Between 1967 and 1968 Fagan recorded 'The Illuminati and the Council on Foreign Relations', three LP records allegedly documenting the activities of a secret society known as The Illuminati.
TRUTH?? HOAX?? CONSPIRACY?? YOU DECIDE..... ONE STEP BEYOND TRUTH
Saturday, April 11, 2015
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
Power loss hits Washington, DC: Government left in dark
via RT News
Published time: April 07, 2015 17:07
Get short URL
RT Photo/Gayane Chichakyan
Power went out at the State Department during the question-and-answer session on Iran nuclear talks.
After the initial confusion, the briefing continued.
Acting State Department spokeswoman, Marie Harf, continued the session under what appeared to be light from a smartphone.
Outage at State seemed to be part of a widespread chain of power failures around Washington, DC, for “unknown” reasons. Reports are coming in from a number of government buildings, metro stations and offices downtown, including the White House and the Department of Justice.
Published time: April 07, 2015 17:07
Get short URL
RT Photo/Gayane Chichakyan
Power went out at the State Department during the question-and-answer session on Iran nuclear talks.
After the initial confusion, the briefing continued.
Acting State Department spokeswoman, Marie Harf, continued the session under what appeared to be light from a smartphone.
Outage at State seemed to be part of a widespread chain of power failures around Washington, DC, for “unknown” reasons. Reports are coming in from a number of government buildings, metro stations and offices downtown, including the White House and the Department of Justice.
IS THIS WHAT "THEY" HAVE PLANNED FOR US??
I ran across this in a comment section of a YouTube video. I doubt anyone read it as it was rather lengthy.
It’s a Sufi saying: Before you speak, let your words pass through three gates. At the first gate, ask yourself ‘Is is true.’ At the second gate ask, ‘Is it necessary.’ At the third gate ask, ‘Is it kind.
http://www.medalerts.org/vaersdb/index.php.
Record account of annual meeting. Classified Top Secret. For exclusive use of members.
Closing Remarks by the Chairman of the meeting.
Beyond capitalism. Crossing the new frontier.
If we continue to maintain control of the masses by the classical wage labor within a framework of a system built on mass production and mass consumption with the solvency of the consumers by allocating a portion of the wealth created via work, we all have now acquired the certainty that the long-term survival of the human species, the backup and the sustainability of a viable biosphere and in harmony with the human activities required a total reorganization of our modes of thought, organization and production.
As we all know, in fact the goal we are pursuing is neither totally vain accumulation of new wealth or even the rescue of an economic system, it was used for more than three centuries and become incompatible with our vision of the future.
The objective which we pursue is obviously the one of the eternal life, or in any case the passage to the man living two centuries and we join here the ambitious ideas of transhumanism which we wish to develop, to install to favor the emergence of a new human being. Of a superman. As well as our technologies allow us from now on to possess said tools of “augmented reality”, our researches perfectly succeeded as regards “the increased man”. Our technologies are perfectly developed. We are ready to live two centuries. Our nanotechnologies allow us to repair the bodies of the inside, the decoding of the human genome allowed us to understand the functioning of the cellular aging which we are not capable of stopping, but of slowing down considerably. Our control of stem cells allows us to re-make at the demand any cellular tissue or still obviously any organ which would become failing.
Finally, our control of the human genome allows us as well to select the most effective and most adapted genetic heritages, without forgetting the fact that by modifying some we can finally increase our physical as well mental abilities.
Our illustrious predecessors of the 30s thought naively that we could transpose, for the improvement of the human race, the methods used for the optimization of dog breeds by crossings skilfully organized. Nevertheless, these failures of the “Nazism” allowed us to explore new ways and to reach the success which we celebrate today. We finally uncovered the secrets of the eternal life, the ultimate conquest of the man become finally his own god and his own master. We are all, us here gathered, Alpha and Omega of this New World which opens to us and which it is thus advisable to us to shape.
Obviously, as you know, it raises absolutely colossal problems of implementation and it was all the challenge in the works of the various committees in which you participated throughout these intense days of seminar.
The more I read it, the more it rang true as current events mirror the words written. Is this what our future will become? Is this "their" plan?
You decide...
It’s a Sufi saying: Before you speak, let your words pass through three gates. At the first gate, ask yourself ‘Is is true.’ At the second gate ask, ‘Is it necessary.’ At the third gate ask, ‘Is it kind.
http://www.medalerts.org/vaersdb/index.php.
Record account of annual meeting. Classified Top Secret. For exclusive use of members.
Closing Remarks by the Chairman of the meeting.
Beyond capitalism. Crossing the new frontier.
If we continue to maintain control of the masses by the classical wage labor within a framework of a system built on mass production and mass consumption with the solvency of the consumers by allocating a portion of the wealth created via work, we all have now acquired the certainty that the long-term survival of the human species, the backup and the sustainability of a viable biosphere and in harmony with the human activities required a total reorganization of our modes of thought, organization and production.
As we all know, in fact the goal we are pursuing is neither totally vain accumulation of new wealth or even the rescue of an economic system, it was used for more than three centuries and become incompatible with our vision of the future.
