TUESDAY EVENING DECEMBER 22, 2009 |
NEBRASKA NEWS |
Winter storm watch starts Wednesday Lincoln, Nebraska Active Advisory: Record Low Temperature for Lincoln, Nebraska: -33°F, Jan. 12, 1974 (My oldest was born 1-4-74 and the winter of 73-74 was COLD) January 12, 1974. The coldest morning ever observed in Lincoln. The low temperature on this morning reached, -33 F. Not only was it the coldest ever recorded in Lincoln, but we were the "climate national champions" on that morning having the nation's coldest observed temperature, colder than even Alaska. This is one championship that Lincoln residents don't want to see us repeat! This cold wave produced 17 mornings of sub-zero temperatures and one of the deepest snow covers in Lincoln's history. http://www.hprcc.unl.edu/nebraska/lincolntoptencentury.html |
Lincoln, Nebraska police ask for help to find grasshopper Police say someone stole the grasshopper statue from El Sitio restaurant in Lincoln. |
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Report says 225,000 Haiti children work as slaves and trafficking children not prosecuted
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - December 22, 2009 - Poverty has forced at least 225,000 children in Haiti's cities into slavery as unpaid household servants, far more than previously thought, a report said Tuesday.The Pan American Development Foundation's report also said some of those children - mostly young girls - suffer sexual, psychological and physical abuse while toiling in extreme hardship.
The report recommends Haiti's government and international donors focus efforts on educating the poor and expanding social services such as shelters for girls, who make up an estimated two-thirds of the child servant population.
Young servants are known as "restavek" - Haitian Creole for "stays with" - and their plight is both widely known and a source of great shame in the Caribbean nation that was founded by a slave revolt more than 200 years ago.
Researchers said the practice is so common that almost half of 257 children interviewed in the sprawling Port-au-Prince shantytown of Cite Soleil were household slaves.
Most are sent by parents who cannot afford to care for them to families just slightly better off. Researchers found 11 percent of families that have a restavek have sent their own children into domestic servitude elsewhere.
Despite growing attention to the problem, researchers said their sources were unaware of any prosecutions of cases involving trafficking children or using them as unpaid servants in this deeply poor nation of more than 9 million people.
Glenn Smucker, one of the report's authors and a cultural anthropologist known for extensive work on Haiti, said he believes the number of restavek children is increasing proportionally with the population of Port-au-Prince as more migrants flee rural poverty to live in the capital.
The researchers surveyed more than 1,400 random households in five Haitian urban areas in late 2007 and early 2008, with funding help from the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The most widely used previous number for restaveks came from a 2002 UNICEF survey, which estimated there were 172,000.
The new report used a broader counting system to include children related to household owners but still living in servitude, such as nieces or cousins, and as well as "boarders" living temporarily with another family but are still forced to provide labor.
"Most people working with restavek children ... think that these numbers, both ours and UNICEF's, are actually underestimating the problem," said Herve Razafimbahini, the Pan American Development Foundation's program director in Haiti.
He called for Haitian officials to conduct a national survey to analyze the full scope of the problem, including in rural areas.
