Puppet MastersS


Bad Guys

E.L. Rothschild LLC Acquires a Majority Stake in Weather Central, LP


Earth Times
Mon, 31 Jan 2011 12:13 UTC
Lynn Forester de Rothschild
© Business WireLynn Forester de Rothschild CEO, E.L. Rothschild LLC
E.L. Rothschild LLC, a private investment company led by Chairman Sir Evelyn de Rothschild and CEO Lynn Forester de Rothschild, today announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire a 70% interest in Weather Central, LP (www.wxc.com). The world's leading provider of interactive weather graphics and data services for television, web, and mobile, Weather Central's highly accurate and personalized forecasting offers businesses and consumers a truly unique suite of science-driven weather information products. The company will continue to operate under CEO and founder, Terry Kelly, as well as current management. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Founded in 1974, Weather Central is a global provider of professional on‐air, online, print, mobile, and enterprise weather solutions and forecasting. With 180 employees, including 70 meteorologists, Weather Central provides dynamic weather graphic systems, proprietary forecast models, and dedication to high-quality customer service. Weather Central has secured a leading 46% market share of North America's weather information delivery market for broadcast and media delivering content to hundreds of millions of viewers. It is the largest provider of broadcast and interactive web weather solutions for media companies in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Weather Central has more than 400 broadcast television clients in 21 countries worldwide. It provides weather forecasts to millions of users daily by distributing real-time personalized forecasts, interactive maps, and storm warnings based on each user's exact address.

Comment: Wayne Madsen wonders the following about this story, and so do we:

"What is it that these financial ogres don't want us to know about future weather on the planet? The mind boggles."

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Bomb

Egypt gas pipeline attacked


Al Jazeera
Sat, 05 Feb 2011 09:57 UTC
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© Al Jazeera
Unknown attackers have blown up a pipeline that runs through El-Arish area of Egypt's north Sinai area and supplies gas to Jordan and Israel, according to Egypt's state television.

The Jordanian route that runs from El- Arish to Aqaba and then up to Amman has been damaged by Saturday's explosion.

But it has been reported that the gas pipeline running to Ashkelon in Israel has not been affected.

The explosive material was placed inside or adjacent to the control station of the gas supply line. There were no immediate reports of any casualties as a result of the blast.

"Saboteurs took advantage of the security situation and blew up the gas pipeline," a state television correspondent reported, saying there was a big explosion.

State TV quoted an official as saying that the "situation is very dangerous and explosions were continuing from one spot to another" along the pipeline.
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Wolf

Mubarak's true colours


Ottawa Citizen
Sat, 05 Feb 2011 09:21 UTC
Hosni Mubarak
© Amr Abdallah DalshHosni Mubarak

Throughout these historic two weeks in Egypt, it has been difficult to know what Hosni Mubarak was thinking. Did he recognize the legitimacy of his people's cry for democracy? Has he known all along that change was nigh, but wanted to make his exit in his own time and his own way?

Mubarak answered all such questions definitively when he sent his thugs to rough up journalists and human rights activists this Thursday and Friday.

That reveals much more than his naming of a vice-president or his talk of "political, social and economic reform" and "constitutional and legislative amendments" in his Tuesday speech.
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Pills

Seroquel's Toll

Martha Rosenberg
counterpunch
Sat, 05 Feb 2011 08:54 UTC
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Even though AstraZeneca's antipsychotic Seroquel is the fifth best-selling medication in the US according to drugs.com, exceeded only by Lipitor, Nexium, Plavix and Advair diskus, its safety, effectiveness, clinical trial and promotion records are highly checkered.

An original backer, psychiatrist Richard Borison, was sentenced to a 15-year prison sentence in 1998 for a pay-to-play Seroquel research scheme.

Its US medical director Wayne MacFadden had sexual affairs with two different women involved with Seroquel research, say published reports.

Chicago psychiatrist Michael Reinstein received $500,000 from AstraZenenca and wrote 41,000 prescriptions for Seroquel reports the Chicago Tribune and ProPublica.

Psychiatrist Charles Nemeroff who left Emory University in disgrace after a Congressional investigation for unreported pharma income, promoted Seroquel in continuing medical education courses according to the web site of psychiatrist Daniel Carlat.

Florida child psychiatrist Jorge Armenteros was chairman of the FDA committee responsible for recommending Seroquel approvals while a paid AstraZeneca speaker himself, said the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2009.

Psychiatrist Charles Schulz' high profile pro-Seroquel presentations are suspected of being colored by his AstraZeneca income says the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

And unexplained Iraq and Afghanistan troop deaths are linked to Seroquel reported the Associated Press in August.
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Attention

Dangerous Spin Doctors

Dr. Mark Hyman
Dr.Hyman.com
Sat, 05 Feb 2011 07:05 UTC
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A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found over 40 percent of the best designed, peer-reviewed scientific papers published in the world's top medical journals misrepresented the actual findings of the research.(i) The "spin doctors" writing the papers found a way to show treatments worked, when, in fact, they didn't.

Doctors and health care consumers rely on published scientific studies to guide their decisions about which treatments work and which don't. We expect academic medical researchers to determine what needs to be studied, and to objectively report their data. We rely on government regulators to prevent harmful medications from being approved, or to quickly remove harmful medications or treatments from the market.

What most physicians and consumers don't recognize is that science is now for sale, published data often misrepresents the truth, academic medical research has become corrupted by pharmaceutical money and special interests, and government regulators more often protect industry than the public. Increasingly, academic medical researchers are for hire, and research, once a pure activity of inquiry, is now a tool for promoting products.

