Why the EPA should have listened to Alan Carlin on global warming

As reported earlier in this series of articles (see here, here and here), EPA analyst Alan Carlin wrote a report in March that urged the EPA to conduct further review of evidence on the science of global warming. Continue reading “Why the EPA should have listened to Alan Carlin on global warming”

$134 Billion Forgery Foiled

Border guards in Chiasso see plenty of smugglers and plenty of false-bottomed suitcases, but no one in the town, which straddles the Italian-Swiss frontier, had ever seen anything like this. Trussed up in front of the police in the train station were two Japanese men, and beside them a suitcase with a booty unlike any other. Concealed at the bottom of the bag were some rather incredible sheets of paper. The documents were apparently dollar-denominated US government bonds with a face value of a staggering $134bn (£81bn).

How on earth did these two men, who at first refused to identify themselves, come to be there, trying to ride the train into Switzerland carrying bonds worth more than the gross domestic product of Singapore? If the bonds were genuine, the pair would have been America’s fourth-biggest creditor, ahead of the UK and just behind Russia.

“There is a message here: we haven’t heard much about anyone counterfeiting roubles. That is probably telling you something.”

via Is this the death of the dollar? – Telegraph.

How The News Gets Out Of Iran

“Tor protects you by bouncing your communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world: it prevents somebody watching your Internet connection from learning what sites you visit, and it prevents the sites you visit from learning your physical location. Tor works with many of your existing applications, including web browsers, instant messaging clients, remote login, and other applications based on the TCP protocol.”

This is something of great value to our friends in Iran.

Tor from Iran Traffic Get Tor & Help Iranian Freedom
(all found at https://www.torproject.org/easy-download.html.en)

Extreme Waterfall Kayaking

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more about “White Water Daredevils Push Kayaking …“, posted with vodpod

Twitter Drives Iranian Revolt

twitterAs the regime shut down other forms of communication, Twitter survived. With some remarkable results. Those rooftop chants that were becoming deafening in Tehran? A few hours ago, this concept of resistance was spread by a twitter message.

The key force behind this is the next generation, the Millennials, who elected Obama in America and may oust Ahmadinejad in Iran. They want freedom; they are sick of lies; they enjoy life and know hope.

This generation will determine if the world can avoid the apocalypse that will come if the fear-ridden establishments continue to dominate global politics, motivated by terror, armed with nukes, and playing old but now far too dangerous games. This generation will not bypass existing institutions and methods: look at the record turnout in Iran and the massive mobilization of the young and minority vote in the US. But they will use technology to displace old modes and orders. Maybe this revolt will be crushed. But even if it is, the genie has escaped this Islamist bottle.

Maybe that’s what we’re hearing on the rooftops of Tehran: the sound of the next revolution.           Allah O Akbar!

via The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan.

How the U.S. Surplus Became a Deficit

The story of today’s deficits starts in January 2001, as President Bill Clinton was leaving office. The Congressional Budget Office estimated then that the government would run an average annual surplus of more than $800 billion a year from 2009 to 2012. Today, the government is expected to run a $1.2 trillion annual deficit in those years.

You can think of that roughly $2 trillion swing as coming from four broad categories: the business cycle, President George W. Bush’s policies, policies from the Bush years that are scheduled to expire but that Mr. Obama has chosen to extend, and new policies proposed by Mr. Obama.

via Economic Scene – How the U.S. Surplus Became a Deficit – NYTimes.com.

The first category — the business cycle — accounts for 37 percent of the $2 trillion swing. It’s a reflection of the fact that both the 2001 recession and the current one reduced tax revenue, required more spending on safety-net programs and changed economists’ assumptions about how much in taxes the government would collect in future years. Continue reading “How the U.S. Surplus Became a Deficit”

Wedding Crashers For Hire

We’ll attend the wedding as your friend instead of your friend,” Hiroshi Mizutani, who heads Office Agents, a company in Tokyo that rents out guests,

For around $200 you can have a hired guest attend your nuptials. Add another $50 and they’ll sing or dance. Tip in another $100 and they’ll even make a suitable speech, perhaps pretending to be your boss.

At one memorable wedding, all 30 of the family, friends and coworkers of the groom were fakes from Mizutani’s company. It was the second marriage for the groom, who wanted to avoid inviting the same guests from the first time around.

The firm gets about 100 wedding requests per year and has some 1,000 fakes available for various occasions, including funerals and training seminars. You can hire a stand-in lover to introduce to your family and false secretaries for those that want to look important.

via Raw Japan » Blog Archive » Rent-a-guest bulks up weddings | Blogs |. Continue reading “Wedding Crashers For Hire”

The economy is so bad that…

The economy is so bad that…CEO’s are now playing miniature golf.
Jewish women are marrying for love.
Even people who have nothing to do with the Obama administration aren’t paying their taxes.
Hotwheels and Matchbox stocks are trading higher than GM.A truckload of Americans got caught sneaking into Mexico.
The most highly-paid job is now jury duty
Dick Cheney took his stockbroker hunting
People in Africa are donating money to Americans
Mothers in Ethiopia are telling their kids, “finish your plate, do
you know how many kids are starving in the US ?”
Motel Six won’t leave the light on.
The Mafia is laying off judges.
And finally…
Congress says they are looking into this Bernard Madoff scandal.
Hey, neat…the guy who made $50 billion disappear is being investigated by the people who made $750 billion disappear.      Thanks to Jean Paul