Wells Fargo Seizes Stockton, California City Hall - AND three city parking garages -

Wells Fargo Seizes Stockton, California City Hall - AND three city parking garages - 


The Stockton City Council announced Wednesday that they will look at bankruptcy contingency plans after Wells Fargo seized the new city hall building.


The city paid $35 million to buy the 8-story building, but was not able to move in because of its money problems, and recently stopped making debt payments all together. This is the fourth building that was repossessed by Wells Fargo; the bank seized three city parking garages for the same reason.


Just wait to financial problems start to put a squeeze on state governments. California and Illinois are high up on the list. They might be able to scrape by for another year or two, but that's it. 


Read more - 
http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2012/05/wells-fargo-seizes-stockton-california.html

Obama Flies Special Barber To the White House Every Two Weeks -

Obama Flies Special Barber To the White House Every Two Weeks - 




Reports have surfaced that President Barack Obama is very loyal to his barber. The President is a man of the common people, the report tells its listeners. He hangs out with regular folks, like his barber for example.  The President has been using the same Chicago based barber, who goes by the name Zariff, for the past 17 years.   According to German Public Radio, the President flies Zariff from Chicago to DC for a trim every two weeks.  The president allegedly personally funds these trips. President Obama obviously also does not care much about the massive carbon footprint his haircuts are leaving on our planet which, we are told, is tipping precariously. 


The German NDR reporter says: ‘The barber never says a word about what they discuss. Perhaps that’s also a reason why Obama feels comfortable being around him. Otherwise he would not fly his barber in from Chicago to Washington every ten to 14 days.’






Read more: http://nation.foxnews.com/barack-obama/2012/05/30/report-obama-flies-special-barber-wh-every-two-weeks

Mitt Romney wanted to change America and he has succeeded. . . with his new iPhone app slogan “A Better Amercia.” -

Mitt Romney wanted to change America and he has succeeded. . . with his new iPhone app slogan “A Better Amercia.” - 




Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney wanted to change America and he has succeeded. . . with his new iPhone app displaying the slogan “A Better Amercia.”


Yes, “Amercia.”


The newly released “With Mitt” app allows users to add their choice of 14 pro-Romney phrases to photographs and share them via social media. Examples include “I’m a Mom for Mitt,” “American Greatness,” “Day One Job One” and “Obama Isn’t Working.”


And of course the misspelled: “A better Amercia.”


That typo sent the Internet into spasms of joy on Tuesday night, spawning Twitter hashtag 



#Amercia and a tumblr titled “Amercia is with Mitt.”


The Romney campaign has not commented publicly about the typo. CNN reports that an update to the app was submitted to Apple Wednesday morning and is waiting for approval. Meanwhile the app in its original form is still available in the iTunes store.


The typo isn’t the only part of the app that Internet jokesters have shown affection for. As Vanity Fair points out, the slogans also work well with a photo of a bottle of white wine.


Read more - 
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/uselection/article/1202852--mitt-romney-iphone-app-stands-for-a-better-amercia-spawns-internet-meme?bn=1

Cyber-attack concerns raised over Boeing 787 chip's 'back door' - has built-in function that could let in hackers -

Cyber-attack concerns raised over Boeing 787 chip's 'back door' - has built-in function that could let in hackers - 




Two Cambridge experts have discovered a "back door" in a computer chip used in military systems and aircraft such as the Boeing 787 that could allow the chip to be taken over via the internet.


The discovery will heighten concerns about the risks of cyber-attacks on sensitive installations, coming on the heels of the discovery this week of the 'Flamer' virus which has been attacking computer systems in Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia.


In a paper that has been published in draft form online and seen by the Guardian, researchers Sergei Skorobogatov of Cambridge University and Chris Woods of Quo Vadis Labs say that they have discovered a method that a hacker can use to connect to the internals of a chip made by Actel, a US manufacturer.


"An attacker can disable all the security on the chip, reprogram cryptographic and access keys … or permanently damage the device," they noted.


Woods told the Guardian that they have offered all the necessary information about how the hack can be done to government agencies – but that their response is classified.


"The real issue is the level of security that can be compromised through any back door, and how easy they are to find and exploit," Woods said.


The back door may have been inserted by Actel itself, whose ProASIC3 chip is used in medical, automotive, communications and consumer products, as well as military use.


Woods said that "a back door is an additional undocumented featured deliberately inserted into a device for extra functionality" – in effect, a secret way to get into the chip and control it.


Crucially, in this case it exists as part of the design of the silicon chip – meaning that it cannot be removed because it is inherent in how the chip reacts to certain inputs. He suggested that it may have been put there by design by Actel, because there are some traces of the existence of such a back door in the system files of Actel development software.


But, he said, that creates serious risks: "The great danger comes from the fact that such a back door undermines the high level of security in the chip making it exposed to various attacks. Although Actel makes a big claim that their devices are extremely secure because there is no physical path for the configuration data to be read to the outside world, a back door was added with a special key to circumnavigate all the security set by themselves or one of their users."


Connecting to the chips would be comparatively easy over the internet if the chip is wired to an internet-enabled controller, he said. Normally a special cryptographic key would be needed, but the back door does not need an encrypted channel.


Read more - 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/may/29/cyber-attack-concerns-boeing-chip

You know its bad when... - The Rockefellers and The Rothschilds announce they are uniting under a common group -

You know its bad when... - The Rockefellers and The Rothschilds announce they are uniting under a common group - 

You know its bad when... two of the largest and best-known 'familia' in Europe and the US come together. As the FT reports, The Rockefellers and The Rothschilds are uniting under a common group as Rothschild Investment Trust and Rockefeller Financial Services become one. The patriarchs (David Rockefeller 96, and Lord Rothschild 76) have been 'connected' for five decades. Between the Rothschild's 'sprawling' multi-century banking empire across Europe and the Rockefeller's roots in 1882 Oil-money, we can only imagine the Illuminati, Freemasons, Templars, and Central Bankers of the world are quaking in their boots at this new global force for change - The Rothsellers or is it The Rockchilds. What next? It seems only Soros is left to complete the holy trinity...


