GPS Shoes For Alzheimer’s Patients - designed to keep track of our wandering loved ones -

GPS Shoes For Alzheimer’s Patients - designed to keep track of our wandering loved ones - 


Sixty percent of Alzheimer’s patients will wander away from home at some point over the course of the disease. Finding them quickly is critical as the risk of death or injury goes up considerably after 24 hours.


But now there’s a new device among a growing number of products designed to keep track of our wandering loved ones.


Sometimes people go looking for family members that have gotten lost going to the grocery store. In other cases the person with Alzheimer’s forgets they are retired and they try to go to work. But when they leave the house, they become disoriented.


Ruth Gay, director of public policy and advocacy with the Alzheimer’s Association in Northern California and Nevada said wandering can have terrible consequences.


“Wandering in fact is a very big safety issue. We do know that if people aren’t found within 24 hours, the risk of death goes up substantially. They don’t always know how to protect themselves from the elements or find a safe location,” she said.


GTX Corporation and Aetrex Worldwide are two companies that are now collaborating to release a shoe on Monday, embedded with GPS to track its wearer’s whereabouts. It sort of resembles the walking shoes often worn by the elderly.


“For years we’ve looked for things like this that would help is find somebody quickly when they get lost,” Gay said.


Read more - 
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2011/10/30/bay-area-expert-weighs-in-on-gps-shoes-for-alzheimers-patients/

MF Global: Likely Among the 10 Biggest Bankruptcies Ever - victim of bad bets on European government debt -

MF Global: Likely Among the 10 Biggest Bankruptcies Ever - victim of bad bets on European government debt - 


MF Global, the brokerage run by former Goldman Sachs chief Jon Corzine, today filed for bankruptcy protection, becoming one of the highest-profile U.S. victims of bad bets on European government debt.


With the Chapter 11 filing, MF Global also is likely to be added to the ignominious list of the 10 largest bankruptcies in U.S. corporate history. Here is that list, according to research firm BankruptcyData.com, and based on the value of each company’s assets before its bankruptcy filing.


Based on MF Global’s disclosed assets in its bankruptcy filing, it is likely to slot in just ahead of Chrysler as the eighth-largest U.S. bankruptcy.


1) Lehman Brothers Holdings, September 2008: $691 billion in assets


2) Washington Mutual, September 2008: $327.9 billion


3) WorldCom, July 2002: $103.9 billion


4) General Motors, June 2009: $91 billion


5) CIT Group, November 2009: $80.4 billion


6) Enron, 2001: $65.5 billion


7) Conseco, 2002: $61.4 billion


MF Global: $41 billion (as of Sept. 30)


8) Chrysler April, 2009: $39.3 billion


9) Thornburg Mortgage May, 2009: $36.5 billion


10) Pacific Gas & Electric Co., 2001: $36.15 billion


Read more - 
http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2011/10/31/mf-global-likely-among-the-10-biggest-bankruptcies-ever/

Laser powerful enough to tear apart the fabric of space could be built in Britain as part major new scientific project -

Laser powerful enough to tear apart the fabric of space could be built in Britain as part major new scientific project - 

Image 1 of 2

Due to follow in the footsteps of the Large Hadron Collider, the latest "big science" experiment being proposed by physicists will see the world's most powerful laser being constructed.
Capable of producing a beam of light so intense that it would be equivalent to the power received by the Earth from the sun focused onto a speck smaller than a tip of a pin, scientists claim it could allow them boil the very fabric of space – the vacuum.
Contrary to popular belief, a vacuum is not devoid of material but in fact fizzles with tiny mysterious particles that pop in and out of existence, but at speeds so fast that no one has been able to prove they exist.
The Extreme Light Infrastructure Ultra-High Field Facility would produce a laser so intense that scientists say it would allow them to reveal these particles for the first time by pulling this vacuum "fabric" apart.
They also believe it could even allow them to prove whether extra-dimensions exist.


