesitate to contact me.”
We highly hope that if you’re one of the folks listed above, you please please contact him. We would love a feature-length Terra Sacra!!
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Gatewood Galbraith is featured in this 2-part presentation that points to the importance of introducing hemp back into the industrial world to create products, jobs and revenues. More importantly, this world would no longer depend on fossil fuels.
Musical Artists Featured – These segments are packed with amazing music and I thought it would be fun to let who is featured be a surprise as you listen and take
Time 4 Hemp!
DemocracyNow.org – In a rare move, a federal judge has struck down part of a controversial law signed by President Obama that gave the government the power to indefinitely detain anyone it considers a terrorism suspect anywhere in the world without charge or trial — including U.S. citizens. Judge Katherine Forrest of the Southern District of New York ruled the indefinite detention provision of the National Defense Authorization Act likely violates the First and Fifth Amendments of U.S. citizens. We speak with Chris Hedges, a journalist who filed the suit challenging the NDAA along with six others, and Bruce Afran, the group’s attorney. “This is another window into the steady assault against civil liberties,” Hedges says. “What makes [the ruling] so monumental is that finally, we have a federal judge who stands up for the rule of law.”
To watch the complete daily, independent news hour, read the transcript, download the podcast, and for more information, visit http://www.democracynow.org/
Homeland Battlefield: Congress still ok with indefinite detention and torture of Americans
On Wednesday, activists and journalists across America rejoiced in a federal judge’s ruling that the National Defense Authorization Act is unconstitutional. The judge sided with the plaintiffs when it came to section 1021 of the act, which allows for the military to indefinitely detain Americans at home and abroad without due process. But now Congress is seeking to create a new NDAA. On Friday, the US House of Representatives approved the 2013 NDAA and even shot down an amendment that would cancel the indefinite detention provisions. Carl Mayer, attorney for The Mayer Law Group representing the plaintiffs, joins us for more on the NDAA.
Iranian protesters denounce Saudi-Bahrain union plan
* Cleric: Union is “ill-fated plot” Muslims won’t tolerate
May 18 (Reuters) – Thousands of Iranians rallied on Friday against plans for union between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, state television showed, and an influential cleric denounced the idea as an “ill-fated plot” that will never be tolerated by Muslims.
Tension between Iran and U.S.-allied Gulf Arab states has run high in recent months with Arab leaders accusing Tehran of fomenting Shi’ite Muslim unrest in Bahrain – a charge that Shi’ite Iran and the protesters deny.
The dispute worsened when Tehran denounced efforts by six Gulf Arab states at a summit earlier this week to forge closer political and military union, largely to counter Iran’s growing regional power. The talks ended inconclusively.
In the run-up to the Riyadh meeting, speculation was rife that an initial union would be announced between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, where anti-government protests led by majority Shi’ites have gripped the island state since last year.
“This plot is an ill-fated plot that is taking place with the American and Zionist (Israeli) green light but they should know that the people of Bahrain and the region, Muslims around the world and in Iran will never tolerate it,” cleric Kazem Sediqi said in a Friday sermon broadcast live on state radio.
Iranian state television aired footage of thousands of people holding rallies around the country and chanting slogans against the ruling royal families in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia to protest against the proposed Manama-Riyadh union.
“Instead of surrendering to its own people, it (the Bahraini government) is surrendering its identity, with total abjectness, to another country,” Sediqi said.
Tehran summoned the Bahraini charge d’affaires on Thursday to complain about a statement from the small Gulf island state – strategically sensitive as the base for the U.S. Fifth Fleet – that accused Iran of violating its sovereignty.
Blind activist Chen Guangcheng said Thursday China had agreed to issue him a passport within 15 days, allowing him to go to the United States after a bitter row between Beijing and Washington.
It was the first indication of when Chen would be allowed to leave the country since he left the US embassy more than two weeks ago after seeking refuge there following his dramatic escape from house arrest.
Speaking to AFP by telephone from the hospital where he is being treated, Chen also said authorities had promised to investigate murder charges brought against his nephew that he has said are motivated by revenge.
“Officials visited yesterday, we filled out passport application forms for myself, my wife and children,” said the 40-year-old legal campaigner, who triggered a diplomatic crisis when he fled to the US embassy last month.