Officials with the Ministry of Social Affairs could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
http://omaha.com/article/20091222/AP15/312229780
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The official position on the cause of the current financial downturn is that it was caused by the reckless practices of financial institutions and the failure of regulatory bodies, and it is likely that these were the proximate causes, but they were not the ultimate cause. Americans, unfortunately, are rarely willing to search for ultimate causes or do anything about them when they are found. In the 1980s, I was living in a suburb of Washington, DC. One evening, a friend and I were walking the streets of Georgetown when we met a group of Japanese taking pictures of a building they had just purchased. They asked us to take some photographs of them in front of it, which we did. A few blocks further along, we observed a group of teenagers drumming on plastic household buckets. The kids were very good drummers, but I pointed out to my friend that after WW2, the youths of the Caribbean altered abandoned oil drums into musical instruments of various ranges and created a new and unique musical genre—steel drums. Later over dinner, my friend and I discussed what appeared to be a serious decline in America's economic fortunes and culture. READ MORE ..... |
VIDEO: Sen. Whitehouse: Foes of health care bill are birthers, right-wing militias, aryan groups  (Scroll to about 1:07 Minutes into the video) Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) today took shots at those who are not supporting the health care legislation. During a floor speech, he excoriated Senate GOP members for holding up the pending health care bill and accused their supporters of being birthers and fanatics in right-wing militia and Aryan support groups. He started off by citing an editorial from the Manchester Journal Inquirer, which used the insult "lunatic fringe.". |
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN (MP3) RELATED: Posted: Dec 22 2009 By: Jim Sinclair - GDP Growth Still Overstated "No. 267: Third-Quarter GDP Revision" Jim Sinclair’s Commentary Think the State of California. Moody’s threw its hat in with S&P and Fitch, which earlier this month cut the government bond ratings of Greece, as the country struggles to emerge from its economic crisis. But, the one-notch cut was less severe than the other two agencies – sparking a rally in Greece’s bonds. The less-aggressive move eased concerns that the country’s debt would be ineligible as collateral at the ECB. Moody’s, which also cut the ratings of several Greek banks, said the government’s long-term credit strength was "eroding materially," and cut the bond ratings to A2 from A1. It also issued a Negative outlook and said future ratings decisions will depend on whether the government makes good on deficit-reduction plans. Jim Sinclair’s Commentary Houses under foreclosure, jobs lost, yet the financial industry set takes record gifts for Christmas. An unnamed AIG (AIG) executive will get $3.26M in a deferred stock grant thanks to a nod from paymaster Kenneth Feinberg. The unnamed top-25 executive will also get an annual long-term incentive award of as much as $1M. "AIG has indicated that the employee is critical to AIG’s long-term performance and stability, and that his continued employment by AIG will significantly aid AIG’s ability to repay the taxpayer," Feinberg said, explaining his decision. |
| By Giordano Bruno Neithercorp Press - 12/21/2009
This same repetition induces a type of “sleepwalk” in the average person, a zombie-like reanimation of brain functions that shriveled up and died years before, giving the impression of “life,” but in reality, it is merely a life on autopilot. This is what makes catastrophes so catastrophic. It is not always the events themselves that reap such destruction, but people’s delayed reactions and dulled senses. The more ignorant the populace, the more magnified and painful such events become. Our lack of knowledge and reasonable action sets our own house ablaze, brings economies to ruin, and murders civilizations. Others may tip the problems into motion, but in the end, all of us, each and every individual, is responsible for the final result. It is nearly Christmas, 2009, and the dangers of routine are never more blindingly obvious than they are at this time of year. A dangerous economic storm looms, its effects culminating most likely sometime in 2010. Many people know its there, they can feel it, but the chains of routine drag them back. “Our world will remain the same tomorrow as it was today…” they tell themselves, “…how could things possibly change?” Mixed Signals Indicate Economic Disinformation There are a number of half truths and financial fantasies floating around the U.S. today, which may explain why some have decided to throw caution to the wind, adopting a cult-like blind faith in the “unsinkable” American economy. I suspect that the consequences for this error in judgment will become quite clear to most by the end of next year, but until then, let’s