"This laser will be 200 times more powerful than the most powerful lasers that currently exist," said Professor John Collier, a scientific leader for the ELI project and director of the Central Laser Facility at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Didcot, Oxfordshire.
"At this kind of intensity we start to get into unexplored territory as it is an area of physics that we have never been before."
The ELI Ultra-High Field laser is due to be complete by the end of the decade and will cost an estimated £1 billion. Although the location for the facility will not be decided until next year, the UK is among several European countries in the running to host it.
The European Commission has already this year approved plans to build three other lasers that will form part of the ELI project and will be prototypes for the Ultra-High Field laser.
Due to sited in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania, each laser will coast around £200 million and are scheduled to become operational in 2015.
The Ultra-High Field laser will be made up of 10 beams, each twice as powerful as the prototype lasers, allowing it to produce 200 petawatts of power – more than 100,000 times the power of the world's combined electricity production – for less than a trillionth of a second.


Read more -
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/8857154/Worlds-most-powerful-laser-to-tear-apart-the-vacuum-of-space.html

Germany mocked for 55-billion euro bank accounts error - has an EXTRA 55 billion euros -

Germany mocked for 55-billion euro bank accounts error - has an EXTRA 55 billion euros - 

The German government tried to deflect responsibility on Monday for a 55-billion euro accounting blunder that has exposed it to charges of ridicule for being inept and hypocritical after its steady criticism of Greek bookkeeping practices.

Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has summoned executives from the nationalized mortgage bank Hypo Real Estate (HRE) to explain how they made a simple accounting error that ended up raising Germany's total debt load by 55 billion euros.

Schaeuble, in the awkward situation of being humiliated by the windfall that will cut Germany's debt levels, will also demand answers at a Wednesday meeting from the PwC accountancy firm that signed off on the report.

Schaeuble's spokesman Martin Kotthaus tried to deflect any blame, saying the ministry received a certified statement from auditors that the balance sheets had been checked and approved. He said it was too early to tell exactly who messed up.

"It's annoying, to put it diplomatically, when corrections of this dimension are necessary," said Kotthaus, who was grilled at a news conference. "We had a certified audit of the annual accounts for 2010 and it said everything was in order."

Kotthaus said the bank itself was responsible for its annual report.

The German media nevertheless mocked Schaeuble, saying the 55-billion euro accounting error put Berlin in the same category as the Greek government for failing to report accurate figures. Inaccurate reporting of Greek deficits contributed to the euro zone sovereign debt crisis that has hit Europe hard.

"Incredible but true," wrote the Rheinische Post newspaper. "The nationalized bank HRE made a staggering 55-billion euro miscalculation. It's scandalous that bank managers, certified public accountants and government supervisors made an error of this dimension. This kind of sloppiness reminds us of Greece.

"Schaeuble needs to respond with summary dismissals -- otherwise he risks getting dragged into the debacle himself."

The Frankfurter Rundschau daily said the accounting blunder made the country's political leaders look like amateurs.

"Germany's political leaders could hardly demonstrate more convincingly that they are overwhelmed managing the financial crisis," the paper said. "This isn't only the most expensive gift ever for Schaeuble. It's also the most embarrassing."

The German public has long been grumbling about the growing size of the euro zone rescue measures, especially after state-spending cuts over the last decade led to some deep cuts in Germany's comparatively comfortable levels of state support.

In an era of austerity where their government has squabbled tirelessly for two years over a mooted 6-billion euro tax cut, Germans found it hard to fathom that their government was so suddenly and unexpectedly 55 billion euros better off.

Kotthaus, Schaeuble's spokesman, was quick to point out that correcting the error will not mean the government has an extra 55 billion euros at its disposal for new expenditures.

"There will be no changes in real world planning," he said.

The opposition Social Democrats (SPD) led the attack against Schaeuble, whose conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) often campaign on the slogan that the SPD can't be trusted with the public's money.

"It's an unfathomable blunder by Schaeuble's ministry," said Thomas Oppermann, a senior member of parliament for the SPD. "Either the Finance Ministry didn't realize how explosive this error was or they consciously concealed it.

"This is obviously Schaeuble's responsibility," he added. "This is a state-owned bank. There is no one else responsible."

