XIAM007 - Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World

Thursday, 26 July 2012

Florida Strip Club hires Sarah Palin look-a-like to lure in Republicans during GOP convention -

Gentlemen’s clubs in the Sunshine State are doubling down for the upcoming GOP convention, including one that will feature a Sarah Palin double to strip off for randy Republicans.
The convention will be held from August 27-30 and will feature speeches from New Jersey Gov Chris Christie, among other Republican headliners.
But after hours, a boom in business is expected in Tampa - especially in the area’s numerous strip clubs.

One of them, Thee Dollhouse in Tampa, is expecting a huge crowd of Republican customers in town for the convention, and has laid down $1million in renovations to make sure its customers are 'comfortable.'

Lookalike: Lisa Ann has starred in more than 200 pornographic films, but is perhaps most famous for her portrayal of Sarah Palin
And in the spirit of the convention, Thee Dollhouse has wrangled a Sarah Palin lookalike to get down and dirty for the clubgoers.
Multiple reports identify the stripper as porn star Lisa Ann, who was famously hired by Hustler to star in a porn film poking fun at the former vice presidential candidate shortly after she was chosen as John McCain’s running mate in 2008.
The result was Who's Nailin' Paylin?, a hardcore caricature of Palin that dropped Mama Grizzly in the middle of all sorts of sex acts.
Ms Ann, 40, - whose real name is Lisa Anne Corpora - has starred in more than 200 pornographic films, including several sequels to Who’s Nailin' Paylin?.
Appearances by Ms Ann at Thee Dollhouse are just one special event planned at strip clubs ahead of the convention.
WFLA-TV reported that another club, 2001 Odyssey, is offering convention attendees the opportunity to videochat with its dancers in the weeks before heading down to Florida.
Don Kleinhans, the owner of 2001 Odyssey, told the station: 'Not only can you see the dancers on the stage and in the dressing room, you can also talk to them in an online chat room.'
But the service does not come cheap, with a $19.95 membership fee along with a $4 a minute chat charge.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2178326/Florida-strip-club-hires-Sarah-Palin-lookalike-Lisa-Ann-strip-Republican-convention.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Does This Aspartame Make My Butt Look Fat?

In April, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published a study linking diet soda consumption to an increased risk of diabetes and heart disease. Nobody blinked or cared because this research was just going to be thrown on the pile of allegedly conflicting studies about the safety of artificial sweeteners, particularly aspartame. This pile is referred to as the “aspartame controversy.”

Aspartame is the artificial sweetener sold under the brand names of Equal and NutraSweet. It is used commonly in diet sodas because it tastes the most like sugar, or at least that is what the people selling it say. Despite all the hype about controversy, there is no aspartame controversy. All of the aspartame-industry-sponsored research consistently concludes aspartame is safe, while the independent studies overwhelmingly find side effects and problems. There is no gray area between the two sides. Every study connected to those who sell it says aspartame is safe while the independent studies find concerns. The controversy is really over whether research funded by special interest groups is valid.

...

Caloric sweeteners like sugar and corn syrup certainly deserve some of the blame. Their consumption increased almost 40 percent between the 50s and 1999, when peak consumption levels reached a pancreas-busting 155 pounds per person per year — or 52 teaspoons of sugar a day. Or one of those rain-barrel-sized drinks they sell with your hexane-laced burger at the drive-through. But that is another story. Since 2000, sugar intake has reduced slightly due to a minor decrease in corn-syrup sweetened soda-slurping.

But the diet drink industry is booming.

The primary non-caloric sweetener used in diet sodas and teas is aspartame. Obviously, aspartame (introduced in 1974) and its buddies are not helping people lose weight because as a society, the more diet soda we consume, the heavier we seem to get. The reason for this phenomenon has been consistently found in independent research. That is, the taste for sweets, whether delivered by sugar or artificial sweeteners, enhances appetite. The only people who seem to think diet sodas help with weight loss are the manufacturers and some registered dietitians (RDs).

Read more -
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kelly-dorfman/aspartame_b_1674707.html?utm_hp_ref=email_share

Library Installs Computer Privacy Screens For More Discreet Porn Viewing... -

In response to complaints about San Francisco Public Library visitors openly viewing explicit content, including pornography, the network has installed plastic screens to block monitors from people nearby, according to a recent New York Times report.

According to The Times, the library plans to post warnings on all computers to remind people to be sensitive to what others might see while they are web surfing.

The watching of such materials in public has increasingly been the focus of debate and legislation as broadband technology becomes more widespread, pitting people who want internet access to be unrestrained against those who feel that controls must be placed on the public viewing of mature materials.

