Bloomberg: ‘There’s a huge run on physical gold right now.’ -

Bloomberg: ‘There’s a huge run on physical gold right now.’ - 



Bloomberg News television let Mihir Dange, co-founder of commodity trading firm Grafite Capital, remark that his company bought physical gold eight weeks ago but still hasn’t gotten delivery yet. Dange says “there’s a huge run on physical now.” Dange’s comment begins at the 1:30 mark in the video:


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Bloomberg

Should You Be Able to Buy Food Directly From Farmers? The US Government Doesn’t Think So -

Should You Be Able to Buy Food Directly From Farmers? The US Government Doesn’t Think So - 



This would seem to embody the USDA’s advisory, “Know your farmer, know your food,” right? Not exactly.

For the USDA and its sister food regulator, the FDA, there’s a problem: many of the farmers are distributing the food via private contracts like herd shares and leasing arrangements, which fall outside the regulatory system of state and local retail licenses and inspections that govern public food sales.

In response, federal and state regulators are seeking legal sanctions against farmers in Maine, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and California, among others. These sanctions include injunctions, fines, and even prison sentences. Food sold by unlicensed and uninspected farmers is potentially dangerous say the regulators, since it can carry pathogens like salmonella, campylobacter, and E.coli O157:H7, leading to mild or even serious illness.

Most recently, Wisconsin’s attorney general appointed a special prosecutor to file criminal misdemeanor charges against an Amish farmer for alleged failure to have retail and dairy licenses, and the proceedings turned into a high-profile jury trial in late May that highlighted the depth of conflict: following five days of intense proceedings, the 12-person jury acquitted the farmer, Vernon Hershberger, on all the licensing charges, while convicting him of violating a 2010 holding order on his food, which he had publicly admitted.

Why are hard-working normally law-abiding farmers aligning with urban and suburban consumers to flaunt well-established food safety regulations and statutes? Why are parents, who want only the best for their children, seeking out food that regulators say could be dangerous? And, why are regulators and prosecutors feeling so threatened by this trend?
Members of these private food groups often buy from local farmers because they want food from animals that are treated humanely, allowed to roam on pasture, and not treated with antibiotics. “I really want food that is full of nutrients and the animals to be happy and content,” says Jenny DeLoney, a Madison, WI, mother of three young children who buys from Hershberger.

To these individuals, many of whom are parents, safety means not only food free of pathogens, but food free of pesticides, antibiotic residues, and excessive processing. It means food created the old-fashioned way—from animals allowed to eat grass instead of feed made from genetically modified (GMO) grains—and sold the old-fashioned way, privately by the farmer to the consumer, who is free to visit the farm and see the animals. Many of these consumers have viewed the secretly-made videos of downer cows being prodded into slaughterhouses and chickens so crammed into coops they can barely breathe.

These consumers are clearly interpreting “safety” differently than the regulators. Some of these consumers are going further than claiming contract rights—they are pushing their towns and cities to legitimize private farmer-consumer arrangements. In Maine, residents of ten coastal towns have approved so-called “food sovereignty” ordinances that legalize unregulated food sales; towns in other states, including Massachusetts and Vermont, and as far away as Santa Cruz, CA, have passed similar ordinances.

Read more - 

http://www.wakingtimes.com/2013/08/12/should-you-be-able-to-buy-food-directly-from-farmers-regulators-do-not-think-so/

GONER5: The word you don’t want to see on your airline ticket -

GONER5: The word you don’t want to see on your airline ticket - 



Delta Air Lines had all the odds not in their favour: a random computer generated code that spelled out GONER5 and a customer who just happened to be a bestselling author.
Kathryn Stockett posted a picture of her code, actually GONER5, with the message: “Dear Delta Air Lines, I know we've been through some hard times together but is this really my conf number?”
A second prod (“Delta, please”) kicked their customer service apology gear into high on Friday, the morning after her tweet.
“We are terribly sorry for the combination of letters used for your itinerary,” the twitter site @DeltaAssist replied.
Then an explanation: “The confirmation numbers are randomly generated. We will add this to a list of banned alphanumeric combinations.”
Delta also changed the gloomy confirmation code for the author of the bestselling The Help.