The objective which we pursue is obviously the one of the eternal life, or in any case the passage to the man living two centuries and we join here the ambitious ideas of transhumanism which we wish to develop, to install to favor the emergence of a new human being. Of a superman. As well as our technologies allow us from now on to possess said tools of “augmented reality”, our researches perfectly succeeded as regards “the increased man”. Our technologies are perfectly developed. We are ready to live two centuries. Our nanotechnologies allow us to repair the bodies of the inside, the decoding of the human genome allowed us to understand the functioning of the cellular aging which we are not capable of stopping, but of slowing down considerably. Our control of stem cells allows us to re-make at the demand any cellular tissue or still obviously any organ which would become failing.
Finally, our control of the human genome allows us as well to select the most effective and most adapted genetic heritages, without forgetting the fact that by modifying some we can finally increase our physical as well mental abilities.
Our illustrious predecessors of the 30s thought naively that we could transpose, for the improvement of the human race, the methods used for the optimization of dog breeds by crossings skilfully organized. Nevertheless, these failures of the “Nazism” allowed us to explore new ways and to reach the success which we celebrate today. We finally uncovered the secrets of the eternal life, the ultimate conquest of the man become finally his own god and his own master. We are all, us here gathered, Alpha and Omega of this New World which opens to us and which it is thus advisable to us to shape.
Obviously, as you know, it raises absolutely colossal problems of implementation and it was all the challenge in the works of the various committees in which you participated throughout these intense days of seminar.
Sunday, March 1, 2015
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Doxxing defense: Remove your personal info from data brokers
via http://www.computerworld.com/
Credit: Thinkstock
Don't want your home address or other personal info published to the world? This weekend, take an hour or two to make yourself a less visible target.
Unfortunately, doxxers don't have to work very hard to find a victim's personal info. A number of free and paid services known as data brokers create profiles of vast numbers of individuals based on aggregated data from business directories, social media and other public records. With a specific target in mind, all a doxxer has to do is search one or more of these services to find the details he or she wants.
More bad news: There are hundreds of data brokers, not all of which offer opt-out processes. (Exceptions are made for state-mandated protected groups, such as sexual assault survivors in California.) Removing yourself from all those that do can be a Sisyphean task, but managing your data with just the following 11 can be accomplished in an hour or two.
I selected these brokers based on the following factors:
What those who have been doxxed cited as services that were used against them
Search results for my own name
Consultation with Paul Stephens, director of policy and advocacy at the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse and author of Data Brokers and Your Privacy
Opt out of the following services, and you'll have "gotten all of the big ones," says Stephens—but pay attention tothe caveat at the end of this story.
Note that some opt-out forms paradoxically require you to submit personal data in order to have it removed; be your own judge of whether this is wise. (I recommend creating a temporary email address specifically for these requests.)
Also note that with most of these services you'll receive a confirmation email shortly after you submit your removal request. If you don't see the email in your inbox, check your spam filter.
Here's what I found when I tried to opt out of each one.
Credit: ThinkstockDon't want your home address or other personal info published to the world? This weekend, take an hour or two to make yourself a less visible target.
Unfortunately, doxxers don't have to work very hard to find a victim's personal info. A number of free and paid services known as data brokers create profiles of vast numbers of individuals based on aggregated data from business directories, social media and other public records. With a specific target in mind, all a doxxer has to do is search one or more of these services to find the details he or she wants.
More bad news: There are hundreds of data brokers, not all of which offer opt-out processes. (Exceptions are made for state-mandated protected groups, such as sexual assault survivors in California.) Removing yourself from all those that do can be a Sisyphean task, but managing your data with just the following 11 can be accomplished in an hour or two.
I selected these brokers based on the following factors:
What those who have been doxxed cited as services that were used against them
Search results for my own name
Consultation with Paul Stephens, director of policy and advocacy at the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse and author of Data Brokers and Your Privacy
Opt out of the following services, and you'll have "gotten all of the big ones," says Stephens—but pay attention tothe caveat at the end of this story.
Note that some opt-out forms paradoxically require you to submit personal data in order to have it removed; be your own judge of whether this is wise. (I recommend creating a temporary email address specifically for these requests.)
Also note that with most of these services you'll receive a confirmation email shortly after you submit your removal request. If you don't see the email in your inbox, check your spam filter.
Here's what I found when I tried to opt out of each one.
read full article here and how to protect your private information:
Also, great information if you have children:
Friday, January 16, 2015
The Shadow People
Another great video (wish he would do more!) from SuspectSky. Being a skeptic, I have some issues with about 40% of the content (being video anomolies)...that said....
The concept of inter-dimentional beings has always been of great interest to me.
As for personal experience, the adorable young lady speaking about strange "sounds...kind of like waa...wahhh" resonated with me because of my own childhood experience(s). ....but that's another story for another day.....
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Paris Terror Attack: Was it a warning to President François Hollande over his stance on easing Russian sanctions?
As reported by the New York Times on January 5, 2015 (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/06/world/europe/francois-hollande-says-destabilizing-sanctions-on-russia-must-stop-now.html?_r=0)
"French Leader Urges End to Sanctions Against Russia Over Ukraine"
MOSCOW — Western nations should stop threatening Russia with new sanctions and instead offer to ease off on existing restrictions in exchange for progress in the peace process in Ukraine, President François Hollande ofFrance said in an interview on Monday.
Backing President Vladimir V. Putin into a corner will not work, he said, giving a high-level voice to what is seen as mounting sanctions fatigue among European politicians, as the Ukraine crisis lurches into a second year.
The terrorist attack by masked gunmen on the newspaper, Charlie Hebdo, left 12 people dead — including the top editor, prominent cartoonists and police officers — and was among the deadliest in postwar France. The killers escaped, traumatizing the city and sending shock waves through Europe and beyond.