Read more -
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2012/07/25/sf-library-installs-computer-privacy-screens-for-more-discreet-porn-watching/

Wednesday, 25 July 2012

CIA used drug cartel hitman and Blackwater to run assasination unit -

It was one of the biggest secrets of the post-9/11 era: soon after the attacks, President Bush gave the CIA permission to create a top secret assassination unit to find and kill Al Qaeda operatives. The program was kept from Congress for seven years. And when Leon Panetta told legislators about it in 2009, he revealed that the CIA had hired the private security firm Blackwater to help run it. “The move was historic,” says Evan Wright, the two-time National Magazine Award-winning journalist who wrote Generation Kill. “It seems to have marked the first time the U.S. government outsourced a covert assassination service to private enterprise.”

The quote is from his e-book How to Get Away With Murder in America, which goes on to note that “in the past, the CIA was subject to oversight, however tenuous, from the president and Congress,” but that “President Bush’s 2001 executive order severed this line by transferring to the CIA his unique authority to approve assassinations. By removing himself from the decision-making cycle, the president shielded himself — and all elected authority — from responsibility should a mission go wrong or be found illegal. When the CIA transferred the assassination unit to Blackwater, it continued the trend. CIA officers would no longer participate in the agency’s most violent operations, or witness them. If it practiced any oversight at all, the CIA would rely on Blackwater’s self-reporting about missions it conducted. Running operations through Blackwater gave the CIA the power to have people abducted, or killed, with no one in the government being exactly responsible.” None of this is new information, though I imagine that many people reading this item are hearing about it for the first time.

Isn’t that bizarre?

The bulk of Wright’s e-book (full disclosure: I help edit the website of Byliner, publisher of the e-book) tells the story of Enrique Prado, a high-ranking CIA-officer-turned-Blackwater-employee who oversaw assassination units for both the CIA and the contractor. To whom was this awesome responsibility entrusted? According to Wright’s investigation, a federal organized crime squad run out of the Miami-Dade Police Department produced an investigation allegedly tying Prado to seven murders carried out while he worked as a bodyguard for a narco crime boss. At the time, the CIA declared him unavailable for questioning; the investigation was shut down before he was arrested or tried.

Read more -
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/07/the-terrifying-background-of-the-man-who-ran-a-cia-assassination-unit/259856/

No passport, no boarding pass, no ticket, boy, 11, flies to Rome... -

Boy, 11, flies to Rome alone without a passport or boarding pass after 'tail-gating a family'

An 11-year-old boy was allowed to take a flight to Rome on his own without showing a passport or boarding pass, it has been revealed.

Staff at Manchester Airport have been suspended after Liam Corcoran was allowed to pass through five security checks before making his way on to the Jet2.com flight yesterday.
The youngster is thought to have passed through security in Terminal 1 after 'tail-gating' a family of holiday makers.

A spokesman for the airport described the security lapse as an 'extremely serious matter' and said it was being urgently investigated by officials from the airport and airline.
'It is clear that documentation has not been checked correctly at security and the boarding gate,' he said.
'The boy went through full security screening so the safety of passengers and the aircraft was never compromised.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2178565/Airport-lapse-Boy-11-flies-Rome-passport-boarding-pass.html?ITO=1490

Goodyear developing soybean-based Tofu tires -

What do tires and tofu have in common? Besides being soft and mushy, not much. But that’s about to change.
Goodyear is developing a new rubber compound that uses soybean oil instead of petroleum-based products, and it could be on the road in just a few years.
The project, funded in part with a grant from the United Soybean Board, is moving from the lab to Goodyear’s proving grounds in San Angelo, Texas, where it will be evaluated to determine if it’s ready for some prime wheel time.
Mike Kearns, Manager of Global Materials Technology for Goodyear, says that early testing at the factory where it is produced indicates that the compound could increase tire tread life by as much as 10 percent over conventional materials, and that it has been found to improve the dispersion of additives used in modern rubber formulations, such as silica, which could lead to more efficient manufacturing processes.
But the main advantages to switching to locally-sourced soybean oil are sustainability and less pricing volatility compared to the petroleum products currently in use. The United States is the world’s largest producer of both soybeans and soybean oil.
If the testing goes well, Kearns says that Goodyear could begin selling the new tires as early as 2015.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/07/25/goodyear-developing-soybean-based-tire-rubber/?intcmp=features

100 Million Poor People In America And 39 Other Facts About Poverty That Will Blow Your Mind -

100 Million Poor People In America And 39 Other Facts About Poverty That Will Blow Your Mind -
facts about poverty 10 10 Interesting Poverty Facts

Every single day more Americans fall into poverty. This should deeply alarm you no matter what political party you belong to and no matter what your personal economic philosophy is. Right now, approximately 100 million Americans are either “poor” or “near poor”. For a lot of people “poverty” can be a nebulous concept, so let’s define it. The poverty level as defined by the federal government in 2010 was $11,139 for an individual and $22,314 for a family of four. Could you take care of a family of four on less than $2000 a month? Millions upon millions of families are experiencing a tremendous amount of pain in this economy, and no matter what “solutions” we think are correct, the reality is that we all should have compassion on them. Sadly, things are about to get even worse. The next major economic downturn is rapidly approaching, and when it hits the statistics posted below are going to look even more horrendous.