Read more - 
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/end-nigh-rockefellers-and-rothschilds-merge

Back-to-back asteroids harmlessly fly past Earth - was the sixth closest asteroid approach -

Back-to-back asteroids harmlessly fly past Earth - was the sixth closest asteroid approach - 






A newly discovered small asteroid has harmlessly zipped close to Earth - just as scientists expected.


The 16-foot-long space rock, discovered on Memorial Day, passed by early Tuesday at a distance of 8,950 miles from the Earth's surface.


NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which tracks such flybys, said the asteroid - dubbed 2012 KT42 - was the sixth closest asteroid approach.


It was the second asteroid encounter this week. On Monday, another asteroid, measuring 69 feet across, flew by at a distance of 32,000 miles.


Read more -
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SCI_ASTEROID_FLYBYS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-05-29-19-21-18

Picture of the day - If You're Going to Have an Ejaculating Penis Tattoo, Choose Its Placement Wisely -

Picture of the day - If You're Going to Have an Ejaculating Penis Tattoo, Choose Its Placement Wisely -

Guitar Pee: Urinals Make Music - allowing guys to create unique solos while emptying their bladder -

Guitar Pee: Urinals Make Music - allowing guys to create unique solos while emptying their bladder - 




Musicians are made, not born. And in select Brazilian bars, a urinal called Guitar Pee makes sweet, sweet music of not-so-proverbial sh*t. The device, developed by Brazilian creative agency AlmapBBDO, produces a heavy metal symphony when bladder-heavy stumblers let loose their streams. 


“The Guitar Pee is a mix between menâs urinal and an electric guitar, allowing guys to create unique solos while emptying their bladder,” writes BestAdsOnTV.com. 


The agency outfitted the urinal with a guitar neck on top of the appliance. Instructions are written along the side of the wall next the handle. Above it sits a box–the sound-making device–to which an attached black cord runs along the side of the wall and connects with the base of the urinal. Inside the porcelain bowl, seven strings attached to circular devices project pre-recorded sounds depending on where the stream hits. Each stream is recorded and changed into an “MPee3,” which users can access by typing in the number generated by the box through a mobile app called  ”MPee3.”


Music magazine Billboard Brasil is the brand behind the Guitar Pee and in its promotional efforts makes this assertion: “Music. We know it comes for everywhere.”


Thus far, the best aspect of the Guitar Pee’s debut is the reactions of the patrons who actually get to use it (see video below). There’s the guy who doesn’t look up, but the camera captures the surprise of a man in an opposite urinal when clanging metallic riffs burst forth. There’s the guy who stares, zombie-like, unaffected. The smiler. The one who chooses not to pee in such a strange-looking contraption. And then there are the wanna-be rock-stars, who exit the urinal with fist pumps and rock-on symbols before tweeting out the Guitar Pee to their friends. 


According to BestAdsOnTV.com, Guitar Pee has recorded “1,500 unique guitar solos” and is constantly churning out more. There’s no real explanation as to the purpose of the device, but the Guitar Pee’s popularity is a brilliant marketing scheme. If only they made one for girls…

Read more -
http://www.bangstyle.com/2012/05/guitar-pee-urinals-music/

Hidden camera footage shows complicity in 'sex-selective' abortions by US providers... -

Hidden camera footage shows complicity in 'sex-selective' abortions by US providers... - 


Live Action says Planned Parenthood and other U.S. abortion providers are willing to assist in the termination of baby girls for pregnant women who choose abortion because they want to have baby boys. And the pro-life abortion watchdog says its video series and a new website will expose it all.


“This was a multi-state, national investigation demonstrating that this is a widespread problem across our country,” Live Action president Lila Rose told The Daily Caller in an interview Monday.


“First of all, the statistics and studies indicate that we are adding to the growing problem across the world of sex-selective targeting of unborn girls for abortion. We are going to be demonstrating — starting with this video from Texas — that the abortion industry in the United States is aiding and abetting this horrific problem.”


The first in what Live Action says is a series of videotaped incidents exposing American abortion facilities’  willingness to assist in sex-selection abortions took place at a South Austin, Texas Planned Parenthood clinic. In the footage, a Planned Parenthood counselor appears to readily assist and advise a Live Action actor who said she was trying to obtain an abortion if her baby is female.





Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/05/29/pro-life-groups-hidden-camera-footage-shows-complicity-in-sex-selective-abortions/

Australian mom says a Kangaroo stalked her for 2 days then attacked her -

Australian mom says a Kangaroo stalked her for 2 days then attacked her - 


An Australian mom has told of being "stalked" by a rogue kangaroo for two days before it savaged her, leaving her with a 12-inch scar.


Kirrily McWilliams was first confronted by the growling female eastern gray kangaroo in the backyard of her property south of Port Macquarie, in New South Wales -- and the next day it got through her fence and attacked her dog, a 143-pound mastiff.
Despite worried calls to National Parks and Wildlife Services for help, McWilliams was told to ignore the animal and it would go away, The (Sydney) Daily Telegraph reported.
That afternoon she was walking down the driveway to pick her daughter up from the school bus when she saw the mad marsupial heading towards her at high speed. With nowhere to hide she dropped to the ground and curled up in a ball.
"If you stand and confront them they can easily tear you apart because that's what they do to each other," McWilliams said.
It pounded at her a number of times, clawing at her back with its powerful hind legs before bounding away. She sustained a large gash and other scratches on her back.
"It was lucky it was cool weather and I had two layers of clothing, otherwise it could have been worse," she said.
While she was at the hospital, her husband was attacked by the kangaroo in the backyard, but he kept it at bay with a shovel.
A day later, NPWS officials issued a permit to hire a shooter and kill the kangaroo -- but by that time it had moved on and attacked someone else.
There have been a number of cases of kangaroos lashing out.
NPWS said the powerful eastern grays, which can weigh up to 145 pounds and stand almost six feet, were considered dangerous and its policy was to educate people on avoiding conflict.




Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/05/29/australian-mom-says-kangaroo-stalked-her-for-2-days-then-attacked/?intcmp=trending

New smartphone in Japan to feature a radiation detector -

New smartphone in Japan to feature a radiation detector - 


Mobile phone operator Softbank Corp said on Tuesday it would soon begin selling smartphones with radiation detectors, tapping into concerns that atomic hotspots remain along Japan’s eastern coast more than a year after the Fukushima crisis.


Parts of northeastern Japan are still off-limits due to high radiation levels after the Fukushima nuclear plant was devastated by a huge earthquuake and tsunami, triggering meltdowns and spewing radiation.


Anti-nuclear sentiment is high, with advocacy groups in Tokyo and other cities calling for radiation monitoring at schools and other public facilities.


“The threat from the nuclear accident cannot be seen by the human eye and continues to be a concern for many people, especially for mothers with small children,” said Softbank founder and president, Masayoshi Son, standing in front of an aerial photo of the crippled plant.


The smartphone in the company’s “Pantone” series will come in eight bright colours and include customized IC chips made by Sharp Corp that measure radiation levels in microsieverts per hour.


The phone, which goes on sale this summer, can also keep track of each location a user tests for radiation levels.


Son, who emerged as an outspoken critic of nuclear power and advocate of renewable energy sources after last year’s quake, told vendors and reporters that the smartphone was more portable and user-friendly than conventional Geiger counters.


Softbank, Japan’s No. 3 mobile phone operator, has not set a price on the new smartphone yet, but Son told reporters after the event that it would be in an affordable price range.


Read more - 
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1202126--new-smartphone-in-japan-features-built-in-radiation-detector?bn=1

Security backdoor found in China-made US military chip -

Security backdoor found in China-made US military chip - 




A microchip used by the US military and manufactured in China contains a secret “backdoor” that means it can be shut off or reprogrammed without the user knowing, according to researchers at Cambridge University’s Computing Laboratory.


UPDATE: However, one security consultancy has said that the implication that the backdoor might have been secretly inserted by the Chinese manufacturer is “bogus”, and that malicious intent is unlikely.


In a draft paper, Cambridge University researcher Sergei Skorobogatov wrote that the chip in question is widely used in military and industrial applications. The “backdoor” means it is “wide open to intellectual property theft, fraud and reverse engineering of the design to allow the introduction of a backdoor or Trojan”, they said.


The discovery was made during testing of a new technique to extract the encryption key from chips, developed by Cambridge spin-off Quo Vadis Labs. The “bug” is in the actual chip itself, Skorobogatov wrote, rather than the firmware installed on the devices that use it, meaning there is no way to fix it than to replace the chip altogether.


Read more -
http://www.information-age.com/channels/security-and-continuity/news/2105468/security-backdoor-found-in-chinamade-us-military-chip.thtml

Spanish bank Bankia Monday restated 2011 to reflect a 3.3 Billion euro loss, rather than a 41 Million euro profit -

Spanish bank Bankia Monday restated 2011 to reflect a 3.3 Billion euro loss, rather than a 41 Million euro profit - 






It is rather amazing what one finds when a company which previously had allegedly posted a profit of €41 million, somehow becomes insolvent, needs a nationalization to avoid a full out liquidation, and gets bailed out by the state. One of the first things one finds is that the profit pitched to that particular class of gullible idiots, known as shareholders, was an outright lie. And yes, on that one very rare occasion when an auditor refuses to sign off on a bank's financials, in this case Deloitte, run far, and run fast. Instead what one finds is a massive loss. From Reuters: "BFA, the parent group of nationalized Spanish bank Bankia said on Monday it had restated its 2011 results to reflect a 3.3 billion euro loss, rather than a 41 million euro profit, following a bailout from the state. In a statement to the stock exchange regulator, BFA said the restated loss reflected a review of its loan portfolios and capital needs after a new audit and as part of the clean-up plan implemented by the government." Well, duh, something "new" better be reflected, or else the general public may just get the impression that banks are merely pulling numbers out of their glutes, that the entire balance sheet, income and cash flow statements are just a jumble of utter BS, and that keeping one's deposits in a system predicated on lies and fraud may not be the smartest thing. But no: that would imply one is inciting a bank run, and that is frowned upon by the very same government which does everything in its power to facilitate just the data manipulation that magically results in a profitable bank being on the verge of liquidation.


But that's not all. According to Spain's Expansion, the total loss could be far worse, more than double the just reported, to a total of €7 billion. Google translated:


Following a meeting of more than four hours, the board of directors of the entity on Monday approved the restated financial statements. Bankia matrix provided only consolidated data for the year 2011, yielding a loss of 3.318 million euros. However, individual losses would amount to 7,000 million BFA, according to financial sources.

The consolidated balance sheet losses gave the fruit of Bankia own numbers, which on Friday announced that it obtained a negative result of 2.979 million in 2011. In previous accounts, unaudited, BFA had lost 439 million in individual accounts, while recognized in consolidated profit of 41 million.

The red numbers are mainly due to the development of fair value of the share itself has BFA Bankia (52% in December 2011).
Indicatively, the move from a profit to a €7 billion loss, in a US context, is roughly the same as if US bank holding company X were to go from being profitable to posting a nearly $100 billion loss. Overnight. But only after the FDIC was invited to backstop the firm's suddenly underwater hundreds of billions in deposits.


Oops.


Luckily, there is always only one cockroach (ahem JP Morgan prop desk), and we are absolutely confident the €7 billion total loss, when officially announced will be the final one. Just as the final bailout bill of €19 billion will not be topped. Or was that €25 billion?


And nobody will need a European bailout. Ever.