examine our current situation, what the government has to say about it, and the reality they wish to gloss over. Unemployment Thwarted By Bailouts? Unfortunately, it depends on who you ask. If you ask the Labor Department, the U.S. lost only 11,000 jobs in November, far less than forecast, and unemployment evened out to 10% from 10.2%. Great news, right? It would be, if it were true… Other data shows that the major revision in job losses may be an overenthusiastic calculation by the Labor Department. First, the holiday season is notorious for generating thousands of temporary, low-paying part time jobs with an average of only 15-20 hours a week. The Labor Department counts people working these jobs as fully employed even though they do not make nearly enough money to support themselves and most will likely lose their positions once the Christmas season is over. Even with this influx of minimum wage holiday jobs to dilute unemployment numbers, it appears most retailers are only hiring about half of the number of temporary workers they did last year: http://www.kidk.com/news/local/78476852.html What this means is, unemployment will probably hit very hard in February and March when retailers begin cutting back once more, especially if Christmas profits fall short of target. Second, there is a lot of evidence to suggest that the Labor Department is grossly and deliberately misreporting unemployment figures. Other groups which measure unemployment, including the ADP, have released national job loss reports that greatly differ from that of the Labor Department for November. In most cases, the Labor Department “adjusts” its numbers a month later to match ADP’s more accurate assessments. Very rarely do the ADP’s numbers completely overshoot actual job loss calculations. For November however, the Labor Department predicted only 11,000 jobs lost, while the ADP measured 169,000 jobs lost! http://www.adpemploymentreport.com/ This is a major discrepancy! Either the ADP has somehow calculated way off the mark (which rarely if ever happens), or the Labor Department has rigged the numbers. Such a discrepancy by the Labor Department could not be made accidentally. It is hard to say which one is the case, but since the ADP is consistently accurate, and the Labor Department has more reason to flub the statistics, I will have to lean towards the ADP’s numbers as a realistic representation of November job losses. What is more frightening is that eventually, the Labor Department will have to account for all the lost jobs they hid last month. When they make this adjustment, it will seem as though job loss has exploded after a short lull. This will send an abrasive shock through markets next year. In fact, markets recently took a hit as the government reported that the number of Americans filing for initial unemployment insurance at the beginning of December jumped much higher than analyst expectations: http://money.cnn.com/2009/12/10/news/economy/initial_jobless_claims/index.htm One would think claims should begin to dissipate after the miracle jobless drop in November. Adding a sharper edge to this realization is the fact that a record 37.2 million Americans now require food stamps in order to survive, while the media blathers on about imminent recovery. That is 1 out of every 8 people in this country: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601012&sid=aFbqGE.lEdi0 It is these kinds of mixed signals that reveal misinformation and half-truths by MSM and government sources. Waiting For The Return Of The Dollar? Don’t Hold Your Breath… As we have predicted in the past, erratic market movements have begun to occur this holiday season, and the artificial Dow rally will probably not make it through the winter. With uncertainty in stocks comes a flight to “safe haven” investments. Historically, the U.S. Dollar has been considered a safe haven, and out of habit, some investors continue to dump their assets into dollars when expecting fickle market conditions. Recent weakness in the Euro has also lifted the dollar. Not drastically by any means, but enough to give the impression that the Greenback may soon make its return. Great news, right? Again, not quite… Many investors make the mistake of looking only at the relative weakness of other world currencies when assessing the Dollar’s strength, but there are many other factors to consider. The Greenback is unique in that it derives its strength not so much from the overall health of the U.S. economy, or any solid circulation fundamentals, but from the fact that it is the “world reserve currency”. When we examine the foundation of the Dollar, we find an extremely weak overprinted currency belonging to a country with a $9.2 Trillion projected deficit and totally reliant on foreign investment. However, as long as the Dollar retains its label as the world reserve currency, it will continue to have a psychological significance to investors. It would not take massive inflation to collapse the Greenback (although this is occurring). Wholesale prices jumped 1.8 percent last month, more than double the gain analysts expected, and