Science has always been considered an objective endeavor that removes bias and is inherently true and reliable. While we may acknowledge that some science is inferior in design or execution, and that there are a few corrupt scientists, we mostly believe what is published in the world's top medical journals such as the Journal of the American Medical Association and New England Journal of Medicine can be counted on to guide our medical decisions. We still have trust in the scientific method. That trust may be misguided.
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Eye 2

UK Seeks Global Accord On Cyber Threat

Alex Barker and James Blitz
Financial Times
Thu, 03 Feb 2011 22:34 UTC
Britain is to call for countries to agree rules for "acceptable behaviour" in cyberspace amid concern about what is seen as a growing security threat.

William Hague, UK foreign secretary, will offer to host a conference in London this year "to lay the basis for a set of standards on how countries should act in cyberspace".

To underline the seriousness of the threat to governments and businesses, Mr Hague gives three examples of attacks on British interests, including those directed at his staff and a defence contractor.

Although he does not name the states behind the attacks, leaked US diplomatic cables have detailed allegations of cyberattacks and intrusion by China and Russia.

Work is already under way by international bodies to develop conventions on discrete cyber issues, but no foreign minister has called for a comprehensive set of principles that can govern the internet worldwide.
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Robot

Army holds the fate of Mubarak in its hands - and he knows it

Fawaz Gerges
Independant
Fri, 04 Feb 2011 21:12 UTC
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© UnknownFawaz Gerges of the London School of Economics and Political Science.
If President Mubarak's support was representative of the population, you would have expected tens of thousands to come out in full force over the last week. But the ruling party hasn't been able to mobilize people. It isn't a lack of resources: it's simply that there are very few who would go out on a limb to defend them.

The regime's base is extremely shallow in comparison to the opposition, which represents an overwhelming majority of the population. The regime has alienated most of the rising social and political classes: centrists and democrats, leftists, nationalists, independent Islamists, and the Muslim Brotherhood. They're left with about 10 per cent of the country, the uppermost echelon of the population.

It's a strategic alliance between the business class and the ruling elite, with the support of the state security apparatus, which numbers about a million people. Mubarak's allies hold the top cabinet positions, and his new Vice-President is a very close supporter. But outside that structure there is really no support at all.

There is one other ingredient in his support base that is less secure, and will probably prove the deciding factor: the military. There is no doubt that there are those in the top brass who believe in his politics, who believe in the status quo and stability. And as an institution, the army is calling the shots.
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Vader

US negotiates Mubarak exit strategy

Philip Sherwell
Telegraph.co.uk
Fri, 04 Feb 2011 08:27 UTC
The US is negotiating with Egyptian officials for Hosni Mubarak, the president, to resign now and hand power to an interim government, according to reports.

The proposal from the Obama administration would see the new government led by Mr Mubarak's newly-appointed deputy Omar Suleiman and would be backed by the Egyptian military, the New York Times has claimed.

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Eye 1

US: Homeland Security Secretary Inspects Super Bowl Site, Says Fans Have 'Shared Responsibility' for Security at Game and Across the Country

Penny Starr
CNS News
Fri, 04 Feb 2011 00:00 UTC
Janet Napolitano
© Associated Press / Eric GayJanet Napolitano, left, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, and Bob Casey, right, FBI Special Agent in Charge, leave an NFL Super Bowl Security news conference, Monday, Jan. 31, 2011 in Dallas.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano traveled to Dallas earlier this week to personally inspect the massive security operation surrounding the 45th Super Bowl game and to announce the "If You See Something, Say Something" campaign.

"We are partnering this year with the NFL on our 'If You See Something, Say Something' campaign and launching that NFL partnership right here at the Super Bowl," Napolitano said during a press conference on Monday at Cowboy Stadium in Arlington, Texas where Sunday's game will be played.

"The idea is simple," Napolitano said. "We are simply asking the American people to be vigilant, recognizing that our security is a shared responsibility that all of us must participate in."

"If a fan at the Super Bowl or any other American at any other place sees something that is potentially dangerous, then say something about it to local law enforcement or someone in authority," Napolitano said.

Napolitano announced that DHS has trained some 1,200 stadium staffers as "first observers" and that cargo going into the venue also will be screened using "non-intrusive inspection equipment."

Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, told CNN that millions of dollars were spent to make the stadium secure, including perches for snipers and surveillance cameras to cover every corner of the venue.
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Megaphone

Monsanto Nation: Exposing Monsanto's Minions

Ronnie Cummins
Common Dreams
Fri, 04 Feb 2011 17:38 UTC
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© senatorwagner.com
My expose last week, The Organic Elite Surrenders to Monsanto: What Now? has ignited a long-overdue debate on how to stop Monsanto's earth killing, market-monopolizing, climate-destabilizing rampage. Should we basically resign ourselves to the fact that the Biotech Bully of St. Louis controls the dynamics of the marketplace and public policy? Should we seek some kind of practical compromise or "coexistence" between organics and Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)? Should we focus our efforts on crop pollution compensation and "controlled deregulation" of genetically engineered (GE) crops, rather than campaign for an outright ban, or mandatory labeling and safety-testing? Should we prepare ourselves for a future farm landscape where the U.S.'s 23 million acres of alfalfa, the nation's fourth largest crop, (93% of which are currently not sprayed with toxic herbicides), including organic alfalfa, are sprayed with Roundup and/or genetically polluted with Monsanto's mutant genes?

Or should we stand up and say Hell No to Monsanto and the Obama Administration? Should we stop all the talk about coexistence between organics and GMOs; unite Millions Against Monsanto, mobilize like never before at the grassroots; put enormous pressure on the nation's grocers to truthfully label the thousands of so-called conventional or "natural" foods containing or produced with GMOs; and then slowly but surely drive GMOs from the market?
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