Read more - 

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/2013/08/13/goner5_the_word_you_dont_want_to_see_on_your_airline_ticket.html

Botched Spanish fresco restoration: From laughingstock to cash cow -

Botched Spanish fresco restoration: From laughingstock to cash cow - 



A year ago, Cecilia Gimenez’s botched attempt to restore a fresco of Christ inspired ridicule and references to monkeys. Now, the 81-year-old Spanish artist is having the last laugh.
Botched fresco restoration: The lesson to learn
The disfigured fresco has drawn more than 40,000 visitors and raised more than 50,000 euros ($66,285) for a local charity in the town of Borja since gaining worldwide attention. It has spurred the town to put the likeness on merchandise it hopes will sell for years to come. And Gimenez has even had her own art exhibit, with two dozen of her other works showing through Aug. 24 in the town of 5,000.
Gimenez and a local council are to sign a deal next week to share profits from merchandise featuring the image, with the artist getting 49 per cent and the council the rest, said councillor Juan Maria Ojeda, who listed the tourism and income figures.
The turnaround is apparently quite the relief for the Spanish retiree, who was overwhelmed by the attention a year ago.
“Now it seems like everyone’s happy,” local paper Heraldo de Aragon quoted the once-media shy Gimenez as saying in Sunday’s edition. “I’m grateful that things have quieted down.”
The fresco originally depicted Christ with a crown of thorns in a style known as “Ecce Homo” (Behold the Man). The church painting was for decades a little-known piece of religious art by a minor Spanish artist. It had remained in peaceful obscurity in the Misericordia sanctuary since it was painted in 1930.
That was until Gimenez, a longtime devotee of the work, decided it needed some attention because it was flaking due to the damp church air. Her attempt didn’t go so well, and some dubbed Gimenez’s retouching of it “Ecce Mono” — Behold the Monkey.
But soon the retouched version grew popular. The image started appearing — without authorization — on T-shirts and cellphone covers, coffee mugs and wine labels. People arrived in Borja asking to see the painting.
The council started charging an entrance fee of 1 euro ($1.30), giving the money to the Sancti Spiritus charitable foundation, which used the windfall to help pay bills at a care home for 60 elderly people. The council also got lawyers to establish copyright and draw up a merchandising agreement which will see the image put on plates, postcards and cigarette lighters, among other items.

Read more - 

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/08/13/botched_spanish_fresco_restoration_from_laughing_stock_to_cash_cow.html#

Bra sizes of female Detroit cops mistakenly emailed to all officers... -

Bra sizes of female Detroit cops mistakenly emailed to all officers... - 



A man's bullet proof vest looks the same as a woman's body armor on the outside. Of course, the woman's is contoured to fit her curves.

However, when several female officers with the Detroit Police Department provided their height, weight and bra cup sizes, they never imagined a good portion of the rank-and-file at DPD would see it.

"On the third page, the females were listed. Unfortunately and embarrassingly, the cup sizes of the females were listed on that third page, and it was really just a clerical error," said Assistant Chief James White.

Police sources said about three weeks ago, Commander Dwayne Love was asked to notify the officers that their bullet proof vests were ready to be picked up. So he forwarded an email to the commanders, who then forwarded it to the supervisors, who then forwarded it to the officers.

White claimed Love didn't know the weight, height and bra cup sizes of the women were included on the attached Excel spreadsheet until it was too late.

"Conscientious, very hard working command officer. However, it's an embarrassing situation, and I'm going to be addressing the issue formally with him over the next couple weeks," White said.

"Once we complete our investigation, there will be corrective action."

We have learned several female officers, who say they have faced ridicule from fellow officers, with the help of their union are filing two grievances against the department and one complaint with EOC. Even if Love made an innocent mistake, the damage they feel has already been done.

White said on Thursday he and Chief Craig plan to meet with the female officers impacted by this to apologize and assure them that it will never happen again.

Read more: -

http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/story/23118642/bra-sizes-of-female-detroit-cops-mistakenly-emailed-to-officers

When It Comes To Internet Porn, The US Is Firmly Ahead Of Everyone -

When It Comes To Internet Porn, The US Is Firmly Ahead Of Everyone - 



While there are a fair-share of descriptive statistics that show the USA is no longer the "Number 1" that so many believe it to be; Pando Daily put together the following infographic that reveals the Top Ten nations and Top Twenty states that serve up the most illicit content... and the winner is U-S-A! 66% of the porn hosted in the US comes from California and interestingly only 0.62% of all porn sites use the ".xxx" domain name. Of course, hard numbers are tough to come by, but as ExtremeTech illustrates, Xvideos - the largest porn site on the web - gets a stunning 4.4 billion page-views per month - 3x the size of CNN or ESPN. Ironically, the biggest difference is 'duration' - typical news sites are visited for 3 to 6 minutes; while the average time spent on a porn site is between 15 and 20 minutes... Overall, porn websites are estimated to receive a whopping 30% of total internet traffic around the world.