"Officials said late Wednesday that two of the suspects were brothers. They were identified as Said and Chérif Kouachi, 34 and 32. The third suspect is Hamyd Mourad, 18. News reports said the brothers, known to intelligence services, had been born in Paris, raising the prospect that homegrown Muslim extremists were responsible". (Brothers?...like the Boston bombing "suspects"?)
Officials and witnesses said at least two gunmen had carried out the attack with assault weapons and military-style precision.
"French Leader Urges End to Sanctions Against Russia Over Ukraine"
Backing President Vladimir V. Putin into a corner will not work, he said, giving a high-level voice to what is seen as mounting sanctions fatigue among European politicians, as the Ukraine crisis lurches into a second year.
Just 2 short days later....via The New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/08/world/europe/charlie-hebdo-paris-shooting.html)
"Terrorists Strike Charlie Hebdo Newspaper in Paris, Leaving 12 Dead"
"Officials said late Wednesday that two of the suspects were brothers. They were identified as Said and Chérif Kouachi, 34 and 32. The third suspect is Hamyd Mourad, 18. News reports said the brothers, known to intelligence services, had been born in Paris, raising the prospect that homegrown Muslim extremists were responsible". (Brothers?...like the Boston bombing "suspects"?)
The following VOX article (http://www.vox.com/2015/1/7/7507849/charlie-hebdo-attack-terrorists-paris-shooting" seems to agree....
"Some security analysts suggested to the Guardian that they appeared to have some military training. "They were very professional, very organised. It was well-timed. You can't pull off something like this without military training," said former US army lieutenant-colonel Tony Shaffer. "Whoever they were, they were highly trained in military tactics."
So, could this attack be a warning to President Hollande to reconsider his stance on easing Russian sanctions? We have all seen "stranger" things, haven't we?
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Suicide, Omen or Political Murder: 2014 Banker Death Count Reaches Double Digits
As Zerohedge.com reports, Back on January 26, a 58-year-old former senior executive at German investment bank behemoth Deutsche Bank, William Broeksmit, was found dead after hanging himself at his London home, and with that, set off an unprecedented series of banker suicides throughout the year which included former Fed officials and numerous JPMorgan traders.
Following a brief late summer spell in which there was little if any news of bankers taking their lives, as reported previously, the banker suicides returned with a bang when none other than the hedge fund partner of infamous former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Khan, Thierry Leyne, a French-Israeli entrepreneur, was found dead after jumping off the 23rd floor of one of the Yoo towers, a prestigious residential complex in Tel Aviv.
Just a few brief hours later the WSJ reported that yet another Deutsche Bank veteran has committed suicide, and not just anyone but the bank's associate general counsel, 41 year old Calogero "Charlie" Gambino, who was found on the morning of Oct. 20, having also hung himself by the neck from a stairway banister, which according to the New York Police Department was the cause of death. We assume that any relationship to the famous Italian family carrying that last name is purely accidental.
...and from http://www.hangthebankers.com
If JP Morgan offers you a job: politley decline. The list of top level bankers dying under suspicious circumstances has been growing rapidly in recent months.
Whether these are genuine deaths or something more sinister one thing is for certain, banking is becoming one of the most dangerous industries to be involved in right now with an extremely high death per employee ratio.
The causes of death given for some of the bankers seems quite odd to say the least including one banker shooting himself 8 times with a nail gun and another being crushed to death by their own SUV.
With the global financial system heading towards a major crash in the near future are these people buckling under the pressure of what they see coming or are they being silenced because of what they know?
We can only assume it’s a little of both.
Here’s the list of top level bankers who have died recently:
DEAD (48)
July – Julian Knott, 45, JPMorgan Executive Director,Global Tier 3 Network Operations, SELF-INFLICTED GUNSHOT WOUND
June – Richard Gravino, 49, Application Team Lead, JP Morgan, SUDDEN DEATH cause unknown/pending
June – James McDonald – President & CEO of Rockefeller & Co – apparently self-inflicted, GUNSHOT WOUND
May – Thomas Schenkman, 42, Managing Director of Global Infrastructure, JP Morgan, SUDDEN DEATH, cause unknown/pending
May – Naseem Mubeen – Assistant Vice President ZBTL Bank, Islamabad, SUICIDE jumped
May – Daniel Leaf – senior manager at the Bank of Scotland/Saracen Fund Managers, FELL OFF A CLIFF
May – Nigel Sharvin – Senior Relationship Manager Ulster Bank manage portfolio of distressed businesses, ACCIDENTAL DROWNING
April – Lydia (no surname given) 52, France’s Bred-Banque-Populaire, SUICIDE jumped
April – Li Jianhua, 49, Non-bank Financial Institutions Supervision Department of the regulator, HEART ATTACK
April – Benedict Philippens, Director/Manager Bank Ans-Saint-Nicolas, SHOT
