Amesj's Odditorium

[alkemical]

http://www.neatorama.com/2012/04/21/...-eating-stars/

Black Holes Grow by Eating Stars

[alkemical]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...#ixzz1shFdun7X

Is this the Loch Ness Monster? Sonar picture shows 'serpent-like creature' at bottom of mysterious loch

New sonar image described by monster hunters as totally unexplained
Experts have ruled out the ‘sighting’ being any other fish, seal or debris


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...#ixzz1stVJMoy7

[alkemical]

http://www.informationweek.com/news/...cing/232900773

U.S. Suspends Controversial Outsourcing Training Program
Funding stopped for USAID program that trained students in the Philippines to work in offshore, English language call centers serving U.S. companies.

[alkemical]

http://www.macworld.co.uk/apple-busi...pe=allchandate

Apple and Google face salary fixing lawsuit
The companies are accused of making agreements not to poach each other's employees

[alkemical]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-0...man-s-car.html

Italian Police Seize $1.5 Billion U.S. Securities From Ma
By Chiara Remondini - Apr 21, 2012 6:06 AM ET

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Italy’s financial police seized U.S. government securities with a nominal value of $1.5 billion from an unidentified man in his 70s, they said in an e-mailed statement.

The police said they also took certificates of deposit for about 1,000 tons of gold, which together with the U.S. bonds are worth more than 3 billion euros ($4 billion). The assets were found in a briefcase in the man’s car in Viterbo near Rome because of their “doubtful origin,” according to the statement.

The man has previous convictions for robbery, extortion, drug trafficking and money laundering, according to the police statement.

The probe, dubbed “Million Dollar,” is being carried out in and around the capital in cooperation with officials from the U.S. Embassy. Police said they’re evaluating “the authenticity, the nature and the origin” of the securities, some of which may date from the 1930s.

To contact the reporter on this story: Chiara Remondini in Milan at cremondini@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kenneth Wong at kwong11@bloomberg.net

[alkemical]

[alkemical]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...rface-sun.html

Did Nasa satellite capture giant UFO surfing the hellish surface of the sun?

Object sems to be alien 'craft' with jointed metal arms
Appeared in footage from Nasa's sun-watching SOHO satellite
UFO-watchers hail find as evidence of alien 'visitors'


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...#ixzz1tFr24hyk




OR - a camera glitch:

http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/...iting-sun.html

[alkemical]

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boing...e-amendme.html

Sneak attack: surprise amendment makes CISPA worse, then it is voted and passed a day ahead of schedule. Congress just deleted the Fourth Amendment


In a sneak attack, the vote on CISPA (America's far-reaching, invasive Internet surveillance bill) was pushed up by a day. The bill was hastily amended, making it much worse, then passed on a rushed vote. Techdirt's Leigh Beadon does a very good job of explaining what just happened to America:

Previously, CISPA allowed the government to use information for "cybersecurity" or "national security" purposes. Those purposes have not been limited or removed. Instead, three more valid uses have been added: investigation and prosecution of cybersecurity crime, protection of individuals, and protection of children. Cybersecurity crime is defined as any crime involving network disruption or hacking, plus any violation of the CFAA.

Basically this means CISPA can no longer be called a cybersecurity bill at all. The government would be able to search information it collects under CISPA for the purposes of investigating American citizens with complete immunity from all privacy protections as long as they can claim someone committed a "cybersecurity crime". Basically it says the 4th Amendment does not apply online, at all. Moreover, the government could do whatever it wants with the data as long as it can claim that someone was in danger of bodily harm, or that children were somehow threatened—again, notwithstanding absolutely any other law that would normally limit the government's power.

Insanity: CISPA Just Got Way Worse, And Then Passed On Rushed Vote

[alkemical]

http://www.pixiq.com/article/connect...-approves-bill

Cops Would Be Liable Arresting Citizens For Recording Under Approved Conn. Bill

The Connecticut state senate approved a bill Thursday that would allow citizens to sue police officers who arrest them for recording in public, apparently the first of its kind in the nation.

As it is now, cops act with reckless immunity knowing the worst that can happen is their municipalties (read: taxpayers) would be responsible for shelling out lawsuits.
Senate Bill 245, which was introduced by Democratic Senator Eric Coleman and approved by a co-partisan margin of 42-11, must now go before the House.