sparking fears that the Fed will soon be forced to raise interest rates: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Spike-in-wholesale-inflation-apf-2682030532.html?x=0 Mainstream economists are attempting to downplay these numbers by claiming that the inflation will be temporary, but in reality, we are only seeing the beginning. This also throws a monkey wrench into the arguments made by some financial advisors that the dollar is safe, and we are more likely to see deflation than inflation. If this was truly a deflationary collapse like the Great Depression, then why have prices on goods increased instead of decreased? We should have seen substantial price cuts on commodities and base manufacturing materials if deflation was the threat, but this has not occurred. A deflationary collapse would be far preferable to an inflationary collapse. With the dollar still intact, the economy could be rebuilt without help from outside agencies like the IMF. We know that the Elites are attempting to force the U.S. to answer to a centralized economic authority and accept a global currency in the form of Special Drawing Rights. They cannot accomplish this goal without collapsing the dollar. Period. Setting the inflation threat aside, though, the only trigger necessary for a Dollar implosion would be for it to lose its reserve status in the eyes of the international financial community. Once this superfluous status is removed, the Dollar would no longer be considered a safe haven investment, and its value would plummet. The signs that this event is about to occur are becoming more evident, most especially in Treasury Bond auctions and investment: http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg443.htm http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/1730-TIC-Data-Confirms-Foreign-Appetite-Gone.html The “Treasury Yield Curve” is now the steepest it has been since at least 1980: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=atmWh_C.Afkk Foreign investment in U.S. debt has plummeted. Barack Obama is attempting to auction off $150 Billion in U.S. T-bills, but net foreign acquisition of long-term securities, taking into account adjustments, is estimated to have been only $8.3 billion. Even more disturbing, foreign holdings of dollar-denominated short-term U.S. securities, including Treasury bills, and other custody liabilities decreased $43.9 billion. Foreign holdings of Treasury bills decreased $38.3 billion. Meaning, not only are foreign investors NOT buying American debt, they are also beginning to get rid of the treasuries they already own! The biggest purchaser of U.S. Treasury debt is now the private Federal Reserve, printing money out of thin air and buying T-bills in order to prop up the value of its own currency! This cannot go on for much longer. In order to permanently strengthen the basic value of the dollar, one of two things must happen; either the Fed must decrease the supply of dollars in the system (they are doing the opposite, printing up to $24 Trillion out of thin air in the span of a year), or, the Fed must somehow increase demand for all the dollars being created. | | As the dismal results of recent treasury auctions show, NO ONE wants dollars, especially not for the long term. The consequences of this are obvious. Eventually, our incredible debt will become unserviceable, and the dollar will become completely undesirable. The Federal Reserve will be forced to raise interest rates and stop its endless printing, which will then pull the rug out from under the Dow and the T-bill market, making things even worse. Dollar proponents always seem to forget this very important detail; America is taking on more debt than it or any other country has in history. Without continued exponential investment from other countries, this debt will end the dollar, regardless of the weakness or strength of other national currencies, or the true rate of inflation. For now, the Dollar will enjoy an increase in value due to weakness in Europe and uncertainty in stocks, sending more crisscrossed signals to the public as to the actual health of the economy. As far as the basics are concerned however, this increase will be short lived. Credit Market Recovery? Not A Chance… The stated purpose, the entire reason for the Banker Bailouts and the flood of printed money into our financial systems, was to “restore credit markets” so that banks could begin lending again. First off, such a concept is astoundingly moronic. What caused the collapse of the housing market in the first place? Unhindered accumulation of debt by people who could not afford to pay it back! This debt was, of course, facilitated by the private Federal Reserve’s artificially low interest rates, which gave banks free reign to throw cheap money wherever they pleased. When people began to default on their loans en masse, the bubble burst, and triggered the landslide we are seeing today. How exactly would the creation of more lending, and therefore more debt, fix a problem caused by too much debt? If the average American can’t afford to pay back their old debts, then why in