"Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people"

- John Adams - Second President (1797 - 1801)

Thursday, December 31, 2009

New Year Eve's Morning - December 31, 2009


It does not take a majority to prevail... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.

-Samuel Adams




New Years Eve Morning - December 31, 2009


Nebraskans are happy this morning:

Husker Gameday - Holiday Bowl: Nebraska 33, Arizona 0 (FINAL)



"Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people"


- John Adams - Second President (1797 - 1801)





New Year's Eve celebrations begin in the Pacific

Islands across the Pacific were the first to welcome in the New Year, with celebrations to mark the start of 2010 beginning in the tiny nation of Kiribati at 10am GMT, followed by the Chatham Islands, Fiji, Tonga, New Zealand and Australia.






DrudgeReport.com New Year's Eve Morning headline:


Linked to the following news article:

Revellers to usher in 2010 with fireworks and parties







It's a wonderful life working for the government


Washington Examiner
December 30, 2009

It looks like a happy new year for you -- if you're a public employee. That's the takeaway from a recent Rasmussen poll that shows that 46 percent of government employees say the economy is getting better while just 31 percent say it's getting worse. In contrast, 32 percent of those with private-sector jobs say the economy is getting better, while 49 percent it is getting worse.

Nearly half, 44 percent, of government employees rate their personal finances as good or excellent. Only 33 percent of private-sector employees do. It sounds like public- and private-sector employees are looking at different Americas....


Another $3.8 Billion for GMAC



Even Mogadishu Does It Better Than the Department of Homeland Security

December 30, 2009

Terrorism: For all the billions the U.S. spends on intelligence and homeland security, it's Somalia that has racked up a better record of stopping jet terrorists with explosive-filled underwear. Anyone out there appalled?

Last Nov. 11, sharp-eyed African Union troops, who serve as airport security in the failed state of Somalia, pinpointed a terrorist with a syringe detonator, lethal powder and explosives in his pants trying to board a Dubai-bound jetliner in Mogadishu. They yanked him out of line and stopped him from getting on. It's eerily similar in detail to the Christmas Day terror attack on a Northwest Airlines...

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=516682




Congressman introduces federal anti-SLAPP bill

Wednesday, December 30, 2009
First Amendment Center


A Tennessee congressman has introduced a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives known as “the Citizen Participation Act of 2009” that would provide protection for people who are sued for exercising their First Amendment rights of petition and speech. I

f passed, the measure by Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., would become the first federal anti-SLAPP law on the books. SLAPP is an acronym for Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation.

A SLAPP suit seeks to silence an individual or a business simply because that person or entity has spoken out or exercised First Amendment rights. The filer of a SLAPP suit...




Danger Room’s Top 10 Stories From a World Gone Nuts




First up:
The drone war over Pakistan. This time last year, it was most definitely underway. But in 2009, it kicked into high gear. The Obama administration launched more than 50 reported robotic strikes, killing several hundred people. Compare that to 2008, when there were just 36 drone attacks.

The character of the drone war changed, too.

A year ago, the Pakistani government was denying any connection with the attacks. So was the U.S. military. And the idea that Blackwater was somehow mixed up in the whole thing was a plot twist worthy of Hollywood. But that was before Google Earth spotted U.S. Predators parked on a Pakistani runway; before the Air Force let slip that their drones were running missions east of the Durand Line; and before the CIA publicly announced that it was cutting Blackwater’s contract for rearming the drones.

By May, the unmanned attacks had become such an open secret that CIA director Leon Panetta confessed that the robotic campaign was “the only game in town in terms of confronting or trying to disrupt the al Qaeda leadership.” (This, despite the militants’ apparent understanding of how the drones were targeted, and how to see through the robotic planes’ eyes.) That view was shared by some in the White House, who wanted to recast the Afghanistan fight along the lines of the drone-heavy effort in Pakistan. But counterinsurgency experts continue to worry that the robotic attacks could destabilize the region as they continue into 2010 and expand to a new front: Yemen.

— Noah Shachtman

[Photo: Noah Shachtman]





Uranium Is So Last Century — Enter Thorium, the New Green Nuke


Energy From Thorium has become a sort of open source project aimed at resurrecting long-lost energy technology using modern techniques. READ MORE

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/12/ff_new_nukes/




Here's what's not gonna happen in the new year

This is the time of year when people make predictions about what will happen over the next 12 months.

Just to be different, I'm going to predict what won't happen in 2010.

* We won't stop hearing that the recession is ending -- even though it hasn't.