Read more - 

http://www.cnbc.com/id/45106527

16 Reasons Why Mitt Romney Would Be A Really, Really Bad President -

16 Reasons Why Mitt Romney Would Be A Really, Really Bad President - 

At this point, it appears very likely that Mitt Romney is going to be the Republican nominee for president in 2012.  He has raised far more money than any of the other candidates, he is leading or is near the lead in all of the early states, the mainstream media have anointed him as the frontrunner and a number of recent polls show that most Republicans fully expect Romney to win the nomination.  So will Mitt Romney be the next president of the United States?  Well, he certainly fits the part.  He looks like a president and he speaks very well.  But when you look at what he really stands for that is where things become very troubling.  The truth is that Mitt Romney is either very wrong or very "soft" on every single major issue.  It would be a huge understatement to refer to Mitt Romney as a RINO ("Republican in name only").  When you closely examine their positions, there is very, very little difference between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama.  Sure, Romney and Obama will say the "right things" to the voters during election season, but the reality is that a Romney administration would be so similar to an Obama administration that you would hardly know that a change has taken place.  What you are about to read about Mitt Romney should alarm you very much.  Mitt Romney would be a an absolute disaster for this country, and America cannot afford another disastrous presidency.

The fact that Barack Obama looked sharp and could give inspiring speeches helped him go a long way back in 2008.  Well, it is the same thing with Romney.  The guy looks very presidential and he sounds very presidential.  When backed into a corner, he is extremely slick.  He rarely makes mistakes and he is very polished.

Mitt Romney is a "politician" in the worst sense of the word.  As his past has demonstrated, he will do and say just about anything in order to get elected.  The positions he has taken during this campaign season have been carefully calculated to help him win both the Republican nomination and the general election.

That is why so many call Mitt Romney a "flip-flopper".  Romney will take just about any political position if he thinks that it will help him.  Mitt Romney's wife, Ann Romney, once made the following statement about her husband....

“He can argue any side of a question. And sometimes you think he’s really believing his argument, but he’s not.”

So keep that in mind while reading the following information.  Mitt Romney is trying to claim that he is a "conservative" and that he is looking out for the American people, but those claims simply are not true.

The following are 16 reasons why Mitt Romney would be a really, really bad president....

#1 Obamacare was one of the worst pieces of legislation ever passed by the U.S. Congress.  Mitt Romney says that he would repeal Obamacare, but the reality is that Romneycare was what Obamacare was based on.  In fact, a recent MSNBC article brought to light some new information about the relationship between Romneycare and Obamacare....

Newly obtained White House records provide fresh details on how senior Obama administration officials used Mitt Romney’s landmark health-care law in Massachusetts as a model for the new federal law, including recruiting some of Romney’s own health care advisers and experts to help craft the act now derided by Republicans as “Obamacare.”

The records, gleaned from White House visitor logs reviewed by NBC News, show that senior White House officials had a dozen meetings in 2009 with three health-care advisers and experts who helped shape the health care reform law signed by Romney in 2006, when the Republican presidential candidate was governor of Massachusetts.

Mitt Romney continues to defend Romneycare, but the reality is that it really is a total nightmare for Massachusetts.  The following is how one bloggersummarized some of the key points of Romneycare....

• Punitive To Individuals. Everyone must buy health insurance or face tax penalties equal to 50% of cost of standard policy.
• Hundreds of millions of dollars being spent on free hospital care were converted into subsidies to help the needy buy insurance.
• A health insurance “exchange” was established to help connect the uninsured with private health plans at more affordable rates.
• Health plans can offer consumers higher deductibles and more restrictive physician and hospital networks in order to lower costs.
• Punitive to Businesses with 11 or more workers that do not offer insurance must pay a $295 per employee fee.
• Established payment policy advisory board; one Board member must be from Planned Parenthood. No pro-life organization represented.
• Provides Taxpayer-Funded Abortions for copay of $50.

So what have been the results of Romneycare in Massachusetts?  According to the Daily Caller, health care costs and health insurance premiums have gone up dramatically in Massachusetts....

Since the bill became law, the state’s total direct health-care spending has increased by a remarkable 52 percent. Medicaid spending has gone from less than $6 billion a year to more the $9 billion. Many consumers have seen double-digit percentage increases in their premiums.

All of that certainly sounds a whole lot like Obamacare.

Unfortunately, the other Republican candidates have not taken advantage of this weakness.  According to one brand new poll, 6 times as many Republicans view Romneycare unfavorably as view it favorably.  This is something that the other candidates should be jumping on big time.

#2 During his time as governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney significantly raised taxes. The following is an excerpt from a CBS News article....