Read more -

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-08-12/when-it-comes-internet-porn-us-firmly-ahead-everyone

DC Speeding Ticket Camera Company Is Doctoring Evidence Photos -

DC Speeding Ticket Camera Company Is Doctoring Evidence Photos - 



Nothing feels worse than getting a speeding ticket in the mail. What. The. Truck. As if they weren't bad enough as-is, a report from the Washington DC metropolitan area suggests that the cameras used to catch you might not be playing by the rules. In fact, the camera contractors might be fudging the evidence to make sure you can't challenge the tickets.

Driving politics website (yep!) The Newspaper reports that DC camera contractor American Traffic Solutions has started cropping photos and repositioning cameras to make the citations issued as a result of photo evidence harder to challenge in court. A court recently ruled that if any additional vehicles are visible in a gotcha photo, it can be questioned.

Cropping photos and moving cameras doesn't totally eliminate multiple cars in one frame, but it does cut down on them dramatically. What's more, the camera repositioning makes it impossible to see the lines drawn on the side of the road, which are designed to act as a secondary check against the radar.

Read more -

http://gizmodo.com/a-speeding-ticket-camera-company-is-doctoring-evidence-1056921914

REPORT: Dalai Lama's website attacking visitors... -

REPORT: Dalai Lama's website attacking visitors... - 



A prominent computer security firm has warned that the Dalai Lama's Chinese-language website has been compromised with malicious software that is infecting computers of visitors with software that could be used for spying on its visitors.

Kaspersky Lab researcher Kurt Baumgartner told Reuters that he is advising web surfers to stay away from the Chinese-language site of the Central Tibetan Administration's site until the organization fixes the bug.

He said he believes the group behind the campaign was also behind previous breaches on the site that have gone unreported as well as attacks on websites belonging to groups that focus on human rights in Asia.

Officials with the Office of Tibet in New York could not be reached for comment. That office houses the Dalai Lama's official representative to the United States.

Baumgartner said that the Chinese-language site of the Central Tibetan Administration, which is the official organ of the Dalai Lama's government in exile, has been under constant attack from one group of hackers since 2011, though breaches have been quietly identified and repaired before garnering public attention.

"They have been trying repeatedly to find vulnerabilities in the site," he said.

He said that it is safe to visit the group's English and Tibetan sites.

He said he believes the same group of attackers has repeatedly infected the site with malicious software that automatically drops viruses on computers running Microsoft Corp's Windows and Apple Inc's Mac operating systems. They infect machines by exploiting security bugs in Oracle Corp's Java software.

That gives them "back doors" into those computers. "This is the initial foothold. From there they can download arbitrary files and execute them on the system," Baumgartner said.

An Oracle spokeswoman had no immediate comment.

Read more -

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/12/us-tibet-cyberattack-idUSBRE97B0QU20130812

SWAT Team Raid Sustainable Organic Co-Op For Drugs, Find None, Force Them To Mow Their Lawn -

SWAT Team Raid Sustainable Organic Co-Op For Drugs, Find None, Force Them To Mow Their Lawn - 



According to a press release from a small sustainable organic co-op called 'The Garden of Eden' out of Arlington, Texas, they were surveilled by unmanned police drones and police helicopters in the days prior to being raided by a SWAT team for supposedly growing marijuana. A group of over a dozen police and a heavily armed SWAT team held those present on site at gunpoint and handcuffed them while they searched their property. No marijuana was found, but the cops forced them to bring their property "up to code," by among other things, forcing them to "mow their grass" and uproot their blackberries while they stood watch.

At around seven thirty last Friday morning, inhabitants of The Garden of Eden, a small Intentional Community based on Sustainability, were awakened by a SWAT raid conducted by the City of Arlington for suspicion of being a full fledged marijuana growth and trafficking operation. Ultimately only a single arrest was made based on unrelated outstanding traffic violations, a handful of citations were given for city code violations, and zero drug related violations were found.

The entire operation lasted about 10 hours and involved many dozens of city officials, SWAT team, police officers and code compliance employees, and numerous official vehicles including dozens of police cars and several specialized vehicular equipment that was involved in the “abatement” operation. Witnesses say that there were helicopters and unmanned flying drones circling the property in the days prior to the raid that are presumed to have been a part of the intelligence gathering. The combined expenses for the raid itself and the collection of information leading up to the fruitless raid are estimated in the tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars. 

