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Are we looking at a possible intellectual and economic "ecological" disaster?

David Seaton
David Seaton's News Links
Sat, 03 Mar 2012 11:03 UTC
Image
© Mother Jones
Big Bank Theory
Low genetic variation can make a species less resilient to changes in its environment, and place it at increased risk of extinction. BBC News

Ecologists say that when the gene-pool of a species is reduced beyond a certain point that species is in danger of extinction because it may not have enough alternative genes to recover from a negative event such as a plague etc.

Could this concept be applied to our new globalized economy and even to our educational resources?

When I saw the documentary "Food Inc", I was surprised to learn that less than half a dozen corporations control almost all of American agriculture and food production.

I was talking to someone on the far left the other day who said that economic power has become so concentrated in the USA that if you nationalized some 20 corporations, then, in one blow, you would have created a de facto, ad hoc, "real existent socialism". He gave Walmart as an example of a perfect "planned economy". Maybe he is on to something.
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Handcuffs

Pastor Sentenced to 158 years to Life in Molestation Case

Andy Furillo
The Sacramento Bee
Fri, 02 Mar 2012 00:00 UTC
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© Jose Luis Villegas / jvillegas@sacbee.com
Tommy Lee Daniels listens as he is sentenced for the conviction of molesting five girls in his Citrus Heights home between 2003 and 2005 Sacramento, Calif.
US California - Rio Linda Baptist Church Pastor Tommy Gene Daniels was sentenced to 158 years to life in prison today for molesting five little girls in a respite and child-care operation his family ran out of his Citrus Heights home.

In handing down the term to the 49-year-old Daniels, Sacramento Superior Court Judge Trena H. Burger-Plavan told the pastor he "took advantage of his position of trust and confidence with very young victims."

Daniels, exhibiting facial grimaces throughout the sentencing hearing, made no comment. He has continued to maintain his innocence. His attorney, Michael L. Chastaine, filed a motion for a new trial that the judge rejected. Chastaine said afterwards he intends to appeal the Dec. 8 verdict handed down by the Sacramento jury.

The five victims in the case were between the ages of 5 and 13 when Daniels touched them inappropriately while they were in his family's care in his Wapiti Place residence. The molestations took place in his house between December 2002 and August 2007.
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Info

U.S. Professors and Activists Participate In Tehran University Conference On Occupy Wall Street


Memri TV
Fri, 02 Mar 2012 00:00 UTC
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© Memri- TV
U.S. academics participated in an Occupy Wall Street (OWS) conference held this month at Tehran University, in which, according to Iran's Press TV, "university professors and scholars from around the world discussed various aspects of [the] Occupy Wall Street Movement" and "talked about the nature of the people that take part in the Wall Street movement, what effects it has had up to now, and its future."

One academic, Prof. Alex Vitae of Brooklyn College, discussed the impact of OWS "locally and nationally" and pondered "whether or not this will have momentum that could have more far-reaching implications." Prof. Heather Gautney of Fordham University noted that the Occupy movement is "entering more into social institutions, and trying to pressure politicians or pressure leadership" and said that she thought "that the movement is going to be incredibly active in pressuring politicians to start addressing issues of social inequality." Both she and Vitae mentioned OWS's possible impact on the upcoming U.S. presidential elections.

Prof. John Hammond of City University of New York spoke of the future, mentioning a "big movement planned in New York City, called Occupy the Corporations," and demonstrations in Chicago in May where the G-8 summit is set to take place.
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Document

Glen Glass Addresses TSA Pat-Down Searches In 4 Bills


CBS News Baltimore
Thu, 01 Mar 2012 06:10 UTC

US, Maryland- A lawmaker is hoping to force a change in the way passengers at BWI are screened by security.

As Mike Schuh reports, he's upset about the controversial pat-down searches.

At BWI, Judy Majorfox is at the beginning of her journey to California. First stop: Security.

Schuh: "If you had your druthers, would you have a pat-down or no pat-down?"
Majorfox: "No pat-down."

Yes, she wants a safe plane...and security to keep their hands off.

"Well, you know there's machinery now that can do that for you," Majorfox said.
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Evil Rays

More Women Speaking Out About Humiliating Experiences With TSA

Keith Johnson
American Free Press
Fri, 02 Mar 2012 00:00 UTC
tsa,woman
© Unknown
Would you want your wife or daughter viewed naked in "pornoscanner"?

US - Is the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) forcing women to endure full-body scans so that voyeuristic security officials can sneak a peek at their physiques? That's the charge being made by a local news affiliate in Dallas, which recently discovered a shocking pattern of abuse after reviewing complaints from more than 500 travelers.

According to an investigative report, one Dallas resident traveling out of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport was forced to undergo three scans before being allowed to board. The passenger, Ellen Terrell, told a local CBS news reporter that a female TSA screener asked her, "Do you play tennis?" When Mrs. Terrell asked, "Why?" the agent replied, "You just have such a cute figure."

After making Terrell go through the scanner twice, the TSA screener spoke into her microphone and was overheard saying: "Come on guys. All right, all right, one more time."
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2 + 2 = 4

Teacher Fired After Assigning Violent Math Problems to Third Graders

Eric Pfeiffer
The Sideshow
Sat, 03 Mar 2012 02:16 UTC

US - A Washington, D.C., charter school teacher has been fired after it was discovered the teacher had assigned third-grade students a number of math problems framed around violent and illegal scenarios.