Mitt Romney's Harvard MBA and gold-plated resume convinced many business leaders he would follow in the tradition of corporate-friendly Republicans when he was elected governor of Massachusetts in 2002.

Within three years, some had a vastly different opinion, after Romney's efforts raised the tax bill on businesses by $300 million

The same article also notes that Romney jacked up "fees and fines" on Massachusetts taxpayers substantially....

Romney and lawmakers also approved hundreds of millions in higher fees and fines during his four years in office.

Many in the Massachusetts business community were quite disgusted with Romney by the end of his tenure.  Peter Nicholas, the chairman of Boston Science Corporation, says that "tax rates on many corporations almost doubled because of legislation supported by Romney."

#3 Government spending in Massachusetts increased significantly under Mitt Romney.  An advocate of smaller government he most definitely is not.

This was especially true for the last two budgets passed under Romney.  In fiscal year 2006, government spending in Massachusetts increased by 7.6 percent.  In fiscal year 2007, government spending in Massachusetts increased by a whopping10.2 percent.

#4 It turns out that Mitt Romney is a believer in the theory of man-made global warming.  In fact, Al Gore recently praised on Mitt Romney on his blog. In a post entitled "Good for Mitt Romney -- though we've long passed the point where weak lip-service is enough on the Climate Crisis", Al Gore lavished the following praise on the former Massachusetts governor....

"While other Republicans are running from the truth, he is sticking to his guns in the face of the anti-science wing of the Republican Party"

Not only that, it is also very important to remember that while Mitt Romney was governor, Massachusetts became the very first state to pass a law to regulate carbon emissions.

#5 If Mitt Romney becomes president, we may actually have "cap and trade" shoved down our throats.  While campaigning for president in 2007, Mitt Romney said that he would support a "cap and trade" carbon tax scheme for the entire world....

“I support Cap-and-Trade on a global basis but not the USA going alone. I want to do it with other nations involved and on a global scale.”

#6 Mitt Romney had a horrible record of creating jobs while governor of Massachusetts.  According to Boston Herald business reporter Bret Arends, only one state in the entire country was worse at creating jobs while Romney was in office....

“During the four years Mitt Romney was governor of Massachusetts, it had the second worst jobs record of any state in America…it wasn’t a regional issue. The rest of New England created nearly 200,000 jobs.”

#7 Mitt Romney was a very enthusiastic supporter of the Wall Street bailouts.  When the time comes for more Wall Street bailouts it seems almost certain that Mitt Romney will bail them out again.

#8 If Romney becomes president, get ready for a flood of liberal judges.  While he was governor of Massachusetts, there were actually significantly more Democrats among his judicial appointments than there were Republicans.

#9 Mitt Romney is incredibly soft on illegal immigration.  Back in 2007, Mitt Romney made the following statement....

“But my view is that those 12 million who've come here illegally should be given the opportunity to sign up to stay here”

#10 While he was governor, Mitt Romney received advice on global warming and carbon emissions from the man who is now the top science adviser to Barack Obama.  His name is John P. Holdren, and he has some very, very disturbing ideas.  For example, he once wrote the following....

"A program of sterilizing women after their second or third child, despite the relatively greater difficulty of the operation than vasectomy, might be easier to implement than trying to sterilize men.

The development of a long-term sterilizing capsule that could be implanted under the skin and removed when pregnancy is desired opens additional possibilities for coercive fertility control. The capsule could be implanted at puberty and might be removable, with official permission, for a limited number of births."

Holdren also believes that compulsory abortion would be perfectly legal under the U.S. Constitution....

“Indeed, it has been concluded that compulsory population-control laws, even including laws requiring compulsory abortion, could be sustained under the existing Constitution if the population crisis became sufficiently severe to endanger the society.”

So if this is the kind of person that Mitt Romney relied on for "scientific advice" while he was governor, what kind of people would Romney bring in to his administration once he is president?

#11 Mitt Romney has been a huge supporter of gun control laws.  When he was running for governor in Massachusetts, he made the following statement....

"We do have tough gun laws in Massachusetts- I support them...I believe they help protect us, and provide for our safety."

#12 Mitt Romney once claimed that he was more "pro-choice" than Ted Kennedy, but now he claims that he is pro-life.  In a recent article for WorldNetDaily, Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt explained why so many voters are still skeptical....