April – Tanji Dewberry – Assistant Vice President, Credit Suisse, HOUSE FIRE
April – Amir Kess, co-founder and managing director Markstone Capital Group private equity fund, CYCLIST HIT BY CAR
April – Juergen Frick, Bank Frick & Co. AG, SHOT
April – Jan Peter Schmittmann – former CEO of Dutch Bank ABN Amro, (Possibly suicide, SHOT)
April – Andrew Jarzyk – Assistant Vice President, Commercial Banking at PNC Financial Services Group, MISSING/DEAD
March – Mohamed Hamwi – System Analyst at Trepp, a financial data and analytics firm, SHOT
March – Joseph Giampapa – JP Morgan lawyer, CYCLIST HIT BY MINIVAN
March – Kenneth Bellandro, former JP Morgan, SUICIDE jumped
Feb – John Ruiz – Morgan Stanley Municipal Debt Analyst, died suddenly, NO CAUSE GIVEN
Feb – Jason Alan Salais, 34, Information Technology specialist at JPMorgan, FOUND DEAD outside a Walgreens pharmacy
Feb – Autumn Radtke, CEO of First Meta, a cyber-currency exchange firm, SUICIDE
Feb – James Stuart Jr, Former National Bank of Commerce CEO, FOUND DEAD
Feb – Edmund (Eddie) Reilly, trader at Midtown’s Vertical Group, SUICIDE
Feb – Li Junjie, JP Morgan, SUICIDE
Feb – Ryan Henry Crane, SUDDEN DEATH cause unknown
Feb – Richard Talley, UNKNOWN CAUSE
Jan – Gabriel Magee, SUICIDE
Jan – William ‘Bill’ Broeksmit, HUNG/POSSIBLE SUICIDE
Jan – Mike Dueker, SUDDEN DEATH cause unknown
Jan – Carl Slym, SUICIDE
Jan – Tim Dickenson, SUDDEN DEATH cause unknown
Dec 2013 – Robert Wilson, a retired hedge fund founder, apparent SUICIDE leaped to his death from his 16th floor residence
Dec 2013 – Joseph M. Ambrosio, age 34, Financial Analyst for J.P. Morgan, died suddenly from Acute Respiratory Syndrome
Dec 2013 – Benjamin Idim, CAR ACCIDENT
Dec 2013 – Susan Hewitt – Deutsche Bank, DROWNING
Nov 2013 – Patrick Sheehan, CAR ACCIDENT
Nov 2013 – Michael Anthony Turner, Career Banker, CAUSE UNKOWN
Nov 2013 – Venera Minakhmetova Former Financial Analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, CYCLIST HIT
Oct 2013 – Michael Burdin, SUICIDE
Oct 2013 – Ezdehar Husainat – former JP Morgan banker, killed in FREAK ACCIDENT when her SUV crushed her to death
Sept 2013 – Guy Ratovondrahona -Madagascar central bank, Sudden death – cause not confirmed
Aug 2013 – Pierre Wauthier, SUICIDE
Aug 2013 – Moritz Erhardt, SUICIDE
July 2013 Hussain Najadi CEO of merchant bank AIAK Group, SHOT
July 2013 Carsten Schloter, SUICIDE
July 2013 Sascha Schornstein – RBS in its commodity finance, MISSING
April 2013 David William Waygood, SUICIDE
Mar 2013 – David Rossi – communications director of troubled Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS), SUICIDE
LETHAL BUT NON FATAL (MORE THAN ONE WAY TO SKIN A BANKER)
Fang Fang – JP Morgan, China, DISGRACED
Nick Bagnall – Director at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, son accidentally killed himself while trying to re-enact a Tudor hanging
Robin Clark – RP Martin -Wolf of Shenfield City banker shot, SURVIVED
Kevin Bespolka – Citi Capital Advisors, Dresdner Bank, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley, Seriously injured and son dead
Robert Wheeler, 49, a Deutsche Bank financial advisor, DISGRACED
Chris Latham – Bank of America, ON TRIAL, Murder for Hire
Igor Artamonov – West Siberian Bank of Sberbank, Daughter found dead (POSSIBLE SUICIDE)
Hector Sants, Barclays – resigned due to stress and exhaustion, after being told he risked more serious consequences to his health if he continued to work – a remarkable turnaround as the Church reportedly approached him two months later and was told he had made a full recovery,
POSSIBLY INTERESTING/MILDLY STRANGE
April 21st Bruce A. Schaal, 63, died suddenly Banker in Twin Lakes for 35 years
April 20th Keith Barnish 58, Died Suddenly (Still working as Senior Managing Director at Doral Financial Corporation. Previously Bear Stearns, Bank of America Senior Vice President
March 12th Jeffrey Corzine, 31, son of MF Global CEO and Chairman Jon Corzine involved in major banking crime was found dead in an apparent suicide.
Keiran Toman, 39, former banker who believed he was being stalked by a reality TV crew starved to death in a hotel room, an inquest heard today.
An inquest was opened after his death in July 2010 but his family asked for a second hearing as they were not informed. Police found all of Mr Toman’s possessions in the room, but despite documents mentioning his family, failed to tell them he had died.
Nicholas Austin, 49, A former bank manager from Hersden died after drinking antifreeze in an effort to get high. was found in a coma by his wife Lynn at their home in Blackthorne Road on October 5. He died the same day.
Friday, October 24, 2014
Sunday, October 19, 2014
Birth defects in Iraq Surpass Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The US military’s use of depleted uranium in Iraq has led to a sharp increase in Leukemia and birth defects in the city of Najaf – and panicked residents are fearing for their health. Cancer is now more common than the flu, a local doctor tells RT.
The city of Najaf saw one of the most severe military actions during the 2003 invasion. RT traveled to the area, quickly learning that every residential street in several neighborhoods has seen multiple cases of families whose children are ill, as well as families who have lost children, and families who have many relatives suffering from cancer.