the world would they want to take on new debt? The philosophy of forcing liquidity into the same debt mechanisms which caused the problem in the first place to save the economy could only be dreamed up by someone with the mind of a naive child, unless, that someone wanted to deliberately make the problem worse…. If that is the case, then they have succeeded admirably. Banks received trillions of dollars in bailout money, but still have not returned to standard lending practices. In fact many have tightened their restrictions on lending even further: http://moneyfeatures.blogs.money.cnn.com/2009/12/07/mortgage-lenders-still-arent-lending/ http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/banks_need_to_lend_now_wIZJF5AD5gzJPV8ICjaByK The Treasury has reported that bank lending balances continued to drop nine consecutive months through October: So the goal of the bailouts, the goal given as an excuse to assuage the anger of the American people, was never accomplished, and probably never will be. If banks aren’t using the bailout money they were given to create new loans then what are they doing with it? Some are hoarding the cash, while others have been gambling with it in the stock market! If the bailout money is still sitting in the pockets of bankers, and it never went into credit markets, then how can the Fed claim that it stopped the collapse? The fact is, the bailouts have done absolutely nothing except prop up the Dow and give the illusion that things are improving. No amount of spin, though, can change the fundamentals. Banks across the country continue to shut down at an alarming rate. The FDIC has closed 140 so far this year, and recently announced the closure of two banks in California with assets totaling in excess of $10 Billion! http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091219/ap_on_bi_ge/us_bank_closures Not only this, but the FDIC is in many cases unable to sell off these bankrupt assets to other banks, meaning, they are forced to absorb the entire debt instead of a small piece of it. Any depositors at the RockBridge Commercial Bank with savings of more than $250,000 in their accounts have essentially lost the remainder. Recovery of their savings could take months, and even then they may get only a portion of what they had in their accounts. What does this mean? It means that the FDIC is having trouble guaranteeing your deposits. Why? Because the FDIC is broke. Before the announcement of the two California banks totaling $10 Billion, the FDIC was officially in the red for $8.2 Billion. The real amount of debt the FDIC has incurred is probably far more than reported. I have heard it argued that 140 closed banks is not such a terrible number. During the Great Depression, over 3000 banks were shut down. This is another straw man debate point. Yes, thousands of banks were closed during the depression, but there were numerous small private banks and city banks in those days, and their total deposits were miniscule compared to modern corporate banks. It is not the number of banks closed that is important, it is the size of their assets and deposits which makes or breaks the FDIC. How long can the Treasury go printing money to bailout the FDIC? I suspect not very long. Housing Is Still In Trouble The bottom line is, nothing has changed except how we are told to perceive the situation. Changing how one looks at a problem does not make the problem go away, as much as we would like it to. This fact goes for the housing issue as well. We are told constantly by the MSM that the markets are improving, but if this is so, then why are large banks continuing to go bankrupt due to defaults on home loans? Why is it that mortgage delinquencies continue to rise to record levels every month? Even families that received direct help from the U.S. government “foreclosure prevention plan” are behind on their payments! http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5B41ME20091205 A glut of foreclosed homes are now on the market, but banks are having trouble finding anyone to buy, even at discount price ranges: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091215/ts_nm/us_usa_housing_foreclosures In response, the Federal Reserve is executing a plan to pump $1.25 Trillion into mortgage backed securities in order to bring interest rates down to record lows. This is very similar to the policy which they used to cause the housing crash in the first place: Again, what we are told by the MSM and the government, and what seems to be occurring at the foundations of the economy, are in total opposition. Someone somewhere is lying. On The Other Side Of The World… Terrible events can occur while the masses are psychologically unaware or “asleep”, but they can also occur while we are literally asleep too. In a world designed around the concept of Globalization, that which damages the economy of one country, can have drastic effects on another. This was made evident by the recent trouble in Dubai, however, there is much more happening on the other side of the world that we rarely hear about. Both Greece and Spain are currently in