The bill, which would go into effect on October 1, 2012, states the following:

This bill makes peace officers potentially liable for damages for interfering with a person taking a photograph, digital still, or video image of either the officer or a colleague performing his or her job duties. Under the bill, officers cannot be found liable if they reasonably believed that the interference was necessary to (1) lawfully enforce a criminal law or municipal ordinance; (2) protect public safety; (3) preserve the integrity of a crime scene or criminal investigation; (4) safeguard the privacy of a crime victim or other person; or (5) enforce Judicial Branch rules and policies that limit taking photographs, videotaping, or otherwise recording images in branch facilities.

Officers found liable of this offense are entitled, under existing law, to indemnification (repayment) from their state or municipal employer if they were acting within their scope of authority and the conduct was not willful, wanton, or reckless.

Although the bill does include exemptions, opponents, including a police officer, wanted to tack on three more exemptions, according to The Day.

The first, offered by Sen. Kevin Witkos, a sergeant in the Canton Police Department, called for an additional liability exemption if a person intended to “inconvenience or alarm” an officer in the performance of duty.

Witkos said he supported the underlying principle of the bill but wanted to make sure there were safeguards against ill-intentioned videographers who seek to interfere with police.

“I do believe that the public has a right, if they’re not in the way of a police officer doing their job, of filming all they want,” he said.

But Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney, D-New Haven, said the Witkos amendment would create too large a loophole. “It really would render the bill without meaning,” he said.

Looney also noted that interfering with an officer is already a crime and would remain so.

The other failed amendments would have exempted Capitol building police from liability and would have shifted the burden of proof onto the person bringing a lawsuit.

According to the Hartford Courant, the bill was inspired by the 2009 incident in which a priest was arrested for video recording cops inside a store shaking down immigrants, which led to a Department of Justice investigation and the arrest of four officers.

[alkemical]

http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com...etic-field.php

Scientists Stumped By Sun’s Asymmetrically Reversing Magnetic Field

The Sun’s magnetic field is reversing, South becoming North, as it does approximately every 11 years on a cycle, but this time, something even stranger is going on: The North is moving much faster than the South, and space scientists aren’t sure why.

“Right now, there’s an imbalance between the north and the south poles,” Jonathan Cirtain, NASA’s project scientist for a Japanese solar mission called Hinode, in a recent article on NASA’s website. “The north is already in transition, well ahead of the south pole, and we don’t understand why.”

Further, the asymmetrically reversing solar magnetic field could have an effect on Earth, resulting in increased solar flares and the accompanying bursts of radioactive particles called “coronal mass ejections,” or CMEs, that can hit Earth and cause brilliant Northern Lights displays and problematic geomagnetic solar storms, according to NASA scientists.

“This usually leads to a double peak in the sunspot number and CME rate as a function of time,” Nat Gopalswamy, a solar scientist NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., in an email to TPM.

Gopalswamy and his team studied the Sun’s shifting magnetic field from microwave signatures obtained by Japanese radio telescopes and reported their findings in a paper in the Astrophysical Journal on April 9.

Gopalswamy explained that while the Sun’s shifting magnetic poles were first discovered in 1955, the rate at which the North and South wasn’t found to be mismatched until the last few solar cycles.

To be clear, the magnetic field doesn’t just flip, but rather, the Sun essentially sheds its current magnetic field and regrows a new one every 11 years. Currently, the Northern portion of the Sun is further along on this process than its Southern counterpart.

Further, the Sun’s oddly shifting magnetic field affects the Solar System, though it isn’t yet known just how.

“Whether the north pole of the Sun has north or south polarity decides the entry point of galactic cosmic rays into the heliosphere,” Gopalswamy told TPM.

The heliosphere is an enormous magnetic bubble made up of the continual regular ejection of charged particles from the Sun. It stretches beyond Pluto.

[alkemical]

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-0...tibiotics.html

Study first to show transgenerational effect of antibiotics

In a paper published today in Nature's open access journal Scientific Reports, researchers at the University of Nevada, Reno report that male pseudoscorpions treated with the antibiotic tetracycline suffer significantly reduced sperm viability and pass this toxic effect on to their untreated sons. They suggest that a similar effect could occur in humans and other species.