Speaking on the rooftop of her house instead of her laboratory, Dr. Sundus Nsaif says the city has seen a “dramatic rise” in cancer and birth defects since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. Nsaif said the alternative location was chosen because there is an active push by the government not to talk about the issue, perhaps in an effort not to embarrass coalition forces.
“After the start of the Iraq war, rates of cancer, leukemia and birth defects rose dramatically in Najaf. The areas affected by American attacks saw the biggest increases. We believe it’s because of the' illegal' weapons like depleted uranium that were used by the Americans. When you visit the hospital here you see that cancer is more common than the flu," Nsaif told RT's Lucy Kafanov.
“The war isn’t over. Yes, the Americans are gone, but we are still suffering from the Consequences," said Leila Jabar, whose three children died because they were born with congenital deformities. She blames radioactive ammunition used by American forces during the war for the health problems of her children. Her only surviving 8-months-old son Ahmed has a nervous system disorder and doctors don't expect him to survive his first birthday.
Dr. Chris Busby has researched the effects of depleted uranium (DU) in detail. He says the only source of uranium in Iraq was used by American-led forces.
“We went to Fallujah and we found the levels of cancer. We looked at the parents of children with congenital malformation and we did analysis of their hair to see what was inside their hair that might be genotoxic, that might be the sort of thing that can cause congenital malformation. The only thing that we found was uranium. We found uranium in the mothers of the children with congenital malformations,”he told RT.
From 2009 onwards, credible media reports from the city of Fallujah, the scene of intense urban warfare in 2004, brought reports of high rates of congenital birth defects to the world’s attention. At least two platforms that utilize DU munitions were employed in ‘Phantom Fury,' the most intense operation since the official end of major combat operations in 2003.
At least 440,000kg of DU were used in Iraq, some ending up as DU dust, and some as corroding penetrators - leaving a still unknown number of sites with contaminated vehicles, buildings and soils, according to a Dutch report.
“The exposure risks to civilians from the use of DU in populated areas have been compounded by the US’s persistent refusal to release the data that could have helped facilitate the effective assessment and clearance work, providing that the Iraqi government had the capacity and finances to undertake it. Taken as a whole, these issues cast serious doubts over the legitimacy of the use of DU,” the Dutch report says.
25mm rounds of depleted uranium ammunition (AFP Photo / Stan Honda)
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
New York is losing the rat race..LITERALLY
via RSOE
Citizen complaints about pests to the 311 hotline plus online reports went from 22,300 in fiscal year 2012 to 24,586 the next year, city Comptroller Scott Stringer said Sunday. "Rats are a daily, stomach-turning insult to New Yorkers - whether they're scurrying over people's feet on the sidewalks, invading homes where children sleep or swarming through restaurants," Stringer said. Stringer said an audit conducted by his office found that the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene isn't managing its pest control program effectively. The audit said health inspectors didn't always follow their own protocols, and in 160 cases, no field inspection was conducted. "Without a vigilant and timely response by the city to citizen complaints, this problem will come back to bite us again and again," he said.
The health department issued a statement saying the agency "strongly disagrees" with the audit and is taking a proactive response to exterminating pests in the city. "We believe the auditors reached incorrect conclusions because they focused only on complaints while ignoring the fact that complaint response is a small part of the department's overall approach to discovering where rats are present, notifying owners about how to respond, and carrying out targeted efforts to exterminate and prevent rats from re-emerging," the department said. Auditors found that in 24 percent of the cases examined, the agency did not check out complaints within its own 10-day target, Stringer said. In addition, action was stopped prematurely on some complaints before the required number of inspection attempts, according to the audit. And in fiscal year 2013, there was no indication that assessments were conducted in 44 percent of 386 instances where inspectors requested cleanup services. The comptroller also reported that the department failed to notify some property owners about city orders to eliminate rodent conditions, increasing the risk that rat infestations could spread through a neighborhood. The comptroller's office recommends that the health department identify complaints that have been pending a long time, ensure complaints are not closed after only one failed attempt to gain access to a site, and make sure problems in the field have been dealt with efficiently and completely.
Citizen complaints about pests to the 311 hotline plus online reports went from 22,300 in fiscal year 2012 to 24,586 the next year, city Comptroller Scott Stringer said Sunday. "Rats are a daily, stomach-turning insult to New Yorkers - whether they're scurrying over people's feet on the sidewalks, invading homes where children sleep or swarming through restaurants," Stringer said. Stringer said an audit conducted by his office found that the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene isn't managing its pest control program effectively. The audit said health inspectors didn't always follow their own protocols, and in 160 cases, no field inspection was conducted. "Without a vigilant and timely response by the city to citizen complaints, this problem will come back to bite us again and again," he said.
The health department issued a statement saying the agency "strongly disagrees" with the audit and is taking a proactive response to exterminating pests in the city. "We believe the auditors reached incorrect conclusions because they focused only on complaints while ignoring the fact that complaint response is a small part of the department's overall approach to discovering where rats are present, notifying owners about how to respond, and carrying out targeted efforts to exterminate and prevent rats from re-emerging," the department said. Auditors found that in 24 percent of the cases examined, the agency did not check out complaints within its own 10-day target, Stringer said. In addition, action was stopped prematurely on some complaints before the required number of inspection attempts, according to the audit. And in fiscal year 2013, there was no indication that assessments were conducted in 44 percent of 386 instances where inspectors requested cleanup services. The comptroller also reported that the department failed to notify some property owners about city orders to eliminate rodent conditions, increasing the risk that rat infestations could spread through a neighborhood. The comptroller's office recommends that the health department identify complaints that have been pending a long time, ensure complaints are not closed after only one failed attempt to gain access to a site, and make sure problems in the field have been dealt with efficiently and completely.
