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The light bulb goes off in China: "You don't pay me and I pay others? I'm not that stupid."


Reuters
Thu, 15 May 2014 23:19 UTC
Image
© AFP
As economy continues to cool in China, payment cycle has been extended and companies are finding it harder to get paid for their goods and services.
As China's economy continues to cool, companies are waiting longer and finding it harder to get paid for goods and services they have already sold, leading to record amounts of receivables - and potential write-offs - on corporate balance sheets.

At Longyuan Construction Group, an eastern China builder of high-rise offices, apartments and highways, receivables last year inched up 4.9 per cent to 4.1 billion yuan (HK$5.1 billion), while average collection times extended to 95.2 days, compared with 76.3 days for 2011.

Slow collection of money owed is causing Longyuan to delay its own payments to steel and cement suppliers, said Zhang Li, the company's board secretary, in a ripple effect being repeated across the economy.

"If you don't pay me and I pay others, aren't I just a sucker?" asked Zhang.

"I'm not that stupid."

Comment: This is yet another warning sign that the China miracle of perpetual economic growth is coming to an end. Expect hard times ahead, not that times are not hard already for many people!

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Pistol

Where are the neurons? - Man in bulletproof vest says 'shoot me,' is killed

Doug Stanglin
USA Today
Thu, 15 May 2014 22:42 UTC
Image
© Anderson, S.C., Sheriff's Office
Deputies have charged an 18-year-old South Carolina woman with the fatal shooting of a male friend who had donned a bulletproof vest and allegedly asked her to "shoot me," according to local media.

The killing occurred Wednesday in Honea Path, S.C., after 25-year-old Blake Randall Wardell discovered the old vest in a garage where he had been hanging out with friends, WYFF-TV reports.

Anderson County deputy coroner Don McCown said Wardell asked Taylor Ann Kelly to "shoot me," the TV station reports.

Kelly allegedly fired a small caliber weapon at Wardell, but the bullet went through the edge of the vest and into his heart, McCown said.

McCown said there were as many as 10 other people at the home at the time. He said no evidence at the scene of a fight or struggle, The State newspaper reports.

Comment: While the story is tragic, it boggles the mind to think that someone could ask another person to shoot him, and the other person actually did it, bulletproof vest or not.

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Stormtrooper

Welcome to Brazil! Brazil unveils scary 'Robocop' suit to protect super-elite police unit during World Cup

Donna Bowater
The Telegraph
Wed, 14 May 2014 11:33 UTC
The paramilitary police riot body armour.
© AFP/GETTY
The paramilitary police riot body armour.
There will be a RoboCop style to the face of policing in Rio when football fans turn up for the World Cup in Brazil next month.

Members of a special unit set up for the tournament and the 2016 Olympics in Rio have been given 200 sets of the 22lb "RoboCop" protective equipment, which is flame resistant to up to 427C.

It includes a helmet and vest that protects the back, chest and shoulders, plastic shin pads, a pepper spray mask and a belt for a.40 calibre pistol, stun gun, handcuffs and baton.

The Major Events Police Battalion, a branch of the military police, was formed in January this year in response to widespread public demonstrations during last year's Confederations Cup.

That tournament was marred by ugly clashes between police and demonstrators as thousands protested against public spending on the World Cup. Rio de Janeiro will host seven games during the competition, including the final on July 13.
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Bulb

Operation American Spring: "30 Million" Militias promise to oust Obama and top officials this Friday


RT.com
Thu, 15 May 2014 16:01 UTC

A retired United States Army colonel expects as many as 30 million like-minded individuals will descend on Washington, DC this week and demand that President Barack Obama and other members of his administration be booted from office.

Those are just some of the demands that Col. Harry Riley, founder of "Operation American Spring," said he'll ask the Obama administration to adhere to when militia members and patriots of all sorts arrive in the nation's capital on Friday and begin demonstrating against a government the group considers to be in violation of the principles established by the founders of the country.

"We are calling for the removal of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Nancy Pelosi and Eric Holder as a start toward constitutional restoration," Riley told the Before Its News website during an interview earlier this year.

"They have all abandoned the US Constitution," he said, and "are unworthy to be retained in a position that calls for servant status."

Comment: For sure this is an idea whose time has come, but are the American people really up to a 'revolution'? More to the point, do Col. Riley and those who plan to join him in D.C. (we'd be VERY surprised if anywhere near 30 million people showed up) represent the 'American people'? Riley and his followers are sponsored by the 'Tea Party'. Riley himself says that he plans to "oust President Obama from office and put him in Gitmo" to stop him "turning America into a socialist-fascist-communist-Marxist dictatorial, tyrannical system."

During an appearance last month on a birther radio program, Riley predicted that his protest campaign will work because "it's bathed in prayer" and "under God."

Are these ideas that 30 million American people resonate with? Does Riley understand the real problems in the USA and their source? Recently, there have been almost daily reports of psycho US cops either brutalizing or murdering innocent civilians. Why isn't Riley concerned about, or organizing a rally to protest that?

Whatever the case, since Riley said his protest was "sort of like an Arab Spring for the USA", there is little doubt that the CIA and FBI will be all over it.

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Laptop

'My husband kills kids with drones': Michelle Obama's viral pic fuels anti-drone campaign


RT.com
Thu, 15 May 2014 15:36 UTC
Image
When US First Lady Michelle Obama appeared in a picture supporting the 200 schoolgirls kidnapped in Nigeria, she was praised for taking a stand against Boko Haram. But others quickly subverted her message and turned it into an anti-drone campaign.