[alkemical]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...ing-human.html

Lonely life of the techno-addict as thousands go up to 48 hours without speaking to another human

Technology-addicts regularly go 48 hours without speaking to anyone in person, a study has found.

A significant three per cent of adults fall into a so-called ‘digitally dominant’ group which will mainly communicate via text, email or video calls.

It suggests technology – from smartphones to iPads – is helping to kill off physical and social interaction among those obsessed with the devices.

[alkemical]

http://www.therecord.com/news/canada...e-hybrid-beast

Bear necessities produce hybrid beast
The northward migration of grizzlies has led to more sightings of “grolar” bears in the Arctic

Hunters from the village of Ulukhaktok, N.W.T., knew there was something different about the polar bear they were stalking but couldn’t put their finger on it.

It was far more aggressive than anything they were used to. They even called off the dog for fear the large white mammal would kill it.

On closer inspection after it was shot and killed, it turned out not to be an ordinary polar bear but one that was a cross between a polar bear and a grizzly, unofficially known as a “grolar bear” and “pizzly.”

“The first hybrid we had ever seen around here a few years ago was pretty nasty. They (hunters) usually stalk the polar bear using a dog, but this bear was so aggressive they couldn’t use a dog on them. It was too dangerous,” Robert Kuptana, who lives in the western Arctic hamlet of about 400 people on Victoria Island, told the Toronto Star Friday.

Over the years, as grizzly bears wandered further north following the caribou herd, the hybrid variety became more common, said the 69-year-old Kuptana. He added that a hunter from the village, Pat Ekpakohak, and his two grandchildren killed three of them just 10 days ago.

“One is pure white, one is partly dark and the other is fairly dark brown and the top part is white,” said Kuptana, who took a picture of the skins.

Polar bear and grizzly habitats overlap in the western Canadian Arctic around the Beaufort Sea. Grizzlies are known to occasionally to go out on the ice in the spring to feed on seals killed by polar bears, according to the Canadian Wildlife Service.

A DNA test conducted by the Wildlife Genetics International in British Columbia on a bear shot and killed by an American hunter in 2006 confirmed it was a hybrid, making it the first documented case in the wild.

[alkemical]

http://scienceworld-frontiers.blogsp...rs-unique.html

Genetic evidence for polar bears unique evolutionary history

[alkemical]

http://popular-archaeology.com/issue...istoric-europe

Human genes provide clues to rise and spread of agriculture in prehistoric Europe.

[alkemical]

http://phys.org/news/2012-04-yellows...t-thought.html

Yellowstone 'super-eruption' less super, more frequent than thought

April 30, 2012

The Yellowstone "super-volcano" is a little less super—but more active—than previously thought.

[alkemical]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/f...re-growth.html


IMF urges authorities to consider debt forgiveness to restore growth
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged governments to consider “bold” interventions to reduce household debt levels and stimulate growth.



http://truedemocracyparty.net/2012/0...d-only-remedy/


Finally serious economists are considering a position I have been maintaining and writing about since the 2008 financial meltdown. Whatever its name— erasure, repudiation, abolishment, cancellation, jubilee—debt forgiveness, will have to eventually emerge forefront in global efforts to solve an ongoing systemic financial crisis.

The US Rothschild Controlled Media (RCM) has completely BLACKED OUT/CENSORED any news about Iceland’s DEBT FORGIVENESS.

If you Google “ICELAND FORGIVES ENTIRE POPULATION OF MORTGAGE DEBT” you will get ‘About 359,000 Results’. Not one of them is a Media Outlet in the US. Not one single Major or Minor news outlet in America has mentioned a single word about this story.

[alkemical]

http://naturalsociety.com/pesticide-...#ixzz1tchN00vZ

Pesticide Exposure Found to Lower Intelligence

[alkemical]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...e-cocaine.html

Power really does corrupt as scientists claim it's as addictive as cocaine

[alkemical]

I called this when Jared Laughner shot up AZ

http://endthelie.com/2012/04/29/u-s-...#axzz1svZLhUSh

[alkemical]

Originally Posted by alkemical

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/f...re-growth.html


IMF urges authorities to consider debt forgiveness to restore growth
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged governments to consider “bold” interventions to reduce household debt levels and stimulate growth.



http://truedemocracyparty.net/2012/0...d-only-remedy/


Finally serious economists are considering a position I have been maintaining and writing about since the 2008 financial meltdown. Whatever its name— erasure, repudiation, abolishment, cancellation, jubilee—debt forgiveness, will have to eventually emerge forefront in global efforts to solve an ongoing systemic financial crisis.