All 8 adults present in the house were initially handcuffed at the gunpoint of heavily armed SWAT officers, including the mother of a 22 month old and a two week old baby who was separated from her children during the raid. The police enforced activity on the day of the raid included mowing the grass, the forcible destruction of both wild and cultivated plants like blackberries, lamb’s quarters and okra, and the removal of other varied materials from around the premises such as pallets, tires and cardboard that the Community members say they had collected for use in sustainability projects. No marijuana or other drugs were found on site and the inhabitants of the premises were all unarmed. 

After several hours and many requests from the community members, the City Police Officers finally produced two warrants. The first was a Search Warrant for a suspected marijuana growth and distribution operation purportedly being concealed on the premises. There was also an Inspection & Abatement Warrant for code compliance violations such as tall grass and storage in the yard, an issue that the City of Arlington and The Garden of Eden have been disputing since February of this year. The marijuana warrant was issued based on an unsubstantiated claim by an Arlington City Police Officer of possession of marijuana by one of the community members for which there is no police record. Garden of Eden community members also say they have a series of documents showing that their dispute with the City of Arlington over the code compliance violations had already been addressed and settled. 

Landowner Shellie Smith states that she has been requesting a peaceful and honorable resolution since the onset of the dispute in February, requesting the aid of the City Manager Trey Yelverton, Sheriff Dee Anderson and Mayor Robert Cluck, but has received no response in the matter. Ms. Smith says “the City codes are in violation of our natural and Constitutional rights to live freely while causing damage to no one, and since there is no damaged party, there has been no crime committed on our part. Rather, the City of Arlington has trespassed and committed robbery against us, amongst other crimes, and will be held accountable in a court of law in due time. We have been targeted by the system because we are showing people how to live without it. We are growing more than just tomatoes here, we are growing the consciousness that will allow people to live freely and sustainably, and the system doesn’t want that to be known.” 

Read more - 

http://www.blacklistednews.com/SWAT_Team_Raid_Sustainable_Organic_Co-Op_For_Drugs%2C_Find_None%2C_Force_Them_To_Mow_Their_Lawn/28033/0/0/0/Y/M.html

Is your child addicted to screens? - 1 day without gadgets- felt lost and lonely, didn’t know what to do with time -

Is your child addicted to screens? - 1 day without gadgets- felt lost and lonely, didn’t know what to do with time - 



Let me state the obvious here and suggest that at this precise moment, you are probably staring at a screen of some sort. We all do it anywhere from several to several hundred times a day. Studies have shown that all this technology can become addictive if we let it. And our children are growing up in a world that normalizes that addiction.
Gadgets such as iPhones, Kindles and laptops have barely been in our lives for a decade, but already it seems as though many of us are addicted to them. And if you think you check your phone or iPad frequently, you should know that your teen is probably checking it even more.
A new study has found that the majority of kids spend as much as 75 per cent of their days staring at one screen or another. That means that kids go right from phones to iPads to TVs to computers each day with little break in between. And the only nature they are probably seeing is on the flip side of a screen.

Not surprisingly, when efforts are made to limit all of that time, kids exhibit symptoms of withdrawal and depression just as strong — if not stronger — than those associated with drugs or alcohol.
The International Center for Media & the Public Agenda (ICMPA) recently asked 1,000 students in 10 countries on five continents to quit using technology and media for just one day. Just one. At the end of that 24-hour period, they asked the kids how they felt. Here’s what they learned:
Students in the study repeatedly used the term “addiction” when describing their dependence on media. One student from the USA noted: “I was itching, like a crackhead, because I could not use my phone.”
Many of the students simply could not complete the task, giving in to their gadgets before the 24 hours had passed.
Most students said they felt lost, alone and lonely without connecting to their gadgets.
The majority of students responded that they had no idea what to do with their time if they weren’t checking their gadgets.
Students said they missed the source of connection, security and comfort they received from their gadgets, with one U.S. student noting, “My phone is my only source of comfort.”
Pretty scary, huh? How do you think your child would do for 24 hours without her gadgets? How would you do? It’s worth finding out. And most importantly, if you do convince your child to step away from the screen for a day, you should do the same.

Read more - 
http://www.thestar.com/life/2013/08/12/is_your_child_addicted_to_screens.html