While I take no joy in knowing that the economy is still very weak, there is a certain pleasure in listening to Wall Street gurus, politicians and other know-it-alls try desperately to convince ordinary people that their lives have improved.

* President Obama's popularity won't improve.

That's because bad economies equal bad poll numbers for the guy in charge.

But Obama won't be bothered by his waning popularity and he won't stop golfing up a storm. He figures he's got at least another year in office before desperation needs to set in.

Yet the president's complacency in the face of a bad economy won't be justified, and when it comes time to pick the next president, what Obama didn't achieve in his first two years won't be forgotten or forgiven.

* You won't get much of a pay increase unless you cry in front of your boss;

companies will remain stingy for as long as they can, and then some.

* Christmas promotions by retailers won't start the week of Thanksgiving next year, but instead right after back-to-school advertising ends.

* Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao won't be coming to Washington.

He will, however, summon President Obama to Beijing, and though the president won't be able to get there fast enough, China will buy fewer bonds, sending interest rates here and around the world soaring.







13 Attorney Generals threaten suit over health care

COLUMBIA, S.C.- December 30, 2009 – Republican attorneys general in 13 states say congressional leaders must remove Nebraska's political deal from the federal health care reform bill or face legal action, according to a letter provided to The Associated Press Wednesday.

"We believe this provision is constitutionally flawed," South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster and the 12 other attorneys general wrote in the letter to be sent Wednesday night to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

"As chief legal officers of our states we are contemplating a legal challenge to this provision and we ask you to take action to render this challenge unnecessary by striking that provision," they wrote.

... The letter was signed by top prosecutors in Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Michigan, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Washington state. All are Republicans, and McMaster and the attorneys general of Florida, Michigan and Pennsylvania are running for governor in their respective states ...READ MORE





RevolutionRadio.org | Morning Headlines - December 31, 2009



Losing the Bill of Rights

December 31st, 2009
By Jacob Hornberger

AmConMag.com

Last month, President Obama announced that Khalid Sheik Mohammed would be transferred to New York, where he would stand trial in U.S. district court for his purported role as principal architect of the 9/11 attacks. At the same time, Obama announced that other terrorist suspects would continue to be tried for terrorism in the Pentagon’s military-commissions system, which was established after 9/11.

Read the rest of this entry »

Coming Soon: The Bill for the Massive U.S. Debt

December 31st, 2009

By Don Miller
MoneyMorning.com

Americans could be in for a rude awakening in coming months when they discover the true scope of the massive national debt racked up by the U.S. government.

Read the rest of this entry »

United States Debt Ridden Road to Perdition

December 31st, 2009

By: James Quinn
Market Oracle
Dec 30, 2009

Christmas is a time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell the government what they want – and their kids pay for it. – Richard Lamm

Read the rest of this entry »

TSA Threatens Blogger Who Posted New Screening Directive

December 31st, 2009

By Kim Zetter
Wired.com
December 30, 2009

Two bloggers received home visits from Transportation Security Administration agents Tuesday after they published a new TSA directive that revises screening procedures and puts new restrictions on passengers in the wake of a recent bombing attempt by the so-called underwear bomber.

Read the rest of this entry »

Eurozone credit contraction accelerates

December 31st, 2009

Bank loans and the M3 money supply in the eurozone contracted at an accelerating pace in November, raising the risk that a lending squeeze will choke the region’s fragile recovery next year.

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
TelegraphUK

Read the rest of this entry »

All Currencies will Continue to fall vs. Gold. Market Review

December 31st, 2009

by Bob Chapman
Global Research
December 31, 2009

The rally in the dollar and the problems for other currencies prove what we have been saying and that is all currencies will continue to fall vs. gold. The impetus for the dollar rally originates as usual with the government and is added to by the disarray in the economies worldwide, particularly in Europe. One of the things central banks have never learned is that financial engineering only works for a short duration, after that the problem worsens. Even the world’s strongest currencies, the Swiss, Canadian, Aussie and Norwegian, are only holding their own versus gold. The reason why is almost all central banks have done the same thing and that is create money and credit recklessly at the behest of the US government. The US and British financial systems are insolvent. The euro is under severe pressure, because of problems in Greece, Spain, Ireland, Portugal and Italy, and every other central bank is jockeying for position via competitive devaluation. The public may not notice it but the situation is really chaotic. As you can see, the US is never allowed a level playing field, but that is part of what comes with being the international reserve currency. Banks in Britain, Europe and the US continue to take losses, sometimes-severe losses. There is no intermediation going on with the dollar. Its rally is founded on manipulation. We suspect in the future we will have an interesting phenomenon and that is a fall in the dollar, pound and the euro, as gold moves higher as the only viable alternative. The world is going to be shocked when the euro collapses. It won’t happen overnight. It will take a year or two, but it has a good chance of happening. The US dollar cannot and will not for some time to come be a safe haven for wealth. That is because the dollar and the US economy have been deliberately destroyed.

