Archive for July, 2010

Dr. Gwen Scott on Morgellon’s

Catherine and News & Commentary,
July 30, 2010 at 9:07 am


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Dr. Gwen Scott with Jeff Rense on Morgellon’s Disease

Also recommended:

Dr. Gwen Scott - Natural Medicine: A Survivor’s Guide

Dr. Gwen Scott, N.D.

Financial Times Says European Banks Lent Their Customer’s Gold to the BIS

Catherine and News & Commentary,
July 30, 2010 at 9:07 am

Although it does not appear until almost the end of this article in the Financial Times, BIS Gold Swaps Mystery Unravelled, the source of the gold provided in the dollar swaps with BIS is coming from customers of about 10 European banks who are holding their gold at the banks in ‘unallocated accounts.’

“The gold used in the swaps came mainly from investors’ deposit accounts at the European commercial banks. Some investors prefer to deposit their gold in so-called “allocated accounts”, which restrict the custodian banks’ ability to use the gold in their market operations by assigning them specific bullion bars. But other investors prefer cheaper “unallocated accounts”, which give banks access to their bullion for their day-to-day operations.

Continue reading the article . . .

High-speed Railroading

Catherine and News & Commentary,
July 30, 2010 at 9:07 am

America’s system of rail freight is the world’s best. High-speed passenger trains could ruin it.

Union Station in Los Angeles has been restored as a fine example of the Art Deco architecture that typified California in the 1930s. It has served as a backdrop for many Hollywood films, from “Union Station” (naturally) to “Blade Runner” and “Star Trek: First Contact”. It was the last grand station to be built before America’s passenger railways went into what you might call terminal decline.

Continue reading the article . . .

New Evidence On A Chinese Housing Bubble

Catherine and News & Commentary,
July 30, 2010 at 8:07 am

By Yongheng Deng, Joseph Gyourko and Jing Wu

China is experiencing spectacularly fast growth – so fast that many fear it is driven by a bubble – a property bubble to be precise. Recent memories of what happened when the US housing market bubble burst make the possibility of a Chinese housing bubble a critical concern for the world economy. So, is there a bubble or is it simply hot air?

Continue reading the article . . .

Salary of $800,000 Sparks California Taxpayer Mutiny

Catherine and News & Commentary,
July 30, 2010 at 8:07 am

By Joe Mysak

The search is on for the next $800,000-a-year city manager.

The taxpayers of Bell, California, a 2.5-square-mile city just outside Los Angeles forced the resignations last week of three public officials who made too much money.

The taxpayers were responding to a Los Angeles Times article of July 15 that asked the question, “Is a City Manager Worth $800,000?” I think we all know the answer.

The story reported that the city’s chief administrative officer was on a salary of $787,637, his assistant $376,288, the police chief $457,000. These paydays struck the Bell citizenry, and many other Californians, as a bit bloated.

Continue reading the article . . .

Global Prices for Big Mac Burgers

Catherine and News & Commentary,
July 30, 2010 at 8:07 am

Continue reading the article . . .

Google, CIA Invest in Predicting the ‘Future’ via Web Monitoring

Catherine and News & Commentary,
July 30, 2010 at 7:07 am

By Noah Shachtman

The investment arms of the CIA and Google are both backing a company that monitors the web in real time — and says it uses that information to predict the future.

The company is called Recorded Future, and it scours tens of thousands of websites, blogs and Twitter accounts to find the relationships between people, organizations, actions and incidents — both present and still-to-come. In a white paper, the company says its temporal analytics engine “goes beyond search” by “looking at the ‘invisible links’ between documents that talk about the same, or related, entities and events.”

The idea is to figure out for each incident who was involved, where it happened and when it might go down. Recorded Future then plots that chatter, showing online “momentum” for any given event.

“The cool thing is, you can actually predict the curve, in many cases,” says company CEO Christopher Ahlberg, a former Swedish Army Ranger with a PhD in computer science.

Continue reading the article . . .

Related reading:

Recorded Future – A White Paper on Temporal Analytics
recordedfuture.com

Quote du Jour

Catherine and Daily Musings,
July 29, 2010 at 4:07 pm

“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction.”

~ Albert Einstein

On Planetary Governance

Catherine and News & Commentary,
July 29, 2010 at 4:07 pm


YouTube

SEC Says New Financial Regulation Law Exempts it From Public Disclosure

Catherine and News & Commentary,
July 29, 2010 at 8:07 am

By Dunstan Prial

So much for transparency.

Under a little-noticed provision of the recently passed financial-reform legislation, the Securities and Exchange Commission no longer has to comply with virtually all requests for information releases from the public, including those filed under the Freedom of Information Act.

The law, signed last week by President Obama, exempts the SEC from disclosing records or information derived from “surveillance, risk assessments, or other regulatory and oversight activities.” Given that the SEC is a regulatory body, the provision covers almost every action by the agency, lawyers say. Congress and federal agencies can request information, but the public cannot.

That argument comes despite the President saying that one of the cornerstones of the sweeping new legislation was more transparent financial markets. Indeed, in touting the new law, Obama specifically said it would “increase transparency in financial dealings.”

Continue reading the article . . .

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