When it comes to poverty, most Americans immediately want to get into debates about tax rates and wealth redistribution and things like that.

But the truth is that they are missing the main point.

The way we slice up the pie is not going to solve our problems, because the pie is constantly getting smaller.

Our economic infrastructure is being absolutely gutted, the U.S. dollar is slowly losing its status as the reserve currency of the world and we are steadily getting poorer as a nation.

Don’t be fooled by the government statistics that show a very small amount of “economic growth”. Those figures do not account for inflation.

After accounting for inflation, our economic growth has actually been negative all the way back into the middle of the last decade.

According to numbers compiled by John Williams of shadowstats.com, our “real GDP” has continually been negative since 2005.

So that means we are getting poorer as a nation.

Meanwhile, we have been piling up astounding amounts of debt.

40 years ago the total amount of debt in the United States (government, business and consumer) was less than 2 trillion dollars.

Today it is nearly 55 trillion dollars.

So we have a massive problem.

Our economic pie is shrinking and millions of Americans have been falling out of the middle class. Meanwhile, we have been piling up staggering amounts of debt in order to maintain our vastly inflated standard of living. As our economic problems get even worse, those trends are going to accelerate even more.

So don’t look down on the poor. You might be joining them a lot sooner than you might think.

The following are 40 facts about poverty in America that will blow your mind….

#1 In the United States today, somewhere around 100 million Americans are considered to be either “poor” or “near poor”.

#2 It is being projected that when the final numbers come out later this year that the U.S. poverty rate will be the highest that it has been in almost 50 years.

#3 Approximately 57 percent of all children in the United States are living in homes that are either considered to be either “low income” or impoverished.

#4 Today, one out of every four workers in the United States brings home wages that are at or below the poverty level.

#5 According to the Wall Street Journal, 49.1 percent of all Americans live in a home where at least one person receives financial benefits from the government. Back in 1983, that number was below 30 percent.

#6 It is projected that about half of all American adults will spend at least some time living below the poverty line before they turn 65.

#7 Today, there are approximately 20.2 million Americans that spend more than half of their incomes on housing. That represents a 46 percent increase from 2001.

#8 During 2010, 2.6 million more Americans fell into poverty. That was the largest increase that we have seen since the U.S. government began keeping statistics on this back in 1959.

#9 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the percentage of “very poor” rose in 300 out of the 360 largest metropolitan areas during 2010.

#10 Since Barack Obama became president, the number of Americans living in poverty has risen by 6 million and the number of Americans on food stamps has risen by 14 million.

#11 Right now, one out of every seven Americans is on food stamps and one out of every four American children is on food stamps.

#12 It is projected that half of all American children will be on food stamps at least once before they turn 18 years of age.

#13 The poverty rate for children living in the United States is 22 percent, although when the new numbers are released in the fall that number is expected to go even higher.

#14 One university study estimates that child poverty costs the U.S. economy 500 billion dollars a year.

#15 Households that are led by a single mother have a 31.6% poverty rate.

#16 In 2010, 42 percent of all single mothers in the United States were on food stamps.

#17 According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, 36.4 percent of all children that live in Philadelphia are living in poverty, 40.1 percent of all children that live in Atlanta are living in poverty, 52.6 percent of all children that live in Cleveland are living in poverty and 53.6 percent of all children that live in Detroit are living in poverty.

#18 Since 2007, the number of children living in poverty in the state of California has increased by 30 percent.

#19 Child homelessness in the United States has risen by 33 percent since 2007.

#20 There are 314 counties in the United States where at least 30% of the children are facing food insecurity.

#21 More than 20 million U.S. children rely on school meal programs to keep from going hungry.

#22 A higher percentage of Americans is living in extreme poverty (6.7 percent) than has ever been measured before.

#23 If you can believe it, 37 percent of all U.S. households that are led by someone under the age of 35 have a net worth of zero or less than zero.

#24 A lot of younger Americans have found that they cannot make it on their own in this economy. Today, approximately25 million American adults are living with their parents.

#25 Today, one out of every six elderly Americans lives below the federal poverty line.

#26 Amazingly, the wealthiest 1 percent of all Americans own more wealth than the bottom 95 percent combined.

#27 The six heirs of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton have a net worth that is roughly equal to the bottom 30 percent of all Americans combined.

#28 At this point, the poorest 50% of all Americans now control just 2.5% of all of the wealth in this country.