Read the rest of this entry »

A Hell of a Decade

December 31st, 2009

by Peter Schiff
LewRockwell.com

In its recent look back on the first ten years of the century, Time magazine proclaimed the period to be “the decade from hell.” The editors made their case based on what they saw as the signature events of the last ten years, notably the ravages of terrorism, failed wars, and a global financial crisis. Taken together, these factors produced an era that Time is convinced will be remembered as one of the low points in our history.

Read the rest of this entry »

Plentiful Petroleum

December 31st, 2009

by George Giles
LewRockwell.com

As the first decade of the twenty-first century draws to a close it is worth reviewing topics that may impact every man, woman and child. The disastrous Bush Administration pulled the legs out from under the baby boomers retirement with his inability to veto any spending bill. He has even crippled the future of the unborn. Lil’ Bush launched a global war on an adjective (terrorism) without any strategic objective. Previous wars had nouns as the subject. Social spending increased as well, not to mention the subversion of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Obama HAS taken up right where Lil’ Bush left off. Immense deficits and a monstrous national debt are threatening to consume us. As awful as this scenario is these are abstract concepts to Joe Public, something that plays little or no part in their daily lives. What about the impending eco-doom and the fact that we are running out of oil? These are abstract concepts that all the benighted masses can reify for themselves.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Old ‘False-Flag Trick’

December 31st, 2009

by William Norman Grigg
LewRockwell.com

You know, Chief, this nude bomb might solve a lot of problems. For one thing, flashers…. And there’d be no more trouble with concealed weapons. I mean, if everyone were nude, there’d be no place to hide a gun or knife. Well, there is a place, but it could be painful.

Read the rest of this entry »

THE MILLENNIUM BARACK

December 31st, 2009

By Michael LeMieux
December 31, 2009
NewsWithViews.com

Barack Obama ran his campaign on many issues to “fundamentally change America.” Some of those issues seem to be very lofty goals even if it is not his job to do so or even constitutional, but when has that ever stopped a modern politician.

Read the rest of this entry »

PHYSICIANS ARE CLOSING THEIR OFFICES

December 31st, 2009

Erica Carle
December 31, 2009
NewsWithViews.com

Dr. Carl W. Peter Jr., M.D.
Lower Standards Will Cost Lives

NOTE BY ERICA CARLE: The accompanying letter was written by our son, Dr. Carl W. Peter Jr. in response to a Letter to the Editor complaining about the greediness of physicians. Dr. Peter’s letter appeared in the Sumter, S.C. paper in January 2003. It seems relevant today when even the President of the United States complains about “greedy physicians.”

Read the rest of this entry »





It all happened at a well-fortified combat outpost in Eastern Afghanistan. Somehow a suicide bomber was able to bring his explosives on the base, walk up to a group of American civilians and blow himself up. It will take an investigation to determine how he did it.



Eight US 'CIA agents' killed in Afghanistan bomb attack




Xinhua top 10 world news events in 2009

BEIJING, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) — The following were the top 10 events around the world in 2009 as selected by Xinhua:

1. International naval forces jointly battle Somali pirates

Piracy continued to be rampant off the Somali coast in 2009. Nearly 40 vessels were hijacked and 500 crew members onboard have been held hostage so far this year.

China sent its first escort mission to the Gulf of Aden off Somalia on Jan. 7. Its fourth mission is now part of a multinational coalition of warships patrolling the pirate-infested area.

On Nov. 6-7, naval officers from Russia, India, the European Union, Japan and the multinational Combined Maritime Forces met in Beijing to coordinate their efforts to protect ships from Somali pirates.

2. Obama takes office, leading U.S. into era of change

On Jan. 20, Democrat Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th U.S. president, thus becoming the first African American president in the country’s history.

With the banner of “changes we believe” during his presidential campaign, Obama called for “a world without nuclear weapons” in an April address in Prague, sought “a new beginning” of relations with the Muslim world in Cairo in June, and looked to strengthen ties with the Asian countries in an Asian policy speech when he visited Tokyo in November.

President Obama brought about changes to U.S. foreign policy after he unveiled new Iraq and Afghanistan strategies, revised plans for a missile defense shield in Europe, and stressed his focus on Asia, especially on East Asia.