The US Rothschild Controlled Media (RCM) has completely BLACKED OUT/CENSORED any news about Iceland’s DEBT FORGIVENESS.

If you Google “ICELAND FORGIVES ENTIRE POPULATION OF MORTGAGE DEBT” you will get ‘About 359,000 Results’. Not one of them is a Media Outlet in the US. Not one single Major or Minor news outlet in America has mentioned a single word about this story.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-0...ery-story.html
People Vs Markets
Iceland’s approach to dealing with the meltdown has put the needs of its population ahead of the markets at every turn.
Once it became clear back in October 2008 that the island’s banks were beyond saving, the government stepped in, ring-fenced the domestic accounts, and left international creditors in the lurch. The central bank imposed capital controls to halt the ensuing sell-off of the krona and new state-controlled banks were created from the remnants of the lenders that failed.
Activists say the banks should go even further in their debt relief. Andrea J. Olafsdottir, chairman of the Icelandic Homes Coalition, said she doubts the numbers provided by the banks are reliable.
“There are indications that some of the financial institutions in question haven’t lost a penny with the measures that they’ve undertaken,” she said.




Ody has made a major point that Americans need to care more about Americans...maybe we should really look to see what's going on.

[Kaylore]

Originally Posted by alkemical

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...e-cocaine.html

Power really does corrupt as scientists claim it's as addictive as cocaine

This is why I'm Republican.

[alkemical]

http://www.disinfo.com/2012/04/bank-...closure-cases/



Bank Of America Now Suing Itself In Foreclosure Cases

Posted by JacobSloan on April 30, 2012

4501651351_6540d48316_nIn the latest phase of the foreclosure crisis, our nation’s biggest banks have reached a Zen-like state in which they resemble snakes eating their own tails, reports Forbes:

Here’s a sign of just how big and messy the foreclosure problem is: Bank of America has sued itself at least nine times in April.

That’s what lawyer and fraud expert Lynn Szymoniak discovered recently during a search for foreclosure filings in Palm Beach county Florida.”There are likely at least 100 examples of the same thing happening across the state,” Szymoniak says. “The company is literally seeking damages from itself in order to foreclose on the condo owner.”

“We are servicing the first mortgage on behalf of an investor and we own the second mortgage,” said Bank of America spokeswoman Jumana Bauwens [in regards to one case].

[alkemical]

Originally Posted by Kaylore

This is why I'm Republican.

Uhm, ok. Republicans use coke too.

[alkemical]

http://www.disinfo.com/2012/04/did-a...sta-rap-music/

Did A Secret Music Industry Meeting Invent “Gangsta Rap” Music?

If you believe that the CIA pushed crack cocaine into poor black neighborhoods in the inner cities, then you might wanna take a look at this. Ivan posts on Hip Hop Is Read:

This anonymous letter landed in my inbox about a minute ago:

Hello,

After more than 20 years, I’ve finally decided to tell the world what I witnessed in 1991, which I believe was one of the biggest turning point in popular music, and ultimately American society. I have struggled for a long time weighing the pros and cons of making this story public as I was reluctant to implicate the individuals who were present that day. So I’ve simply decided to leave out names and all the details that may risk my personal well being and that of those who were, like me, dragged into something they weren’t ready for.

Between the late 80’s and early 90’s, I was what you may call a “decision maker” with one of the more established company in the music industry. I came from Europe in the early 80’s and quickly established myself in the business. The industry was different back then. Since technology and media weren’t accessible to people like they are today, the industry had more control over the public and had the means to influence them anyway it wanted. This may explain why in early 1991, I was invited to attend a closed door meeting with a small group of music business insiders to discuss rap music’s new direction. Little did I know that we would be asked to participate in one of the most unethical and destructive business practice I’ve ever seen.

The meeting was held at a private residence on the outskirts of Los Angeles. I remember about 25 to 30 people being there, most of them familiar faces. Speaking to those I knew, we joked about the theme of the meeting as many of us did not care for rap music and failed to see the purpose of being invited to a private gathering to discuss its future…

Read More: Hip Hop Is Read