#29 Back in 1980, less than 30% of all jobs in the United States were low income jobs. Today, more than 40% of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs.

#30 Right now, the United States actually has a higher percentage of workers doing low wage work than any other major industrialized nation does.

#31 Half of all American workers earn $505 or less per week.

#32 In 1970, 65 percent of all Americans lived in “middle class neighborhoods”. By 2007, only 44 percent of all Americans lived in “middle class neighborhoods”.

#33 Federal housing assistance outlays increased by a whopping 42 percent between 2006 and 2010.

#34 Approximately 50 million Americans do not have any health insurance at all right now.

#35 Back in 1965, only one out of every 50 Americans was on Medicaid. Today, approximately one out of every 6Americans is on Medicaid.

#36 It is being projected that Obamacare will add 16 million more Americans to the Medicaid rolls.

#37 Back in 1990, the federal government accounted for 32 percent of all health care spending in America. Today, that figure is up to 45 percent and it is projected to surpass 50 percent very shortly.

#38 Overall, the amount of money that the federal government gives directly to the American people has risen by 32 percent since Barack Obama entered the White House.

#39 It was recently reported that 1.5 million American families live on less than two dollars a day (before counting government benefits).

#40 The unemployment rate in the U.S. has been above 8 percent for 40 months in a row, and 42 percent of all unemployed Americans have been out of work for at least half a year.

Recently, I wrote a long article about why there will never be enough jobs in the United States ever again.

That means that a whole lot of Americans are not going to be able to take care of themselves.

As our economy gets even worse, there is going to be a tremendous need for more love, compassion and generosity all over the country.

Don’t be afraid to lend a helping hand, because someday you may need one yourself.

Read more -
http://www.blacklistednews.com/100_Million_Poor_People_In_America_And_39_Other_Facts_About_Poverty_That_Will_Blow_Your_Mind/20682/0/38/38/Y/M.html

Monday, 23 July 2012

Former Wells Fargo CEO Richard Kovacevich: 2008 Crash Manufactured – Made Insiders Tremendous Amounts of Money -

Former Wells Fargo CEO Richard Kovacevich: 2008 Crash Manufactured – Made Insiders Tremendous Amounts of Money -

Kovacevich talks about the Fed requiring banks to take bailout funds. The Fed and the government needed this money to be loaned out to increase the money supply. By giving member banks more money, the Fed wanted them to loan it out to the public, which would create even more money. Kovacevich says the that regulators simply failed to do their jobs – no new regulations were needed. TARP was simply a coverup for regulators’ corruption and negligence. Financiers profited tremendously from the market collapse, a collapse that they knew was coming because they saw the enormous leverage and risk lenders were taking.

$78k Bottle of 224 Year Old Cognac Shattered By Clumsy Customer...-

The Coganc, a Clos de Griffier Vieux from 1788, was destroyed after a businessman, who had ordered two glasses of the brandy at £5,050 a measure, asked to look at the bottle.

As the customer stood up, he sent the bottle flying across the club, before it smashed on the floor.

The Cognac was due to feature in the world’s most expensive cocktail, which would have been mixed this week by Salvatore Calabrese in front of judges from Guinness World Records.

Apparently the bottle is not insured because it had already been opened.

Speaking to the Evening Standard after the accident happened at the end of last week, Salvatore said: “We all just froze, then it sunk in. I’ve been heartbroken. Not because of the value of the bottle, but because it is a piece of history that has been lost.”

The bottle had previously been in the cellars of Paris restaurant La Tour d’Argent and was auctioned in late 2009, fetching €25,000, before appearing on the drinks list at the Playboy Club.

Read more -
http://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2012/07/50000-historic-cognac-bottle-shattered/

Canadian Oil and gas producer Nexen has agreed to be acquired by Chinese Oil Company for US $15.1 Billion CASH -

Oil and gas producer Nexen Inc. (TSX: NXY) has agreed to be acquired by China National Offshore Oil Company for US$15.1 billion cash.

The Calgary-based firm will be purchased by CNOOC Ltd. in an all-cash transaction worth $27.50 per Nexen share.

The agreement is a 66 per cent premium over the 20-day weighed volume average of Nexen shares, and a 61 per cent premium on the closing price of its shares on Friday at the New York Stock Exchange.

In pre-market trading, shares (NYSE: NXY) of the company were up $9.50 to US$26.56 on the NYSE.

“This transaction will allow for significant investment in our business and opens the door to new opportunities for our employees,” said Nexen chief executive Kevin Reinhart in a release.

As part of the transaction, CNOOC said it plans to list its shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange. It also intends to have a head office in Calgary to oversee its North and Central American operations.

CNOOC also noted that it intends to keep Nexen’s existing management and staff.

Read more -
http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1230343--nexen-to-be-acquired-by-china-s-cnooc-for-15-1-billion-in-cash