3. Six-party talks deadlocked after DPRK nuclear test

On Jan. 30, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) announced it was scrapping all agreements with South Korea preventing political and military confrontation between the two sides.

On April 14, the DPRK quit the six-party talks aimed at denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula in protest of a UN condemnation on its launch of a satellite.

On June 12, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution that allowed wider sanctions against the DPRK after Pyongyang conducted a nuclear test in May and fired several ballistic missiles in June.

In a letter to the president of the UN Security Council, the DPRK said “reprocessing of spent fuel rods was at its final phase” at the end of August.

When meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Oct. 5., top DPRK leader Kim Jong Il said his country was willing to attend multilateral talks, including the six-party talks, based on progress at the DPRK-U.S. talks.

4. U.S.-Russian satellite collision calls for better space traffic management

On Feb. 10, a privately owned U.S. communications satellite collided with a defunct Russian satellite about 790 km over Russia’s Siberia, spewing a pair of massive debris clouds and sparking fears that the debris might threaten other spacecraft.

The collision between the U.S. and Russian satellites, the first “car crash” in outer space, highlighted an urgent need to better manage increasingly dense space traffic.

The U.S. satellite was owned by the Iridium satellite company, which operates a constellation of 66 low Earth orbiting satellites that provide global mobile voice and data communications.

The Russian satellite Cosmos 2251 launched in 1993 was presumed non-operational.

5. China-U.S. relations redefined

On April 1, Chinese President Hu Jintao met with his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama on the sidelines of a Group of 20 (G-20) summit on the financial crisis in London.

They agreed to build a positive, cooperative and comprehensive relationship for the 21st century and establish the China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogues mechanism to deepen bilateral cooperation.

On July 27-28, the first round of the strategic and economic dialogues ended in Washington, with the two countries pledging to intensify bilateral ties and expand cooperation in economic and financial sectors as well as on major international and regional issues.

Hu made a five-point proposal on promoting China-U.S. relations while meeting with Obama in Beijing on Nov. 17.

6. Countries begin mass vaccination in fight against A/H1N1 flu

On June 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) raised the A/H1N1 influenza alert to the highest Level 6, formally declaring that the outbreak had developed into a global pandemic.

On Sept. 7, China’s State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) approved the release of the initial batch of the A/H1N1 vaccine, making the country the first in the world to be ready with a vaccine against the virus.

Shortly afterward, a number of countries launched mass vaccination programs against A/H1N1 flu after Australia, Hungary and the United States approved the vaccines.

At least 11,516 people worldwide have been killed by A/H1N1 influenza since the new flu virus was first identified in April, the WHO said in a report on Dec. 20.

The virus remains active in regions across Europe and Asia, but the speed of its spread has eased, the report said.

7. Democratic Party wins landslide in Japan’s general election

On Aug. 30, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) won the lower house election by a landslide, sweeping the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) out of almost unbroken power since 1955.

After the DPJ’s victory, Japan seemed to be on the road to a two-party system.

The DPJ formed a tripartite coalition with the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the People’s New Party (PNP) on Sept. 16. The DPJ-led government decided to abolish the top bureaucrats’ meetings so that it could put politicians in charge of decision-making.

In diplomacy, while maintaining Japan’s long-standing alliance with the United States, the new government sought to create a “relationship of equals.”

By urging the creation of an “East Asian Community,” Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama also wanted to forge stronger ties with neighboring Asian countries.

8. World economy slowly emerging from crisis

The world economy plunged into a severe recession triggered by the global financial crisis in September 2008. The recession dragged down the economic growth of the United States, the euro zone and Japan as well as the world’s emerging economies.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected in an October report that global output would contract 1.1 percent in 2009, the first time since World War II.

The Group of 20 (G-20) governments launched major fiscal stimulus programs to foster global economic recovery after agreeing to reform international financial institutions and tighten financial regulations at summits in London and Pittsburgh.

Through close global cooperation, the international financial market has been stabilized and major Western economies have shown clear signs of recovery in the second half of this year. The IMF predicts the world economic growth in 2010 will reach 3.1 percent.

9. Start of Lisbon Treaty opens new era for EU

On Nov. 19, Belgian Prime Minister Herman van Rompuy was chosen as the first full-time EU president and British EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton as foreign policy chief of the 27-nation bloc at a special EU summit.

On Dec. 1, the Treaty of Lisbon approved by all 27 EU members came into force, stating the EU is “heading into a new era.”

The treaty features new rules to accelerate decision-making so that the EU can respond more swiftly to global issues such as defense, energy security, climate change and migration.

The Lisbon Treaty is a simplified version of a constitution treaty that was approved by EU leaders in 2004 but was aborted due to French and Dutch voters’ rejection in 2005.