“They said the passports should be issued within 15 days,” he added. The couple have a nine-year-old son and a six-year-old daughter.
Chen, one of China’s best-known dissidents, has won plaudits for exposing rights abuses including forced sterilisations and late-term abortions under China’s “one-child” family planning policy.
His activism earned him a four-year prison sentence that ended in 2010 when he was placed under extra-judicial house arrest in his home village of Dongshigu in the eastern province of Shandong, where he languished until his escape.
Wednesday’s meeting with government officials was his first since May 7, when they told Chen they were processing papers for him to leave for the US, where he has been offered fellowships to study law.
Details of his dramatic flight from house arrest have gradually emerged during his time in hospital, and on Thursday, he told how he feared for his life and for the safety of the villagers who helped him.
“After I escaped from home, that is when I was the most worried,” Chen said.
“There were at least 60 or so people guarding me in the village. If they had discovered I had escaped they could have beaten me to death. At that time it was very, very dangerous.”
News of Chen’s escape broke just days before US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Beijing for pre-arranged talks and made headlines around the world, causing major embarrassment for the Chinese government.
As Clinton arrived in China, Chen left the US embassy and was taken by diplomats to a Beijing hospital after Chinese authorities guaranteed his safety.
Since then, he has accused local officials in Shandong of targeting his relatives out of revenge for his escape.
His nephew, Chen Kegui, is in detention charged with “intentional homicide” over an attack on a local official who broke into the family’s home after discovering that Chen had escaped from under the noses of his guards.
The official was said at the time to have survived the attack and the charge has baffled lawyers representing Chen Kegui, who say it will not stand up in court. Police in Yinan county, which includes Dongshigu, refused to comment on the case when contacted by AFP.
Chinese Human Rights Defenders, a rights group, said police had detained and tortured Chen Guangcheng’s older brother Chen Guangfu, the father of Chen Kegui, on April 27 — the day of the break-in.
“Authorities handcuffed Chen Guangfu and shackled his legs, and then whipped his hands with a leather belt, struck him in the ribs, and stomped hard on his feet,” the group said in a statement late Wednesday.
“The abuses against Chen Guangfu represent the most physically violent treatment to surface so far among the spate of retaliatory acts towards those with links to Chen Guangcheng after his flight from house arrest.”
Chen Guangfu remains “under strict control” and cannot contact other family members, including many who are also being monitored by authorities, the group said, citing local sources in Yinan.
Chen Guangcheng said the government officials who visited him on Wednesday had promised to investigate the situation.
Two lawyers had tried to visit Chen Kegui on Wednesday but were turned away by police.
“Yinan police said the person in charge was not there and did not allow them to see Chen Kegui,” Chen Guangcheng told AFP, adding he feared authorities were refusing visits because his nephew had been beaten.
The phrase ‘political action committee’ has become a four letter word to many Americans and thanks to Citizen’s United, PACs can throw as much money as they wish into political campaigns. Critics of PACs say money shouldn’t control politics and it leaves the average citizen voiceless, but what if you could start your own super PAC? John Ramsey, founder of Liberty for All Super PAC, and Preston Bates, executive director for the same organization, joins us to explain why they started their own super PAC.
DemocracyNow.org – The European economic crisis is expected to top the agenda at the G8 meeting tomorrow at Camp David. In Greece, voters will soon head to the polls for another round of elections which will be viewed by many as a referendum on the Euro. Our guest today, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, warns the current bank run in Greece could spiral into the end of the Eurozone. “It is really quite shocking,” Krugman says. “I hate to sound apocalyptic.” Meanwhile, France’s new finance minister has reiterated that the country’s new socialist government will not ratify the European Union’s fiscal pact calling for greater austerity.
To watch the complete daily, independent news hour, read the transcript, download the podcast, and for more information, visit http://www.democracynow.org/
UK’s David Cameron: Greece Is On The Brink, Survival Of The Euro In Question
By Matt Falloon
MANCHESTER, England, May 17 (Reuters) – Prime Minister David Cameron urged Europe’s rulers on Thursday to do more to quell the euro zone debt crisis and raised the prospect of a Greek default to argue he must stick to his unpopular attempt to cut spending and reduce debt at home.