Read more -
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/bankia-parent-revises-2011-profit-%E2%82%AC41-million-%E2%82%AC33-billion-loss

Radiation from the tsunami-damaged Fukushima power plant have turned up in bluefin tuna off the California coast -

Radiation from the tsunami-damaged Fukushima power plant have turned up in bluefin tuna off the California coast - 




Low levels of nuclear radiation from the tsunami-damaged Fukushima power plant have turned up in bluefin tuna off the California coast, suggesting that these fish carried radioactive compounds across the Pacific Ocean faster than wind or water can.


Small amounts of cesium-137 and cesium-134 were detected in 15 tuna caught near San Diego in August 2011, about four months after these chemicals were released into the water off Japan's east coast, scientists reported on Monday.


That is months earlier than wind and water currents brought debris from the plant to waters off Alaska and the U.S. Pacific Northwest.


The amount of radioactive cesium in the fish is not thought to be damaging to people if consumed, the researchers said in a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.


Without making a definitive judgment on the safety of the fish, lead author Daniel Madigan of Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station noted that the amount of radioactive material detected was far less than the Japanese safety limit.


"I wouldn't tell anyone what's safe to eat or what's not safe to eat," Madigan said in a telephone interview. "It's become clear that some people feel that any amount of radioactivity, in their minds, is bad and they'd like to avoid it. But compared to what's there naturally ... and what's established as safety limits, it's not a large amount at all."


He said the scientists found elevated levels of two radioactive isotopes of the element cesium: cesium 137, which was present in the eastern Pacific before the Fukushima Daiichi disaster in the spring of 2011; and cesium 134, which is produced only by human activities and was not present before the earthquake and tsunami hit the Japanese plant.


Because cesium 134 is generated only by human activities - nuclear power plants and weapons - and there was none in the Pacific for several years before the Fukushima accident, they reckoned that any cesium 134 they found in tuna off California had to come from Fukushima.


Read more -
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/28/us-japan-nuclear-tuna-idUSBRE84R0MF20120528

Beer-stealing COWS crash backyard bash -

Beer-stealing COWS crash backyard bash - 




Some rowdy young party crashers are making headlines today for stealing all of the beer at a backyard bash.


Police in Boxford, Mass. say that a group of young adults were enjoying an outdoor college reunion party Sunday evening when six cows showed up and hurtled toward their beverages.


"They went right for the beer and then when one was done, they'd knock another one over and take care of that beer," Lt. James Riter of the Boxford Police Department told a local newspaper. "I saw one cow drinking the beer on its way down as it spilled off the table... Some of the cows were also picking through the empties in the recycling bin... They just went in and helped themselves."


According to Wicked Local, the bovine beer-lovers frightened human party-goers indoors. One person from the party, as well as a neighbour called 911.


Riter said he witnessed 10-13  women jumping on the rear deck of the house to avoid contact with the cows when he arrived. "The young women were absolutely in shock," he told a reporter.


The cows' owner eventually showed up to help herd them back to his field - but not before police could snap a few photos. 





Read more -
http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourcommunity/2012/05/beer-stealing-cows-crash-backyard-bash.html

African scientists warn that eating monkeys and apes could cause 'the next HIV' -

African scientists warn that eating monkeys and apes could cause 'the next HIV' - 


Deep in the rainforest of south-east Cameroon, the voices of the men rang through the trees. "Where are the white people?" they shouted. The men, who begin to surround us, are poachers, who make their money from the illegal slaughter of gorillas and chimpanzees. They disperse but make it known that they are not keen for their activities to be reported; the trade they ply could not only wipe out critically endangered species but, scientists are now warning, could also create the next pandemic of a deadly virus in humans.


Eighty per cent of the meat eaten in Cameroon is killed in the wild and is known as "bushmeat". The nation's favoured dishes are gorilla, chimpanzee or monkey because of their succulent and tender flesh. According to one estimate, up to 3,000 gorillas are slaughtered in southern Cameroon every year to supply an illicit but pervasive commercial demand for ape meat .


"Everyone is eating it," said one game warden. "If they have money they will buy gorilla or chimp to eat."


Frankie, a poacher in the southern Dja Wildlife reserve who gave a fake name, said he is involved in the trade because he can earn good money from it, charging around £60 per adult gorilla killed. "I have to make a living," he said. "Women come from the market and order a gorilla or a chimp and I go and kill them."


Cameroon's south-eastern rainforests are also home to the Baka – traditional forest hunters who have the legal right to hunt wild animals, with the exception of great apes.


Felix Biango, a Baka elder, said the group used to hunt gorilla every few weeks to feed his village, Ayene, but has stopped since Cameroon outlawed the practice 10 years ago. However, he says that every week, three or four people come from the cities to ask the group to help them to hunt wild animals, such as gorillas and chimpanzees.


While the Baka no longer hunt primates for themselves, Mr Biango says that they still kill gorillas for the commercial trade and will eat the meat if they find the animals already dead.


Though Cameroonians have eaten primate meat for years, recent health scares have begun to raise fears about the safety of the meat. "In the village of Bakaklion our brothers found a dead gorilla in the forest," Mr Biango said. "They took it back to the village and ate the meat. Almost immediately, everyone died – 25 men, women and children – the only person who didn't was a woman who didn't eat the meat."


Three-quarters of all new human viruses are known to come from animals, and some scientists believe humans are particularly susceptible to those carried by apes. The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is now widely believed to have originated in chimps. Apes are known to host other potentially deadly viruses, such as ebola, anthrax, yellow fever and other potential viruses yet to be discovered.


Babila Tafon, head vet at the primate sanctuary Ape Action Africa (AAA), in Mefou, just outside the capital Yaounde, believes the incident that Biango describes could have been caused by an outbreak of ebola, but cannot be sure because no tests were carried out.


AAA now cares for 22 gorillas and more than one hundred chimps – all orphans of the bushmeat trade.


Mr Tafon tests the blood of all apes arriving at the sanctuary. He says he has recently detected a new virus in the apes – simian foamy virus, which is closely related to HIV. "A recent survey confirmed this is now in humans, especially in some of those who are hunters and cutting up the apes in the south-east of the country," he said.