10. Copenhagen meeting ends with non-binding climate accord

Frequent extreme weather events in 2009 such as tropical cyclones and flooding aroused concerns by the international community. Some 15,000 representatives from 190 countries, including 100 heads of states or governments, gathered in Copenhagen for the UN Climate Conference on Dec. 7.

The participants were expected to renew emissions reduction targets after the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

After 13 days of hectic negotiations,the meeting ended with a legally non-binding Copenhagen Accord. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the Copenhagen talks took “a significant step forward” in committing countries to responding to climate change.





FROM KOREA

The Top National Stories of 2009

◆ Last Farewell to Prominent Koreans

Several prominent Koreans who played major roles in the country's modern history died in 2009. Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan, the spiritual anchor of Korea's Catholics, died on Feb. 16, triggering a wave of mourning across the nation. Former President Roh Moo-hyun committed suicide on May 25 while being investigated by prosecutors, sending shockwaves throughout Korean politics. And when former President Kim Dae-jung died on Aug. 18 of multiple organ failure caused by complications from pneumonia, the opposition party lost two former presidents in a single year.

Kim was given a state funeral, only the second former president in South Korea's history to be so honored. The first was Park Chung-hee in 1979.

◆ Korea's Global Status Rises

Korea took major step toward becoming an advanced country in 2009 when, at the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh in September, the country was selected to host the next meeting of leading developed and developing economies in November 2010. Korea is the first newly-industrialized country to host the G20 Summit, which has replaced the G8 as the top global consultative group.

In November, Korea also joined the OECD's Development Assistance Committee, a club of developed donor nations. It was the first time a country has moved from receiving international aid to a becoming a major donor.

◆ N.Korea Stuns and Baffles the World

North Korea made headlines this year with rumors that Kim Jong-il's third son Jong-un has been chosen to succeed his ailing father to the leadership. The North also stunned the world by test firing a long-range rocket in April, conducting a second nuclear test in May and ending the year with a shock currency reform.

There were many indications that Kim senior, who is believed to have suffered a stroke in August last year, chose his third son as his heir for a third-generation dynastic succession. The communist country ratcheted up tensions by conducting a nuclear test and other provocations in order to tighten the regime's grip on power.

The currency reform, which revalued the North Korean won at a rate of 100:1, is believed to aim at weakening the emergent wealthy class, which has grown since the mid-1990s through commerce in the communist country's open-air markets and has become a threat to Kim's iron rule.

◆ Attempted Satellite Launch Fails

Korea first space rocket lifted off as planned at the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Jeolla Province on Aug. 25. But it failed to put the Science and Technology Satellite-2 into its targeted orbit when one of the protective satellite covers known as the payload fairings failed to separate.

The mission was labeled a "half success." The satellite is believed to have re-entered the earth's atmosphere and burned as it fell to the surface. The government plans to launch another rocket one more time during the first half of next year.

◆ Athletes Triumph on World Stage

Korean sports got off to a strong start in 2009 with the national baseball team finishing second in the World Baseball Classics in March. Team Korea lost to Japan 3-5 in the final round but gave the Japanese players a tough match by forcing the game into extra innings.

In August, Yang Yong-eun became the first Asian-born golfer to win a major championship, outplaying world no. 1 Tiger Woods of the U.S. to claim the PGA Championship.

Korea's national football squad also reached the World Cup finals, held in South Africa in 2010, for the seventh consecutive time.

Figure skating star Kim Yu-na grabbed top prizes in all five major tournaments this year, from the Four Continents Tournament in February to the Grand Prix Final in December, bringing joy to Koreans all year long.





BEIJING, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- China will be objective and fair during its presidency of the U.N. Security Council next month under the rotating system, its envoy said.






OUR PLANET'S PROTECTIVE MAGNETOSPHERE UPDATE
About Real-Time Magnetosphere Simulation
http://www2.nict.go.jp/y/y223/simulation/realtime/index.html

DECEMBER 31, 2009 AT 8:40 AM CDT




DECEMBER 30, 2009 AT 6:15 PM CDT











MOON UPDATE
Current Moon Phase
http://www.die.net/moon/




BLUE MOON ON NEW YEAR'S EVE: Believe it or not, tonight's full Moon is a "Blue Moon." It's the second full Moon this month and the first Blue Moon to fall on New Year's Eve in nearly 20 years. Sounds like a rare excuse for a party...


There's more. In Europe, Africa and Asia, the Blue Moon will dip into Earth's shadow for a partial lunar eclipse. At maximum eclipse, around 19:24 Universal Time, approximately 8% of the Moon will be darkly shadowed: animated preview.