Warning that the survival of the euro was now in question, Cameron showed growing alarm and frustration that the crisis was spinning out of control, threatening Britain’s $2.5 trillion economy and his own electoral prospects in 2015.
“Greece is on the brink, the survival of the euro in question,” Cameron told business leaders on a grey and damp morning in the northern English city of Manchester.
“Faced with this, I have a clear task: to keep Britain safe. Not to take the easy course – but the right course,” he added.
Echoing the words of Bank of England Governor Mervyn King, Cameron said the crisis in the European Union – Britain’s biggest trading partner – had lasted more than two years but the “storm” was far from over.
“We are in unchartered territory which carries huge risks for everybody. As I have consistently said, it is in Britain’s interest for the euro zone to sort out its problems.”
He said Europe’s problems showed the dangers of scrapping his government’s attempt to cut Britain’s vast budget deficit, though he called on the European Central Bank to stimulate demand to help peripheral euro members.
Euro crisis: Run on nationalised Spanish bank sees customers withdraw €1BILLION… as French government slashes its own pay by 30%
A €1billion run on a recently nationalised Spanish bank has sparked further fears that the 17-nation eurozone is about to implode.
European markets fell as fears of a continent-wide contagion from goverment-less Greece’s economic crisis also spread.
Shares in Bankia, Spain’s fourth biggest bank formed in 2010 through a merger of seven struggling regional savings institutions, today plummeted by 27 per cent.
The pan-European FTSE 300 index was down 0.9 per cent at 984.22 points by 10.26.am, close to a four-and-a-half-month low of 983.95 points reached yesterday.Spain’s benchmark IBEX index fell nearly 2 per cent to its lowest level since mid-2003.It came following a report in El Mundo newspaper that its customers had withdrawn more than €1billion from their accounts over the past week.
National Nurses United calls for international campaign for financial transaction tax
Transcript
VOICEOVER: On Friday, May 18th, several thousand nurses belonging to the National Nurses United union rallied in downtown Chicago’s Daley plaza to host what they have dubbed the people’s G8. The action coincides with a number of mobilizations planned over the weekend in Chicago, which was set to host both the G8 and NATO summits. The federal government decided to move the G8 Summit to Camp David in a remote part of Maryland, citing security concerns over the large protests planned against the economic and military conferences.
DAVID DOUGHERTY: The nurses are continuing their demands for what they’re calling a Robin Hood tax, which would charge half of 1 percent for all financial transactions on Wall Street over 100 dollars, which they say could generate an estimated 350 billion dollars per year. VOICEOVER: RoseAnne DeMoro is the executive director of National Nurses United, the largest registered nurse union in the country. She says that rather than spending public funds on the military and US interventions abroad, the Robin Hood tax could be used to pay for a variety of social services at home that have been slashed in the wake of austerity measures.
John Williams: The Recovery Is An Illusion (GLD, SLV, TZA, SDS, INDEXSP:.INX)
JT Long: John Williams, author of the ShadowStats.com newsletter, shines light on his interpretations of the GDP, CPI, unemployment and other government statistics in this exclusive Gold Report interview from the recent Recovery Reality Check conference. Highlights include what the money supply measures tell him and why QE3 will be a hard sell.
The Gold Report: John, at the recent Casey Research Recovery Reality Check conference you described the economic recovery heralded by the Obama administration as an illusion based largely on skewed inflation data. Can you walk us through why, based on your calculations, a recovery is impossible?
John Williams: We can start with the gross domestic product (GDP), which like most economic reports is adjusted for inflation. If you take inflation out of it, what is left should be changes in economic activity, as opposed to changes from prices going up or down.
The Federal Reserve System: The Ultimate Disorganizing Organization
Jeff Harding: In the remarks below I evaluate the Federal Reserve System — and the institution of central banking more generally — from the perspective of an organizational economist. While I strongly disagree with many of the key policies of the Federal Reserve Board both before and after the financial crisis and Great Recession, my argument does not focus on particular actions taken by this or that chair and board. The problem is not that the Fed has made some mistakes — perhaps addressed by restating its statutory mandate, scrutinizing its behavior more carefully, and so on — but that the very institution of a central monetary authority is inherently destabilizing and harmful to entrepreneurship and economic growth. …
Instead, market forces should determine levels of borrowing and saving, owning and renting, and entrepreneurial activity. Put differently, the monetary system is so important that it cannot be entrusted to a government agency — even a scientifically distinguished, nominally independent, prestigious organization like the Federal Reserve System.— Peter G. Klein.