Viruses are often transferred from ape to human through a bite, scratch or the blood of a dead ape getting into an open wound. There is a lower risk from eating cooked or smoked primates, but it is not completely safe.


Bushmeat is not only a concern for Cameroonians. Each year, an estimated 11,000 tons of bushmeat is illegally smuggled in to the UK, mainly from West Africa, and is known to include some ape meat.


The transfer of viruses from ape to man is a primary concern for the international virology research and referral base run by the Pasteur Centre in Yaounde. Each week, it screens more than 500 blood samples for all manner of viruses, and alerts major international medical research centres if it finds an unfamiliar strain.


Read more -
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/african-monkey-meat-that-could-be-behind-the-next-hiv-7786152.html

China And Japan Dropping Dollar Cross Rate System, Will Transact Directly -

China And Japan Dropping Dollar Cross Rate System, Will Transact Directly - 




While various three letter economic schools of thought continue sprouting left and right, in an attempt to validate endless spending predicated on one simple thing: transitory reserve currency status, and we emphasize transitory, reality moves on, oblivious of what economic theoreticians believe it should be doing. As Yomiuri Shimbun reported last night, China and Japan are set to launch direct currency trading, bypassing the dollar, and the associated benefits and risks, entirely. "But how can that be?" dollar purists will scream. After all, when one bypasses the dollar, one commits blasphemy to a reserve currency. Somehow we think China gets that. From the AP: "Japan and China are expected to start direct trading of their currencies as early as June as part of efforts to boost bilateral trade and investment, according to reports. With the planned step, exchange rates between the yen and the yuan will be determined by their transactions, departing from the current "cross rate" system that involves the dollar in setting yen-yuan rates, Kyodo News said on Saturday."


More specifics on how the world's second and third largest economy will just say no to dollar hegemony:


The two governments are eyeing setting up markets in Tokyo and Shanghai, the Yomiuri Shimbun said.

The yen-yuan exchange system would help businesses in the world's second- and third-largest economies reduce risks associated with exchange rate fluctuations in the dollar and cut transaction costs, Kyodo said.

It will be the first time that China has allowed a major currency except the dollar to directly trade with the yuan, Kyodo said.


Read more -
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/china-and-japan-dropping-dollar-cross-rate-system-will-transact-directly

GM failed to disclose $600k sweetheart deal to CFO's wife... -

GM failed to disclose $600k sweetheart deal to CFO's wife... - 




General Motors told the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today that it failed to report a $600,000 deal given to an advertising agency where the wife of a top GM executive is a partner


GM said in an SEC filing that it had “recently learned about” a contract awarded in 2011 to an agency where Chief Financial Officer Dan Ammann’s wife, Pernilla Ammann, is chief operating officer and partner.


The automaker added: “This transaction has been properly ratified under our Related Party Transaction Policy, but not all the required procedures were followed.”


The company has a detailed policy dictating how potential conflicts of interest must be handled. Part of the policy: Deals of more than $120,000 in which a top executive’s spouse has a financial interest must be approved by CEO Dan Akerson and Senior Vice President and General Counsel Michael Millikin. The arrangement must then be reported to the GM Board of Directors’ Governance Committee, which annually reviews each top executive’s independence.


Read more - 
http://www.freep.com/article/20120525/BUSINESS0101/120525023/General-Motors-GM-Dan-Ammann-deal-for-wife?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE

A Japanese artist cooked his own genitals and served them to five paying diners in Tokyo -

A Japanese artist cooked his own genitals and served them to five paying diners in Tokyo - 


A Japanese artist cooked his own genitals and served them to five paying diners in Tokyo to cover the medical costs, in a bizarre act to raise awareness about sexual minorities.


Mao Sugiyama had his penis and testicles surgically removed in March and kept them frozen for two months before dishing them out -- seasoned and braised -- to customers at an event hall on May 13, according to postings on his Twitter account and local police.


Diners paid 20,000 yen ($250) for the plate with a portion of genitals. Pictures published on a website appeared to show the meal came complete with mushrooms and a parsley garnish.


The painter, who is reportedly 22, said on Twitter the organ had been removed by a physician and certified to be free of infections.


The meal was prepared under the supervision of a certified cook and diners were required to sign a waiver indemnifying Sugiyama and event organisers.


In May 18 tweets, the artist said steps were taken so the act met all relevant laws, including a ban on organ sales, processing of medical waste and even food sanitation requirements.


"I receive questions from some women and men... asking 'Will there be a next time? Please host it again.' But there is only one set of male organ," he tweeted on May 16.


"Unfortunately, I have no plan for the next time."


Sugiyama, who considers himself "asexual", that is without gender, initially thought about eating the genitals himself, but decided to solicit paying customers to help pay his hospital bills for the surgery.


In an email to AFP, he confirmed the event had taken place and said it was organised to raise awareness about "sexual minorities, x-gender, asexual people". He said he was readying to publish an official account of the day.


Police in Tokyo said they knew of the episode, but added that it had not broken the law as cannibalism was not illegal in Japan.


"We are aware of the case. There was nothing (criminal) to it. It does not violate any detailed rules. There is nothing to take action about," an officer at Suginami police station told AFP.


Read more - 
http://www.france24.com/en/20120525-japanese-man-cooks-serves-own-genitals

RFID Chips Embedded In School Uniforms Keep Track Of Students In Brazil -

RFID Chips Embedded In School Uniforms Keep Track Of Students In Brazil - 




Grade-school students in a northeastern Brazilian city are using uniforms embedded with locator chips that help alert parents if they’re cutting classes, the city’s education secretary said Thursday.


Twenty thousand students in 25 of Vitoria da Conquista’s 213 public schools started using T-shirts with chips earlier this week, secretary Coriolano Moraes said by telephone.


By 2013, all of the city’s 43,000 public school students, aged 4 to 14, will be using the chip-embedded T-shirts, he added.