From the Lincoln, Nebraska JournalStar.com: All about tonight's BLUE MOON




A full moon rises over a barn in La Vista, Neb., Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2009.


(AP Photo/Nati Harnik)





SUN UPDATE
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/sunspots/
http://solarcycle24.com/

Classification of Solar Flares

Magnetic fields trigger solar wind



Solar Update - Sunspot 1039 is now producing B-Class flares and has a chance for a C-Class flare also. This region continues to show some growth.

The new STEREO Behind images continue to show a possible active region at high latitude on the eastern limb.

Active Regions: 11039 11037






EARTHQUAKE UPDATES


3.3 MAGNITUDE EARTHQUAKE HITS GREATER LOS ANGELES AREA, CALIFORNIA - Wednesday, December 30, 2009 at 04:17:56 PM at epicenter

MAP 3.3 2009/12/31 00:17:56 34.017 -117.108 8.0 GREATER LOS ANGELES AREA, CALIFORNIA

Earthquake Details
Magnitude3.3
Date-Time
Location34.017°N, 117.108°W
Depth8 km (5.0 miles)
RegionGREATER LOS ANGELES AREA, CALIFORNIA
Distances
  • 5 km (3 miles) SSE (168°) from Mentone, CA
  • 6 km (4 miles) WSW (255°) from Yucaipa, CA
  • 7 km (4 miles) SE (126°) from Redlands, CA
  • 15 km (9 miles) NE (48°) from Moreno Valley, CA
  • 105 km (65 miles) E (92°) from Los Angeles Civic Center, CA
Source

Latest Earthquakes Magnitude 2.5 or Greater in the United States and Adjacent Areas and Magnitude 4.5 or Greater in the Rest of the World



Update time = Thu Dec 31 14:09:23 UTC 2009

MAG UTC DATE-TIME
y/m/d h:m:s
LAT
deg
LON
deg
DEPTH
km
Region
MAP 5.0 2009/12/31 12:22:29 19.463 122.715 33.2 BABUYAN ISLANDS REGION, PHILIPPINES
MAP 4.8 2009/12/31 10:12:17 16.562 -87.350 43.9 OFFSHORE HONDURAS
MAP 5.5 2009/12/31 09:57:30 27.332 91.412 10.0 BHUTAN
MAP 5.2 2009/12/31 09:23:26 -59.558 -150.794 10.0 PACIFIC-ANTARCTIC RIDGE
MAP 4.9 2009/12/31 09:06:01 -7.546 127.956 177.3 KEPULAUAN BARAT DAYA, INDONESIA
MAP 4.9 2009/12/31 07:59:21 -55.631 -27.120 10.1 SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS REGION
MAP 3.0 2009/12/31 07:52:18 63.251 -150.561 135.9 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 5.4 2009/12/31 06:26:13 -2.046 137.444 35.0 PAPUA, INDONESIA
MAP 2.6 2009/12/31 06:20:00 32.477 -115.177 0.0 BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP 2.9 2009/12/31 04:17:10 57.099 -142.303 11.9 GULF OF ALASKA
MAP 4.8 2009/12/31 03:53:22 -23.942 -66.591 204.5 JUJUY, ARGENTINA
MAP 2.5 2009/12/31 02:05:38 32.517 -115.216 25.4 BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP 3.3 2009/12/31 01:45:54 63.121 -150.864 129.6 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 3.0 2009/12/31 00:49:07 32.419 -115.188 0.0 BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP 3.3 2009/12/31 00:17:56 34.017 -117.108 8.1 GREATER LOS ANGELES AREA, CALIFORNIA




VOLCANISM NEWS

Water, power cut off around Mayon volcano

Examiner.com - ‎1 hour ago‎
... Electric Cooperative was ordered by provincial Governor Joey Salceda to cut off power to the homes in the villages around the foot of Mayon volcano. ...






CHANG
ING WEATHER PATTERNS - NEWS
National Severe Weather Map
Surface Temperature Forecast Map
www.511nebraska.org








GLOBAL FASCISM NEWS

"Fascism should rightly be called Corporatism, as it is the merger of corporate and government power."
Benito Mussolini

Chicago CO2 Carbon Trading Exchange

"When you ask who’s the biggest winner if the bill goes through, you’ll find the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), co-founded by Hank Paulson and Al Gore. Members include Amtrak, DuPont, Ford, Oakland, Chicago, and the Iowa Farm Bureau."
http://whiskeyandgunpowder.com/cap-and-trade-shenanigans-with-the-chicago-climate-exchange/

Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) is 10% owned by Goldman Sachs (GS) and 10% owned by Generation Investment Management (GIM), an investment firm founded & chaired by Al Gore. GIM was co-founded by the former Treasury Secretary under George W. Bush and former Goldman Sachs CEO Hank Paulson.