This quote comes from Professor Peter Klein’s blistering critique of the Fed’s role as central economic planner in his May 8 testimony before the House Financial Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology. This is a brilliant analysis of the causes of our economic woes and I urge you to read it. If you wish to see his testimony on C-SPAN, go here. It includes testimony by Professors Jeffrey Herbener and John Taylor. Klein gives a good lesson in Austrian economic theory in practice. His testimony was published on Mises.org.
Russia’s continuing protest movement that began in 2011 against alleged corruption and vote-rigging by the ruling United Russia party of President Vladimir Putin has caused many wealthy Russians to move their financial assets abroad amid widespread fears of a looming economic crisis.
The outflow of capital from Russia was more than $80.5b in 2011 and $42b so far in this year, prompting economists to urge the government to tackle corruption and become more business-friendly.
Chris Ciovacco: The gravity of the global debt crisis can be seen in the flip-flop game plans from policymakers. The reaction to the 2008 crisis was to try to “spend our way out of this”. That didn’t work, but it did succeed in pushing debt levels even higher. The second approach, championed by Germany’s Angela Merkel, is based on the “cut spending and restore confidence” theory. That isn’t working either.
Now we have come full circle with Tim Geithner and the IMF again calling for “pro-growth” policies. Pro-growth is a politically correct way of saying “spend money we don’t have.” According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the Keynesian approach of the government leading the private sector to the promise land of growth, is now being embraced by the most broke nation of them all – Greece:
Mr. Tsipras, the head of Greece’s left party and an engineer by training, recommends a stimulus package to boost the Greek economy and has called for tearing up the country’s existing austerity-for-loans program. He has suggested scrapping plans to lay off 150,000 public-sector workers by 2015, and repealing recent measures to push down private-sector wages. He favors nationalizing the banking system so as to better direct lending policies, and speaks favorably of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Depression-era New Deal program and President Barack Obama’s stimulus package—something Mr. Tsipras said is lacking in Europe.
As the United States considers the Islamic jihadi threats confronting it from all sides, it might do well to focus on its southern neighbor, Mexico, which has been targeted by Islamists and jihadists, who, through a number of tactics—from engaging in da’wa, converting Mexicans to Islam, to smuggling and the drug cartel, to simple extortion, kidnappings and enslavement—have been subverting Mexico in order to empower Islam and sabotage the U.S.
Mexican authorities have rolled up a Hezbollah network being built in Tijuana, right across the border from Texas and closer to American homes than the terrorist hideouts in the Bekaa Valley are to Israel. Its goal, according to a Kuwaiti newspaper that reported on the investigation: to strike targets in Israel and the West. Over the years, Hezbollah—rich with Iranian oil money and narcocash—has generated revenue by cozying up with Mexican cartels to smuggle drugs and people into theU.S. In this, it has shadowed the terrorist-sponsoring regime in Tehran, which has been forging close ties with Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, who in turn supports the narcoterrorist organization FARC, which wreaks all kinds of havoc throughout the region.
Another 2010 article appearing in the Washington Times asserts that, “with fresh evidence of Hezbollah activity just south of the border [in Mexico], and numerous reports of Muslims from various countries posing as Mexicans and crossing into the United States from Mexico, our porous southern border is a national security nightmare waiting to happen.” This is in keeping with a recent study done by Georgetown University, which revealed that the number of immigrants from Lebanon and Syria living in Mexico exceeds 200,000. Syria, along with Iran, is one of Hezbollah’s strongest financial and political supporters, and Lebanon is the immigrants’ country of origin.
A jihadist cell in Mexico was recently found to have a weapons cache of 100 M-16 assault rifles, 100 AR-15 rifles, 2,500 hand grenades, C4 explosives and antitank munitions. The weapons, it turned out, had been smuggled by Muslims from Iraq. According to this report, “obvious concerns have arisen concerning Hezbollah’s presence in Mexico and possible ties to Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTO’s) operating along the U.S.—Mexico border.”
