LedgerGermane

Apr 04

[video]

Apr 01

“We reproduce catastrophe because we ourselves are traumatized - both as a species and individually, beginning at birth. Because we are wounded, we have put up psychic defenses against reality and have become so cut off from direct participation in the multidimensional wilderness in which we are embedded that all we can do is to navigate our way cautiously through a humanly designed day-to-day substitute world of symbols - a world of dollars, minutes, numbers, images, and words that are constantly being manipulated to wring the most possible profit from every conceivable circumstance. The body and spirit both rebel.” — David Watson - The Pathology of Civilization, Against the Megamachine (via commondense) (via poortaste)

Who owns your genes? -

• What we said: This month, six breast cancer patients filed suit against Myriad Genetics, a company that owns both the patent on two genes that are associated with an increased risk for breast cancer and ovarian cancer and the patent on testing to measure those risks. Some of these women are suing because they can’t afford the $3,000 fee Myriad charges to determine their risk for breast or ovarian cancer. Some of them are suing because, thanks to Myriad’s patent, they can’t get second opinions about whether they should have their breasts or ovaries removed - no one else is allowed to perform another test for them.
• - Editorial, May 24, 2009
•  What happened: A federal judge struck down Myriad Genetics’ gene patents, deciding they involved a “law of nature” and had been “improperly granted.” The case could reshape intellectual property laws and have a big impact on biotech companies. About 20 percent of genes in the human body have been patented.
• What’s next: An appeal, of course. Expect this one to reach the Supreme Court. The high court should strike it down. Genes are the common property of humanity, not the private fiefdoms of individual companies.

orlingrabbe:

Saudis: We don’t Burn witches. We chop their fucking heads off

Oh those silly wahhabis. Once again, this is not representative of true islam.

Read the caption. This image will “crash” your brain.

Mar 31

Thousands rally in ‘Day of Wrath’ against Putin day before bombing underneath FSB Intelligence Agency in Moscow

• The bombing happened underneath the offices of the FSB, the Federal Security Service, according to the BBC. Now reports are coming in that the organization claiming responsibility used Shahidka female bombers. Of course they are not Islamic, but Wahhabi…a favorite sect for the global intelligence/drug trade/terror network. Interesting to note that former KGB agent Putin is known to have used terror to secure his Dark Rise to Power.

[video]

Pirate Bay's neo-Nazi sugar daddy -

• The trial of the Pirate Bay operators in Sweden has generated huge amounts of media coverage. But one of the most interesting things about Pirate Bay hasn’t got a mention.
• In his daily dispatches for WiReD, court correspondent Oscar Schwartz swoons over the boyish charm of “likeable” and “winning” Pirate Bay PR guy Peter Sunde. But there seems to be something about Pirate Bay that no one wants you to read: its debt to one of the most notorious fascists in Europe.
• Reg readers will already know a little about Carl Lundström’s background. But as Andrew Brown, author of the autobiographical Fishing in Utopia, points out, no English language coverage of the trial has mentioned this. Thanks to Brown’s blog, we know a little more about Lundström.
• For example, Lundström was linked to a gang of skinheads that attacked Latin American tourists in Stockholm in the mid-1980s. [Expo.se report (Swe) - 2005]. Over the years, Lundström has switched his support from Keep Sweden Swedish to the far-right headbangers party New Democracy - but was thrown out for being too right wing. He’s currently bankrolling 100 candidates for the Swedish equivalent of the BNP.
• Lundström is alleged to own 40 per cent of The Pirate Bay - the largest share - and gave it servers and bandwidth to get going. As one of the four defendants, been a regular attendee in court. But the presence of this significant national political player hasn’t been worthy of a WiReD mention since the trial kicked off. Or a mention anywhere else. Why would that be?
• For me, there are two interesting aspects to this peculiar, and very selective silence.
• One is that anti-copyright activists like to think of themselves as thoroughly decent, forward-thinking progressive people - because the internet is a new democracy, they’re reflecting a fairer world. They like to contrast the hygenic efficiency of the technology with the old (and implicitly corrupt) copyright businesses. It’s almost a badge of moral superiority.
• But like the Futurists a hundred years ago - the original Freetards - they don’t mind jumping into bed with neo-Nazis when it suits them. In this case, that’s so long as the free music and movies keep flowing.
• The second is WiReD’s choice of Oscar Schwartz to file courtroom dispatches from the Pirate Bay trial. He’s the only English language courtroom reporter, and bloggers and professional publications take their cue from his reports.