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
The Boy With The Incredible Brain - Extraordinary People - Documentary
This is the breathtaking story of Daniel Tammet. A twenty-something with extraordinary mental abilities, Daniel is one of the world's few savants. He can do calculations to 100 decimal places in his head, and learn a language in a week.
He also meets the world's most famous savant, the man who inspired Dustin Hoffman's character in the Oscar winning film 'Rain Man'.
This documentary follows Daniel as he travels to America to meet the scientists who are convinced he may hold the key to unlocking similar abilities in everyone.
Sunday, July 6, 2014
People prefer electric shocks to quality alone time
...and we wonder why humans lack creativity
via www.sciencealert.com
Scientists reveal that being left alone with your thoughts is deeply unpleasant.
People would rather shock themselves than be left alone with nothing to do, according to a study published in Science this week (July 4) by a team at the University of Virginia in the US led by psychologist Timothy Wilson.
In their first study the scientists recruited hundreds of undergraduate students and community members and asked them to sit alone in a room for 6-15 minute "thinking periods". Some were asked to think about a particular thing, such as planning a holiday, while others were given no thinking prompts.
At the end of the experiment the participants rated the experience on a nine-point scale. Half found it an unpleasant experience and many described it as boring.
“We went into this thinking it wouldn’t be that hard for people to entertain themselves,” Wilson told Science. “We have this huge brain and it’s stuffed full of pleasant memories, and we have the ability to construct fantasies and stories. We really thought this [thinking time] was something people would like.”
The scientists decided to take the study one step further. If people hated being left alone to think and would do nearly anything to escape being inside their own heads, maybe they would actively seek out negative experiences. They repeated the initial experiment and placed a button in the room that the participant could press to deliver an electric shock to themselves.
Even though every participant had said they would pay money to avoid being shocked at the start of the experiment, 67% of men and 25% of women chose to shock themselves as a way to pass the time.
“I think [our] mind is built to engage in the world,” Wilson said to Science. “So when we don’t give it anything to focus on, it’s kind of hard to know what to do.”
via www.sciencealert.com
Scientists reveal that being left alone with your thoughts is deeply unpleasant.
In their first study the scientists recruited hundreds of undergraduate students and community members and asked them to sit alone in a room for 6-15 minute "thinking periods". Some were asked to think about a particular thing, such as planning a holiday, while others were given no thinking prompts.
At the end of the experiment the participants rated the experience on a nine-point scale. Half found it an unpleasant experience and many described it as boring.
“We went into this thinking it wouldn’t be that hard for people to entertain themselves,” Wilson told Science. “We have this huge brain and it’s stuffed full of pleasant memories, and we have the ability to construct fantasies and stories. We really thought this [thinking time] was something people would like.”
The scientists decided to take the study one step further. If people hated being left alone to think and would do nearly anything to escape being inside their own heads, maybe they would actively seek out negative experiences. They repeated the initial experiment and placed a button in the room that the participant could press to deliver an electric shock to themselves.
Even though every participant had said they would pay money to avoid being shocked at the start of the experiment, 67% of men and 25% of women chose to shock themselves as a way to pass the time.
“I think [our] mind is built to engage in the world,” Wilson said to Science. “So when we don’t give it anything to focus on, it’s kind of hard to know what to do.”
Saturday, May 3, 2014
Ohio Police Chief Thinks He’s Dying After Eating Entire Pot-Infused Cake
LOL!! Who gets up in the morning and eats an entire cake!! He should be more worried about diabetes than being stoned! I can't stop laughing!!
via http://tokesignals.com/
The Hocking County Sheriff’s office is investigating who got the police chief stoned. The deputies want to know who is responsible for drugging Laurelville Police Chief Mike Berkemeier.
The contretemps began on Easter Sunday when Chief Berkemeier ate some innocent-looking cake sitting on his kitchen counter, reports Josh Poland at Central Ohio’s10TV.com.
“I got up in the morning and ate it — the entire thing,” the Chief said.
It wasn’t long until Chief Berkemeier began to feel unusual. Apparently, Mikey was something of a weed novice.
”I thought I was dying,” he said.
Berkemeier says all he could think to do was make the short drive from his home to the Laurelville police station for help. Poor guy — he thinks he’s dying, and he DRIVES to a freakin’ police station, putting everyone in danger, instead of calling an ambulance to take his dumb ass to a hospital? Screwed-up priorities…
”I don’t remember much of the drive here, even though it’s just a few blocks and was met by a couple of the medics from the fire department,” the Chief said.
Berkemeier said medics transported him to Berger Hospital in Circleville where doctors did tests to find out what was wrong with him.
”I kept trying to explain to them this wasn’t getting any better. It just got worse,” he said. “I felt like I was out of my mind.” Chief, you done got that dadgum ol’ Reefer Madness, there, buddy…
Berkemeier said a phone conversation from his hospital room revealed the source of his experience. Berkemeier’s daughter told the chief’s fiancée over the phone that the cake Chief Berkemeier had eaten was laced with a big dose of cannabis oil.