This year he's the only major Republican presidential candidate who has yet to sign the Susan B. Anthony List pledge to defend life and defund Planned Parenthood nationwide. Candidates Bachmann, Perry, Gingrich, Paul, Pawlenty and Santorum all signed the pledge, although it should be noted Herman Cain supports everything in the pledge except the Fetal Pain Act. (Cain is not fully pro-life, either.) And who can forget Mitt's famous 2002 campaign debate bragging repeatedly that he's more pro-choice than Ted Kennedy?

#13 During this campaign season, Mitt Romney has stated that he only supportspartnership agreements for gay couples and not gay marriage, but what Romney actually did while governor of Massachusetts suggests otherwise.  In the WorldNetDaily article referenced above, Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt detailed how Mitt Romney aggressively implemented gay marriage in the state of Massachusetts....

When the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decided in 2003 to recognize homosexual "marriage," ignoring the voters and the Constitution, the court admitted it did not have power to issue licenses or force participation by justices of the peace to solemnize the weddings. But as governor, Romney didn't wait for the legislature to act, he just ordered the marriage licenses and weddings to go forward, all by himself. Earlier this month, Romney said in New Hampshire, "What I would support [nationwide] is letting people who are of the same gender form – if you will – partnership agreements."

#14 As late as 2007, Mitt Romney was a member of the Republican Main Street Partnership.  The following is what romneyexposed.com says about this organization....

They often work in conjunction with the pro-abortion group, Republicans for Choice, and the Republican homosexual group, the Log Cabin Club.  They also opposed the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and set up a 527 campaign committee that received funding from far left funder George Soros.

#15 According to the Huffington Post, Mitt Romney has raised more money from lobbyists than all of the other Republican candidates combined.

So if Mitt Romney becomes president, who do you think he is going to listen to - the American people or the lobbyists?

#16 Mitt Romney is a big time Wall Street insider.  It is estimated that Romney has a personal fortune of approximately a quarter of a billion dollars, and Wall Street money is being absolutely showered on his campaign.

In a recent article entitled "The Big Wall Street Banks Are Already Trying To Buy The 2012 Election", I detailed how numbers compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics show that Mitt Romney is getting far more money from the "too big to fail" Wall Street banks than all of the other Republican candidates combined.  The following is an excerpt from that article that shows how much money employees of those banks (and their wives) have been giving to Romney so far this year....

*****

Goldman Sachs

Mitt Romney: $352,200
Barack Obama: $49,124
Tim Pawlenty: $25,000
Jon Huntsman: $6,750
Rick Perry: $5,500
Ron Paul: $2,500

Morgan Stanley

Mitt Romney: $184,800
Tim Pawlenty: $41,715
Barack Obama: $28,225
Rick Perry: $20,750
Jon Huntsman: $9,750
Newt Gingrich: $1,000
Ron Paul: $1,000
Herman Cain: $500

Bank of America

Mitt Romney: $112,500
Barack Obama: $46,699
Tim Pawlenty: $12,750
Jon Huntsman: $4,250
Ron Paul: $3,451
Rick Perry: $2,600
Thad McCotter: $2,000
Herman Cain: $750
Michele Bachmann: $500
Newt Gingrich: $250

JPMorgan Chase

Mitt Romney: $107,250
Barack Obama: $38,039
Rick Perry: $27,050
Tim Pawlenty: $16,750
Jon Huntsman: $7,500
Ron Paul: $5,451

Citigroup

Mitt Romney: $56,550
Barack Obama: $36,887
Tim Pawlenty: $5,300
Rick Perry: $3,000
Herman Cain: $1,465
Michele Bachmann: $1,000
Ron Paul: $702

As you can see, no other Republican candidate even comes close to Romney at any of these big Wall Street banks.

In fact, of the candidates that are left in the Republican race, Mitt Romney has raised 13 times as much Wall Street money as anyone else has.

The following are the overall donation numbers from employees of the big Wall Street banks and their wives....

Mitt Romney: $813,300
Barack Obama: $198,874
Tim Pawlenty: $101,515
Rick Perry: $58,900
Jon Huntsman: $28,250
Ron Paul: $13,104
Herman Cain: $2,715
Michelle Bachmann: $1,500
Newt Gingrich: $1,250

These numbers paint a very disturbing picture.  Even though Romney's poll numbers are in the mid to low 20s most of the time, employees of the big Wall Street banks gave him $813,300 during the first 9 months of this year and they only gave $105,719 to the rest of the Republican candidates combined.