(Reuters) – A private door opens from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office in central Jerusalem directly into a long, modestly furnished, half-paneled room decorated with modern paintings by Israeli artists and a copy of Israel’s 1948 declaration of independence. It contains little more than a long wooden table, brown leather chairs and a single old-fashioned white projector screen.
This inner sanctum at the end of a corridor between Netanyahu’s private room and the office of his top military adviser, is where one of the decade’s most momentous military decisions could soon be taken: to launch an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear program.
Time for that decision is fast running out and the mood in Jerusalem is hardening.
Iran continues to enrich uranium in defiance of international pressure, saying it needs the fuel for its civilian nuclear program. The West is convinced that Tehran’s real objective is to build an atomic bomb – something which the Jewish state will never accept because its leaders consider a nuclear armed-Iran a threat to its very existence.
Adding to the international pressure, U.S. ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro said this week American military plans to strike Iran were “ready” and the option was “fully available”.
The central role Iran plays in Netanyahu’s deliberations is reflected in the huge map of the Middle East hanging by the door of his office. Israel lies on one edge, with Iran taking pride of place in the centre.
Experts say that within a few months, much of Iran’s nuclear program will have been moved deep underground beneath the Fordow mountain, making a successful military strike much more difficult.
SANAA, Yemen — Government troops killed 11 al-Qaida fighters in southern Yemen on Friday, as the army battled its way into the outskirts of a key town under the militants’ control, military officials said.
FILE – In this Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2010 file photo, an anti-terrorist unit from the Central Security Forces of the Ministry of Interior trains in the Sarif area on the eastern outskirts of the capital Sana, in Yemen. Yemeni warplanes and troops backed by heavy artillery waged a four-front assault on al-Qaida militants Tuesday, trying to uproot their hold in the southern desert with the help of a team of U.S. troops at a nearby air base. (AP Photo, File)
Al-Qaida-linked fighters have taken over a swath of territory and several towns in the south over the past year, pushing out government forces and establishing their own rule. In recent weeks, the army has launched a concerted effort to uproot the militants from their strongholds — and is closely coordinating with a small contingent of U.S. troops who are helping guide the operations from inside Yemen.
On Friday, Yemeni troops moved in on Jaar in Abyan province, killing eight al-Qaida fighters in clashes about 10 kilometers (six miles) north of the town. Recapturing Jaar would better position the military to take back Zinjibar, the provincial capital that has been under al-Qaida control for more than a year.
Mosaic News : Renewed Clashes Erupt in Lebanon’s Tripoli as Hezbollah is Blamed
Today’s headlines in full:
Massive demonstrations in Syria’s Aleppo University ahead of UN visit
BBC Arabic, UK
Renewed clashes erupt in Lebanon’s Tripoli as Hezbollah is blamed
BBC Arabic, UK
Israel and Iran beat the drums of war ahead of nuclear talks in Baghdad
Al Jazeera, Qatar
White House threatens to target anyone ‘obstructing’ transition in Yemen
Al-Alam, Iran
US to give Israel another USD 70 million for Iron Dome missile defense system
Press TV, Iran
Bahrain’s al-Wefaq opposes proposed Saudi-Bahrain union
Press TV, Iran
Egypt’s military ruler pledges fair presidential elections
Dubai TV, UAE
Israeli interior minister says African migrants in Israel should be jailed
IBA, Israel
South Sudanese minister of agriculture appeals to Israel amid growing food crisis
IBA, Israel
Iraqis mark national day for the martyrs of the mass graves
Al-Forat TV, Iraq
Image: Lebanese soldiers point their rifles as they are deployed after clashes between Sunni Muslim Salafists and supporters of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) in the old souk of the port-city of Tripoli, northern Lebanon, May 15, 2012: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
Mosaic is a Peabody Award-winning daily compilation of television news reports from the Middle East, including Egypt, Lebanon, Israel, Syria, the Palestinian Authority, Iraq and Iran. Watch more Mosaic at http://www.linktv.org/mosaic
The fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo has displaced hundreds of thousands people, something the UN’s refugee agency has described as a disaster.
The fighting between DRC troops and rebel soldiers has been most intense in the hills of North Kivu region.
Many of the refugees have headed to neighbouring Rwanda.
Al Jazeera’s Nazanine Moshiri reports from Goma in the eastern DRC, on the border with Rwanda.