”My fiancée hung up the phone and called for the nurse and said, ‘Get a nurse here right away. I know what it is,’” Berkemeier said.
The Chief said doctors gave him a sedative to sleep off the pot-laced cake’s effects — effects he never wants to experience again. (Isn’t it ironic? In order to “save” him from the Devil’s Lettuce, the hospital gave the Chief a much more dangerous drug.)
”It was probably the scariest thing that has ever happened to me in my entire life,” he said.(The Chief should get out more.)
Berkemeier says a friend of his daughter had brought the cake into their home. Yeah, right. A “friend.” It’s always a “friend.” Hey, Chief? Your daughter’s a stoner, numbskull.
Ironically, Chief Berkemeier promised to “clean up the town” when he came into office, reports Denise Yost at nbc4i.com. Since then, his department has been writing lots of speeding tickets and making plenty of drug raids. Some residents say they think the new police chief is being too aggressive in his efforts to fight crime.
via http://tokesignals.com/
The Hocking County Sheriff’s office is investigating who got the police chief stoned. The deputies want to know who is responsible for drugging Laurelville Police Chief Mike Berkemeier.
The contretemps began on Easter Sunday when Chief Berkemeier ate some innocent-looking cake sitting on his kitchen counter, reports Josh Poland at Central Ohio’s10TV.com.
“I got up in the morning and ate it — the entire thing,” the Chief said.
It wasn’t long until Chief Berkemeier began to feel unusual. Apparently, Mikey was something of a weed novice.
”I thought I was dying,” he said.
Berkemeier says all he could think to do was make the short drive from his home to the Laurelville police station for help. Poor guy — he thinks he’s dying, and he DRIVES to a freakin’ police station, putting everyone in danger, instead of calling an ambulance to take his dumb ass to a hospital? Screwed-up priorities…
”I don’t remember much of the drive here, even though it’s just a few blocks and was met by a couple of the medics from the fire department,” the Chief said.
Berkemeier said medics transported him to Berger Hospital in Circleville where doctors did tests to find out what was wrong with him.
”I kept trying to explain to them this wasn’t getting any better. It just got worse,” he said. “I felt like I was out of my mind.” Chief, you done got that dadgum ol’ Reefer Madness, there, buddy…
Berkemeier said a phone conversation from his hospital room revealed the source of his experience. Berkemeier’s daughter told the chief’s fiancée over the phone that the cake Chief Berkemeier had eaten was laced with a big dose of cannabis oil.
”My fiancée hung up the phone and called for the nurse and said, ‘Get a nurse here right away. I know what it is,’” Berkemeier said.
The Chief said doctors gave him a sedative to sleep off the pot-laced cake’s effects — effects he never wants to experience again. (Isn’t it ironic? In order to “save” him from the Devil’s Lettuce, the hospital gave the Chief a much more dangerous drug.)
”It was probably the scariest thing that has ever happened to me in my entire life,” he said.(The Chief should get out more.)
Berkemeier says a friend of his daughter had brought the cake into their home. Yeah, right. A “friend.” It’s always a “friend.” Hey, Chief? Your daughter’s a stoner, numbskull.
Ironically, Chief Berkemeier promised to “clean up the town” when he came into office, reports Denise Yost at nbc4i.com. Since then, his department has been writing lots of speeding tickets and making plenty of drug raids. Some residents say they think the new police chief is being too aggressive in his efforts to fight crime.
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Weather Warfare...it's here
Via Dutchsinse and CBS News
http://dutchsinse.tatoott1009.com/4232014-cbs-news-scalar-weather-modification-proved-dual-beams-cause-instant-storms/
“For many Americans who wished they could change the weather — whether it be in the Northeast during this past winter or in drought-stricken California — researchers may have found a way to aim a high-energy laser beam into clouds to make it rain or trigger lightning.
The existence of condensation, storms and lightning are all due to the presence of large amounts of static electricity in the clouds. Researchers from the University of Central Florida and the University of Arizona say that a laser beam could activate those large amounts of static electricity and create storms on demand.
By surrounding a beam with another beam that will act as an energy reservoir, the central beam will be sustained for greater distances than previously possible. The secondary beam will refuel and help to prevent the dissipation of the primary beam, which would break down quickly on its own.
Although lasers can already travel great distances, it behaves differently than usual, collapsing inward on itself when a laser beam becomes intense enough, according to Matthew Mills, a graduate student at the UFC Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers.
“The collapse becomes so intense that electrons in the air’s oxygen and nitrogen are ripped off creating plasma — basically a soup of electrons,”Mills explained in a statement.
Afterwards, the plasma tries to spread the beam back out — causing an internal struggle between collapsing and spreading — what’s known as “filamentation.” This process in turn creates a light string that lasts only until the beam disperses.
“Because a filament creates excited electrons in its wake as it moves, it artificially seeds the conditions necessary for rain and lightning to occur,” Mills explained.
Previous work done by other researchers have led to some type of “electrical event” in clouds — raising an added risk of a lightning strike when seeding clouds with lasers, according to the researchers.
(like we don't have enough wild fires??)
“What would be nice is to have a sneaky way which allows us to produce an arbitrary long ‘filament extension cable.’ It turns out that if you wrap a large, low intensity, doughnut-like ‘dress’ beam around the filament and slowly move it inward, you can provide this arbitrary extension,” Mills said in a statement.