*****

It is quite obvious that the "establishment" is in love with Mitt Romney.

But if the American people elect Mitt Romney, they will get someone who believes in big spending, big government, bank bailouts, health care mandates, climate change legislation, liberal judges, gun control laws, amnesty for illegal aliens and making things as comfortable for the fatcats on Wall Street as possible.

Yes, Barack Obama has been absolutely horrible, but the answer is most definitely not Mitt Romney.

Look, the truth is that another four years of Barack Obama would be a complete and total nightmare.

But so would four years of Mitt Romney.

America deserves better than the "lesser of two evils".

Unfortunately, the American people have been dead asleep and have been sending incompetents, con men and charlatans to Washington D.C. for decades.

Right now it looks like the Republican Party is going to nominate yet another establishment "politician" in 2012.

Hopefully people will wake up to the truth about Mitt Romney while there is still time.

Read more - 

http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/16-reasons-why-mitt-romney-would-be-a-really-really-bad-president

Samsung Electronics Co. overtook Apple Inc. in the last quarter to become the world’s largest smartphone vendor -

Samsung Electronics Co. overtook Apple Inc.  in the last quarter to become the world’s largest smartphone vendor - 




Samsung Electronics Co. overtook Apple Inc. (AAPL) in the last quarter to become the world’s largest smartphone vendor amid a widening technology and legal battle between the two companies.
Samsung shipped 27.8 million smartphones in the last quarter, taking 23.8 percent of the market, Milton Keynes, U.K.- based Strategy Analytics said in an e-mailed statement today. Apple’s 17.1 million shipments, comprising 14.6 percent of the market, pushed the Cupertino, California-based company to second place. Nokia Oyj (NOK1V) maintained its third position, it said.
Apple, which released its iPhone 4S this month, held the top spot for only one quarter after dislodging Espoo, Finland- based Nokia earlier this year. Samsung, based in Suwon, South Korea, has turned to Google Inc. (GOOG)’s Android software to boost sales of its Galaxy smartphones and tablet computers.
“Samsung has come out with products that appeal to all the different form factors and specifications out there,” said T.Z. Wong, a Beijing-based analyst at researcher IDC. “That is a strategy they have executed very well.”
Natalie Kerris, a spokeswoman for Apple, wasn’t immediately available for comment after normal business hours. Nam Ki Yung, a Seoul-based spokesman for Samsung, declined to comment on the research company’s estimate.


Read more - 
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-28/samsung-beats-apple-as-no-1-smartphone-vendor.html

A MAN caught having sex with a donkey told a court the beast was actually a prostitute who turned into an animal -

A MAN caught having sex with a donkey told a court the beast was actually a prostitute who turned into an animal - 

A MAN caught having sex with a donkey told a court the beast was actually a prostitute who turned into an animal overnight.Zimbabwean Sunday Moyo, 28, was found by police officers performing a sex act on the donkey, who was lying on the ground tied to a tree, a court heard.

He was arrested Monday in the township of Zvishavane and charged with bestiality, the New Zimbabwe newspaper reported.

Admitting the crime, Moyo told the court: "Your worship, I only came to know that I was being intimate with a donkey when I got arrested.

"I had hired a prostitute and paid US$20 for the service at Down Town nightclub, and I don't know how she then became a donkey."

He also claimed he was in love with the animal, telling the court: "I think I am also a donkey. I do not know what happened when I left the bar, but I am seriously in love with the donkey."

Moyo was remanded in custody until tomorrow and will be examined by two government psychiatrists.


Read more - 
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3895978/Man-claims-prostitute-turned-into-a-donkey.html

Netflix takes up 32.7% of Internet bandwidth -

Netflix takes up 32.7% of Internet bandwidth - 


Despite recent troubles, Netflix is a major force on the Internet, accounting for 32.7% of peak U.S. downstream traffic, according to a new report.
Sandvine Intelligent Broadband Networks' report analyzed 200 Internet service providers in 80 countries and found that real-time entertainment apps take up 60% of peak downstream traffic, up from 50% last year. Netflix has more than half of that share. Sandvine considers the hours between 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. to be peak times.
Like others, Sandvine has also noticed a shift away from PCs to access such content. The company found 55% of traffic volume in North America is consumed on game consoles, set-top boxes, smart TVs and mobile devices. Only 45% is being accessed by laptops or PCs. Video makes up 32.6% of peak downstream mobile traffic, of which YouTube is the largest contributor.