At first, the unnamed teacher at the Trinidad Center City School claimed he had been ordered to assign the problems, but it was quickly discovered that the teacher had actually downloaded them from a free homeschooling website called "HomeschoolingParadise.com."

"I was absolutely distressed," Dr. Beverley Wheeler, the CEO of Center City PCS, which oversees Trinidad, told WUSA9. "It doesn't follow anything we do. We are about character, excellence and service and I found them to be violent and racist."

Even more baffling, other parents at the school say the teacher in question is a minister.
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Nuke

Massive smoke between Japan's Fukushima reactor 2 and 3

Mochizuki
Fukushima Dairy
Tue, 28 Feb 2012 00:00 UTC
On 2/28/2012, smoke was observed from between reactor 2 and 3.

It was from 10:52 ~ 11:58. The smoke reached over the reactor buildings.

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Bomb

Funding Terrorism: Qatar to offer £63m to buy weapons for the syrian Rebels

Martin Chulov
the guardian
Thu, 01 Mar 2012 00:00 UTC
Sheikh Hamad
© Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images
Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, the emir of Qatar, last year pushed for the Arab League to suspend Syria.
On Monday, Qatar's prime minister declared his state's intent to start helping the Syrian opposition "by all means", including giving them weapons. Two days later, anti-Assad officials received an offer of a $100m (£63m) donation, from their brothers in arms in Libya. Coincidence? Unlikely, if the Libyan revolution is any indicator.

The third act, in what looks very much like the beginning of a concerted push to arm the Syrian insurgency, took place today when the previously gun-shy Syrian National Council formed a military council, which it says will act as a clearing house for anyone offering it arms.

Two probabilities have quickly emerged: the first is that a militarised Syrian National Council is unlikely to be short of suppliers. And, second, Libya is merely a conduit for the $100m, which was at least partly funded by Qatar to get things rolling.

Libya's national transitional council has been quick to stress that the money it is sending is for humanitarian aid, which is clearly desperately needed in western Syria, withering under a regime offensive. No one in the nascent Tripoli government is quibbling about where the cash comes from. When asked yesterday how a state still in turmoil could afford such a generous gift, an spokesman for the Libyan council replied simply: "It won't be a problem".
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Handcuffs

Government plans for police privatisation

Alan Travis and Zoe Williams
Guardian
Fri, 02 Mar 2012 20:08 UTC
Image
© Press Association/Lewis Whyld
Street patrols could be handled by security firms under the government's police privatisation plans.
West Midlands and Surrey police offer £1.5bn contract under which private firms may investigate crime and detain suspects

Private companies could take responsibility for investigating crimes, patrolling neighbourhoods and even detaining suspects under a radical privatisation plan being put forward by two of the largest police forces in the country.

West Midlands and Surrey have invited bids from G4S and other major security companies on behalf of all forces across England and Wales to take over the delivery of a wide range of services previously carried out by the police.

The contract is the largest on police privatisation so far, with a potential value of £1.5bn over seven years, rising to a possible £3.5bn depending on how many other forces get involved.

This scale dwarfs the recent £200m contract between Lincolnshire police and G4S, under which half the force's civilian staff are to join the private security company, which will also build and run a police station for the first time.

The home secretary, Theresa May, who has imposed a 20% cut in Whitehall grants on forces, has said frontline policing can be protected by using the private sector to transform services provided to the public, but this is the first clear indication of what that will mean in practice. May said on Thursday that she hoped the "business partnership" programme would be in place next spring.
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House

Investors buying homes by the dozen

Michelle Conlin
Reuters
Fri, 02 Mar 2012 10:16 UTC
Image
© Rebecca Cook/Reuters
Investors are buying homes by the dozen in places such as Detroit, where the depressed housing market has homes going for $500 a pop in some cases.
When Vena Jones-Cox entered the foyer of the once-grand Colonial-style home in downtown Columbus, Ohio, she stepped onto a wood floor that was so moldy and mushy that it actually wiggled. As Cox proceeded down the basement stairs, they disappeared from underneath her.

"I found myself lying on the floor," says Jones-Cox, 45. "Staring at a dead rat, by the way."

The house tour from hell didn't stop her from making an offer on the place. While she was at it, she bid on some other houses, too. Forty nine houses, actually.

She's paying $3,000 for each, a bit more than the cost of an Apple Mac Pro. "We're at a bottom," says Jones-Cox. "I mean, where else is there to go but up?"

As the greatest real-estate fire sale in the history of the United States rages on, the bulk buy is the dead hot deal of the moment. In some of the most foreclosure-ravaged parts of the country, it is almost as if the housing market has become the new big box store, with investors wiping out whole shelves at a time.

Comment: In the original 'Great Depression' similar things happened and that is how many of the rich were able to cash in on the misery of those who'd lost everything. The statement "The idea is to arbitrage other people's misery" says a lot.

Arbitrage: Finance - the simultaneous purchase and sale of the same securities, commodities [houses], or foreign exchange in different markets to profit from unequal prices.

arbitrage
late 15th century from French. arbitrage, from arbitrer "to arbitrate, judge."

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