“Since we have control over the length of a filament with our method, one could seed the conditions needed for a rainstorm from afar. Ultimately, you could artificially control the rain and lightning over a large expanse with such ideas.”
Future applications of this method could be used in long distance sensors or in spectrometers for chemical makeups.
“This work could ultimately lead to ultra-long optically induced filaments or plasma channels that are otherwise impossible to establish under normal conditions,” Demetrios Christodoulides, a professor that is working with the graduate students on the project, said in a statement.
Using this method, Mills, along with fellow graduate researcher Ali Miri, have extended the pulse seven-fold — from just under a foot to around seven feet. Still, they’re not done yet, with hopes to extend the filament even further.
Development of the technology was funded by the Department of Defense and the researchers’ findings were published in the journal Nature Photonics.
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
IRS workers who didn't pay taxes got bonuses
Gregory Korte, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service handed out $2.8 million in bonuses to employees with disciplinary issues — including more than $1 million to employees who didn't pay their federal taxes, a watchdog report says.
The report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said 1,146 IRS employees received bonuses within a year of substantiated federal tax compliance problems.
The bonuses weren't just monetary. Employees with tax problems received a total of 10,582 hours of paid time off — valued at about $250,000 — and 69 received permanent raises through a step increase, the report said. The report looked at bonuses in 2011 and 2012.
Employees' tax problems included "willful understatement of tax liabilities over multiple tax years, late payment of tax liabilities, and underreporting of income," the report said.
WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service handed out $2.8 million in bonuses to employees with disciplinary issues — including more than $1 million to employees who didn't pay their federal taxes, a watchdog report says.
The report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said 1,146 IRS employees received bonuses within a year of substantiated federal tax compliance problems.
The bonuses weren't just monetary. Employees with tax problems received a total of 10,582 hours of paid time off — valued at about $250,000 — and 69 received permanent raises through a step increase, the report said. The report looked at bonuses in 2011 and 2012.
Employees' tax problems included "willful understatement of tax liabilities over multiple tax years, late payment of tax liabilities, and underreporting of income," the report said.
Friday, April 18, 2014
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Princeton researchers conclude: The United States is not a Democracy
The news: A new scientific study from Princeton researchers Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page has finally put some science behind the recently popular argument that the United States isn't a democracy any more. And they've found that in fact, America is basically an oligarchy.
An oligarchy is a system where power is effectively wielded by a small number of individuals defined by their status called oligarchs. Members of the oligarchy are the rich, the well connected and the politically powerful, as well as particularly well placed individuals in institutions like banking and finance or the military.
For their study, Gilens and Page compiled data from roughly 1,800 different policy initiatives in the years between 1981 and 2002. They then compared those policy changes with the expressed opinion of the United State public. Comparing the preferences of the average American at the 50th percentile of income to what those Americans at the 90th percentile preferred, as well as the opinions of major lobbying or business groups, the researchers found out that the government followed the directives set forth by the latter two much more often.
It's beyond alarming. As Gilens and Page write, "the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy." In other words, their statistics say your opinion literally does not matter.
That might explain why mandatory background checks on gun sales supported by 83% to 91%of Americans aren't in place, or why Congress has taken no action on greenhouse gas emissions even when such legislation is supported by the vast majority of citizens.
This problem has been steadily escalating for four decades. While there are some limitations to their data set, economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez constructed income statistics based on IRS data that go back to 1913. They found that the gap between the ultra-wealthy and the rest of us is much bigger than you would think, as mapped by these graphsfrom the Center On Budget and Policy Priorities:
Piketty and Saez also calculated that as of September 2013 the top 1% of earners had captured 95% of all income gains since the Great Recession ended. The other 99% saw a net 12% drop to their income. So not only is oligarchy making the rich richer, it's driving policy that's made everyone else poorer.
What kind of oligarchy? As Gawker's Hamilton Nolan explains, Gilens and Page's findings provide support for two theories of governance: economic elite domination and biased pluralism. The first is pretty straightforward and states that the ultra-wealthy wield all the power in a given system, though some argue that this system still allows elites in corporations and the government to become powerful as well. Here, power does not necessarily derive from wealth, but those in power almost invariably come from the upper class. Biased pluralism on the other hand argues that the entire system is a mess and interest groups ruled by elites are fighting for dominance of the political process. Also, because of their vast wealth of resources, interest groups of large business tend to dominate a lot of the discourse. America, the findings indicate, tends towards either of these much more than anything close to what we call "democracy."
In either case, the result is the same: Big corporations, the ultra-wealthy and special interests with a lot of money and power essentially make all of the decisions. Citizens wield little to no political power. America, the findings indicate, tends towards either of these much more than anything close to what we call "democracy" — systems such as majoritarian electoral democracy or majoritarian pluralism, under which the policy choices pursued by the government would reflect the opinions of the governed.
Nothing new: And no, this isn't a problem that's the result of any recent Supreme Court cases — at least certainly not the likes FEC v. Citizens United or FEC v. McCutcheon. The data is pretty clear that America has been sliding steadily into oligarchy for decades, mirrored in both the substantive effect on policy and in the distribution of wealth throughout the U.S. But cases like those might indicate the process is accelerating.
"Perhaps economic elites and interest group leaders enjoy greater policy expertise than the average citizen does," Gilens and Page write. "Perhaps they know better which policies will benefit everyone, and perhaps they seek the common good, rather than selfish ends, when deciding which policies to support.
"But we tend to doubt it."
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