Read more - 
http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/27/tech/web/netflix-internet-bandwith-mashable/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

World Record Pumpkin Carving - utilizing a 1,693lb pumpkin - WOW -

World Record Pumpkin Carving - utilizing a 1,693lb pumpkin - WOW - 

This carving was created in NYC by utilizing a 1,693lb pumpkin for the
Zombies (Zombkins) that are crawling out of the new Worlds Record
pumpkin that weighed a whopping 1,818.5lbs. It took Ray Villafane about 15 hours to
carve.


A crowd of garden-goers watched in awe as Villafane deftly sliced and slivered pieces of the giant squash (yes, pumpkins are a type of winter squash).
After a few hours, the orange flesh was transformed into a terrifying
scene complete with an eerily realistic zombie and a ghastly ghoul
breaking out of the pumpkin’s shell. Villafane even used the stringy
innards of the pumpkin as “guts” draped in the hand of the zombie, who
he depicted reaching out towards the audience.


The pumpkin, which is currently the record holder for largest pumpkin in the world,
was “raised” by Jim and Kelsey Bryson in Ormstown, Quebec. The orange
behemoth is on display with its two slightly smaller brothers (grown in
California and Pennsylvania) at the NYBG
until October 30th, and all three will be carved into spooky sculptures
by Villafane.

America's "Unnoticed" Military Aggression. US Combat Troops Arrive in Uganda -

America's "Unnoticed" Military Aggression. US Combat Troops Arrive in Uganda - 


The last bombs exploded on Libya when the White House made the decision to intervene militarily in another African country, Uganda. This aggression went almost unnoticed; the media devoted less attention to it than to the love affair of a Hollywood star.


President Obama saw fit to announce the arrival in Uganda of U.S. combat troops in a speech to the people of the United States.


"It was necessary,” he said “to remove Joseph Kony from the battlefield because the Lord's Resistance Army" represented "a threat to regional security."


The deceptiveness of the presidential speech makes it essential to decode it.


The army is referred to as a phantom. The "enemy" this time is a mini guerrilla, actually a religious sect with no social base, which operated in the country for over 20 years, Kony is its theologian.


Only now has the White House suddenly become aware of the existence of these dangerous guerrillas.


Will the stay of U.S. special forces last a long time? Obama dispelled any remaining doubts: "They will stay in the country as long as necessary." And he added that the U.S. military are available to intervene in the Congo and Central African Republic, "if requested by states of the region.


The new U.S. military intervention is part of the strategy that led to the creation of AFRICOM, the U.S. military command dedicated to the continent whose headquarters still remains in Germany, while negotiations are underway for installation in an African capital.


The European allies -- Sarkozy, Merkel and Cameron -- support the U.S. imperial strategy whose aggressive moves justify labeling it the Fourth Reich.


Observers point out that Hitler annexed Austria, swearing that he had no further claims. The following year, after Munich, Germany occupied Czechoslovakia, announcing an era of peace. In l939 he invaded Poland.
How far will U.S. imperialism go? It invaded Iraq and Afghanistan, sponsored and financed the attack on Libya, claiming the need to protect populations with a humanitarian intervention, and now invades Uganda, and threatening Syria and Iran.


Slowly, the peoples from Asia to Europe, from Latin America to Africa are realizing that imperialist barbarism is now a global threat to humanity. They are mobilizing against it in defense of civilization, which for the very continuity of life is a historical necessity.


Read more -
http://www.blacklistednews.com/America%27s_%22Unnoticed%22_Military_Aggression._US_Combat_Troops_Arrive_in_Uganda_/16291/0/0/0/Y/M.html

Radioactive Used Cars Being Sold in Japan - One car emitted more than 300 times the legal amount of radiation -

Radioactive Used Cars Being Sold in Japan - One car emitted more than 300 times the legal amount of radiation - 


Cars that were contaminated by radiation during the March nuclear meltdown in Japan are finding their way into the reeling nation's used car market.