Radio frequency chips in "intelligent uniforms" let a computer know when children enter school and it sends a text message to their cell phones. Parents are also alerted if kids don’t show up 20 minutes after classes begin with the following message: "Your child has still not arrived at school."


The chips, similar to those used to track pets in many countries, are placed underneath each school’s coat-of-arms or on one of the sleeves below a phrase that says: "Education does not transform the world. Education changes people and people transform the world."


Read more - 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/23/rfid-chips-brazil-students_n_1374886.html

PepsiCo Says It Will Halt Use of Aborted Fetal Cells in its research for enhancing the flavors of its products -

PepsiCo Says It Will Halt Use of Aborted Fetal Cells in its research for enhancing the flavors of its products - 






A pro-life leader has won a victory in her efforts to convince soft-drink manufacturer PepsiCo to stop the use of aborted fetal cells in its research for enhancing the flavors of its products. Debi Vinnedge, executive director of Children of God for Life (COGFL), announced that in late April she had received a letter from Paul Boykas, PepsiCo’s vice president for Global Public Policy, confirming that the company will not allow the use of HEK-293 — a cell line derived from human embryonic kidney — in its partnership with Senomyx, the company with which it had inked a four-year, $30 million contract for flavor research.
As reported last November by The New American, a PepsiCo shareholder had filed a resolution with the Securities and Exchange Commission in an effort halt the company from contracting with Senomyx, which, according to documents collected by Vinnedge, used cell lines derived from aborted babies in its process of producing artificial flavor enhancers. According to a report by LifeNews.com at the time, Pepsi had “ignored concerns and criticism from dozens of pro-life groups and tens of thousands of pro-life people who voiced their opposition to PepsiCo contracting with biotech company Senomyx even after it was found to be testing their food additives using fetal cells from abortions.”
But after a nearly year-long campaign led by COGFL that included a nationwide boycott of PepsiCo products, in late April Boykas sent a letter to Vinnedge assuring her that PepsiCo would not “conduct or fund research — including research performed by third parties — that utilizes any human tissue or cell lines derived from embryos or fetuses.” Boykas also assured Vinnedge that “Senomyx does not use HEK cells or any other tissues or cell lines derived from human embryos or fetuses for research performed on behalf of PepsiCo.”
In response to the letter, Vinnedge said that she was “absolutely thrilled with PepsiCo’s decision. They have listened to their customers and have made both a wise and profound statement of corporate integrity that deserves the utmost respect, admiration, and support of the public.”
Vinnedge said that she had spoken personally with Boykas, who told her that in the process of internal discussions on the issue, company officials had recognized that it was not in PepsiCo’s best interest to continue a policy that could hurt customer relations. “We took the matter very seriously,” Vinnedge quoted Boykas as saying. “We have an official statement on Responsible Research and we intend to live by that policy.”
The policy, Vinnedge explained, “precludes any research by PepsiCo or third parties they fund from using human tissue or cell lines derived from embryos or fetuses.”
News of PepsiCo’s decision reverberated through the pro-life community. “We are grateful to PepsiCo, and especially to all those who sent a loud and clear message to the management of this company,” said Brad Mattes of Life Issues Institute, one of the over 30 groups that joined in the efforts to persuade PepsiCo to change its policy. He added that “there are moral cell lines Senomyx can and should be using — not just for PepsiCo research but for all their customers.” Vinnedge noted that such usable cell lines could easily come from animals, insects, or even non-fetal human cells that express the “G protein” relevant for taste receptors.


Read more -
http://thenewamerican.com/culture/faith-and-morals/item/11480-pepsi-says-it-will-halt-use-of-aborted-fetal-cells-in-flavor-research

Public restrooms in Beijing must contain no more than two Flies per stall -

Public restrooms in Beijing must contain no more than two Flies per stall - 


Public restrooms in Beijing must contain no more than two flies per stall, according to a bizarre new directive issued to washroom attendants.
The Beijing Municipal Commission of City Administration and Environment issued the rule Monday as a "new standard for public toilet management," the Beijing News reported.
Xie Guomin, the official in charge of the initiative, told the newspaper that the two-fly rule was not compulsory, but was a new benchmark to improve the Chinese capital's notoriously unpleasant public restrooms.
Online critics pounced on the new initiative, questioning how officials planned to enforce it and whether inspectors would actually visit the restrooms to count the number of insects per stall.
Xie said, "We will not actually count fly numbers. The regulation is specific and quantified, but the inspection methodology will be flexible."




Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/05/23/beijing-sets-two-fly-rule-for-public-restrooms/?test=latestnews

Man divorces over wife's 550 house cats... -

Man divorces over wife's 550 house cats... - 




A man from southern Israel divorced his wife this week because she had brought 550 cats into their home.


The husband, apparently not a cat lover, told the Rabbinical Court in Beersheba that he was unable to sleep in his bedroom because the surface of the marital bed was constantly covered with cats who refused to lie on the floor.


The man, in his divorce request, complained that the cats also blocked his access to the bathroom and did not allow him to prepare meals in the kitchen, the Hebrew daily Maariv reported Wednesday. When he sat to eat, cats jumped onto the table and stole his food.


The couple attempted reconciliation at the behest of the rabbinical court. The wife, however, was unable to part from her cats… and preferred to part from her husband.


Read more - 
http://www.timesofisrael.com/couple-divorces-over-550-house-cats/

Fore! Errant golf ball knocks out Motorcyclist's teeth -

Fore! Errant golf ball knocks out Motorcyclist's teeth - 


An errant golf ball from the 14th hole on Murfreesboro’s Indian Hills Golf Course knocked a motorcyclist’s teeth out as she and her husband rode blissfully along South Church Street.-


A man teeing off at the 14th over the weekend hooked his shot, watched the ball disappear and then heard screams, according to a Murfreesboro Police Department incident report. He followed the scream to find a woman clutching her bloody mouth.