(USA) http://www.chicagoclimatex.com/
(Europe) http://www.ecx.eu/
(China) http://www.climateexchangeplc.com/


Frauds hit carbon trading

Why are mysterious UK businesses registering to trade carbon in Europe?



Food Vs. Trees

Wednesday, December 30, 2009
INVESTORS BUSINESS DAILY Staff



Agriculture: Already buffeted by rising food prices due to biofuels, consumers face a bigger hike if climate-change legislation is passed. Farming costs will rise, and it may be more profitable to plant trees than crops. If the cap-and-trade provisions of the Waxman-Markey bill become law, you can wave goodbye to those amber waves of grain as America's heartland falls victim to a perverse set of incentives and a process called "afforestation."

Soybeans and wheat will give way to elms and oaks. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack wants a review of what amounts to an agricultural impact study of HR 2454, which...



The United Nations is just a debating society and a 'front' for banks

Palestinians remember the one year anniversary of the Israeli Offensive in Gaza



Palestinian boys play in the destroyed houses in southern Gaza on December 27, 2009, one year after Israel mounted a military offensive against Hamasvand its leadership.
UPI/Ismael Mohamad







An Afghan man walks past a Mickey Mouse wall painting in Kabul

Picture: REUTERS







People ski down an artificial slope in front of the national stadium in Beijing

Picture: REUTERS






Two polar bears wrestle in in the Wapusk National Park in Manitoba, Canada. Photographer David C Schultz spent five days capturing a series of images, sat just 40 metres away from the bears along the shore of the Hudson Bay






Members of a winter swimming club form a 2010 sign in the snow on the bank of the Yenisei River as they celebrate the coming of the new year in Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, December 27, 2009.


REUTERS/Ilya Naymushin




Body of Sea Urchin is One Big Eye


Sea urchins may use the whole surface of their bodies as compound eyes, scientists now suggest.




A purple sea urchin, Credit: Claire Fackler, NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries


— LiveScience






Bell Ringing To Usher In New Year in Suzhou, China





SUZHOU, Dec. 30, 2009 (Xinhua) — The belfry of the Hanshan Temple in Suzhou, east China’s Jiangsu Province. The bell tower, pagoda, the Giant Bell and Stele Garden and other major scenic spots of the Hanshan Temple are illuminated to usher in the traditional New Year’s Eve Bell Ringing activity on the night of Dec 31. Some 6,000 guests and sightseers are set to take part in the event. (Photo by Xinhua/Wang Jianzhong)






UFO NEWS
Mutual UFO Network (MUFON)
UFO Database

Latest Latin American UFO Sightings


From Scott Corrales
Inexplicata - The Journal of Hispanic Ufology
12-30-2009

Argentina - Spanish Tourists See UFO In Cachi


Source: El Tribuno and Planeta UFO
Date:
December 30,
2009

http://www.eltribuno.info/salta/diario/2009/12/27/municipio/ovnis- ya-forman-parte-del-atractivo-de-cachi


Argentina: Spanish

Tourists Witness UFO in Cachi
*** Tourists from Spain claim seeing luminous object crossing the valley *** ***

A growing number of foreign tourists have come looking for "CE-3" experiences ***

A group of Spanish and Argentinean tourists who chose the Valles Chalchaquíes to spend their holiday never imagined that they would spend one of their most startling moments in the lives in Cachi, as they became witnesses to two strange objects

in the sky which they unhesitatingly classified as unidentified flying objects (UFOs) Deborah Marcos Orellana, 27, Paloma Euguren Orellana,21, Maria Aya, 32 all hail from Ibiza, Spain. In the company of Jorge Domicheli, 27, Carlos Paz and Martin Minghetti, 28 of Buenos Aires, they spent Saturday morning surveying the idyllic Cachian landscape.

Meanwhile, in the evening, they decided to tour the community, where they heard locals discussing certain strange events that occurred frequently in the area, such as UFO sightings.

Skeptical at first, but curious, they decided to set out at sunset together toward the mountains. "We were fascinated by the landscape, and upon seeing that it was a beautiful sunset, we decided to walk along the mountains not far from town, and wait for nightfall in that immensity that leads to self discovery," said Deborah, who brought her ten-month-old son along for the experience.

