November 2009
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“A computer crash at the London Stock Exchange, which by coincidence is 21 per...”
– Dubai in deep water as ripples from debt crisis spread
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UN studies homeless victims of American property... →
Others followed, recounting in English or Spanish, sometimes Korean, their personal crises. Some shouted their anger, others laboriously recounted details of losing homes, families forced into overcrowded shelters, life on the streets.
The United Nations special rapporteur, Raquel Rolnik, listened to it all patiently, occasionally taking notes, nodding encouragement.
Rolnik had waited more...
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stray bullets
uncertaintimes:
U.S. Census Worker Hanged Himself in Kentucky with the Word “Fed” Scrawled Across His Chest
Polanski’s House Arrest Will Begin After Ski-Chalet Adaptation
Runaway Spent 11 Days in the Subways (via)
A way with words: Lexical wizard Henry Hitchings on the crazy history of the English language
Poets & Writers is a US-based site with tools for writing, an exhaustive list of...
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“I start with the view that a suburban town is a community and not just type of...”
– John Robb (via azspot)
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Wikileaks posting 573,000 pager messages from 9/11 →
The group, Wikileaks, says some of the messages were sent by federal and local officials, but most appear to be from regular people, including frantic New Yorkers trying to reach loved ones in and around the World Trade Center.
Wikileaks was posting the messages for most of the day Wednesday and expected to finish early Thursday.
The messages range from “DO NOT GET ON THE PATH...
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Aliens 'already exist on earth', Bulgarian... →
Work on deciphering a complex set of symbols sent to them is underway, scientists from the country’s Space Research Institute said.
They claim aliens are currently answering 30 questions posed to them.
Lachezar Filipov, deputy director of the Space Research Institute of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, confirmed the research.
He said the centre’s researchers were...
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The Secret Political Reach Of 'The Family' : NPR →
You may recognize these names from recent headlines: Sen. John Ensign, Rep. Bart Stupak and Rep. Joe Pitts. Stupak and Pitts have become familiar names through the media’s health care overhaul coverage; their abortion funding amendment introduced an 11th-hour twist as the House of Representatives approached a vote on a landmark health care bill.
Ensign was the focus of media attention...
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Scientist Repeats Swine Flu Lab-Escape Claim in... →
Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) — Adrian Gibbs, the virologist who said in May that swine flu may have escaped from a laboratory, published his findings today, renewing discussion about the origins of the pandemic virus.
The new H1N1 strain, which was discovered in Mexico and the U.S. in April, may be the product of three strains from three continents that swapped genes in a lab or a vaccine-making...
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Mussolini's 'brain and blood for sale on internet' →
azspot:
The granddaughter of Italy’s fascist dictator Benito Mussolini has said that blood and parts of his brain have been stolen to sell on the internet.
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Intel wants a chip implant in your brain →
Intel believes its customers would be willing to have a chip implanted in their brains so they could operate computers without the need for a keyboard or mouse using thoughts alone. The implant could also be used to operate devices such as cell phones, TVs and DVDs. The chip is being developed at Intel’s laboratory in Pittsburgh, USA. It would sense brain activity using technology based on...
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Somali woman stoned to death →
A Somali woman has been stoned to death for committing what a judge has said was adultery.
The 20-year-old divorcee was executed on Tuesday after confessing to having had sex with a 29-year-old unmarried man.
Sheikh Ibrahim Abdirahman, the judge for a court created by the rebel group al-Shabab, says the woman was killed in front of a crowd of some 200 people near the town of Wajid.
The woman,...
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The 'Real' Jobless Rate: 17.5% of Workers are... →
As experts debate the potential speed of the US recovery, one figure looms large but is often overlooked: nearly 1 in 5 Americans is either out of work or under-employed.
According to the government’s broadest measure of unemployment, some 17.5 percent are either without a job entirely or underemployed. The so-called U-6 number is at the highest rate since becoming an official labor...
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Robert Crumb and the Matriarchs →
Scholars have often said that the Hebrew texts are the first example of written history. Earlier writing from Sumeria recorded myths (including the Flood story), genealogies, laws and accounts, but the Hebrews were the first to write a narrative history of their people. Before the “people of the book,” the common culture of a clan or tribe was formed exclusively by oral tales and...
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Northern California town to record every car... →
The Tiburon Town Council voted 4-0 late Wednesday - with Vice Mayor Miles Berger absent - to install six cameras that recognize license plate characters on Tiburon Boulevard and Paradise Drive. Those are the only two roads that feed into the Tiburon peninsula, which also includes the smaller city of Belvedere on its southwestern edge.
Tiburon will be the first community in the Bay Area, and...
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Unburied bodies tell the tale of Detroit — a city... →
The abandoned corpses, in white body bags with number tags tied to each toe, lie one above the other on steel racks inside a giant freezer in Detroit’s central mortuary, like discarded shoes in the back of a wardrobe.
Some have lain here for years, but in recent months the number of unclaimed bodies has reached a record high. For in this city that once symbolised the American Dream many...
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Blackwater's Secret War in Pakistan →
(via thedaytheytriedtokillme)
At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives, “snatch and grabs” of high-value targets and other...
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I am guy who dropped out from the rat race. Didn't... →
It took me about 8/10 years to reach this point. I’ve been frugal, disciplined, and focused on this exact goal: dropping out from the rat race, and live in peace and quiet for the rest of my life. Hopefully, of course. It was gradual, planned, and full of trial and error.
My yearly expenses rarely reach the $2,000 mark. That’s in a very bad year. Thanks to my savings, and the fact...