A car bomb has exploded in the eastern Syrian city of Deir Ezzor, causing an unknown number of casualties, according to state-run media and an opposition group.
The blast reportedly struck a parking lot for a military intelligence complex on Saturday.
Demonstrations have taken center stage in the Gulf, where tens of thousands rallied in Iran and Bahrain against the latter’s integration plans with Saudi Arabia. In Bahrain crowds chanted that their country was ‘not for sale’, while Tehran said the proposed deal was a plot aimed at wiping the entire state off the map.
Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich, US independent researcher talks to RT. She says the United States has typically used Saudi Arabia similar to the Roman Empire used gladiators.
Wink and a nod: Hilary Clinton walks past MEK activists
The Munafiqeen [Hypocrites] will be in the lowest depths of the Fire: no helper wilt thou find for them.
~ Sura 4 (An-Nisa), ayah 145, Qur’an
A couple of months ago, one of those dubious leaks made by “unnamed US officials” caught my eye. US media did something it doesn’t often do; it publicised ‘secret’ Israeli government policy. Giving five minutes of prime time TV to Iranian scientist Mohammad Javad Larijani, brother of Ali Larijani, philosopher and chairman of the Parliament of Iran, two “senior U.S. officials” confirmed for NBC News what Mohammad Larijani was telling them: that Israel was behind the assassinations of Iranian scientists.
Specifically, the US officials stated that Israel’s Mossad was financing, training and arming an Iranian dissident group that goes by many names, but which we’ll call the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) for now. In return, the MEK is “providing Israel with information.” Speaking through NBC, these unknown officials confirmed what Larijani and the Iranian government have been saying for years: that Israel, through the MEK, carried out the attacks in which motorcycle-borne assailants attached sophisticated magnetic bombs to the exterior of the victims’ cars. The US officials further stated that the Obama administration is aware of the assassination campaign but has no direct involvement.
No sooner had the story been leaked than a series of car bombings took place outside Israeli embassies in India, Georgia and Singapore. The same types of bombs used in the assassinations of Iranian scientists were used to blow up vehicles near Israeli diplomats. The Israelis never actually intended to kill any of their own, because the Mossad warned the embassies ahead of time. Israel of course blamed Iran for the bombings. But these stunts were clearly intended to deflect attention from the US government’s confirmation that Israel is murdering Iranian scientists through its surrogate, the MEK, and, once again, portray Israel as the eternal victim.
The Obama administration may not have had direct involvement in the assassination of Iranian scientists, but it is the height of hypocrisy for the US government to pretend that it isn’t involved in subverting Iran’s civilian nuclear program. The CIA was kidnapping Iranian scientists and bribing them to ‘defect’ as recently as 2010 and as far back as 2007. Since at least 2005, the US regime has been uptoitsneck in dealings with multiple terrorist organisations based in countries encircling Iran, of which Jundullah, in the region of Balochistan on the Pakistani border, is arguably the most notorious.
Have a listen to this NBC commentary on the Israeli assassinations program ‘leak’ and take note of the ‘expert view’ at the end:
72-year-old Austin veteran is held at gunpoint, home seized because of underground bunker
By J. D. Heyes,
(NaturalNews) If ever there were an example of government adding insult to injury, this is it. What else could you call it when a city government fills in your underground bunker with concrete then bills you$90,000 to do it?Two years ago, Austin, Texas, resident Joe Del Rio awoke to find city officials demanding he let them in to inspect his home. Before it was all over, the local media reported, a police SWAT team and a host of firefighters had been called in as well.
Del Rio’s crime? City officials had a problem with what they described as a “multi-level bunker-type space” under his home that supposedly held suspicious materials.
Detained and questioned for the next 10 hours, authorities eventually let Del Rio, then 70, go free. But over the course of the next few years, his case took some bizarre twists. For one, the city wound up billing him $90,000 for sending a small army of cement trucks to his home to fill in the bunker, saying such action was necessary and prudent in order to make his home “safe.”
Across Egypt there are millions of people living in slums.
Last year’s revolution focused on Egyptians demanding their rights in Tahrir Square – but have the country’s slum-dwellers gained anything from the uprising?
With just a few days to go before the Presidential election, Al Jazeera’s Jamal Elshayyal went to find out.
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