Michelle Obama appeared in the viral image last week, holding up a sign that said "#Bring Back Our Girls." The hashtag quickly spread online, hitting home with an online audience that had read about the tragic kidnapping of the schoolgirls by a radical Islamist group.
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Cookies

SOTT EXCLUSIVE: More erratic behavior - Baltimore man drives truck into TV station to 'expose the multiverse'

Andrés Perezalonso
Sott.net
Thu, 15 May 2014 14:17 UTC
truck ram tv station
A bizarre incident in Baltimore Tuesday saw a man claiming to be the incarnation of both King Tut and Jesus Christ steal a truck and smash it into the local WMAR-TV station. According to the UK Independent, Vladimir Mehul Baptiste explained to the police that he did not want to hurt anyone, but rather wished to "expose the multiverses" by "closing the multiverse that WMAR-TV represented".

Baptiste is being charged with three counts of attempted second-degree murder, three counts of first-degree assault, theft of a motor vehicle and further burglary charges.

According to his curious worldview, people regularly disappear into alternative universes; recent examples include the missing Malaysian Airlines airplane and the 200 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in Nigeria. He also believes that his parents were "running the multiverses" and need to be exposed.

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Bomb

Scientist resigns over pressure from global warming liars


The Global Warming Policy Foundation
Wed, 14 May 2014 00:00 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Swedish Professor Lennart Bengtsson
It is with great regret, and profound shock, that we have received Professor Lennart Bengtsson's letter of resignation from his membership of the GWPF's Academic Advisory Council.

The Foundation, while of course respecting Professor Bengtsson's decision, notes with deep concern the disgraceful intolerance within the climate science community which has prompted his resignation.

Professor Bengtsson's letter of resignation from our Academic Advisory Council was sent to its chairman, Professor David Henderson. His letter and Professor Henderson's response are attached below.

Dr Benny Peiser, Director, The Global Warming Policy Foundation

Comment: It has become clear that the battle over man-made CO2 global warming (lately referred to as "climate change") lies between real science and politics/power. When money and power are at stake, science often loses. Professor Bengtsson is just the latest casualty among an army of good scientists driven from their professions.

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Arrow Down

Ruptured pipeline spews 10,000 gallons of oil onto Los Angeles streets


RT
Thu, 15 May 2014 15:53 UTC
LA_oil spill
© FILE PHOTO. Reuters / Athit Perawongmetha
A ruptured oil pipe near the city of Glendale, Los Angeles County, has caused a massive leak as 10,000 gallons of crude oil spilled onto streets, which is knee high in some places, the Los Angeles Fire Department reports.

Earlier in the day as much as 50,000 gallons had reportedly spilled onto the streets, but Captain Jamie Moore, a public information officer with the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD), later revised the figure.

The leak from a 20-inch pipe was first reported at around 12:15 am local time. The oil line was remotely shut off, the (LAFD) said in a press release. The oil spill has covered approximately a half-mile area, and is knee deep in some spots.

"We are on hand vacuuming up the spilled oil, mopping up what's left behind and pressure washing the area with a soap solution," Reuters cites Moore as saying. "The responders are mopping what's on the ground with absorbent diapers." The cleanup is expected to take 24 hours.

The leak, which was sprung near 5175 W. San Fernando Rd., has affected some commercial businesses. Four people at a nearby business were evacuated with respiratory complaints, and two people were transferred to a hospital, the Associated Press said, citing a fire official.

"Oil is knee-high in some areas," the fire department said in a statement. "A handful of commercial businesses are affected."

Comment: How symbolic that this happens on the same day the US announces it's lifting its 40-year export ban on oil.

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Bad Guys

American Dreams: US ranks first in terrible treatment of new mothers

Lauren McCauley
Common Dreams
Wed, 14 May 2014 18:47 UTC
Image
© Photo: Kaitlin M/ Creative Commons/ Flickr
The U.S. is one of only three countries that does not require paid maternity leave for new mothers.
The United States is the only Western country, and one of three in the world, that does not require some kind of paid maternity leave for new mothers, said a new United Nations study released Tuesday.

Published by the International Labour Organization, an agency of the UN, the study - Maternity and Paternity at Work: Law and Practice Across the World (pdf) - surveys national law and practice on both maternity and paternity at work in 185 countries and territories.

Among the findings, the ILO reports that the U.S., Oman and Papua New Guinea are the only three countries that fail to provide any "cash benefits paid during maternity leave."
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Light Saber

'Revenge porn' is now a felony in Arizona; subject to fines and label of sex offender


RT
Thu, 01 May 2014 22:43 UTC
Image
© Mark Wilson/Getty Images/AFP
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer
"Revenge porn" is now a felony in Arizona, with perpetrators who post sexually explicit images or videos online without a person's consent subject to jail time and the label of sex offender.

The Arizona Legislature unanimously passed the bill last week, and Gov. Jan Brewer (R-Ariz.) signed it into law on Wednesday, MSNBC reported. Arizona is the ninth state to pass a law against revenge porn, also known as non-consensual pornography, but is the first to make it a felony without an exception for lawful purposes, according to the Daily Dot.

The law makes it a crime "to intentionally disclose, display, distribute, publish, advertise or offer a photograph, videotape, film or digital recording of another person...if the person knows or should have known that the depicted person has not consented to the disclosure."

The only exceptions are when reporting illegal activity to law enforcement, lawful practices of medical treatment, or images involving "voluntary exposure" in public, according to the Phoenix New Times.
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