Her husband told police that they were riding their motorcycles when he saw the ball bounce across the road and near her motorcycle. There, it careened into her face. She was able to avoid wrecking her bike, but the ball knocked out “several” teeth, the report said. She was taken to Middle Tennessee Medical Center for treatment.


An officer scoured the area for the offending golf ball and found multiple potential culprits, but, alas, he wrote, “none of which had blood on them.”


Read more - 
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20120523/NEWS03/305230113/2275/RSS05

Flashing headlights to warn of speedtrap protected under US Constitution... -

Flashing headlights to warn of speedtrap protected under US Constitution... - 


A judge in Sanford ruled Tuesday that a Lake Mary man was lawfully exercising his First Amendment rights when he flashed his headlights to warn neighbors that a deputy had set up a speed trap nearby.


That decision is another victory for Ryan Kintner, 25, who sued theSeminole County Sheriff's Officelast year, accusing it of misconstruing a state law and violating his civil rights, principally his right to free speech.



He was ticketed Aug. 10 by a Seminole County deputy, but Kintner alleges the officer misapplied a state law designed to ban motorists from flashing after-market emergency lights.


Circuit Judge Alan Dickey earlier ruled that that state law does not apply to people who did what Kintner did, use his headlights to communicate.


On Tuesday the judge went a step further, saying people who flash their headlights to communicate are engaging in behavior protected by the U.S. Constitution.


"He felt the police specificially went out of their way to silence Mr. Kintner and that it was clearly a violation of his First Amendment free speech rights," said his attorney, J. Marcus Jones of Oviedo.


Jones has filed a similar but much broader suit in Tallahassee against the Florida Highway Patrol.


A hearing in that case is scheduled next month.


"This stuff is fun," Jones said after Tuesday's hearing.


Each suit asked that police agencies be ordered to halt writing those tickets. The highway patrol stopped voluntarily, awaiting the outcome of the suit. So have theSeminole County Sheriff's Officeand other agencies.


In addition to Kintner's civil suit against the sheriff's office, he also is fighting the ticket. It is still pending in county court in Sanford.


The officer also ticketed him for running a stop sign, saying Kintner had pulled beyond a stop bar before coming to a complete halt.


In an interview in August, shortly after filing suit, Kintner said, "I felt an injustice was being done. … I have nothing against officers … keeping speeding down, but when you cross a line and get into free speech, I feel it's gone too far."


According to his suit, Kintner was home Aug. 10 when he saw a deputy park along a street and pull out his radar gun. Kintner then got in his car, drove a couple of blocks away, parked and pointed his vehicle at oncoming traffic and began flashing his lights.


He was ticketed a short time later.


Read more - 
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-05-22/news/os-flashing-headlights-ruling-20120522_1_ryan-kintner-free-speech-headlights

Dallas Texas Pizza Chain Giving Away Free Pizza For Ordering In Spanish... -

Dallas Texas Pizza Chain Giving Away Free Pizza For Ordering In Spanish... - 






A local pizza chain that made waves in 2007 for accepting Mexican Pesos for payment has come up with a new way to generate some buzz for itself, offering free pizza to anyone who orders in Spanish.


Dallas-based Pizza Patron will be offering free pizza on June 5 from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. to anyone who places their order in Spanish.


The promotion was announced in a company press release as a way to honor the “positive force of change immigrants have made in communities throughout America.”


The company is calling the promotion Pizza Por Favor.


Pizza Patron has over 100 locations nationwide.


Read more - 
http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2012/05/22/dallas-pizza-chain-giving-free-pizza-for-ordering-in-spanish/

32,000-Year-Old Plant Reborn From Ancient Fruit Found In Siberian Ice - oldest viable multicellular living organism -

32,000-Year-Old Plant Reborn From Ancient Fruit Found In Siberian Ice - oldest viable multicellular living organism - 




Researchers in Russia have revived a fertile plant from the remains of 32,000-year-old fruit that was found buried within the fossilized burrows of ancient squirrels deep in the Siberian ice.
The resurrected plant, from an era of woolly mammoths and saber-tooth cats, is the oldest viable multicellular living organism, according to the study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It is also the first plant returned to life from permafrost conditions, researchers said.
Enlarge image 
A narrow-leaf campion, revived from the remains of 32,000-year-old fruit that was found buried within the fossilized burrows of ancient squirrels deep in the Siberian ice. Photographer: Svetlana Yashina via Bloomberg
The discovery raises the possibility of reviving other frozen organisms with prehistoric gene pools, researchers said. Using a horticulture technique called micropropagation, researchers grew the plant from fruit tissue in a test tube of nutrients. The ones that grew roots were transferred into pots with soil and light, where they developed flowers and seeds.
“There is abundant permafrost in northern Alaska and Canada,” said Buford Price, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who edited the paper, in an e-mail. Finding an organism that could produce a plant with dark green leaves and small white flowers shows the benefit of pursuing goals that seem impossible, he said.
Price said he expects the researchers to “get increased funding levels to expand this work, going deeper and looking at other likely locations of animal burrows where plants were stashed.”
The fruit was found preserved 124 feet (38 meters) deep in permafrost, ice at below-freezing temperatures that hadn’t melted or been disturbed since the late Pleistocene epoch. The ancient burrows can store as many as 800,000 seeds, the report said.


Read more -
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-20/32-000-year-old-plant-reborn-from-ancient-fruit-found-in-siberian-ice.html?cmpid=otbrn.sustain.story

Google Chrome surpassed Internet Explorer last week as the world’s most used Web browser -

Google Chrome surpassed Internet Explorer last week as the world’s most used Web browser - 




Google Chrome surpassed Internet Explorer last week as the world’s most used Web browser, according to a statistic released Monday.


The Google Web browser received more usage than Microsoft’s browser during the week of May 14 to May 20, marking the first time Chrome has received the highest traffic for a full seven days.


Chrome is now ahead of Internet Explorer, with Firefox in third place and Apple’s Safari a distant fourth, according to the website StatCounter.