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Brazilian prostitute in Italian political scandal... →
Italian police are investigating the murder of a Brazilian transsexual caught up in a drugs and prostitution scandal that forced the resignation of one of Italy’s top politicians last month.
The soot-encrusted corpse of the victim – known only as Brenda – was found this morning after a fire in her basement flat. She was one of two prostitutes at the heart of a case involving the...
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Historic photographs of JFK and elder Bush found... →
FORT WORTH - A treasure trove of priceless photographs were recently found dumped under a bridge in South Fort Worth.
Among the found photographs were images of President John F. Kennedy’s motorcade just moments before his assassination, a young President George H. W. Bush and Gwendolyn Brooks, the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize.
The photographs were found underneath...
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Amid Reports of War Crimes, IMF Gives More Funds... →
UNITED NATIONS, November 18 — The International Monetary Fund’s seemingly dismissive attitude toward human rights, including labor rights and protections against ethnic cleansing and even torture, has been on display this month. Managing Director Dominique Strauss Kahn defended the IMF’s disbursement of funds to the government of Sri Lanka, without any conditions or safeguards,...
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Military Surveillance of Civilian Politics →
pieto:
Students of 1960-70s surveillance history and politics will recognize the Subcommittee as the Ervin Committee, the same congressional body that produced Army Surveillance of Civilians: A Documentary Analysis, which represents “a painstaking analysis of documents obtained in its investigation” of U.S. Army surveillance of peace, anti-war, civil rights, and other activist groups (Military...
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TV ad seeks to recruit Arab-Americans to CIA →
DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) - There’s a swirl of activity in a spacious, modern kitchen as final meal preparations are made.
An older man tries to swipe a felafel off an appetizer plate but instead gets a loving hand slap from a woman. The happy, well-dressed guests move to a table full of food in a dining room adorned with Middle Eastern wall-hangings.
It’s an inviting, if idealized,...
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Peru accuses 4 of murder, selling human fat →
LIMA - Four people have been arrested in Peru on suspicion of killing some 60 people to sell their fat and other human tissue to Italian co-conspirators for cosmetic use in Europe, authorities said Thursday.
The suspects were arrested in central Peru this month and a search is underway for seven others — including two Italian citizens whose names were not revealed — lead prosecutor Jorge...
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Lou Dobbs mulls run for White House, Senate →
PHOENIX (Reuters) – A week after abruptly quitting his longtime job as a CNN television news host and commentator, Lou Dobbs said on Thursday he is considering career options including possible runs for the White House or U.S. Senate.
“Right now I feel exhilaration at the wide range of choices before me as to what I do next,” Dobbs, whose outspoken views on immigration and other...
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All Afghan detainees transferred by Canadian... →
All detainees transferred by Canadians to Afghan prisons were likely tortured by Afghan officials and many of the prisoners were innocent, says a former senior diplomat with Canada’s mission in Afghanistan.
Appearing before a House of Commons committee Wednesday, Richard Colvin blasted the detainees policies of Canada and compared them with the policies of the British and the...
It is Mysterious. haha!
sorry about the misspelling!
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China’s Cyberwars →
China’s military is under attack. At least its Web site is…from hackers.
In a sign that China’s Ministry of National Defense faces the same kind of Internet security challenges that militaries around the world have reported, its new Web site was attacked more than 2.3 million times within a month of going online in August. The state-run People’s Daily newspaper reported that revelation...
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Mysterious 'dark flow' indicates another universe? →
SOMETHING big is out there beyond the visible edge of our universe. That’s the conclusion of the largest analysis to date of over 1000 galaxy clusters streaming in one direction at blistering speeds. Some researchers say this so-called “dark flow” is a sign that other universes nestle next door.
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"Are You An Anarchist? The Answer May Surprise... →
buffleheadcabin:jhnbrssndn:anthropophagous:
At their very simplest, anarchist beliefs turn on to two elementary assumptions. The first is that human beings are, under ordinary circumstances, about as reasonable and decent as they are allowed to be, and can organize themselves and their communities without needing to be told how. The second is that power corrupts. Most of all, anarchism is just...
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CIA Prison Uncovered in Lithuania →
A previously undisclosed secret CIA prison has been identified in Lithuania. A Lithuanian official and a former U.S. intelligence official told ABC News the CIA held prisoners at a horsing stable outside the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius. The CIA is said to have bought the property using a front company. As many as eight prisoners were held at the prison for more than a year. Earlier this month...
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Textbook PYSOPS in American Life: an interview... →
Why, in your opinion, have the revelations of these whistleblowers and the backstory to the last presidency - and the 40 years that preceded it - gotten so little play in the mainstream media?
It is only human nature for people to want to protect themselves, to choose not to risk their own security, their financial security, the well-being of their family and their own circles by challenging...
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Washington Times Editor Files Discrimination... →
The former editorial page editor of the Washington Times has filed a discrimination complaint against the paper, saying he was “coerced” into attending a Unification Church religious ceremony that culminated in a mass wedding conducted by the church’s leader, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon.
Richard Miniter, who was also vice president of opinion, made the claim in a filing Tuesday...
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Bank of America, UBS, JPMorgan Sued Over... →
Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) — Bank of America Corp., UBS AG and JPMorgan Chase & Co. were sued by a California public utility over claims they rigged sales of municipal derivatives and shared illegal profits through kickbacks.
The lawsuit, filed by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, is based on federal and state antitrust claims. It alleges Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of...
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WatchMake an animated sasquatch do whatever you want. (via)
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“California’s finances have been so bad that the governor’s finance...”
– California faces a projected deficit of $21 billion
Breaking up is hard to do.
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