Restore Public Water Supply for 400,000 Haitians -

• We’re rebuilding Port-au-Prince’s public water system, which was destroyed by January 2010’s devastating quake. Our first aim is to provide clean water to 400,000 Haitians, as we did before the quake.

Chip in if you can. If you ever been without clean water for even a day, you’ll know how important it is. Things are still pretty bad in Haiti.

‘Door To Afterlife’ Unearthed At Karnak

“

We need a more authoritative world. We’ve become a sort of cheeky, egalitarian world where everyone can have their say. It’s all very well, but there are certain circumstances – a war is a typical example – where you can’t do that. You’ve got to have a few people with authority who you trust who are running it. And they should be very accountable too, of course.

But it can’t happen in a modern democracy. This is one of the problems. What’s the alternative to democracy? There isn’t one. But even the best democracies agree that when a major war approaches, democracy must be put on hold for the time being. I have a feeling that climate change may be an issue as severe as a war. It may be necessary to put democracy on hold for a while.

James Lovelock thinks world should be more authoritative, less democratic

I’ve been a fan of the Gaia hypothesis, was weary of Lovelock’s insistence to make most of our power nuclear (renewable resources is now very doable on a global scale), but this statement is really turning me off from the guy.

While he’s right that people running the show should be more accountable for their actions and I think they should pay a price. But that price must not be giving these policy makers, politicians and the state more power…even if we ‘trust them’. Just think about the power of persuasion in politics today, whole populations are moved by empty rhetoric rather than real change. I do not see any mass movement towards critical engagement with issues that forgoes the binary thinking of red or blue states (they are both bullshit). My hope is that information exchange can facilitate a non-political desire to live harmoniously with the planet using the great leaps in technology we have made in the last few years. Certainly the tech available is not the only answer, but part of it.

Finally, is there there is no historical precedent that says authoritarianism is good for people and the planet at the same time. This is not to say democracy hasn’t got serious problems too. Big problems…and I certainly DO NOT like those Hutaree assholes’ answer.

Sorry for the rant. Carry on.

Mar 29

CIA report into shoring up Afghan war support in Western Europe (PDF) -

publiccommunication:

Afghanistan: Sustaining West European Support for the NATO-led Mission—Why Counting on Apathy Might Not Be Enough (C//NF)

The fall of the Dutch Government over its troop commitment to Afghanistan demonstrates the fragility of European support for the NATO-led ISAF mission. Some NATO states, notably France and Germany, have counted on public apathy about Afghanistan to increase their contributions to the mission, but indifference might turn into active hostility if spring and summer fighting results in an upsurge in military or Afghan civilian casualties and if a Dutch- style debate spills over into other states contributing troops. 

The proposed PR strategies focus on pressure points that have been identified within these countries. For France it is the sympathy of the public for Afghan refugees and women. For Germany it is the fear of the consequences of defeat (drugs, more refugees, terrorism) as well as for Germany’s standing in the NATO. The memo is an recipe for the targeted manipulation of public opinion in two NATO ally countries, written by the CIA. It is classified as Confidential / No Foreign Nationals.

(AKA: How to Sell the War.)

Sell-off in US Treasuries raises sovereign debt fears -

• The yield on 10-year Treasuries – the benchmark price of global capital – surged 30 basis points in just two days last week to over 3.9pc, the highest level since the Lehman crisis. Alan Greenspan, ex-head of the US Federal Reserve, said the abrupt move may be “the canary in the coal mine”, a warning to Washington that it can no longer borrow with impunity. He said there is a “huge overhang of federal debt, which we have never seen before”.
• David Rosenberg at Gluskin Sheff said Treasury yields have ratcheted up 90 basis points since December in a “destabilising fashion”, for the wrong reasons. Growth has not been strong enough to revive fears of inflation. Commodity prices peaked in January and US home sales have fallen for the last three months, pointing to a double-dip in the housing market.
• Mr Rosenberg said the yield spike recalls the move in the spring of 2007 just as the credit system started to unravel. “The question is how the equity market is going to handle this back-up in rates,” he said.

I’m looking at numbers here, not advancing any political agenda.

Related: Social Security Payout to Exceed Revenue this Year

• This year, the system will pay out more in benefits than it receives in payroll taxes, an important threshold it was not expected to cross until at least 2016, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
• The problem, he said, is that payments have risen more than expected during the downturn, because jobs disappeared and people applied for benefits sooner than they had planned. At the same time, the program’s revenue has fallen sharply, because there are fewer paychecks to tax.
• Analysts have long tried to predict the year when Social Security would pay out more than it took in because they view it as a tipping point — the first step of a long, slow march to insolvency, unless Congress strengthens the program’s finances.