They told El Tribuno "we built a fire and inevitably began scanning the skies, when Paloma, one of the tourists, advised us of the presence of a strange object moving in the sky. We tried to ascertain if it was an airplane or some sort of known craft, but the light's intensity and strange oscillating movement discarded that theory altogether."

The tourists recalled, "it was a somewhat cloudy night, but Jupiter and the Moon were visible in breaks. It was precisely between these two heavenly bodies that the luminous, flashing object went by, but not sufficiently so that we could capture it on our small domestic cameras. We started shouting with excitement, rubbed our eyes and couldn't believe it. The object remained there for nearly a minute."

A Second Sighting "When we tried to recover from the impact, another vessel appear from the south and headed north, first slowly and then later, with astonishing speed, vanished into infinity," explained Martin, still stunned by the strange event.

According to locals, events of this sort repeat frequently and turned the town in a choice sighting location for a growing number of tourists who come in from various parts of the world with the expectation of seeing, at least fleetingly, one of those strange objects in the sky.

"There is much talk in Europe about the UFOs seen in Cachi. We were skeptical up to now, but we are returning home convinced that strange things happen there," said Maria, who promises to return next year.

(Translation (c) 2009, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Guillermo Gimenez, Planeta UFO and Daniel Diaz, El Tribuno)


Mexico - A Report from Mexico City Airport (MCIA)



Mexico: A UFO Report from MCIA
By Alfonso Salazar Mendoza and Ana Luisa Cid

On December 24, 2009 at 15:54 hours, the crew of an Aeromexico Boeing 737-800 reported that it had come across spherical traffic in the vicinity of Cerro de la Estrella (east of Mexico City). The aircraft had recently taken off from the airport. I heard the conversation myself. I heard when they asked if there was other traffic on the screen on air corridor 21.
The airliner was at an altitude fo 10,000 meters under excellent visibility conditions. This report can be added to other recent ones involving UFO sightings over the Mexican capital city, such as the one that occurred on Thursday, December 17 when platform personnel saw two spherical objects flying over Benito Juarez Airport. This occurred at 5:30 a.m. in a south-to-north direction, at an altitude of approximately one kilometer.

Another important reference we can provide is that during the thunderstorm in October 2009, plaform staff managed to photograph a UFO. It is thus possible to contribute more information of the phenomenon as it occurs in Mexico, where in many instances the witnesses are qualified airliner pilots.


(Translation (c) 2009, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Prof. Ana Luisa Cid)





Ice cream causes positive alcohol test




On this date in history:


  • In 1879, Thomas Edison gave the first public demonstration of his incandescent lamp in Menlo Park, N.J.
  • In 1929, Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians' first New Year's Eve broadcast from the Roosevelt Grill in New York City, which became an annual event, was heard over the CBS network.
  • In 1947, America's favorite Western couple, singing cowboy Roy Rogers and co-star Dale Evans, were married.
  • In 1970, six months after release of their "Let It Be" album, Paul McCartney filed suit in London seeking the legal dissolution of the Beatles' partnership.
  • In 1983, the court-ordered breakup of the American Telephone and Telegraph Co. took effect at midnight.
  • In 1984, the United States' first mandatory seat belt law went into effect in the state of New York at midnight.
  • In 1985, rock singer Rick Nelson, his fiancee and five band members were killed when a fire broke out on their chartered DC-3 in northeast Texas.
  • In 1994, Russian forces launched a full air and ground attack on Grozny, the capital city of the rebel republic of Chechnya.
  • In 1997, the Algerian government announced that more than 400 people had been massacred by Islamic extremists during the last nine days of December.
  • In 1999, Panama assumed full control of the Panama Canal.
  • In 2004, at least 175 youths were reported killed in an overnight fire at a popular Buenos Aires nightclub. About 600 more were injured in a mad rush for the exits.
  • Also in 2004, a bus slammed into an oil tanker in Pakistan, killing at least 31 people and seriously injuring 11.
  • In 2006, the toll of U.S. troops killed in Iraq passed the 3,000 mark. Pentagon figures indicated more than 22,000 others had been wounded.
  • Also in 2006, Romania and Bulgaria joined the European Union bringing the number of countries to 27 and the number of citizens to 489 million.
  • In 2007, the death toll in Kenya's post-election violence reached at least 140. Tribal uprisings were triggered after incumbent President Mwai Kibaki narrowly won re-election over Raila Odinga despite trailing by a wide margin earlier.
  • In 2008, the U.S. economy wound up a dismal year as signs of recession grew. Major U.S. stock market indexes had their worse single-year performances since the Great Depression of the 1930s.






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