dire straights with mounting and unserviceable debt: http://moneynews.com/Economy/greece-downgrade-credit-rating/2009/12/16/id/343500 http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14973182 But these are not the only European countries in danger of default. If one examines debt as a percentage of a country’s GDP, one can see which nations are on the edge of collapse. Nations with a high debt to GDP ratio have a tendency to default, that is, to go bankrupt. Greece and Italy already have a national debt larger then their entire GDP, which means the revenue of each country for a whole year is not enough to pay off what they owe! This indicates the very real possibility of economic collapse in these countries. Spain, UK, and Germany are all on the edge of the abyss as well. It is important to note here that America’s debt is now around 75% of our GDP, and is projected to increase to 100% of our GDP by the end of Obama’s first term: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt Debt is the major driving force that will trigger collapse, and the U.S. is well on its way to accumulating epic amounts of it. If any of these countries default on their debt (including the U.S.) the shockwave will send the rest of the globe into financial retreat. Smoke And Mirrors It’s nice to maintain a rosy outlook on the economic situation we face. It makes us feel safe. The fact is, though, that we are far from safe, and denying the problem will not make it go away. The MSM’s main drive, at least for now, is to promote a sense of well being. Some of them do it because they believe the markets are driven by psychology and that by creating a positive atmosphere, we can somehow make our troubles disappear through shear force of will. Of course, this is an absurd notion. Others ignore the facts and spin ideas of recovery deliberately and with malicious intent, because they know comfortable people are not alert, and those that are not alert are easy to surprise, and surprised people are easy to control. The globalist George Soros for instance has lately been denying all signs of collapse, and making claims countries like Greece, Dubai, and the UK, have nothing to worry about: http://moneynews.com/StreetTalk/Soros-Greece-Dubai-Default/2009/12/14/id/342566 Gee, I know that makes me feel a whole lot better. What we are witnessing today is perhaps the greatest faux recovery in the history of the world. There is a reason why there is so much conflicting evidence. There is a reason why many economists are confused as to where the economy is going; because some of the evidence is based in fact, while the rest is designed to deceive. Learning and standing by economic fundamentals can help one in discerning what rings true and what does not. The fundamentals cannot be changed, they can only be hidden. Stick with the foundations of the system, ignore the fluff, the fog and shadows media game, and you will never be caught unaware when disaster strikes. |
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(Weekly Standard) Sen. Roland Burris, appointed to Obama's Senate seat by Rod Blagojevich, is claiming credit for a provision that could funnel money to ACORN through the health care bill ...
Gordon Brown leads Al Gore into a closet: |
About Real-Time Magnetosphere Simulation
DECEMBER 22, 2009 AT 6:27 PM CDT
http://www2.nict.go.jp/y/y223/simulation/realtime/index.html
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2.0 earthquake jiggles Seal Beach Naval Weapons StationDecember 22, 2009 - A magnitude 2.0 earthquake occurred at 3:42 a.m. just inside the southern border of the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station, releasing just enough energy to be felt in Seal Beach, Huntington Beach, Westminster, Garden Grove and Cypress, says the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake, which started 10.4 miles deep, also was lightly felt beyond Orange County, in Cerritos and on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. The tiny shaker wasn’t more widely felt because it occurred when most people were sleeping. It appears that the quake was caused by the Newport-Inglewood fault zone, but that hasn’t been confirmed.The concrete-and-metal magazines at the weapons station that hold missiles and other types of munitions are designed to withstand strong earthquakes, and the missiles generally stocked at Seal Beach can’t be fired unless they’re linked to a firing mechanism. |