Google would not address the statistic from StatCounter directly, but the company did put out a statement.


“It’s great to see more and more people around the world experiencing the speed, simplicity and security of Chrome,” a spokesperson for the company said in an email. “We continue to remain focused on building a better browsing experience so that people can enjoy a better web.”


But while Chrome is finally No. 1 worldwide, there are still certain regions on the planet where Internet Explorer holds the title.


In the United States, Chrome was still in second place, and that held true to a dramatic degree in some countries like Japan and China, as noted by The Verge.


However, the opposite held true in other countries and regions. In India, Chrome is the most used while Internet Explorer falls to third place, and in South America, Chrome brings in almost half of all Web traffic.


All in all, this is good news for Google because while browsers themselves do not make money, ad clicks from their search queries do. With more people using Chrome now, Google can rest assured its search engine is the default for most Web surfers.


Read more -
http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1182385--google-chrome-becomes-most-used-web-browser

Does Facebook Wreck Marriages? - 1 in 3 divorce filings contain word 'FACEBOOK'... -

Does Facebook Wreck Marriages? - 1 in 3 divorce filings contain word 'FACEBOOK'... - 




Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg changed his status to “married” Saturday and received over one million “likes” from his followers. But the site he founded isn’t always so marriage-friendly.  In fact, lawyers say the social network contributes to an increasing number of marriage breakups.




More than a third of divorce filings last year contained the word Facebook, according to a U.K. survey by Divorce Online, a  legal services firm. And over 80% of U.S. divorce attorneys say they’ve seen a rise in the number of cases using social networking, according to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. “I see Facebook issues breaking up marriages all the time,” says Gary Traystman, a divorce attorney in New London, Conn. Of the 15 cases he handles per year where computer history, texts and emails are admitted as evidence, 60% exclusively involve Facebook.


“Affairs happen with a lightning speed on Facebook,” says K. Jason Krafsky, who authored the book “Facebook and Your Marriage” with his wife Kelli. In the real world, he says, office romances and out-of-town trysts can take months or even years to develop. “On Facebook,” he says, “they happen in just a few clicks.” The social network is different from most social networks or dating sites in that it both re-connects old flames and allows people to “friend” someone they may only met once in passing. “It puts temptation in the path of people who would never in a million years risk having an affair,” he says. Facebook declined to comment.



Even when extra-marital affairs develop with no help from Facebook, experts say the site provides a deceptively comfortable forum for people to let off steam about their lives and inadvertently arouse the suspicions of spouses. “The difference with Facebook is it feels safe, innocent and private,” says Randy Kessler, an Atlanta, Ga.-based lawyer and current chair of the family law section of the American Bar Association. (See Facebook and Divorce Discussed in WSJ.) “People put an enormous amount of incriminating stuff out there voluntarily.” It could be something as innocuous as a check-in at a restaurant, he says, or a photograph posted online.


When couples do end up in divorce court, lawyers say Facebook posts are used to determine alimony and child custody. Last year, a superior district court judge in Connecticut ordered a divorcing couple to hand over the passwords of their respective Facebook to the other’s lawyers. Kessler says it’s an extremely useful vehicle to gather evidence. “It helps me cross-examine a witness,” he says. Any pattern of behavior that’s recorded on Facebook relating to parenting skills, excessive partying or even disparaging remarks about a spouse that violates a court order could be admissible in court. Of course, it’s not Facebook’s fault it’s being dragged through divorce court, he says, “It’s the people who use it.”


Read more - 
http://blogs.smartmoney.com/advice/2012/05/21/does-facebook-wreck-marriages/

Graphic film on female sex tourists cheered in Cannes - European women sex tourists and African gigolos -

Graphic film on female sex tourists cheered in Cannes - European women sex tourists and African gigolos - 




A graphic, unflinching look at the delicate interplay of desire, money and power among European women sex tourists and African gigolos hit the screen yesterday in the Cannes contender "Paradise: Love".
Austrian director Ulrich Seidl, who scandalised cinema's top international showcase five years ago with another take on rich and poor and the sex trade, "Import/Export", this time turns his camera on women as the consumers.
"Paradise: Love" stars Margarethe Tiesel as Teresa, a 50-year-old Viennese single mother of an insolent teenage daughter who needs a break from it all, in a breakout performance cheered by audiences here.
She sets off alone to the white sandy coast of eastern Kenya where she falls in with a group of "sugar mamas", fellow middle-aged women who feel neglected at home and seek the attention of much younger local men in exchange for cash.
"It is about female loneliness that takes hold when you reach a certain age and no longer look like someone from an advert," Tiesel told reporters.
"The exploited begin to exploit in a place where they have power. I don't judge these women, I understand them and I understand completely what they struggle with."
Tiesel, an accomplished stage actress in her first major film role, appears nude through much of the picture and has various on-screen couplings with Kenyan "beach boys" that leave little to the imagination.
She said her faith in Seidl as a director gave her the confidence to expose herself to such an extent.
"Ulrich told me from the beginning, 'Nothing will happen that you don't want to happen, Frau Tiesel'," she said.
Teresa begins tentatively at first, breaking off a tryst with an insistent lover when he goes too fast for her.
But she soon meets Munga (Peter Kuzungu), a dreadlocked charmer and a willing student in the ways of Western seduction.
However as their affair continues, his demands for money become more frequent as he describes the plight of his poor "sister" and her baby.
When Teresa finds out the woman is actually his wife, she flies into a jealous rage and beats him in front of the other guests on the hotel's palm-lined beach.
Duped and disappointed, she steels herself to ferociously pursue beach boys with little regard for their dignity, or her own.
Seidl, one of 22 directors competing for the top prize at Cannes this year -- all of them men, said many Western women were looking for more than a holiday fling, a key difference to male sex tourism in developing countries.




Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/world/graphic-film-on-female-sex-tourists-cheered-in-cannes/story-e6frfkui-1226360720257