Vehicles from the area around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which suffered a series of meltdowns after the earthquake and tsunami of March 11, were supposed to be destroyed. But unscrupulous dealers have registered them under new license plates and sold them, The Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported. Unable to export the cars, they're selling them in Japan.


Dealers have traditionally bought used vehicles in Japan and exported them to Russia and Southeast Asia, according to the Telegraph. In June, Russian police turned back a half-dozen used cars from Japan after finding they were contaminated with radioactove isotopes, according to the Interfax news agency. Authorities in South America, Australia and the U.S. have also stepped up inspection of new and used cars coming in from Japan.


Now, with testing also being conducted at Japanese loading docks, dealers are selling the potentially lethal cars on the domestic market.


Nearly 700 cars have been barred from export for exceeding the legal radiation limit of 0.3 microsieverts per hour. One van that was re-registered and sold within Japan was found to emit 110 microsieverts of radiation an hour.
The dealer who bought the contaminated van, which had initially been registered in the town of Iwaki, within the 18-mile exclusion zone, said he sold the vehicle even after knowing it was poisoned because he wanted the money.


"I decontaminated repeatedly after the test and retested the filter of the air conditioner, the wipers and tires, replacing them thoroughly, but the radiation level dropped only to 30 microsieverts per hour," he said. "I decided to sell the vehicle in Japan because I couldn't afford to lose the money."


Read more - 
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/weird/Radioactive-Used-Cars-Being-Sold-in-Japan-132614218.html

"Understanding Derivatives-a Primer" - This explains the "derivatives" scam better than anything else I have read -

"Understanding Derivatives-a Primer" - This explains the "derivatives" scam better than anything else I have read - 

Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in Detroit .

She realizes that virtually all of her customers are unemployed alcoholics and, as such, can no longer afford to patronize her bar.

To solve this problem, she comes up with a new marketing plan that allows her customers to drink now, but pay later.

Heidi keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers' loans).

Word gets around about Heidi's "drink now, pay later" marketing strategy and, as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into Heidi's bar. Soon she has the largest sales volume for any bar in Detroit ..

By providing her customers freedom from immediate payment demands, Heidi gets no resistance when, at regular intervals, she substantially increases her prices for wine and beer, the most consumed beverages.

Consequently, Heidi's gross sales volume increases massively.

A young and dynamic vice-president at the local bank recognizes that these customer debts constitute valuable future assets and increases Heidi's borrowing limit.

He sees no reason for any undue concern, since he has the debts of the unemployed alcoholics as collateral!!!

At the bank's corporate headquarters, expert traders figure a way to make huge commissions, and transform these customer loans into DRINKBONDS.

These "securities" then are bundled and traded on international securities markets.

Naive investors don't really understand that the securities being sold to them as "AAA Secured Bonds" really are debts of unemployed alcoholics. Nevertheless, the bond prices continuously climb!!!, and the securities soon become the hottest-selling items for some of the nation's leading brokerage houses.

One day, even though the bond prices still are climbing, a risk manager at the original local bank decides that the time has come to demand payment on the debts incurred by the drinkers at Heidi's bar. He so informs Heidi.

Heidi then demands payment from her alcoholic patrons, but being unemployed alcoholics they cannot pay back their drinking debts.

Since Heidi cannot fulfill her loan obligations she is forced into bankruptcy. The bar closes and Heidi's 11 employees lose their jobs.

Overnight, DRINKBOND prices drop by 90%.

The collapsed bond asset value destroys the bank's liquidity and prevents it from issuing new loans, thus freezing credit and economic activity in the community.

The suppliers of Heidi's bar had granted her generous payment extensions and had invested their firms' pension funds in the BOND securities.

They find they are now faced with having to write off her bad debt and with losing over 90% of the presumed value of the bonds.

Her wine supplier also claims bankruptcy, closing the doors on a family business that had endured for three generations, her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor, who immediately closes the local plant and lays off 150 workers.

Fortunately though, the bank, the brokerage houses and their respective executives are saved and bailed out by a multibillion dollar no-strings attached cash infusion from the government.

The funds required for this bailout are obtained by new taxes levied on employed, middle-class, nondrinkers who have never been in Heidi's bar.

Now do you understand?