Earthquake frequency in OklahomaJONES, OK -- Oklahoma averages 50 earthquakes a year. However, the town of Jones has now experienced 25 since March. The latest carried a 3.0 magnitude, Saturday night. Fortunately, there's a seismograph network that's being established across the country so that in 2010, folks around here might find out why 2009 was so unsettling. Last week, it was just another day at the Roosters Cafe in Jones when waitress Charlene Koontz felt something that's becoming all too familiar. "After the boom, then all the cups rattled," she says. Not only did an earthquake rattle cups, it knocked a menu sign to the floor. Paskell Spencer also felt it at his house. "It sounded like somebody run into the back of the house with a four-wheeler," Spencer says, "or bumped it with a car." Ken Luza, with the Oklahoma Geological Survey, says Oklahoma "literally has thousands and thousands of faults. Most of them don't produce earthquakes." However, Luza says they don't have enough seismograph stations in the state to determine why Jones is having so many. Next year, though, a National Science Foundation project will establish 40 stations throughout the state, to better answer so many questions. "What do we need to do?" Koontz worries. "Why here all of a sudden? Are they going to get worse? Are we going to have bigger ones? "I would like to know what's going on too, just like everybody else," says resident Laura Ward. "But there are lots of mysteries out there." Luza says there's no reason to worry. "I wouldn't yet," he says. "I'd worry more about tornadoes than I would earthquakes in Oklahoma." Next month, the Geological Survey will have a seismologist on staff to analyze data being collected right now. Scientists say these "micro earthquakes", like the one experienced Saturday night, don't usually produce any damage. |
Update time = Wed Dec 23 0:12:46 UTC 2009
| MAG | UTC DATE-TIME y/m/d h:m:s | LAT deg | LON deg | DEPTH km | Region | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MAP | 3.9 | 2009/12/22 23:40:44 | 39.775 | -123.342 | 10.7 | NORTHERN CALIFORNIA |
| MAP | 5.1 | 2009/12/22 23:01:12 | -28.493 | -70.812 | 39.9 | ATACAMA, CHILE |
| MAP | 3.5 | 2009/12/22 21:29:27 | 18.824 | -68.151 | 6.1 | DOMINICAN REPUBLIC REGION |
| MAP | 2.8 | 2009/12/22 15:24:26 | 63.307 | -145.415 | 17.8 | CENTRAL ALASKA |
| MAP | 5.1 | 2009/12/22 12:21:04 | 1.659 | 127.344 | 142.2 | HALMAHERA, INDONESIA |
| MAP | 2.5 | 2009/12/22 11:09:52 | 32.346 | -115.216 | 6.0 | BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO |
| MAP | 4.8 | 2009/12/22 10:27:33 | 39.630 | 20.862 | 10.0 | GREECE |
| MAP | 2.5 | 2009/12/22 09:22:33 | 46.415 | -119.263 | 1.0 | WASHINGTON |
| MAP | 5.3 | 2009/12/22 06:06:23 | 35.811 | 31.475 | 52.2 | CYPRUS REGION |
| MAP | 2.5 | 2009/12/22 05:14:46 | 63.054 | -151.010 | 129.3 | CENTRAL ALASKA |
| MAP | 2.7 | 2009/12/22 04:29:16 | 19.315 | -155.216 | 7.6 | ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII |
| MAP | 5.1 | 2009/12/22 02:55:27 | -16.846 | -173.131 | 35.0 | TONGA |
Philippine volcano "ready to explode"
National Severe Weather Map
Surface Temperature Forecast Map
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/ |
| Vets wait for GI Bill payments for this fall WASHINGTON - December 22, 2009 – Universities and colleges are still waiting for tuition payments for thousands of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who attended school last fall under the new GI Bill, leaving the veterans panicked that they'll be unable to return to class in January. |
www.chinaview.cn 2009-12-22 23:06:25
MOSCOW, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- Russia may double the number of bombers on strategic patrols as long as the General Staff agrees, the commander of Russia's strategic aviation said Tuesday.
"As a rule, up to four strategic bombers perform patrol flights simultaneously. However, under specific circumstances and on orders from the General Staff, their number could be increased to up to eight aircraft," Russian Long-Range Aviation Commander Major-General Anatoly Zhikharev said at a press conference.
Russia resumed strategic bomber patrol flights over the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic oceans in August 2007, following orders from then-President Vladimir Putin.
The patrols are considered a counter-measure against threats faced by Russia, as well as a response to NATO's continued eastward expansion that is approaching Russia's western border.
"Our planes also carry out missions to detect and pinpoint the location of foreign aircraft carriers, as well as to supply missions to support the activities of (Russian) polar stations in line with the concept of the development of our Arctic zone," the general said.
The bombers performing routine long-range patrols would participate in several military exercises in 2010, Zhikharev said.
The Russian Air Force currently has 40 Tu-95MS bombers, 141 Tu-22M3 bombers, and 16 Tu-160 bombers in service, according to the RIA Novosti news agency.
Zhikharev also announced at the press conference that Russia's new strategic bombers, expected to enter service in 2025 to 2030, would use stealth technologies.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/22/content_12690189.htm
www.chinaview.cn
2009-12-22 11:26:26
WASHINGTON, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- The war in Afghanistan could cost up to three times the amount estimated by the Obama administration, according to Linda Bilmes, who co-authored a book on the Iraq conflict with Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz.
U.S. President Barack Obama has outlined a new strategy for Afghanistan -- deploying 30,000 additional troops in a bid to handover security to Afghan forces and begin to exit by July 2011.
While the administration tagged the price at 30 billion U.S. dollars, Bilmes said the Pentagon did not count in a number of long-term costs, from caring for wounded veterans over the next several decades to equipment degradation to replacements for military weaponry.
Other hidden costs include payments to surrounding countries for the use of their airspace and interest on trillions of dollars borrowed to finance the war.
Once those are added up, costs balloon substantially, said Bilmes in a recent interview with Xinhua.
"These are long-term costs that just don't show up because of the way the government does its accounting."
Unlike Iraq, an urbanized country with well developed infrastructure, Afghanistan is rough and mountainous and boasts virtually no infrastructure outside of Kabul, the capital.
There are few airstrips in the war-torn country, and U.S. forces must rely on helicopters to transport supplies to remote areas.
"This is a very expensive way to manage operations," said the Harvard professor.
The United States will also have to pay for the training of 100,000 additional Afghan troops and police -- at a price of around 10 billion dollars a year -- for the next 15 years, she said.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said there is no chance that his country, being very poor, can afford to foot a bill of this magnitude, leaving the United States to pick up the tab, she said.
Another major cost will be caring for wounded U.S. veterans for the rest of their lives, she said.
"The costs for taking care of veterans -- and this is both providing medical care to them and their families and providing disability compensation -- is a significant one that goes on for decades."
In World War II, for example, the peak year for paying out disability benefits came in the 1990s, as medical care becomes more expensive when veterans become older.
"And for Vietnam we are nowhere near the peak year for paying out disability," she said.
The percentage of troops who served in Iraq and filed for disability compensation exceeds 40 percent. And about one third of recent veterans have sought treatment in government facilities, she said.
The United States will also incur a number of intangible costs, such as the amount of those killed in war would have contributed to the economy.
Would one soldier have become the next Bill Gates, establishing a company that employed thousands of workers and enriched its shareholders?
Or would the children of those killed in battle have contributed to science, music, economics or sports?
Pentagon accountants do not consider such questions when calculating the cost of U.S. wars, she said.
"The way the Pentagon calculates it, the economic value of the productivity of a life is the value of the death gratuity and the insurance payment to the veteran's family, which comes to a total of 500,000 dollars," she said.
"Another piece (of hidden costs) is things like the lost productivity of wives and mothers who leave the workforce to care for returning troops," she said.
"We've lost thousands of young people in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts," she said. The death toll now stands at more than 5,000 for the two wars combined.
"And to lose people at the average age of 23 -- the prime of a young male's life -- you lose a whole stream of productivity throughout their lifetime."
Bilmes also laid out a guns-verses-butter argument, with guns losing out.
"If we spend money on things like education and infrastructure development, that has a positive multiplier. If we spend money on munitions that end up in the ground and on training the Afghan police force, that money does not have a positive economic benefit for the United States," she said.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/22/content_12687118.htm
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Flame-shooting UFO spotted in England
A MOTORIST travelling towards Lynn was amazed when he saw a flame-spewing UFO shoot across the sky and then disappear before his eyes.
Jimmy Greenwood (45) is convinced the flying object, about the size of a football, was a meteorite, but is appealing to Lynn News readers to help him find out for sure.
Mr Greenwood was driving along the A47, just outside of Wisbech, at around 12.
45pm on Saturday when he saw a bright white light travel across the sky with flames coming out behind it.
He said: "I was on my way to see my daughter. It was snowing and I was driving around 35 to 40mph. I saw this really bright light over the fields to my right for about two to three seconds and then it just burned away. It looked like a firework rocket and was moving really quickly.
"The people in the car behind definitely saw it too, they were pointing towards it and you couldn't really miss it. I've never really seen anything like it."
Mr Greenwood, of Townley Close, Upwell, immediately phoned his daughter and brother to tell them what he saw.
"I've rung lots of people, but they just laughed!" he added.
Did you see the mystery object? Can you help the Lynn News solve this mystery?
http://www.lynnnews.co.uk/news/Flameshooting-UFO-spotted-near-A47.5933049.jp
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